The Grand Final of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture Young Horticulturist of the Year takes place next Saturday (9 May) at the National Trust’s Barrington Court, Somerset.
More than 1,800 young horticulturists from all over the UK and Ireland entered the prestigious competition this year, and the eight finalists, who have battled their way through both local heats and regional finals, will take part in a nail-biting and fiercely-fought competition, answering a wide range of horticultural questions to compete for the much sought after title and the £2,500 Percy Thrower Travel Bursary.
The Bursary is awarded by the Shropshire Horticultural Society, enabling the winner to undertake a trip anywhere in the world to study a subject related to their chosen field of horticulture. Additionally, there are cash prizes for all finalists, as well as other prizes, totalling in excess of £13,000 for those who have taken part in the heats and the regional finals.
The finalists are:
Jonathan Davies-Coleman, Student at Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh/Scotland's Rural College Edinburgh - representing the Scotland Branch
Sian Nichol, Student at Kirkley Hall Campus, Northumberland College - representing the Northern Branch
Samuel Moore, Student at Writtle College - representing the Eastern Branch
Franics Mulholland, Student at Greenmount Campus, CAFRE - representing the Ireland Branch
Alexander Hankey, Student at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew - representing the South East Branch
John Grundy, Student at Myerscough College - representing the North West and North Wales Branch
Jessica Evans, Head Gardener, Tintinhull Gardens, National Trust - representing the South West Branch
Josh Egan-Wyer ACIHort, Nursery Manager, Pershore College - representing the West Midlands and South Wales Branch
Previous YHoY winners have found that the status and prestige of winning has given them the confidence to further their careers beyond their wildest dreams and have used the bursary to travel as far afield as China and Borneo.
Chris Parsons, the 2014 YHoY winner said “The YHoY competition has been brilliant and over the last four years that I have entered I have met some excellent like-minded people from all over the country. The competition this year was exceptionally strong. The mountains of Vietnam and Taiwan both seem to be botanically very interesting and are places that I may visit with my travel bursary.”
Andrew Gill C Hort FCIHort, President, Chartered Institute of Horticulture said “The Young Horticulturist of the Year competition epitomises many of the values of The Chartered Institute of Horticulture, the things we stand for; the professional standing of horticulture, the community of professional horticulturists and developing professional horticulturists. The competition gets better every year and the knowledge of horticulture demonstrated by the finalists is often astounding! I am hugely looking forward to being there and very grateful to the sponsors and organisers for an event which does great credit to all involved.”
Rosie Yeomans, garden consultant, lecturer, writer and broadcaster said: “It’s exciting to know that as question master at the Young Horticulturist of the Year Grand Final I’ll be in front of the greatest young talent in horticulture. The future holds so many opportunities for them and best of all, no matter who wins, they’ve all chosen a winning career with the most job satisfaction.”
The Shropshire Horticultural Society, the major sponsor for the past 25 years, through the Percy Thrower Trust, provides the Travel Bursary prize for the winner and sponsorship of the Grand Final.
The other National sponsors for 2015 are MorePeople, the Horticultural Development Company (HDC) and Wyevale Garden Centres. There are also many regional and local sponsors.
