A team of seven gardening gurus are ready and waiting to be grilled on how to get the best out of Bristol gardens.

The panel of local experts will be on stage at The Galleries twice a day, at 12pm and 3pm, throughout the Bristol Garden Life show.

Whether it is a question on how to giant cucumbers, easy herbs to grow indoors, or the best time of year to plant tulips, the team are on hand to help offer advice and helpful hints.

The team includes Alan Down, Ray Davey, Mary Payne OBE, John Wheatley, Tim Foster, David Hamilton and Nicholas Wray.

Mr Down, who runs Cleeve Nursery and Garden centre, in North Somerset, along with his wife Felicity, has more than 40 years of gardening experience to call upon.

Having previously been assistant to the production director of world renowned Hampshire-based Hillier Nurseries, Mr Down has experience of growing more than 5,000 species and varieties of hardy plants.

The plant nursery at Cleeve Nursery produces over 65 per cent of the plants now sold in the garden centre and this is one of his prime responsibilities.

He said: "We are specialists in lavender and have more than 20 varieties of English-grown lavender. It has romantic connotations and a very soothing perfume and that will be one of the things we will be bringing to the show. I think anything that encourages people to get outside and interested in growing is fantastic."

When it comes to growing vegetables Mr Davey certainly knows his onions.

In his role as National Vegetable Society judge he is the organiser of the giant vegetable competition at the National Amateur Gardening Show in Shepton Mallet each year.

Growers from all the corners of the world throng the annual event, which includes the giant fruit and vegetable competition as its highlight.

Ms Payne trained in horticulture at Studley College and the Cambridge University Botanic Garden. She lectured at the University of Bath for ten years and holds the prestigious Master of Horticulture from the Royal Horticultural Society, awarded as their top student.

As well as presenting various gardening programmes she is responsible for the innovative prairie style planting scheme at Lady Farm, near Bristol, which was voted one of the top 10 gardens by Gardeners World. She was awarded an OBE for her service to horticulture in 2004.

Mr Wheatley brings his award-winning garden talent and judging experience to the question and answer sessions.

He has designed and built five Chelsea Flower Show gold medal-winning stands and eight gold medal-winning stands at Tatton Park, in Hampton Court and the NEC.

He is a lecturer and horticultural consultant for a number of colleges and an arboricultural and forestry consultant. He also owns and runs a bedding plant nursery and landscape management business in the Chew Valley.

Last year he won yet another gold medal at Hampton Court for the Daily Mail Darling Buds of May Pavilion garden.

Mr Foster has been teaching organic gardening courses in and around Bristol, including at City of Bristol College, for ten years. He has extensive experience of horticulture, gardening, landscaping, nursery work, garden centre work, tree work and market gardening as well as a degree in horticulture.

Adding to the panel of experts is Mr Hamilton, author, journalist, gardener and forager. While studying a BSc in Nutrition and Food Science at Oxford Brookes he began growing his own food. Realising there were still bills to pay and full self-sufficiency was very difficult he coined the term 'self-sufficientish' which later was adopted by the website he runs with his twin brother Andy.

He now lives in Devon where he is following another of his passions, that of plants, by training to be a sustainable horticulturist at the Dutchy College run course at the Schumacher College in Dartington.

And completing the line-up is Mr Wray, curator of the Bristol Botanic Gardens.

A fellow of the Institute of Horticulture, he has worked in botanic gardens for 25 years and has travelled extensively, studying plants in the wild.

His vast knowledge of plant life was instrumental in the planning and plant selection for the new Bristol Botanic Garden, where planting started in 2005.