In 2024, we celebrated 40 years of Jekka’s, originally Jekka’s Herb Farm. The year was full of celebrations and moments to reflect on this milestone.
Spring
The beginning of 2024 was a very exciting time for us at Jekka’s as it heralded the launch of Jekka’s highly anticipated new book, 100 Herbs to Grow. This book reflects all the knowledge that Jekka has accumulated, including the new growing techniques she has developed over the past thirty years, since writing her first world renowned book ‘Jekka’s Complete Herb Book’. Buy your own signed copy from our online shop.
Jekka's 100 Herbs to Grow book launch at Fortnum and Mason, London.
The launch of the book was a very special occasion, we were delighted to be able to celebrate Jekka’s 100 Herb to Grow in Fortnum and Mason, London. This bought Jekka’s history a full circle, as Fortnum and Mason was one of Jekka’s Herb Farm’s first wholesale customers. Jekka’s book launch was followed by a successful book tour in partnership with Toppings bookshop in St Andrews, Edinburgh and Bath as well as events at Daylesford Farm and the RHS flower shows.
In spring 2024, we welcomed visitors to the herb farm for our popular Master Classes. We ran classes on Herb Garden Design, Botanical Screenprinting, How to Use Herbs and How to Grow Herbs. It was delightful to share our skills on growing and using herbs with many herb enthusiast and we particularly like seeing and hearing about your gardens or propagation successes after the master classes. Come to our 2025 Spring Master and buy a place here.
2024 was also busy with group visits and we welcomed groups for a private tour of Jekka’s Herb Garden and Jekka’s Herbetum including tours from our friends at the Clifton Club and Cotswold tours as well as several international group visits from South Korea, Japan, Australia, America and Slovenia. Herbs are used all over the world and across all cultures and religions, it was wonderful to share our passion and learn from our visitors. We are delighted to be welcoming the food tour group from Western Australia, Matters of Taste, back this summer. If you would like to organise a tour in 2025, please complete an enquiry form.
Spring culminated in Jekka being awarded the prestigious accolade from the Worshipful Company of Gardener’s, the Prince Edward Award. The Prince Edward Award for Excellence in Horticultural Career Development is intended to highlight real excellence in the field of horticulture. It focuses largely, but not exclusively, on Horticultural Education and Career Development in the widest sense and is given to an individual who through their outstanding influence on the art, craft and science of horticulture has inspired others to enter, study, progress and develop their careers in the field.
Summer
The summer continued with our Open Days which start in April and finish in September each year. They run, typically, on the first Friday and Saturday of the month and include herb inspired tours and talks in and around Jekka’s Garden and Herbetum.
It was the second year for our Herb Garden, which offered a beautiful focal point for our events and lots of inspiration for our visitors. In the spring Jekka’ Herb Garden had a soft palette of greens and purples that transformed into a mass of colour with pops of reds and blues in the summer with a spectacular display of Vipers Bugloss. The autumn showered us with warm yellows and golden tones before the snow came and our evergreens sparkled (see pictures in Jekka's Herb Garden Timeline). Read below to find out what we have planned for our Open Days and, our new, Herb Days in 2025.
Jekka has long been an advocate of the Royal Horticultural Society and is a RHS vice president. In the summer of 2024, Jekka was honoured to visit several Flower shows to give talks and workshops. She joined Mark Diacono at RHS Malvern Flower Show, was a speaker in the ‘Potting shed’ with Helen Cross at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and joined Mike the Gardner at the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show. The history of Jekka’s with the RHS Flower Shows is over 30 years, with our first Gold display at the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show in 1993 and first RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden in 1995. The flower show circuit was full of specialist nurseries travelling around the country to share their passion for their specialism and creating extravagant floral displays. Read more about our history at the shows here.
In the summer, we continued our partnership with Riverstone and Jekka ran a Riverstone media event in the spring to celebrate her new book and in the summer, we refreshed Jekka’s Riverstone Herb Garden, by creating a Blue Zone garden at their Kensington residence. A Blue Zone garden has been said to contribute to a healthier and longer life, you can read more in Jekka’s blog online. In the summer, Jekka enjoyed running a herb master class to show the health and well-being properties of herbs to the Riverstone residence.
