Increased funding secures the future of The Young Horticulturist of the Year Competition!

Shropshire Horticultural Society has significantly increased the Percy Thrower Trust Fund to secure the long-term future of the competition.

The Institute of Horticulture are also delighted to launch the new logo for the Young Horticulturist of the Year Competition.  Derived from the Institute of Horticulture’s own three leaf symbol, the logo will help promote the competition in colleges, workplaces and the press.

‘The competition is the IoH’s best way of encouraging young people to pursue careers in horticulture’ says Susan Nicholas, national organiser of the competition since 2001.  ‘It deserves its own identity.  We want to catch the eye of everyone who’s under 30 and involved in any sector of our industry.

‘The competition tests a wide range of horticultural knowledge, but Rocky Coles, our youngest winner, was just 19 when he won in 2002.  He had the trip of a lifetime to study nursery stock production in New Zealand, thanks to the Percy Thrower Travel Bursary.  At the other end of the age scale, Mel Clench made it just in time at 29.’

The Bursary is worth £2,000 for the winner and funds a study tour to wherever they would like to go. Jimmy O’Connor, who won the 2007 competition at Glasnevin Botanical Gardens in Dublin earlier this year, is planning to study the flora of Greenland, before global warming alters it forever!!

How to enter

First round heats for the Institute of Horticulture's Young Horticulturist of the Year Competition (YHoY) 2008 get under way shortly, throughout the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.  This will be the seventeenth year of the competition. 

Anyone involved in horticulture, who will be under 30 years of age on 31 July 2008 may enter, whether they are employed in production or amenity horticulture, or studying for a horticultural qualification.

Erin Taylor at the IoH, 14-15 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PS, Tel / Fax 020 7245 6943, email ioh@horticulture.org.uk has all the details. Contact her, and she will put contestants in touch with their local organiser. Visit the IOH website at www.horticulture.org.uk for more details of the competition.

The Northern Branch YHOY Organiser is Graham Porter, who may be contacted on 01484 319781 or 07711704152 (mobile), email graham.porter@ntlworld.com

The competition

• The competition is run in three phases: local heats, Branch Finals and the 2008 National Final, to be held at the Eden Project in Cornwall on May 3rd 2008.
• Local heats are based on multiple choice questions on a wide range of horticultural topics, through an MS PowerPoint multiple choice question presentation.  The heats take place at colleges, garden centres and anywhere else where competitors may gather.
• Heat winners go forward to one of eight local Branch Finals, in which a Quiz Master asks a wide range of horticultural questions, some on a buzzer, some directed to individual contestants. The Northern Branch Final will be held in Durham on April 12th 2008.
• The winner of each Branch Final then goes forward to the YHoY National Final.  The format is the same as for the Branch Finals and the questions are drawn from all branches of horticulture.
• The overall winner collects the Percy Thrower Travel Bursary, worth £2,000, provided by the Shropshire Horticultural Society.  This funds a horticultural tour anywhere in the world.  Previous YHoY winners have visited New Zealand, the Himalayas, the United States, South America and various parts of Europe.
• There are plenty of prizes at Branch Final and local heat level as well.  The value of prizes in the 2006 competition topped £8,000, thanks to the generosity of a wide range of sponsors.

Sponsorship

Major national sponsors include:

• Shropshire Horticultural Society / Percy Thrower Trust, which funds the Percy Thrower Travel Bursary
• MorePeople
• Horticultural Development Council
• Bulldog Tools
• Thompson and Morgan

Second win in a row for 2007 winner

Patrick Wiltshire has done it again. The Northern Regional Final of the Institute of Horticulture’s Young Horticulturist of the Year Competition, held at the Stockbridge Technology Centre, Cawood, near Selby on Saturday March 31st 2007 was won by last year’s winner Patrick Wiltshire from East Yorkshire. It was a convincing win this year, with Patrick using his buzzer to great effect, as the other seven contestants from across the North of England could only watch in amazement as Patrick ratcheted up his score. Patrick will now go forward to the National Final of the competition at Glasnevin Botanical Gardens, Dublin on April 28th, where he will compete with the other seven Regional winners from across Britain and Ireland for the prestigious Percy Thrower Trust’s Young horticulturist of the Year title and a £2000 travel bursary.

Patrick walked away with a cheque for £100 for his hard work, with the sponsorship for this and the other prizes coming from the generosity of the North of England Horticultural society, organisers of the Harrogate Spring and Autumn Flower Shows (www.flowershow.org.uk) . Patrick also took away a spade and fork set, donated by Rollins Bulldog Tools Ltd (www.bulldogtools.co.uk) . Some of items for the identification rounds were donated by the RHS Gardens Harlow Carr (www.rhs.org.uk ) and Armitage’s Garden Centres of Huddersfield.

Patrick is currently working at the Birmingham Botanical gardens and is hoping to get a studentship at the Tresco Gardens on the Isles of Scilly as part of his career progression. 

The eight contestants have come through college heats to win their place in the regional final and there have been more than 1000 students across Britain and Ireland taking part of this year’s competition.

This year’s competition was held at the Stockbridge Technology Centre in Cawood near Selby, with the Chief Executive, Graham Ward, presenting the prizes. The centre carries out trials and research for commercial growers from across Britain and Europe and provides help and guidance to growers on a wide range of horticultural and allied issues. Visit www.stc-nyorks.co.uk for more details of the Centre and its important and vital work.

The competition nationally has been sponsored this year by the Shropshire Horticultural Societies Percy Thrower Trust (main sponsor of national final), the Horticultural Development Council (www.hdc.org.uk national final sponsors), More People (www.morepeople.co.uk regional heat sponsors), Rollins Bulldog Tools Ltd (regional final sponsors).

The IOH Northern branch attracted six regional colleges to this years competition:

Askham Bryan College, York  

Reg Stratton (2nd place and £60.00 cheque)

Jodie Wallace-Hill (3rd place and a £40.00 cheque)

Bishop Burton College, Beverley, East Yorkshire

Patrick Wiltshire (1st place and £100 cheque, a Bulldog Spade and fork set and place in the National Final)

Mike Elliott( joint 4th place)

East Durham and Houghall College, Durham

Laura Wanless (joint 4th place)

Kirkley Hall College, Northumberland                         

Daniel Blacklock (6th place)

Shipley College, Bradford                                                     

Lisa Waters (7th place)

Park Lane College, Leeds                                             

Daniel Scott  (8th place)