28 Facts About Alan Titchmarsh

1. Alan Titchmarsh plays a mixture of popular and classical music.

2. Alan Titchmarsh has teamed up with Digitalis Media to launch Gardeners' Heaven, the online retail arm of his website.

3. Alan Titchmarsh has launched several of his own product lines, including his own range of "Alan Titchmarsh" gardening tools developed in conjunction with tool manufacturer Bulldog Tools.

4. Alan Titchmarsh has capitalised on his strong brand with retail and merchandise projects.

5. Alan Titchmarsh was honoured by the City of Westminster at a tree planting and plaque ceremony in April 2011.

6. Alan Titchmarsh was made Patron at Writtle College, a university college in Essex, in 2001 and had a building named after him at the college in 2011.

7. In 1999, Alan Titchmarsh was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of Bradford.

8. In 2008, Alan Titchmarsh served as High Sheriff of the Isle of Wight.

9. Alan Titchmarsh was made a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Hampshire in 2001.

10. Alan Titchmarsh was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to horticulture and broadcasting.

11. Alan Titchmarsh has a coastal home, near Cowes on the Isle of Wight, where he spends about a third of the year.

12. Alan Titchmarsh moved to his home, a grade II listed Georgian farmhouse in Hampshire, in 2002.

13. In 2010, Alan Titchmarsh became president of the plant conservation charity Plant Heritage.

14. In 2004, Alan Titchmarsh became the president of Perennial, officially known as the Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Society.

15. Away from horticulture, Alan Titchmarsh is involved with the Cowes Inshore Lifeboat, where he is a patron, and with the National Maritime Museum, where he is a trustee.

16. Alan Titchmarsh began writing fiction, and his first novel, Only Dad, was published in November 2001.

17. In 1988 Alan Titchmarsh was offered a slot on BBC Radio 2 hosting a gardening show with Gloria Hunniford called House in a Garden.

18. In December 2014 Alan Titchmarsh presented a two-part series for ITV called The Queen's Garden that was filmed over a time period of one year.

19. In 2010 Alan Titchmarsh presented the first series of Popstar to Operastar with Myleene Klass.

20. In 2007 Alan Titchmarsh hosted The Great British Village Show, in which gardeners and cooks from all over Britain competed to be the best at growing pumpkins, runner beans and tomatoes, and at knitting, baking cakes and making jam.

21. Alan Titchmarsh occasionally does other voiceover work for advertisements as well as voicing the title character in Gordon the Garden Gnome, a cartoon series for the CBeebies channel.

22. Alan Titchmarsh has appeared in an advertisement for the Yorkshire Tourist Board as part as of a series which included contributions from other Yorkshire-born celebrities including Brian Blessed, Melanie Brown, Darren Gough and Brian Turner.

23. Away from gardening, Alan Titchmarsh has had spells presenting Songs of Praise and a series of programmes on BBC Radio 2 in which he played a selection of light classical music, as well as a BBC nature documentary series, British Isles—A Natural History.

24. Alan Titchmarsh appeared on other BBC shows, such as Breakfast Time and Open Air as either a guest presenter or as a gardening expert, providing commentary and answering viewers' questions.

25. Alan Titchmarsh went on to study at Hertfordshire College of Agriculture and Horticulture for the National Certificate in Horticulture, before finally moving to the renowned Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to study for a Diploma in Horticulture.

26. In 1964, after leaving school at 15, Alan Titchmarsh went to work as an apprentice gardener with Ilkley Council, before leaving in 1968, at 18, for Shipley Art and Technology Institute in Shipley to study for a City and Guilds in horticulture.

27. Alan Titchmarsh was born on 2 May 1949 in Ilkley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England.

28. Alan Titchmarsh has developed a diverse writing and broadcasting career.