Last Friday we gathered at the Hilton Bankside to celebrate the 18th round of our free horticultural course Future Gardeners. 13 students graduated receiving a City & Guilds qualification – enabling them to take up entry-level gardening jobs or enter further education. Four students are already working part time within the horticultural industry, and one plans to study horticulture to a higher level.

We awarded two of the cohort with our Outstanding Student Award. Zaida, who has recently taken up a position at Frognal Gardens where she did her work experience, said of the course: “I have been very privileged to be part of this course. My mission is to share with others what I have been learning.”

The students were joined by our speakers gardener designer and broadcaster Flo Headlam (pictured speaking below), Chair of Bankside Open Spaces Trust Tim Wood, and Master Worshipful Company of Gardeners Nicolas Woolf, who presented each student with their certificate.

Future Gardeners - an award-winning programme

We were also delighted to be joined by Richard Barley, Vice President Chartered Institute of Horticulture. Richard was there to present our Future Gardeners Project Manager Louisa Mansfield with the Norah Stucken Award. Every year the institute commemorates Norah Stucken, a long-standing publisher of the trade magazine, The Grower, by celebrating a project that makes a positive impact on the horticultural industry. We’re proud to see Future Gardeners honoured in this way.

Thank you to our Future Gardeners and their supporters

We’d like to thank all our students for committing to Future Gardeners and putting so much into their time in our spaces and on work experience. We wish them all the very best for their green futures.

We’d also like to thank the Hilton Bankside, More London and Savills for our graduation venue and refreshments.

Future Gardeners completely free and runs for 14 weeks. We are able to run the course and ensure the students gain a range of horticultural experience thanks to our partners: Worshipful Company of Gardeners, Royal Parks Guild, Walworth Garden, Maylim, Frognal Gardens and Willerby Landscapes. We’d also like to thank our funders RHS Flourish Fund, The Henry Smith Charity and Postcode Society Trust.

Thanks also to past student George Clarke for taking photos at the event.