We are extremely grateful for the support of our wonderful Ambassadors of the Royal Windsor Flower Show, who include:
Matthew Pottage has been fascinated with gardening all his life. He started at RHS Garden Wisley as a student before gaining a permanent position in the Glasshouse, progressing to the woodland gardens and then becoming Garden Manager. After only 12 years he was appointed Curator of Wisley, overseeing the entire gardens and was the youngest ever to take up the post in the Societies’ history. After nearly 9 years as Curator, Matthew has recently announced he is leaving to take up a new role as Head of Horticulture & Landscape Strategy for The Royal Parks, starting in June. He is a panellist for BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time and the author of How to Garden When You Rent (Dorling Kindersley). He sits on the board of Trustees for the Fulham Palace, and is on the horticultural committee for the Chelsea Physic Garden.
Mark Gregory has been in the horticultural and landscaping industry for about 48 years and has been voted the most influential person in the landscape and garden design industry twice. He trained in horticulture at RHS at Wisley and Askham Bryan Horticultural College. He is a fellow of the Landscape Institute and a chartered landscape architect. Mark has been involved with 108 gardens at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and a total a 187 show gardens for the RHS. He has won five gold medals at Chelsea, making him the most medalled garden builder within the RHS, and is a senior RHS Garden Assessor and Garden Judge. He is the Landscape Ambassador for the RHS and was awarded the Associate of Honour award in 2023. He holds the Pearson award from the RHS for services to horticulture. www.landformconsultants.co.uk
Yan Skates is a Floral Artist and Chelsea Gold Medal Winner. He uses flowers not only as an artistic medium but a language to celebrate the event, the hosts and capture the attention of every guest in the room. His work is a unique combination of traditional floristry combined with the unexpected and current ideas.
www.yanskates.com/floristry
Dr David Hamilton is writer, columnist, and presenter. He is a former R&D scientist and now author of 11 books, including the Amazon bestseller, The Five Side Effects of Kindness. He is a regular podcast guest, has been a guest on numerous BBC radio programmes, and has been featured on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch and CBS Sunday Morning (USA), both for his work around the science of kindness. He has presented on kindness for numerous large organisations including NHS, Google, 3M, Bank of England, HSBC, AXA, and many more. He has written 12 books, the latest of which is entitled The Joy of Actually Giving a F*ck.
drdavidhamilton.com
Angellica Bell is a British television and radio presenter who works on adult factual and entertainment programmes. She is renowned for presenting on Children’s BBC between 2000 and 2007. She has co-presented The One Show and The Martin Lewis Money Show. Other recent appearances include presenting Shop Smart, Save Money (C5), yearly coverage of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show (BBC1), Sunday Morning Live (BBC1) and A Very Country Christmas (BBC1). In 2017, she won Celebrity Master Chef and subsequently published her first cookery book aimed at children called Fantastic Eats and How to Cook Them! (Quadrille).
Giancarlo & Katie Caldesi Giancarlo, restaurateur, met Katie, an artist, in 1997. He loved her painting and she loved his pasta. Over the next few years they opened 2 restaurants, a cookery school, wrote 18 cookbooks and had two children. The BBC2 series Return to Tuscany about their cookery holidays was aired in 2006. In 2010 the Italian government presented Giancarlo with the Cavaliere del Lavoro for his lifetime work representing Italy abroad. The couple have written 6 books about a low-carb lifestyle in order to reverse type 2 diabetes. Giancarlo is in his 10th year of remission and continues to keep his weight low and energy levels high. This year the couple opened a restaurant in Belsize Park, their third. www.caldesi.com
Christopher Bavin is a television presenter and fresh produce importer, known for co-presenting Aldi’s Next Big Thing, Britain’s Best Home Cook, Eat Well for Less?, Britain in Bloom, Food: Truth or Scare, and is one of the presenters on Tomorrow’s Food, and a multitude of consumer affairs programmes, all shown on BBC One. Chris’s background is in the fresh produce industry, importing and selling to the wholesale markets across the UK. he is also the author of two cook books: Good Food Sorted and Fakeaway. Chris started out importing and selling fresh cut flowers and then moved into the fresh produce industry, importing and selling to wholesale markets across the UK.