Earliest memory of trees: Sitting on my dad’s shoulders as a little girl, walking through our local woods in East Lothian, Scotland. Beech, pine, birch and maple were common in the coastal woodlands and we often collected bark, leaves and needles for the collages and Christmas wreaths that we would make on the kitchen table with my mum.
Career journey: I began my studies in Scotland at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, with a diploma in Horticulture with Plantsmanship. It was my grounding within the industry. I then did work experience with Kew’s tree unit and climbed with the team for the first time in 2018. I was hooked. I was offered a two-year apprenticeship within the team and began my training to become a climbing arborist. In 2021, I became a full-time climbing arborist for Kew.
I believe that a job outdoors offers more mental and physical wealth than any other vocation and we should be advocating for this
Favourite landscape: Benmore Botanic Gardens in Argyllshire, Scotland. Avenues of giant redwoods line the way to mountain slopes clothed in Chilean and Chinese species. While the weather is often ‘dreich’, the glow of a ruby-leaved acer in the mist will stay with you for a lifetime.
Biggest challenge facing gardeners today: Land-based industries such as horticulture and arboriculture are often perceived as being poorly remunerated, and many people are put off by this. I believe that a job outdoors offers more mental and physical wealth than any other vocation and we should be advocating for this.
In what direction do you see horticulture heading? Women have been, and continue to be, hugely successful within horticulture, and this has inspired many others to grow and learn within the industry. Arboriculture is still predominantly a male-led industry, although this is slowly changing, along with the associated stigma that it’s all just a testosterone-fuelled chainsaw frenzy. I’d like to raise awareness of it as an accessible profession for women and ensure that schoolchildren learn that it’s available to them as a career. It’s my dream job, but it took a while to realise it existed, and I want to change this for future generations.
How do you remind yourself what needs doing next? All of the trees at Kew are mapped by their GPS location and stored on an app used by the tree unit. Each tree has a stored history (collection date, past pruning works and so on) alongside a maintenance schedule. Tasks mainly consist of dead wooding; we climb the tree to give it an aerial inspection, looking at overall health and removing any dead or diseased material.
Contact c.withall@kew.org For information on visiting the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, go to kew.org
