Case studies: Horticulturist: Malcolm

When Malcolm decided to change career to become a horticulturist, he had to take an intensive one-year practical horticultural qualification.

Before deciding on horticulture as a career, I’d worked successfully in international product design, and before that I had a career in the electrical contracting industry. When I changed career I considered other possibilities such as multimedia design, wooden boatbuilding and becoming a historic buildings craftsman. The reason I chose horticulture was that I’d been interested in it for a long time, it brought together all my interests in the one craft, and it allowed to me to work ‘hands on’.

To become qualified, I completed an intensive one-year practical horticultural qualification, and I was awarded the City and Guilds Gold Medal for my combined academic and practical work during that year.

Once qualified, I applied to work for the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) as they offered a traineeship and they have an international reputation. The RHS promote gardening and it was the area of creating and maintaining gardens that appealed rather than, say, productive food horticulture. Getting the job was fairly straightforward - just a letter of application and an interview. There were no tests to perform. I was asked about my past work experience and what I’d learned at college, although things have changed and a plant identification test would now be part of the interview. I hadn’t done any related professional work experience, but I’d been a very keen amateur for many years and so I had lots of practical experience, this helped me get the job.

My day-to-day duties are varied and it’s very much a matter of hands-on horticulture. I use a lot of tools in the garden, including the usual hand tools, and more specialist equipment including tractors and tractor-driven devices, such as spading machines, as well as rotavators, strimmers, brushcutters, chainsaws, chemical spraying equipment, and so on. For most of these operations, I have national training accreditation or an operator licence.

My role hasn’t changed very much since I started the job and RHS utilise my practical craft skills and my design background and I’m able to input a lot by calling on my creativity and technical skills.

As I’ve made a conscious decision to stay hands-on as a craft gardener, my role won’t change too much in the future. My root skills and the practical gardening aspects of the job will remain the same. If in the future I decide to go into management, the role would change a lot, taking me away from the hands-on aspects of the job.

The thing I most enjoy about my job is creating beauty for people to enjoy. On the negative side the money’s not great and sometimes management decisions are more cautious, which is understandable as we’re working for a charity. But the job is so rewarding that it’s what I’ll continue doing for a long time yet.

I could if I wished progress through supervisory roles into site management, but I don’t want that. Gardening knowledge and skills take years to acquire and you never stop learning, but unlike the obsolescence of many technical jobs, the gardening skills and knowledge I learn today and tomorrow will last a lifetime.

My advice to anyone wanting to enter horticulture is to research all the training options such as the RHS, the National Trust and specialist colleges, as there’s a lot of variety. It’s a good idea to show commitment and a basic level of gardening knowledge by growing plants yourself and volunteering at any garden that will have you. Also read as many horticulture-related journals and books as you can, and talk to professional gardeners.