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Gardening has always belonged to women. The difference now is that more of them have platforms and recognition than ever before, and audiences are paying attention.
Whether you want design inspiration, practical growing advice, or simply a voice that makes you want to get outside, these are the famous women gardeners leading the field in 2025.
The TV Presenters Who Make Gardening Feel Possible
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For many gardeners, a television presenter is the first real introduction to horticulture as something more than a weekend chore. The women currently holding those roles are among the most knowledgeable and genuinely accessible voices in the field.
1. Carol Klein
Carol Klein has been a fixture on BBC Two’s Gardeners’ World since 1989, and her appeal has never diminished. A former art teacher who built her career from the ground up at Glebe Cottage Plants nursery, she has won gold medals at Chelsea, Hampton Court, Westminster, and Malvern, and was awarded the RHS Victoria Medal of Honour in 2018. Her 2025 memoir, Hortobiography, tells the story of her life through plants.
2. Frances Tophill
Frances Tophill brings a different energy to the screen. A graduate of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, she presents Gardeners’ World, leads community projects in the South West, and is restoring coastal gardens damaged by the 2014 storms. Her books, including First Time Gardener and A Year in a Small Garden, are written for people at the beginning of their journey. BBC Gardeners’ World Live describes her as “a gardener, plantsperson, presenter, author, environmentalist, conservationist, and crafter” — a breadth that reflects how seriously she takes the whole of what gardening can be.
3. Arit Anderson
Arit Anderson moved from a 25-year career in fashion to horticulture, retraining at Capel Manor College, before winning multiple RHS Chelsea awards and joining the Gardeners’ World presenting team. She uses that platform deliberately, speaking openly about gender inequality in the profession and the urgency of climate-conscious planting.
4. Sue Kent
Sue Kent became a Gardeners’ World presenter after sending a home video to the BBC in 2020. Born with an upper limb disability, she gardens using her feet and hands and is now an RHS Ambassador for Disability Inclusion. Her Silver Gilt medal at RHS Hampton Court in 2022 and a Platinum Award at BBC Gardeners’ World Live in 2023 are markers of skill, but her real contribution is demonstrating that gardening belongs to everyone.
The Garden Designers Reshaping What a Garden Can Be
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The women currently at the top of garden design are not simply making beautiful spaces. They are bringing new philosophies about healing, inclusion, and emotional depth to what a garden is for.
5. Jinny Blom
Jinny Blom trained as a psychotherapist before retraining as a garden designer, and the combination shows. She has won gold at Chelsea and is the author of The Thoughtful Gardener. As Holker Hall and Gardens notes, Blom “believes that gardens can heal” — a philosophy that has found a wide and receptive audience and shaped her entire approach to design.
6. Jo Thompson
Jo Thompson has four RHS Chelsea gold medals and a reputation for candor about professional life, specifically about building a career as a single mother with all-female design teams. Her Substack newsletter, The Gardening Mind, brings her color-led approach to home gardeners.
7. Charlotte Harris
Charlotte Harris won gold at Chelsea on her first attempt in 2017, won Best in Show with studio partner Hugo Bugg, and in 2023 designed the first wheelchair-accessible show garden in Chelsea’s history.
8. Sarah Eberle
Sarah Eberle has won more than 19 Gold Medals at RHS Chelsea, more than any other designer the show has ever seen.
9. Tania Compton
Tania Compton, described by Vogue as “one of the most stylish and admired garden designers in Britain,” has redesigned the parterre at Longford Castle and created Kate Moss’s garden in Gloucestershire. Her own six-acre garden in Wiltshire, built from former paddocks, is a testament to what patience and clear vision can achieve.
The Growers, Ecologists, and Nursery Women Changing How We Plant
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Some of the most important female voices in gardening today are not on television. They are in nurseries, on farms, in botanic gardens, and at the growing edge of ecological thinking.
10. Sarah Raven
Sarah Raven trained as a doctor before her childhood love of plants became a horticultural business and writing career. Her nursery, books, and eye for color have genuinely changed the color palette of British gardens. She sits on the RHS Council and brings scientific rigor to a field that sometimes privileges aesthetics over understanding.
11. Åsa Gregers-Warg
Åsa Gregers-Warg is the current creative director of Beth Chatto’s Plants and Gardens in Essex, having arrived from Sweden in 2001 after reading about Chatto’s philosophy. She is the keeper of one of the most important ecological gardens in the world, ensuring that Chatto’s right plant, right place approach continues to evolve.
12/13. Camila Klich and Marianne Mogendorff
Camila Klich and Marianne Mogendorff co-founded Wolves Lane Flower Company on a microfarm in north London, growing seasonal British cut flowers with no artificial light and no chemicals. “Growing flowers in this country is a radical act,” Klich tells Vogue. “It’s an environmental and political statement.”
14. Emily Adcock
Emily Adcock, horticulturist and Gardens Illustrated contributor, puts the ecological case plainly: “Wildlife gardening or gardening for biodiversity shouldn’t be seen as a style of gardening, but as an approach all gardeners take.”
The Women Diversifying and Democratizing Horticulture
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The most significant shift in women’s gardening today may not be at Chelsea. It may be in the deliberate work of making horticulture more inclusive; in who it serves, who it employs, and who it celebrates.
15. Abra Lee
Abra Lee is a garden designer and horticulturist who draws on the legacy of Black women in horticulture and actively shares salary information with peers to combat pay inequity. As she tells the Philadelphia Horticultural Society, she has hired women in the field since she was 27 and considers that financial transparency is as important as any planting advice. Her podcast, Plant People in Plant Places, amplifies underrepresented voices across the field.
16. Mae Lin Plummer
Mae Lin Plummer, a Chinese-American horticulturist, approaches diversity as a professional responsibility. “Being a Chinese American woman in horticulture carries a sense of responsibility in representing diversity in our field,” she says in an interview with the Philadelphia Horticultural Society. Her platform, Never Stop Talking Associates, works to elevate the full range of people who make up the gardening world.
17. Paula Sutton
Paula Sutton, known as @hillhousevintage on Instagram with over 432,000 followers, represents a different kind of influence entirely. A self-described amateur learning in a mature garden, she has built one of the most beloved gardening communities online through an approach that is joyful, accessible, and honest about what she doesn’t know.
18. Deanna Talerico
Deanna Talerico, known online as DeannaCat, brings a distinctly American voice to the conversation through her platform Homestead and Chill. With over 15 years of organic gardening experience, she covers everything from seed starting and raised bed building to composting, pollinators, and growing food from scratch, with a warmth and practicality that has earned her a devoted following across Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest.
Her goal, as she puts it, is to help people “live more healthy, sustainable lives” by making gardening easy and enjoyable rather than intimidating. For North American gardeners looking for a female voice rooted in their own climate and growing conditions, she is one of the most useful follows available.
Where to Start
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These women span television and Instagram, nurseries and public gardens, design studios and community plots. What they share is a seriousness about plants, a generosity with their knowledge, and a belief that gardens matter.
Whether you are a beginner looking for a first voice to trust or an experienced gardener looking to deepen your practice, the famous women gardeners leading this field in 2025 have something to offer. Follow them, read them, visit their gardens. The best place to start is wherever your curiosity takes you first.
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