1st Year Diploma Trainee, RHS Garden Wisley
Wisley Diploma in Practical Horticulture 2007–2009
Amy's family had no particular background in horticulture, although her mother was a very keen gardener and allotment holder.
At University, Amy completed a degree in sculpture but decided against going into the art world, getting a job in a walled garden instead. Realising that this was what she wanted to do, she tried to catch up on the academic side and undertook the RHS General exam in Horticulture, which encouraged her to carry on.
After two years in the walled garden, Amy moved to the Wisley area and eventually applied for the Wisley Diploma, because she couldn’t afford to go back into full-time education.
Being paid to work and study seemed the perfect way for Amy to catch up and learn more of the academic side as well. The current course consists of three-monthly rotations in all garden departments over the course of two years.
There are masterclasses to prepare you for the RHS practical exams at the end of the first and second years, as well as fortnightly plant identification tests, the diary, pest and disease collection, herbarium collection, dissertation and an allotment project. Lectures are held on Wednesdays in the first year and you can opt to sit the written exams, which you don’t have to do to pass the course.
Amy’s hoping Wisley will be a stepping stone as she is still not sure what branch of horticulture she wants to follow. At the moment she’s quite keen to try and work abroad when the course finishes, perhaps doing something with plants in their native habitat, conservation or the problems of invasive species.
Trainees all now live in Wisley village, either in Hanbury Court or Deers Farm. Amy lives in Deers Farm where she shares a flat and finds it quite homely. It’s quite an enclosed community where you live and work and go to the pub with the same group, but she’s met some lovely people and enjoys meeting people who are interested in the same things.
“It’s lovely being able to talk about Latin names of plants and boffiny science without them thinking you’re completely bonkers. They know what you’re talking about and you don’t have to feel strange about it. Everybody has come from different backgrounds and experiences and even just talking to the other trainees and members of staff, you can learn so much.”
Looking back, Amy remembers how nervous she was coming for interview. She so wanted to come because she thought it would provide so many things she wanted, but living here now, it’s easy to start taking things for granted. She hopes she won’t look back and wish she had taken advantage of this or that while she was here.
And one final observation, “There’s a lot here if people want to take it.”