From up-and-comers to veterans of the industry doing something new, this is our list of ones to watch in 2024. This is a snapshot of the hundreds of people doing amazing things in the horticulture industry; we wanted to highlight a few who are doing great work, pursuing new opportunities this year and inspiring us to spend as much time as possible in our gardens.
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Gardeners, designers and plantspeople to watch in 2024
Sam Hickmott
Sam is the National Trust’s youngest head gardener and looks after two of its gardens in Somerset - Lytes Cary and Tintinhull. Having come into horticulture at 17, Sam already has eight years of experience. After deciding A levels may not be the right path for him and wanting to spend some time out of the classroom, he applied for a RHS Level 2 in Horticulture course, and he’s never looked back. This year, he's looking to undertake major renovation work of the topiary 'apostles' at Lytes Cary and to extend the rainwater irrigation systems at Tintinhull.
Follow Sam on Instagram @samuelfinchhorticlture
Read more about Sam Hickmott
Penny Walker
Penny is a Junior Landscape Architect at Ann-Marie Powell Gardens. A career in landscape design has always been Penny’s goal; at age 14 she designed a 3m x 3m garden at Gardeners’ World Live and was awarded a Bronze Medal. The following year she won a Silver-Gilt Medal at RHS Hampton Court, while studying for her GCSEs. She holds a degree and a Masters in Landscape Architecture from the University of Gloucestershire and her dissertation focused on mitigating climate change in designed urban spaces.
Follow Penny on Instagram @pennywalker7599 and @pennywalkerdesigns
Claire Margetts
As the inaugural Sissinghurst Scholar, Claire has been training at the National Trust with guidance from head gardener Troy Scott Smith. So far her training has taken her to gardens as far flung as Los Angeles and the Mediterranean, and we love following her journey towards becoming a head gardener of the future. With previous career experience spanning many industries, including an expedition to the Arctic, Claire is enjoying finding her roots in horticulture. She discovered not long ago that her great-great-grandfather had been a head gardener in the Cotswolds, and that his son was a market gardener too.
Follow Claire on Instagram @claire_the_gardener
Jay Rathod
Horticulture has always been a popular path for career changers like Jay Rathod, who gave up his job as a store manager on Oxford Street to join the industry. A volunteering position for a local organisation made him realise he wanted to work outdoors, so he applied for a Royal Parks Apprenticeship. After his successful application, Jay was based in Bushy Park and is learning through a mixture of theoretical and practical work. Now he is working in Kensington Gardens and also hopes to complete a sustainability management course.
Follow Jay on Instagram @bluejgardener
Ollie Pike
Ollie studied Landscape Architecture at the University of Sheffield and graduated with first class honours and the Landscape Institute Design Excellence Award. He recently designed the Psalm 27 Garden at RHS Tatton Park and was one the three RHS Young Designers of the Year. Ollie founded Pike Studio which he runs from Yorkshire and Gloucestershire and designs landscapes across England and Wales, focusing on creating beautiful spaces with meaningful experiences. He is currently working on a number of exciting gardens for good causes in 2024 with themes of inclusivity, wellbeing and heritage.
Follow Ollie on Instagram @pikestudio.landscape
Aparna Stachowiak
Aparna recently completed a Diploma in Garden Design from the London College of Garden Design graduating with a Distinction, switching careers into horticulture after 25 years building global brands in the marketing industry. A believer in the healing power of gardening, she retrained as a gardener and undertook work-based training at Moggerhanger Park. Now working at Tom Stuart-Smith Studio, she is the coordinator for the Serge Hill Project CIC which was set up by Tom & Sue Stuart-Smith to bring gardening, creativity and health to children and adults who otherwise have little opportunity to connect with gardens and nature.
Follow Aparna on Instagram @gardens_by_aparna
Sean A. Pritchard
Garden and landscape designer Sean A. Pritchard has his first book launching this spring. Outside In will show you how to plan a garden so that every month of the year there’s something beautiful to bring inside. Sean qualified from the Garden Design School in Bristol with a Distinction and has created gardens across the UK with a design practice based out of London and Somerset, as well as winning a Silver medal for his show garden at RHS Hampton Court in 2022.
