Dig in This month: details of Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith’s autumn lecture for the NGS and news of a prize-wining magnolia

Join us for this year’s NGS Annual Lecture by renowned garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith and his wife Sue, a leading psychiatrist and psychotherapist whose interest in the benefits of gardens for people’s mental and physical health and wellbeing forms the basis of her acclaimed book, The Well Gardened Mind. For both, the garden they have created together at The Barn in Hertfordshire (above) has been a source of inspiration for their careers and married life, and their talk will weave together the story of the garden, their working lives and the impact gardens have on our wellbeing. Held in association with Gardens Illustrated, the online lecture will be live-streamed at 7pm on 11 November, followed by an interactive Q&A with Tom and Sue. Tickets cost £25, including a free digital copy of Gardens Illustrated, and Gardens Illustrated readers can also receive a 10 per cent discount by quoting NGS2020 when booking online. To book or find out more visit ngs.org.uk/2020-annual-lecture – and for a chance to win a pair of tickets visit gardensillustrated.com

If you’re hoping to add a touch of stunning colour to your garden next spring then Magnolia ‘Genie’, with flowers that range from dusky pink to rich burgundy atop dark-green foliage might just help grant that wish. Developed by New Zealand breeder Vance Hooper, M. ‘Genie’ is the result of 15 years of plant breeding between M. x soulangeana and M. liliiflora, and among its many accolades it has now been awarded a gold medal by the Royal Boskoop Horticultural Society in the Netherlands. Growing to around 3m over ten years, the compact magnolia offers weeks of magical colour from April to May and will often flower again in midsummer. Available from Crocus priced £49.99 for a three-litre pot. crocus.co.uk