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Please look on the College website for all the latest news, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook or watch our Horticulture video on the link below.
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Horticulture students enjoy job success!
A total of 38 students graduated from the undergraduate Horticulture courses last Summer, with four achieving First Class Honours.
A number of them have been in touch to tell us about the jobs they are now doing.
You can see from the list below that our broad-based courses allow students to go into a wide range of careers. The list also shows how Writtle College’s Horticulture courses attract students from across the country as well as from abroad.
• Jocelyn (Essex) – Internship at RHS Garden Wisley
• Alec (Devon) – Masters in Landscape Management at Sheffield University
• James (Herts) – Head Gardener working in landscape restoration
• Robin (Essex) – Arboriculture consultant
• Stephanie (Essex) – Ohio State University internship
• Matthew (Oxon) – Head Gardener
• Alex (Essex)– Olympic Park contract management
• Megan (Essex) – Graduate trainee at fresh fruit and veg supplier Reynolds Catering Supplies
Some students went on to further study at Writtle College:
• Collen (Zimbabwe) – MSc Postharvest Technology
• Claudio (Italy) – MSc Sustainable Land Management Under Global Change
• Tegan – MSc Postharvest Technology
• Nariman (London) – MSc Horticulture
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Botanist and broadcaster James Wong and other industry leaders attend Writtle College Employability Day
Writtle College students gained specialist advice, guidance and information about potential career opportunities.
A wide range of industry experts – including botanist and broadcaster James Wong – attended the College’s last Employability Day.
As well as presenter and science writer James Wong, College alumnus Tim Goodman, who set up the Living Bar Company, spoke to Horticulture students.
There were also representatives from G’s Fresh, Waitrose, Sutton Seeds and Cornelius Group PLC as well as a New Product Development Brewing Technologist at Muntons.
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Breeding a hardy Osteospermum
For the past five years our Horticulture students have been making selections from crosses between two common cultivars of hardy Osteospermum = O. jucundum and O. ‘Lady Leitrim’.
Osteospermums are easy plants to breed as they are self-sterile, so when the two parents are grown close to each other cross-pollination occurs and seeds are set. The resultant seedlings show a wide range of flower colours and growth types. Seedlings which are thought to be of commercial interest are selected and then maintained by taking cuttings, as they do not ‘breed true’ from seeds.
Some garden centres and nurseries are not keen to stock hardy Osteospermums as they can grow into large clumps of plants – unsuitable for a small garden. Also, some of the older varieties do not flower for very long and some gardeners dislike them for this reason.
What is needed is a plant which is smaller and flowers for long periods. One of the seedlings selected by students and named as ‘Little Writtle’ is now being commercialised.
Suttons Seeds have included ‘Little Writtle’ in their 2015 online catalogue. Plants are propagated at Hargreaves Plants in Huntingdon, which supplies Suttons Seeds.
Initially 1,000 plants are being produced. Horticulture students have also propagated ‘Little Writtle’ and are selling plants at College events.
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BSc (Hons) Horticulture first year student Ran, from China, potting Little Writtle plants in the Research Glasshouse at Writtle College
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Writtle College students given prestigious awards
A mother-of-two who was struck down with a potentially deadly lung condition while running her own garden maintenance business has been honoured with an award from the Worshipful Company of Gardeners.
Karen Hook, who was also studying for a horticulture degree at Writtle College at the time, was exposed to the potentially deadly Aspergillus fungal spores in 2008 while working with bark chip on clients’ gardens and became seriously ill.
She persevered with her degree and graduated in September with a BSc (Hons) Horticulture after seven years of study.
She was honoured with a Worshipful Company of Gardeners Prize – a certificate and cheque for £250 - after she was nominated by her College course leaders for her determination and hard work despite facing severe setbacks.
Karen’s fellow horticulture student Jocelyn Rose was also honoured at the Worshipful Company of Gardeners Autumn Dinner. She was given a prize after impressing both Writtle College staff and her fellow students with her positive and diligent approach towards her studies.
Jocelyn gained a First Class Honours degree and now has an intern placement at RHS Gardens Wisley working to further her knowledge and experience.
Read more about their stories on the link below.
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Lecturer becomes Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture
Senior Horticulture Lecturer Sandra Nicholson has been made a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture.
She was given the Fellowship at the Annual General Meeting at the RHS Lindley Hall, London.
Sandra said: “Having been a member of the Institute of Horticulture for many years, I am honoured to have been made a Fellow of the Institute and particularly in the year that it received Chartered Status.”
Amongst the other new Fellows was Dr Phil Askew, a renowned Landscape Architect, Urban Designer and Horticulturist, who worked on the Olympic Park. Dr Askew is an alumnus of Writtle College and was given an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Essex in 2012.
