Horticultural Careers....A Personal Opinion

I am often asked about horticulture as a career. It has after all given me a contented and harmonious life, something of a refuge. However that may say more about my own needs and desires, I suspect we all take what we want from our working life according to our individual personalities, I have often repeated the truth that I live in fear of being found out and may have to start 'working' for a living. But then I love plants and gardens, they have always been a saviour, detached from the emotional and simply interesting or beautiful because that is the way nature and the environment has shaped them. Like all things you will get out a relative amount to what you put in.

Also personal to the individual is what they want. Money? Contentment? Pride? Creativity? Business? Balance?....the list goes on and on but it is worth focusing on what you seek then contemplating on why you seek it.

If it is your life choice then you need to learn.

There are all manner of courses, modules, jobs, skill centred certificated clap trap and pointless bits of paper that inform the would be employer that you once sowed a seed or two. 90% is probably less use than goldfish shite, 5% marginally more use, and the other 5% excellent.

The RHS, Crown Estates, National Trust, all offer training and courses that are well established with first class structures in place......nationally recognised certificates are fine providing they do what they say on the tin (student) and are not simply issued as a pass for the examination pass rate of whatever institution. Training for the exam should be classified a crime against humanity. I am amazed at the lack of basic knowledge and skill level of all students I have come across, all seem to also lack enthusiasm, motivation and most importantly genuine interest.

Were I starting out in general horticulture and wanting to establish a gardens as opposed to a nursery I would look to the previously mentioned places for a good grounding and the experience of working within their various locations....experiencing what can and has been achieved over generations by gardeners who walked the same pathway, I would also over the course of three years visit and immerse myself in all the gardens of note throughout this land, for only by such contact and feel will the student pick up ideas and become inspired.

As to nursery work? It is acquired knowledge. Like propagation it is a skill you can easily teach yourself. Learn about your plants, grow them, propagate them, keep the quality high and accept you will stuff things up, make mistakes, and suffer losses. I do not believe it necessary for a formal horticultural education if you are 'seriously' interested in growing plants. You will and can teach yourself all you need know, whether you are successful will be for others to judge as they simply wont buy your plants if they are piss poor quality. The nurseryman/grower can take their skills and business to whatever level they like because he or she is ultimately and directly responsible for his or herself.

Perhaps the greatest challenge and best option is to combine the two. Get yourself a good grounding with the best establishment and use that knowledge and experience to develop your own gardens and your own supply of material for propagation. This is the 'nursery garden' and must be the future, certainly for Eggleston Hall gardens as my time there comes to a close. There is room in the market for many such places to spring up and flourish, I honestly feel the days of the Garden Centre are numbered and nursery gardens will come to the fore where people can walk round borders, touch plants, experience the wildlife for real, as opposed to some plastic fucking bees on sticks. I sincerely hope so, because that is where the future training will be found, the traditional 'big house' has declined, it is a new world horticulturally and I for one will applaud its arrival.

The coming years are a transformation period, things are gradually changing and soon Garden centres will begin to loose their complacency and perhaps even diversify into horticulture.

The future is bright but needs to be embraced by those with good grounding, vision, and the interest to take the industry into greener pastures and different realms. To appeal to those that need a little inspiration and guidance and not just be stripped of their cash, to offer an experience that leaves the individual feeling excited and educated not poorer and weighed down.

Paradise has always been hewn from a common field and expressed in the form of a garden, for millennia it has been so and for millennia it will be so.