What's it really like running a historic garden in 2026? With Rosie Fyles of Chiswick House and Gardens Trust
This week Rachael Forsyth talks to the head of gardens at Chiswick House and Gardens Trust, Rosie Fyles.
In this wide-ranging discussion they discuss everything from staffing (Fyles let her gardeners work from home in the bleak mid-winter of 2026), to funding, climate change adaptation to dealing with plant thefts.
Fyles faces a challenge shared by many historic gardens - how to respect the restrictions and design inheritance of a Grade I-listed garden while negotiating the pressures inherent in running a popular garden in 2026.
She says: "We are very much making [plant] choices with climate…
The skinny
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