Marie-Louise Agius — Garden Designer, RHS Judge and Director of Exbury Gardens

Marie-Louise Agius is the Senior Director of Balston Agius, an award-winning garden designer, an active RHS judge and a Director of Exbury Gardens. She is an associate member of the Society of Garden Designers.

After completing a Masters at Edinburgh University, she trained in landscape design at the KLC School of Design in London. She went on to work at Clifton Nurseries in London as a Senior Contracts Manager in the Landscape Department, gaining experience across the design, build and contractual sides of the landscape industry. Implementation is a critical part of delivering a project for a client, and remains something the practice has extensive expertise in.

She has been part of the team at Balston Agius since 2005, based between London and the New Forest. She is responsible for overall project management, including detailed design, specifications, working drawings, supervision of works on site, planting schemes and plant acquisition. Her portfolio spans private gardens, large estates and urban gardens throughout the United Kingdom.

She jointly designed and project managed the East Village Show Garden for the centenary of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, winning a much-coveted Gold Medal. She worked alongside Heatherwick Studio on delivering the gardens at the Maggie's Centre in Leeds, and designed the BALI award-winning Centenary Garden at Exbury Gardens, opened in July 2019 by the then Prince of Wales, now King Charles III.

As a Director of Exbury Gardens — a world-renowned woodland garden of over 200 acres specialising in rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias and rare trees and shrubs — Marie-Louise participates in regular board meetings determining the overall commercial and horticultural strategy for the gardens.

As an active RHS judge she sits on various selection panels for RHS Show Gardens, and is a member of the RHS Woody Plants Committee.

Her work has been featured in House & Garden, Gardens Illustrated, The Times, The Guardian and The Garden.