Bugs and pests have played an influential role in the life of gardening expert Pippa Greenwood.
Her expert advice on the long-running radio programme Gardeners' Question Time is backed up by an influential career including 11 years at the Royal Horticultural Society's Plant Pathology Department at Wisley in Surrey.
But for some knowledge is not everything and Pippa's slot on the television programme Gardeners' World came to an end with questions over her glam factor.
It is still a bug bear for Pippa who believes beauty might only be skin deep and gardeners want more than a pretty face.
"They want to know answers to questions and learn something new which will help them," said Pippa.
"That's how I see it."
Television decision makers thought otherwise and Pippa left the show and looked for other opportunities. One is her regular appearance at Gardeners' World Live! which confirms her belief that gardeners come in all shapes and sizes.
"You have got to get on with your life and that's precisely what I have done," said Pippa, who rejects the 'mumsy' tag.
"I do not want to start apologising for having had children. Mumsy is a bloody insult. I am very proud of being a mother.
"The emphasis on presenters has changed in the last few years and there is so much emphasis on how you look," said Pippa, who loves her time with Callum, six and four-year-old Alice.
"I do not want to sound terribly bitchy but there was a change and I believe that was my problem. I was older and not desperately glamorous."
Bugs and pests, she admits, are also not the most glamorous of topics although important topics for gardeners who want to produce good crops or blooms.
This knowledge will be one of the main attractions for show visitors who want to hear Pippa speak. Advice will no doubt focus on sticky subjects on how to tackle slugs to the perils of not tackling a fungus before it takes hold.
"I like to try to be as organic as possible but I am relaxed about it and if there is no way of sorting something out without the use of chemicals then it has to be done," said Pippa.
She finds time to develop her garden at home in Hampshire, which includes an orchard and arboretum, and enjoys the satisfaction from seeing her hard work pay off.
"At times it can be frustrating, but there is a real joy in seeing gardens develop."
During her time at the show there will be time for a spot of shopping, and Pippa adores wandering around the plants section which she said: "Smells wonderful. The specialists know so much about their subject and it is a great way to get ideas."
There will also be time for the show gardens - a chance for designers to inspire and illustrate just what can be achieved.
It was at the Chelsea Flower Show that Pippa first got spotted by a television producer.
"There was a programme being made about the show and I was interviewed. The producer then gave me their business card and said they needed to talk to me. It was then a few months and the producer there, happened to also be the producer for the day time slot of Friday Live. There was never an intention to get into television it just happened."
It now sounds surprising, but Pippa only watched Gardeners' World for the first time days before she first went out on air.
"It all sounds so amazing but there we are. I was brought up without television and when I started had never seen the programme. I used to watch the occasional programme at a friends, like Dr Who, but that was it.
"I had no aspiration to be on the television. It wasn't something I even thought about."
And now Pippa is happy to move on with her career. She has her own programme on Radio Solent in Hampshire, still writes, is a regular on Gardeners' Question Time and is the horticultural expert for the detective series Rosemary & Thyme.
"It is difficult to find time but that's life."
And she added: ""This is me. I have had two children and my looks may not be to everyone's taste but I am happy and so are the people I live with."
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