Our Plant Experts

Anthony Lyman-Dixon

Anthony Lyman-Dixon was born in Hampshire in 1941. After leaving school he worked in Yale University's New Haven hospital. This was followed by a year at the Winchester school of Art prior to a further period of study in Italy where he also learned to cook.
The family background made a career in herbs almost inevitable, sometime before 1800, his great-great-great uncle Theodore erected some of the oldest surviving green houses in the USA at Waltham, Massachusetts; another ancestor founded the Lyman Corporation in Montreal, supplying the whole of Canada with herbal-based pharmaceutical products, whilst the world famous Lyman entomological research facility at McGill University was originated by a third uncle in 1914.

These precedents came together when Anthony founded Arne Herbs in 1976, which after several moves, finally settled outside Bristol in 1986, selling fresh cut herbs to food processors and to top restaurants in Bristol and Bath. Rare medicinal herbs are sold to pharmaceutical companies and the food plants of bumble bees, butterflies and other insects have been dispatched to many zoos and butterfly farms. Anthony's personal interest is in the re-creation of Medieval and early Renaissance gardens from contemporary sources.

Anthony Lyman-Dixon was elected a member of the Association of British Herb Growers and producers in 1979, is the founder and ex-chairman of the Medicinal Group of the British Herb Trade Association and is a Royal Horticultural Society listed speaker.

Anthony previously sat on the Avon school grounds committee and was also schools liaison officer for Avon Gardens Trust.

He was on the Herb Society education sub-committee and is the former President of the West of England Herb Group. During 1998, he served on the organising committee of the "Giardini per il Terzo Millennio" international conference in Assisi and in July 2000 was featured speaker at the International Lavender Conference in Sequim, Washington State. He has twice been invited to speak to the farmers of Northern Albania on compliance with EU regulations for the marketing of herbs within the European Community.

Anthony writes and lectures extensively about herbs and runs a consultancy service, if you need advice or a speaker anywhere in the world, contact him at Arne Herbs.

JENNY THOMAS

Jenny Thomas rose through the ranks to become an executive with a multi-national company before retiring to raise her three daughters. During this period she started her own nursery supplying vegetables to restaurants. She also honed the design skills, which have won her many awards. She has an extensive knowledge of the practicalities of growing culinary and medicinal herbs in a diverse range of environments

Please contact her if you require her to mount a display of medicinal, toxic or culinary plants at your trade exhibition, museum or educational project.