Whether you are looking for a gift for a gardening friend, or looking for inspiration as you plan a garden revamp, now is just the time to catch up on some of the best books about plants and gardens published this year. But which ones to choose?

We gathered an expert panel to share their favourite horticultural books of 2015: Claire Armitstead, the Guardian’s books editor and presenter of The Guardian Books Podcast; Matthew Wilson, managing director and principal designer at Clifton Nurseries and regular panellist on BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time; Non Morris, garden writer and garden designer; Christopher Woodward, director of the Garden Museum and Naomi Slade, writer, photographer and garden designer. Below you’ll find a full list of all the books mentioned in the show: and some choices from half a dozen other friends of the show.

We’d love to know what gardening books you’re reading right now - or putting on your Christmas list. Add a comment below, tweet us at @guardiangardens and join our Facebook group.

The Best Gardening Books or 2015

From the plants that provide vital ingredients for cancer drugs to the therapeutic gardens that help people recover from illness and injury, the NHS relies on horticulture in many different ways

In the show Jane Perrone visits the Royal College of Physicians’ Garden of Medicinal Plants in London, home to more than a thousand plant species that have been used in medicine at some point in history; she talks to award winning garden designer Cleve West about the specialist garden he designed for NHS Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre in Salisbury, and discusses gardening therapy and the healing power of the outdoors with medical and landscape historian Dr Clare Hickman, and Jude Allan, founder and director of Sweettree Farming For All

Get in touch
Want to tell us what you think, or suggest topics for future shows? You can email us at gardens@theguardian.comand if you like the show, please leave Sow, Grow, Repeat a review on iTunes. Finally, if you haven’t heard us before, you can listen to our past episodes. And many thanks to Georgia Locock for providing the birds that you can hear in the background

Useful links and resources
Guardian feature on Horatio’s Garden by Naomi Slade
Cleve West’s website and details of his show garden at this year’s Chelsea flower show
Horatio’s Garden website
Information on tours of the Royal College of Physicians’ Garden of Medicinal Plants
Plant database for the Royal College of Physicians’ Garden of Medicinal Plants
Books about the Royal College of Physicians’ Garden of Medicinal Plants
Sweettree Farming For All website
Dr Clare Hickman’s website
More on the NHS from the Guardian

NHS special: Sow, Grow, Repeat winter

The annual sowing ritual is a wonderful reminder of the turning of the seasons, but it does sometimes get a bit much - all that pricking out, mollycoddling and then disaster when seedlings damp off. Is there an easier way?

Perennial vegetables are less work than annuals, take less valuable resources and can extend the growing season quite a bit, too. This week Jane Perrone is joined by two guests to discuss their favourite perennial veg: Anni Kelsey, author of Edible Perennial Gardening: Growing Successful Polycultures in Small Spaces and Martin Crawford, director of the Agroforestry Research Trust and author of several books including How to Grow Perennial Vegetables. And we take a tour of Jane’s garden to discover what’s still on the menu, even in the depths of winter

Plant list
Here’s a list of all the perennial vegetables mentioned in this week’s show

Mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum)
Ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris)
Oca (Oxalis tuberosa)
Ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria)
Welsh onion (Allium fistulosum)
Perennial leek (Allium porrum L)
Daubenton kale (Brassica oleracea (Acephala Group))
Leaf beet (Beta vulgaris var vulgaris)
Kale ‘Purple Flanders’
Perennial chillies (‘Alberto’s Locoto’ from Real Seeds)
Three-cornered leek (Allium triquetrum) (Please note, it is illegal to allow this plant to spread into the wild: read this PDF for details)
Daylily (Hemerocallis)
Bamboo shoots
Goji berry leaves (Lycium barbarum)
Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum)
Red valerian (Centranthus ruber)
Good king henry (Chenopodium bonum-henricum)
Chicory ‘Red Rib Dandelion’ (Chicorium intybus)
Nine star perennial broccoli
Perennial wall rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia)
Buckshorn plantain (Plantago coronopus)
Get in touch
Want to tell us what you think, or suggest topics for future shows? You can email us at gardens@theguardian.com and if you like the show, please leave Sow, Grow, Repeat a review on iTunes. Finally, if you haven’t heard us before, you can listen to our past episodes. And many thanks to Georgia Locock for providing the birds that you can hear in the background, let us know who you can hear

Perennial Vegetables: Sow, Grow, Repeat Winter

We’re all familiar with Monet’s waterlily paintings, but did you know he was a gardener first? This week Alys Fowler and Jane Perrone visit Painting the Modern Garden: From Monet to Mattise - a new blockbuster show at the Royal Academy of Arts

A panel of three experts join Alys and Jane in the studio to discuss the show: garden designer Sophie Walker; Eileen Hogan, who is artist in residence at the Garden Museum in London and Professor in Fine Art at the University of the Arts London, and Clare Willsdon, author of book In the Gardens of Impressionism and Professor of the History of Western art at the University of Glasgow

Many thanks to Georgia Locock for providing the birds that you can hear in the background. Let us know who you pick up on

Other resources
Read Jonathan Jones’ Guardian review of the exhibition
Read Sarah Crompton’s Guardian feature on the gardens behind the exhibition
Read the Guardian’s editorial on the exhibition
Find out more about the exhibition from the Royal Academy site
Get in touch
Want to tell us what you think, or suggest topics for future shows? You can email us at gardens@theguardian.com and if you like the show, please leave Sow, Grow, Repeat a review on iTunes.

Finally, if you haven’t heard us before, you can listen to our past episodes


Gardens in Art: Sow, Grow, Repeat Winter

This week gardening editor Jane Perrone visits the annual orchid extravaganza at Kew Gardens in London, taking a guided tour with Elisa Biondi, botanical horticulturist at Kew, and Nick Johnson, manager of the Princess of Wales Conservatory. And she talks to wild orchid hunter and plant scientist Susanne Masters about some of the more unusual uses of orchids, and finds out the strange origins of the name

Useful information
The Kew orchid show is on until March 6 - for opening times and more details, visit kew.org
Susanne Masters on growing orchids at home - Guardian feature
GrrlScientist Guardian blogpost on a citizen science project on wild British orchids
Michael Pollan on the sex life of orchids - Observer feature
Huma Qureshi on orchid care for beginners - Guardian
Tell us what you think!
We’d love to see your orchid successes and failures. You can get in touch via email - gardens@theguardian.com, join our Guardian gardening Facebook page or follow us on Twitter - we’re @guardiangardens. And go and check out our new logo on iTunes: maybe even leave us a review!

As always, many thanks to Georgia Locock for the birds. Let us know who you can hear this week

Orchids: Sow, Grow, Repeat Winter

Alys Fowler and Guardian's garden blog editor Jane Perrone present an early summer season of podcasts dedicated to gardening and gardens.

To read the best writing on all things garden related why not check out the Guardian's gardening blog at www.theguardian.com/gardening-blog

Sow, Grow, Repeat

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