There is something almost unreasonably comforting about Monty Don. The soft corduroy, the battered gardening gloves, the voice that could talk you down from almost anything — he has, for two decades now, been the nation's unofficial horticultural therapist. On Sunday, he brings all of that to Glasgow.

Monty Don: A Journey Through British Gardens arrives at the SEC Armadillo on Sunday 26 April, with doors opening at 1pm for a 2pm start. It is the live companion to his recent BBC Two series and book, both titled British Gardens, and it marks a deliberate turning homeward after years of globe-trotting programmes about Italian, French, American, Japanese and — only this year — Rhineland gardens.

A homecoming of sorts

"What do our gardens say about us?" is the question the show sets out to answer. Don, armed with photography and anecdote, takes audiences from the northern tip of Scotland down to the Cornish coast, stopping at Alnwick, Beatrix Potter's Lake District farmhouse and the gloriously unruly rewilded walled garden at Knepp in Sussex.

The pitch, according to the SEC, is that our gardens reveal "our ingenuity, eccentricity, and enduring connection to the natural world". Which is a polite way of saying: we are a nation of people who will happily stand in horizontal rain to admire someone else's delphiniums, and Monty gets that about us.

The accidental gardener

It is easy to forget that Don, now 70, is entirely self-taught — the first presenter of Gardeners' World without formal horticultural training when he took over from Alan Titchmarsh in 2003. Before the BBC, there was a costume jewellery business in Knightsbridge that counted Princess Diana and Boy George among its customers, and which collapsed spectacularly in the 1987 crash. He spent 1992 on the dole before television found him through a gardening column.

Since then: more than 25 books, a weekly column at The Observer for twelve years, and a roster of travel-gardening series that have quietly become some of the BBC's most-loved factual output. He presents from Longmeadow, his own Herefordshire garden, and viewers of a certain disposition have grieved alongside him for his golden retrievers Nigel and Nell — the kind of parasocial bond most broadcasters can only dream of.

What to expect on the night

This is not a lecture. Those who have caught previous Monty Don tour dates describe something closer to a fireside chat with slides — warm, discursive, occasionally mischievous, threaded with the kind of offhand wisdom that makes you want to go home and plant something.

The show runs for roughly two hours and is billed for over-14s, with under-16s accompanied by an adult. It is, in short, a properly lovely Sunday afternoon out — tea-and-cake territory rather than late-night.

Practical details

What: Monty Don: A Journey Through British Gardens
Where: SEC Armadillo, Exhibition Way, Glasgow G3 8YW
When: Sunday 26 April 2026. Doors 1pm, show 2pm–4pm
Tickets: £36.55 to £172.75 (inc admin fee) via sec.co.uk or Ticketmaster
VIP: A £172.75 package includes a Band A seat, pre-show meet-and-greet, photo opportunity and a signed, personalised hardback of British Gardens. A £97.65 Signed Book & Ticket option bundles a Band B seat with a signed copy.
Accessible booking: 0141 576 3230, Mon–Fri 9am–2pm

Bring a notebook. You will leave with a list.