Monty Don

Montagu Denis Wyatt Don (born George Montagu Don; 8 July 1955) is an English horticulturist, broadcaster, and writer who is best known as the lead presenter of the BBC gardening television series Gardeners' World. Born in Germany and raised in England, Don studied at Magdalene College, Cambridge, during which time he met his future wife. They ran a successful costume jewellery business through the 1980s until the stock market crash of 1987 resulted in almost complete bankruptcy. In 1989, Don made his television debut as a regular on This Morning with a gardening segment, which led to further television work across the decade including his own shows for BBC Television and Channel 4. He began his writing career at this time and published his first of over 25 books in 1990. Between 1994 and 2006, Don wrote a weekly gardening column in The Observer. In 2003, Don replaced Alan Titchmarsh, at the latter's suggestion, as the lead presenter of Gardeners' World, only leaving the show between 2008 and 2011 owing to illness. Since then he has written and produced several garden series of his own, the most recent being Monty Don’s Rhineland Gardens which aired in 2026.