The Colegrave Seabrook Foundation, the charity which supports students studying horticulture, has announced that horticulturalist and broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh has agreed to be its new Patron.
The Foundation embarked on a strategy for growth at the begining of 2022, its 29th year of supporting students with bursaries and scholarships. This growth has seen the appointment of 3 new Trustees, extending social media links and new website, a new administration team and now the important step of welcoming Alan Titchmarsh as Patron.
Chair of Trustees, Jeff Colegrave said: “Speaking for all our Trustees, we are delighted to welcome Alan as our Patron and thank him for his time and support of what we do. We are already building our corporate sponshorship with the support of businesses like Majestic Trees, Blue Diamond and BPOA, with others keen to establish scholarships with us in their name. With the new scholarship season having opened at the begining of September, we are in a strong position to support more students and have a bigger impact on the issue of attracting the needed skills for our industry’s future, something Alan is keen to promote."
Alan Titchmarsh is a well known and respected industry figure, who with his own training and teaching career along with his strong gardening journalist credentials, is well placed to help the Colegrave Seabrook Foundation drive forward it’s activity and support of students.
Alan himself left school at 15, taking up a horticultural apprenticship with his local parks department before going on to Kew to study and ultimately teach there too.
Alan said in a recent interview how he loved growing things from seed; no matter how small a patch or windowsill, you can sow seeds, take cuttings and grow things. “It’s all a learning experience,” he said and was keen to prescribe nature as the antidote to today’s chaotic, fast-paced living. To achieve this “we need more people seeing the value of horticulture as a career choice as well as gardening as a hobby.”
Some people find it difficult to get in touch with the natural world because life is so fast and the natural world has a pace of its own, which tends to be slower than our daily grind.
Alan’s family share his passion for nature – though he admits it’s more for being in it and looking at it, rather than doing it.
He added: “I am so pleased both my daughters love nature. I remember one of them saying to me, we couldn’t live anywhere that wasn’t green and I thought - mission accomplished."
Alan Titchmarsh said about his appointment as Patron of the charity: “The Trustees of the Colegrave Seabrook Foundation deserve our support – nurseries, product manufacturers and retailers as well as fellow hortciulturists should get behind the work they do. People getting into horticulture, enjoying doing what some of us have been doing for years, is crucial to all our futures."
To find out more about the work of the Foundation and how you can support what it does more details are available on the website www.colegraveseabrookfoundation.org.uk or by speaking to one of the Trustees.