Follow Sean on Instagram @sean_anthony_pritchard and you can pre-order his book on Amazon or Waterstones.
Sophia Gray
We’ve been loving Sophia’s gorgeous cut flower content for a while and this year, Sophia Grows Cut Flowers will be available to buy too. Sophia is one of Flowers From the Farm’s scholars on their Diversity Scholarship for 2023-2024 taking part in workshops, courses and day events that will help equip her for her flower growing business, and you can follow her journey on Instagram where she posts regular updates from her garden and allotment. She is also a registered Social Worker and her other passion is working with vulnerable children and young people. A future aspiration of hers is to explore a social enterprise that allows children and young people to access horticulture and cut flower growing as a therapeutic activity.
Follow Sophia on Instagram @sophiagrows_
Luke Senior
Formerly a Ruth Borun scholar at Great Dixter, Luke is now a full time gardener there. He grew up in Tipperary in Ireland and studied horticulture and land management before working with Jimi Blake at Hunting Brook Gardens in Wicklow, and then moving to the UK to train at Dixter. He wants to highlight how important it is to pay gardeners a fair wage, to see the value in horticulture as a career and the skill and training required to be a good horticulturist.
Follow Luke on Instagram @theskintgardener
Hannah Moore
Hannah is currently working at Tresco Abbey Gardens as one of their students, where she will be finishing in August this year. She previously trained at Wildegoose Nursery in Shropshire before spending a year as trainee at Beth Chatto Plants & Gardens in Essex, learning from the Garden and Propagation Teams. She then spent last summer volunteering at gardens including Great Dixter and in Italy. We love seeing what she shares from the island and from her trips to visit other gardens around the UK.
Follow Hannah on Instagram @hannahvictoriamoore
Ben Thornton
A platinum award-winning garden designer and a Dalefoot Compost Ambassador, Ben’s presence in the horticulture scene has been going from strength to strength. At the end of 2023 Ben was shortlisted for the Alan Titchmarsh New Talent of the Year Award at the Garden Media Guild Awards and got the keys to his first bricks and mortar store in Tavistock.
Follow Ben on Instagram @the_young_grower
Millie Souter
Head gardener of the Plant Library at Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith’s Serge Hill Project CIC in Hertfordshire, Millie’s knowledge of plants and design impressed us at our Gardens Illustrated reader day there in 2023. Having originally studied Fine Art, painting and drawing at Falmouth College of Arts, Millie went on to study Garden Design at Inchbald, where she was awarded the Garden Design School Prize on graduation. She also took part in Channel 5 TV show The Great Garden Challenge in 2019, with Max Parker-Smith, where they were runners-up. Millie will be running a masterclass from the Serge Hill in 2024 and with the Plant Library project only just getting started, we’re looking forward to seeing where Millie takes things this year.
Follow Millie on Instagram @millie_souter
Lucy Hutchings and Kate Cotterill
Lucy has been making waves on Instagram for quite some time with her weird and wonderful veg growing advice and garden designs. Now, she’s teamed up with Kate Cotterill to launch an heirloom seed company, SheGrowsVeg. The pair met when they were studying garden design at Beth Chatto Gardens and a shared passion for veg growing has led to this new business venture. The SheGrowsVeg seed range is entirely open-pollinated and carefully curated by Lucy and Kate to give growers something entirely new and exciting.
Follow Lucy on Instagram @shegrowsveg
Follow Kate on Instagram @kategrowsanddesigns
Marchelle Farrell
A trained consultant psychiatrist and psychotherapist, Marchelle was born in Trinidad and Tobago but has now spent over 20 years in the UK. For the last four years she has also been tending her country garden in Somerset. She won the Nan Shepherd Prize in 2021 and received a publishing contract for her first book, Uprooting, which was released in summer 2023 and explores the idea of home and belonging. Her lyrical writing about gardening through her book and on Instagram has us captivated and we hope to see more of her words in the horticulture world this year.
