Education & the RHS

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Student Profile - Roy van Beek

Originally from Zimbabwe, Roy can remember wanting to have a career in horticulture from the age of 10, however, due to a variety of circumstances he ended up working in the electrical installation industry. Eventually abandoning this promising career Roy emigrated to Britain to restart his life by studying horticulture.

While studying for the RHS General, Roy worked part-time to cover his living expenses. On successfully passing the exam he took a job with a landscape management team, carrying out maintenance work and planting of seasonal bedding schemes. Keen to progress onto something more advanced he enrolled for the RHS Diploma at Lambeth College, but Roy realised that his current job was not providing the diversity of practical skills needed for success in the exam. When he found that Wisley, where he had been a regular visitor, offered a practical training scheme leading to the RHS Diploma he applied even though he had already completed nearly a year of his Diploma studies at Lambeth.

Roy considers that Wisley offers the widest variety of practical experiences on one site; there is a good range of garden design and landscape styles plus a huge collection of plants used in formal and informal settings. He is particularly interested in tropical and sub-tropical plants, and having now seen how plants can be used he would like to develop good gardens in appropriate areas, like Zimbabwe, using indigenous and native plants which have so much to offer yet are greatly under used. With this in mind he hopes to spend some time learning more about gardening techniques in the warmer parts of the world such as the Caribbean and southern USA in the future, but has decided to continue his studies for the time being at Writtle College, Essex.

Roy also has a great interest in organic horticulture and would ultimately like to combine his skills and knowledge to promote good horticultural practice and environmentally friendly techniques in gardens and outdoor cut-flower businesses in sub-tropical areas.

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