Greeny News

Gardening has become cool, with a big rise in the number of 16- to 18-year-olds signing up for horticulture courses

Hampton Court flower show turns 21 this year, with its coming-of-age party featuring a festival of roses. But if you thought that the 160,000 visitors to the annual flower show would all be grey-haired gardeners whose own 21sts were decades ago, think again. Two of the flower show's own designers weren't even alive when it was created: gardening has gone cool, and nowhere is that more evident than in the hordes of students flocking to sign up for an education in horticulture.

At specialist college Capel Manor, in Enfield, admissions staff report a 25% increase in demand this year from 16- to 18-year-olds for courses in horticulture and related industries such as arboriculture, garden design and floristry. It is opening a new site in Crystal Palace in September to meet the extra demand. Madeline Hall, head of the college, thinks the flock to horticulture courses is a result of the economic downturn.

"Whilst no jobs are recession-proof, green jobs are a good bet," she says. "Plants in parks, gardens and green space need year-round care; trees keep growing. We have a new generation of eco-warriors, young iconoclasts looking to make a living but to make a difference too."

It's a trend that has been noticed by Lantra, the sector skills council for environmental and land-based trades, which saw a 52% leap in searches for horticulture courses in May this year compared with last.

Meanwhile, at Askham Bryan College in York, young people made up only 20% of horticultural students five years ago, while now this group accounts for 80%. Simon Grundy, lecturer in horticulture at Essex's Writtle College, which saw applications for further education courses rise 16% on last year, says: "More people are appreciating that quality of life and enjoyable employment are just as important as cash, if not more so."

At Hampton Court, the growth in youth interest in horticulture is palpable. James Callicott, 15, is the youngest garden designer ever to appear at the flower show, following in the footsteps of last year's teen debutant, Jack Dunckley, now 17, who is making a return visit.

For Callicott, gardening is more than a hobby or even a dream career: it has helped him to overcome severe dyslexia and learn to read. "I was really struggling with my dyslexia â€" I couldn't read â€" however much I tried, the words just didn't make sense," he says. "I came out of school to be home educated by my mum, but I was still finding learning tough until one day someone gave me a copy of Gardeners' World magazine. I was motivated to read it because I wanted to know how the gardens were created, so I pored over it for hours â€" and gradually my reading picked up.

"Now, I get huge satisfaction from reading the long plant names, and learning them off-by-heart. I absolutely love making gardens," Callicott says.

His Hampton Court garden explores the relationship between gardening and art, with a scene painted on a large easel in the middle, reflected, in reverse, in the planting. "My ambition is to win a best-in-show award â€" but there's a big obstacle to overcome first," he says. "Because I'm under 16 I'm not allowed to go on site to build my garden. So I'm having to give friends and family instructions by walky-talky, and they're sending me over pictures using a laptop and dongle. It's really frustrating."

Callicott was attracted to horticulture through art and design, rather than planting, and attributes the shift towards structured gardens full of architectural features as a crucial part of its appeal for young people. That idea is confirmed by Philip Windle, head of accreditations at the Royal Horticultural Society, which runs Hampton Court flower show and is one of the country's major awarding bodies for horticulture qualifications. "The emphasis on design, in both small gardens and large public spaces, is fuelling growing demand in courses," he says.

Windle predicts that the interest will grow further as the new Qualifications and Credit Framework for vocational studies comes in, giving students the chance to study short units of learning that can be built up into qualifications.

"We've developed a new level 1 qualification, which can be studied in about 110 hours over the course of a year," says Windle. "It looks at things like preparing soil, seed sowing, pests and diseases, soil testing and more, and it's already generating a significant level of interest from colleges and schools."

The horticulture colleges all stress how gardening can be used to learn science and maths as well as green-fingered skills, and Callicott relishes that side too. "I'm using horticulture ideas in lots of my essays at the moment," he says. Studying for a home education qualification, the Certificate of Personal Effectiveness (Cope), he is currently studying material science, and using examples from his Hampton Court design.

But Callicott more excited about the new gardening buzz around. "A couple girls I know have been asking me a lot about my garden, because they have found what I 've made one for Hampton Court," he says.

"Horticulture is definitely growing in popularity amongst young people â€" people I know are being a lot more open about being interested in it. All we need is one of the World Cup footballers to come out and say, 'I love gardening' â€" then all the other kids who are secretly interested will announce their own passions with pride."