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Writtle College academic named a National Teaching Fellow
Writtle College academic Dr Anya Perera was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship - the most prestigious award for excellence in higher education teaching and support for learning.
Anya, who teaches on the Horticulture scheme at Writtle College, was one of only 55 higher education staff across the country to be awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by The Higher Education Academy (HEA).
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Three Horticulture students given jobs with celebrity gardener!
Three Writtle College Horticulture students were given the opportunity of a lifetime working with celebrity gardener Alan Titchmarsh on his top TV shows!
Rosie Kippen and Janet Atkinson were employed as runners on Alan's shows, Love Your Garden and Britain's Best Gardens, while Catherine Fairhall-Lewis worked as a researcher on Love Your Garden.
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Trial for Tozer Seeds conducted at Writtle College
Writtle College students are working on a crop trial for a major breeder and supplier of chilli peppers and tomatoes in the UK.
The current crop trials work being conducted in the research glasshouse features over 40 cultivars of chilli peppers all provided by Tozer Seeds.
The Tozer trials at Writtle College also contain a range of speciality tomatoes (pictured below) and sweet peppers, which are from Tozer’s own breeding programme as well as from their marketing partners.
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Student profile
Collen Mutema, from Zimbabwe
Now a Project Analyst, Food, at Sensitech, the world’s leading provider of supply chain visibility solutions
BSc (Hons) Horticulture and MSc Postharvest Technology
“After searching for the best Horticulture colleges in the UK, Writtle College came up as the one and only institution of choice.
“Coming from a commercial-orientated background, I immediately took interest in the commercial and postharvest modules. Soon after completing my degree, I enrolled on the MSc Postharvest Technology and, halfway through the course, a job opportunity with Sensitech came up. The interview process was rigorous and, after several telephone interviews with staff in the USA, I was offered the job – before even sitting my final exams and submitting my dissertation.
“I am responsible for conducting projects designed to help companies involved in the production or distribution of temperature-sensitive food products to determine the root cause of cold chain problems and the appropriate corrective action. I work from home, travel across Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Americas and get to work with some of the big global food companies.
“All this could not have been possible without the help and guidance of Writtle College staff who have been there from the beginning of my journey – due to the size of the institution, every willing student is given the lecturers' full attention.”
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Student profile
Megan Garwood
Now a Procurement Graduate at Reynolds Catering Supplies
BSc (Hons) Horticulture
“At Reynolds Catering Supplies, I am involved in the commercial side of fruit. As part of my scheme, I complete projects which teach me about all aspects of the business and the industry. Part of my role is to assist in the management of fruit categories, and I am especially involved in stone fruit. The job requires management of suppliers, both during negotiation and throughout contracts. As well as this, I am involved in developing ranges which could be introduced into the business. From start to finish, the whole supply and demand needs analysing to ensure a successful range can be launched.
“The course at Writtle is the whole reason I work at Reynolds. The support of the staff was key to my application, and the knowledge I gained helps me every day.”
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Open Day
If you know of horticulturists who may be interested in studying at Writtle College, please encourage them to register for our next Open Day on Saturday 4 July, 11am to 3pm.
The University-Level Open Days give prospective students and guests the perfect opportunity to find out more about what's on offer at Writtle College.
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Global following for Writtle College lecturer's Plant of the Day blog
A daily blog about plants written by Writtle College lecturer Dr Jill Raggett now has a global following!
Jill, Reader in Gardens and Designed Landscapes, started writing the blog – which features a plant a day - in September 2013 and it is now getting over 4,000 hits a month!
She takes an original photograph in the previous week so it is seasonally relevant and then includes a fact or comments about the plant’s cultivation, history, use or design.
It was devised as a means to encourage students to look at plants around them – whether they are in gardens, parks, on the street or in supermarket car parks – and to observe how plants can be used, add value and misused.
She now has 750 followers – and the majority are not Writtle College students but people worldwide who enjoy plants and gardens, from students in community colleges in the USA and Canada, students studying landscape design in Canada, Argentinian landscape architects, people interested in plants in Korea and Japan, and the very proactive students of the prestigious Longwood Gardens in the USA, as well as people in Italy, Romania and Poland.
She said: “My hope is the blog's archive section will be useful especially to horticultural and design students as it is seasonal and they can view plants in the UK by the relevant month of their display to help with their designs!"
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Writtle College students at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2015
For one day only - and for the first time ever - Writtle College students were part of a team of young people who took over the largest exhibit in the RHS Chelsea Flower Show's Great Pavilion.
The inaugural Young Hillier Day was on 22 May and was the brainchild of staff at the 150-year-old Hillier Nurseries and involved five Writtle College horticulture students. It aimed to showcase horticultural careers and what horticulture offers young people.
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