Who's who

Steve grew up on a rose nursery in Lincoln and spent over 20 years teaching horticulture at colleges in Yorkshire, Essex and Surrey before turning freelance in the mid '90s. Since then, he has worked on TV, video and local radio, and written over 50 books. He regularly answers live listeners questions on local BBC radio and contributes to a number of magazines. He is Gardening Correspondent on the Sun newspaper every Saturday, with a regular readership of over 10 million people. Steve still teaches regularly at the English Gardening School, and gives evening talks throughout the South East of England.

Val learned her love of gardening from her mother and grandmother, who were both avid gardeners. She worked for Liverpool parks department before going to study horticulture in Yorkshire and has since worked in various aspects of the subject, including teaching, a garden centre and several nurseries. She writes for various magazines, answers questions for Garden's Monthly magazine and has written 8 books, although she also contributes to and edits Steve's. She is joint Gardening Correspondent for the Sun newspaper each Saturday.

Chris trained in horticulture at Pershore College and has worked for a number of nurseries producing a range of hardy and annual plants. He was part of a small horticultural team at the first National Garden Festival, Stoke-on-Trent and has also worked for several garden centres and a horticultural mail order company. Chris also holds a postgraduate diploma in Marketing and co-founded the UK's first e-commerce gardening website in 1999. He joined Roundstone Nurseries in April 2005 to set up and manage Plantconnection.

Sam graduated from Kings College London in 2006, where he completed his degree in Biological Sciences BSc. Having previously worked for an online photographic library, he joined Plantconnection as website administrator. Sam is now also responsible for customer services and has become quite an expert on our systems. Sam has always had a keen interest in gardening and is able to help with most queries.

Mandy joined Roundstone Nurseries as a grower in January 1997 and qualified for her RHS Diploma in Horticulture in 2000. She became Trials Manager in 2005 responsible for growing and assessing all new introductions and trialling alternative growing techniques. Mandy also now assists with selecting new products and provides technical support for customers.

Lina was born and raised in Lithuana where she worked before coming to the UK to gain experience on a number of nurseries. She has been responsible for the production of both young plug plants and pot bedding at Roundstone Nurseries and now oversees the despatch of all products for Plantconnection.

Adrian has over 20 years experience in garden centre and horticultural retail. He currently has dual roles as Health and Safety Manager and product selection as well as being our presenter on QVC shopping channel.

Dave graduated with a BSc (Hons) Horticultural Technology & Management (University of Central Lancashire) in 1999. He also gained a RHS Diploma during a further years training at the Royal Horticultural Society Garden at Wisley. He worked for a large wholesale nursery for 7 years where he was responsible for UK production of a wide range of hardy ornamental nursery stock. In 2006 he joined the team at Roundstone as Nursery Manager for the newly constructed Newlands Propagation unit and also takes overall responsibility for the co-ordination and despatch of plants to Plantconnection Customers.