Young Horticulturist of the Year 2020 underway

The Chartered Institute of Horticulture are delighted to be able to announce that the YHOY 2020 competition is now underway and can confirm that the Grand Final will be at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh’s Logan Botanic Gardens, near Stranraer in Dumfries and Galloway on May 2nd 2020 – visit www.rbge.org.uk for more details of the garden. This beautiful garden, whose climate is strongly influenced by the Gulf Stream, has an incredible plant collection for us all to see and enjoy. One of their previous winners from 2014, Chris Parsons, is now on the staff at the gardens.

Following one of the most exciting Grand Finals of recent years at the Royal Botanic Garden Kew in May, their winner, Richard Moore, from RBGK, has recently returned from Japan where he spent time studying pruning and maintenance techniques. Emily Marston, now at RHS Gardens Wisley, is still in discussions about how to use her £2000 Travel Bursary, so generously provided by the Shropshire Horticultural Society, after the very close tie-breaker last round.

Chartered Institute of Horticulture are very privileged to have the continued support of the SHS / Percy Thrower Trust as their main sponsors as well as Bulldog Tools who have been providing prizes for our eight Regional Final winners for nearly 10 years. For 2020 they also have Adrian Stockdale, current Editor of the ‘Plant Names Simplified’ reference book, first published in 1931 and a favourite of many generations of horticultural students and practitioners ever since. He will be providing a copy of the book for each of the eight Regional Final winners.

For more details, contact the CIoH Head office or the YHOY Action Group Chairperson, Sue Nicholas at yhoy@horticulture.org.uk or her Vice Chairperson, Graham Porter at graham.garden65@gmail.com