Autumn and Winter
Jekka was delighted to invited by New Nordic to support their Healing Power of Herbs Event in September. Jekka participated in a round table event with their CEO, Karl Kristian Bergman Jensen, and their ambassador, Janette Manrara. Within this event Jekka spoke about blue zone gardening as well as running a hands on potting session, thereby highlighting how beneficial it is to get your hands dirty growing and using herbs.
The RHS Lindley Library holds world-renowned collections of early printed books, the archives of the RHS, botanical art collections and modern books on the history of horticulture, botanical art and practical gardening. Jekka is a huge advocate in the education and preservation of horticulture knowledge and we were honoured to be asked for the history of Jekka, Jekka’s Herb Farm and Jekka’s to be preserved for future generations at the RHS Lindley Library. Read our brief history online.
Jekka also had 5 minutes of fame on This Morning television show, explaining to the presenters “Where do Capers come from?” as we are the only growers in the UK who propagate the plants. Want to know more? Read Jekka’s Blog All about Capers.
Jekka on This Morning
Continuing Jekka’s passion about sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm for growing herbs, she joined Scribehound, a community of leading gardening writers and passionate gardeners. You can join Scribehound and get her monthly column and those of other Scribehound writers on subscription. Jekka has written articles on wild herbs, “Herbs on the Wild Side” and Mint, “Time to get Minted” shortly, she will publish an article on the future of nurseries, “Where have all the flowers gone”. For daily inspiration, expertise and joy, sign up through this link.
2025 at Jekka’s
The year 2024, became the year of celebrating our visitors to the farm, especially those who travelled the globe to visit us and share in our passion for herbs. We are excited for 2025 to be able to host more of our popular, as well as new, Herb experiences.
New for 2025, we are delighted to launch Jekka’s Herb Days. We have combined our popular open days with Jekka’s HerbFest to make special herb themed events throughout the year. Starting the year, Jekka’s Medicinal Herb Days are on Friday 4th April & Saturday 5th April 2025 – save the date!
We are also delighted to be able to offer our popular Master Classes this coming spring. We will be running a series of our popular favourites as well as two Friends of Jekka's Master Classes that includes one new medicinal master class on stress and anxiety. The first Master Class of the year is on Friday 28th March, an Introduction to Botanical Screenprinting with Hannah McVicar.
Check out our events calendar for dates of our master classes, open days and herb days.
Summer at Jekka's
Want to know more?
You can find more about herbs in Jekka’s blog, our past newsletters and videos as well as Jekka's new book '100 Herbs to Grow' and Jekka's existing books, namely 'A Pocketful of Herbs' or Jekka's Complete Herb Book, and also by browsing Jekkapedia and exploring our herb based recipes.
Alternatively, come and visit the herb farm in South Gloucestershire at one of our Open Days, Master Classes or Herb Experiences such as last year’s Jekka’s HerbFest (see the highlights).
For advice on growing and maintaining herbs, check out ‘Jekka’s Seasonal Tips’ blog series, which includes what to do in your herb garden in early spring, late spring, summer and autumn & winter. Together they form the basis of Jekka’s guide on how to grow herbs.
Please also see Jekka's herbs of the month blogs: Bay (January), Rosemary (February), Salad Burnet (March), French Tarragon (April), Angelica (May), Alliums (June), Lavender (July), Basil (August), Mint (September), Szechuan Pepper (October), Thyme (November) and Curry Tree (December)
Herb plants are available and you can organise a collection from our herb farm in South Gloucestershire or at one of our Open Days. Please see our 'Looking Good List' for availability and use our webform or email your list directly to us (sales@jekkas.com). We no longer offer a general mail order service for our plants but we do offer an occasional limited selection of Jekka's Culinary Herb Boxes.
Jekka's in 2024