Follow Marchelle on Instagram @afroliage
Joshua Sparkes
After leaving the RAF, Joshua gained experience in many notable gardens including Sissinghurst and Hidcote as well as undertaking fellowships in America and Japan, and the position of head gardener at Forde Abbey in Somerset. Since leaving that post two years ago, Joshua has been experimenting with natural farming in Devon. Mixing in agroforestry and permaculture techniques, his approach is a refreshing take on food production and we’re looking forward to seeing where he takes Birch Farm, part of The Collective at Woolsery.
Follow Joshua on Instagram @joshua_sparkes
Tom Leonard a.k.a Daisy Desire
You may have seen The Drag Queen Gardener lighting up Main Avenue at RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Daisy Desire brings glam to gardening alongside down-to-earth horticulture content and top gardening tips. From daily glimpses into the life of an estate gardener on Tom’s Instagram to horticultural how to’s with his alter ego, there is plenty of cause to be excited for what’s to come for Tom and Daisy this year. You can expect to see them at plenty of gardening shows throughout 2024.
Follow them on Instagram @dragqueen_gardener
Lilidh Matthews
A horticultural buyer, the treasurer for the Young People in Horticulture Association and on the Bursaries Committee for the RHS, Lilidh has dipped her toe into many facets of the horticulture industry. She is also the founder of Finding Roots, a micro-garden subscription business delivering seasonal displays. With so many irons in the fire, we’re sure 2024 will be another great year for Lilidh.
Follow Lilidh on Instagram @lilidhmatthews
Lewis Barrett
Previously working in construction, Lewis discovered horticulture after admiring gardens of the houses near where he was working. He enrolled onto an RHS course and hasn't looked back - he ran his own garden maintenance and landscaping company for five years before applying for the Kew Diploma Course. Now a botanical horticulturist at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, he works on the Great Broad Walk Borders where has the chance to grow his interest in herbaceous perennial displays. He was also named the Young Horticulturist of the Year for 2023 and we’re looking forward to seeing where this accolade takes him. This year, he is also looking to broaden his knowledge of perennials in the wild by travelling the Mediterranean ecoregion and Japan and will be helping at RHS Chelsea Flower Show; you can follow his adventures on Instagram.
Follow Lewis on Instagram @lewbarrett
Tayshan Hayden-Smith
Tayshan has been a changemaker in the horticulture industry since he first stepped foot on the scene. Formerly a professional footballer, Tayshan found gardening in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, when he turned to community guerilla gardening to heal. He has since founded the Grow2Know charity, been a presenter on the Your Garden Made Perfect TV show on BBC2, and co-created two gardens at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, including the smallest ever show garden in 2023. In 2024, he has a book coming out called Small Space Revolution: Planting Seeds of Change in Your Community, and he was also recently appointed a director of Maxilla City CIC, which plans to redevelop a derelict property into a creative community space.
Follow Tayshan on Instagram @manliketaysh and you can pre-order his book on Amazon or Waterstones.
Freya Willetts
Freya graduated from the London College of Garden Design in 2021 and in 2022 won the Commercial Award for one of her projects at the Society of Garden Designers’ Student Design Awards. Now working at Harris Bugg Studio with Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg, she has recently been promoted from Graduate Landscape Designer to the role of Landscape Designer. In 2024 she'll be leading on the planting design of a sloped meadow garden with spectacular views across the Sound of Sleat on the Isle of Skye and overseeing construction of a private garden belonging to a listed mid-century modern Mervyn Seal butterfly house in Brixham among many other exciting projects.
Follow Freya on Instagram @freyawilletts_gardendesign
Dean Charlton
Dean Charlton comes from a Fine art background specialised in printmaking, complementing his horticultural journey working in therapeutic and community gardens. Starting as a student at Great Dixter, he was employed with the team as a gardener for three years, working under Head Gardener Fergus Garrett. He then spent another three years in the Great Dixter Nursery working under Michael Morphy. With the knowledge and experience he has learnt there he has now set up a nursery in his hometown of Rotherham, South Yorkshire. The site consists of a four acre walled garden that dates back to the 1700s and sits within the heart of the village of Hooton Roberts. Dean will work with his father Glenn Charlton, which has always been his dream. They will focus on growing perennials and create large stock beds. This 'Living Catalogue' will provide the plant material for propagation and all grown in a peat free compost mix.
Follow Dean on Instagram @deancharltongardener and @hootons_walled_nursery
