Fancy doing this as a career...?

Horticulture is a rewarding and fun industry to work in. Wherever you are and whatever you're doing in horticulture you will be challenged and, if you like challenges and feel a great satisfaction from a job well done, you will succeed.

Horticulture is almost entirely a 'hands on' industry. Whether you are a horticultural scientist working in a lab, a nurseryman growing plants on a nursery, or a gardener tending and creating a garden, you will spend most of your time 'doing' things, and while every day will bring it's challenges every day will also bring it's successes and achievements. There is great satisfaction in leaving work each day knowing that you've achieved something!

Of course in horticulture the plants are everything. The fairway of a golf course might just look like grass, but in fact is made up of different species carefully selected and nurtured by skilled grounds-people to create a surface fit for purpose, and often maintained to impressive standards. Maintaining a golf course, or any other surface used for sports (like a football pitch) is a skilled occupation, and people working in that particular part of horticulture are constantly making new developments to improve the performance of their turf. Imagine being the person who's work helps your favourite sports team to victory! Imagine being the person who's job it is to look after some of the most iconic sports turf in the world, like the pitch at Wembley!

Not quite Wembley, but a great croquet lawn!

Gardens are made up of plants to provide shape, structure and colour in order to create the overall effect. From tiny alpines to massive trees, the plants are what makes a garden. Ensuring the health of the plants in a garden is probably the overall reason to have gardeners in the first place, and maintaining a garden brings an enormous sense of well-being. Gardens have a cycle during the year, a cycle of growth, development, fruition and decline. Being a part of nature's cycle is very rewarding, and I know it sounds a bit strange but the whole experience could almost be described as spiritual. Yes, gardening has times of mad rushing around, mowing the lawn or collecting leaves, but there are also times when the pace of life becomes more gentle, and you are given a privileged front row seat in nature's theatre. Seeing buds burst after winter dormancy, waiting for flowers to open, watching as fruits set... all of these things are familiar to gardeners, but never do they lose their magic.

Cool office! The back garden of St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall

Growing plants on a nursery also gives you first hand experience of nature in it's finery, the difference being that on a nursery you are raising plants to be bought by other gardeners. There is an immense feeling of satisfaction as a customer buys a plant you've grown on the nursery and takes it home to their garden. Nurseries are very artificial environments, so knowledge of science, technology, economics, marketing... these are all put to the test on a daily basis. Growing plants in a nursery brings a lot of challenges, and it can quite often be a fast paced environment. Being able to think on your feet is important, as is not only knowing about horticulture but also having the passion for your subject that drives you to learn more. Wherever you look in horticulture there are things happening; new plants are being bred, new products developed, new techniques mastered, new markets created. For anyone who wants to go the extra mile there is room to carve a career in production horticulture.

Horticulture can bring you into contact with rare species; Grewia occidentalis

Production horticulture also needs people to sell the products, whether on the same site as the plants are being produced or in a retail only environment like a garden centre. As with any industry the key is to make sure that the product stands out, either by being displayed well or by appropriate marketing, or more than likely both! Retail in general is ever changing, and horticultural retail is no exception. Every customer through the door is different, and the skill in horticultural retail is to match your customer with the appropriate plant. You'll need a sound knowledge of horticulture as well as the passion to keep learning just to keep ahead with your customers! One might need a plant for a particular purpose, another might be worried about a pest or disease, and it's your guidance that will make sure that your customer continues to enjoy their garden for years to come. The retail environment is the perfect place to apply your knowledge and benefit others.

Garden and landscape design is a great way to make your way in horticulture. From a tiny little back garden for a private client all the way up to a major project, design and careful implementation is key. Designers painstakingly survey the site and produce often breathtaking results, all with the help of competent landscapers who actually build the project. The sheer variety of projects suits people who enjoy the challenge of being creative and implementing a design to a high standard, so a career as a designer or a landscaper will suit people who enjoy a new challenge with each site to work on.

Of course horticulture needs science and technology to succeed. Plants are living things and must be cared for or they will die. Horticultural scientists work hard to identify, monitor and deal with pests and diseases, they develop growing practices to improve productivity and plant health, they create new products to make the whole business of growing plants easier. Behind the scenes scientists are busy in their labs or trial beds creating and developing the future of horticulture, and if your leaning is towards science then you could well be part of something big!

New plants are often the result of complex breeding; Digitalis Illumination Pink

Of course as with any career there are downsides; the vagaries of the weather can make your day's work more challenging, there are economic difficulties around, and there is a shortage of skilled staff in most (if not all) sectors of horticulture. To be good at horticulture you need to be keen, willing to be passionate about what you do, interested in why and how things happen, and most of all willing to get stuck in!