Life of a young gardener – Jack Shilley

by | Nov 20, 2014 | Gardening News, Your Stories

Young HortHi There! My name is Jack Shilley; I’m 19 years old and i have an incredible passion for horticulture and growing your own. This is my first blog for Thompson & Morgan so I thought I’d take this opportunity to share with you my horticultural story – so that you get to know me a bit better before I start sharing my Thompson & Morgan product experiences with you all.

My horticultural passion, expertise and background lies within the horticultural retail and business sectors which I adore. I also have a growing passion for journalism, media and broadcast horticulture which I hope one day will become my full time career. Oh and vegetables, fruit & tropical’s are my favourite plants to grow!

Young HortI started gardening around the age of 6 years old when my parents first bought me a small, pop up greenhouse in which I could start growing a few things. I was lucky enough to attend Ranelagh CofE School (Secondary school) where they had a thriving gardening club run by Peter Seabrook’s daughter (Alison Seabrook-Moore). As part of this gardening club, and under the guidance of Peter himself, we were lucky enough to exhibit a garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2009. This was an incredible experience for a 14 year old and turned my gardening hobby in to my long term horticultural career.

After I completed my GCSE’s and one year of A-level study, I undertook a level 3 extended diploma in horticulture at Sparsholt College Hampshire – and I’ve never looked back! Sparsholt was a great place to study and I graduated in June 2014 with a distinction star grade – you can’t get any better than that! During my second year of study I was lucky enough to once again design, build and exhibit an RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden. Being more involved this time was stressful, fun and tiring all at once. When results day came it was the greatest feeling in the world to be so highly reward for all our classes’ hard work by achieving a Gold medal and best in category! Amazing!

RHS Chelsea Flower Show

After graduation I was accepted for a position with the National Tropical Botanical gardens on the island of Kauai, in Hawaii. This was an amazing experience and I learned loads about one of my favourite plant categories – tropical’s! Working with these exotic plants in Kauai’s unique climate and landscape was just inspiring and the other interns who I lived and worked with were also awesome!

I am currently working in horticultural retail at a garden centre in Bagshot and I am hoping to head back to Sparsholt to attain my horticulture degree in September 2015 for 3 years. I also started YoungHort in December 2013 – which you can find out more about here.

And that’s all about Jack! (Me in a nutshell!!)

More to come ….

And the award goes to…

by | Nov 11, 2013 | Gardening News

…Thompson & Morgan!

And the award goes to... Thompson & Morgan

The Sun’s Peter Seabrook presenting the award for Best Online/Mail Order Retailer to Paul Hansord, Thompson & Morgan’s horticultural director.

At the annual Garden Retail Awards, held last Tuesday, 5th November at the Grosvenor Hotel on London’s Park Lane, Thompson & Morgan won the online/mail order category of The Sun’s ‘Britain’s Best Plant Retailer’ competition.

This is the second year that The Sun has run its competition in conjunction with the Garden Retail Awards, but this is the first time that the separate category of Best Online/Mail Order Retailer has been introduced.

Peter Seabrook, The Sun’s gardening editor travelled to Thompson & Morgan’s headquarters in Ipswich to present horticultural director, Paul Hansord, with a specially engraved spade.

‘We’re so pleased to have won this award’, Paul said, ‘and particularly because it’s been voted for by the gardening public. Competition is tough in online and mail order plant retailing, so we’re very proud to be placed first in this category’.

Last summer The Sun decided to celebrate the work of garden centres, retail nurseries and mail order firms who serve the gardeners of the UK through difficult times and adverse weather conditions. Sun readers were asked to vote for the company they believe is Britain’s top garden centre, retail nursery, online retailer or mail order company.

And the award goes to... Thompson & Morgan

The award – a specially engraved spade.

When launching the competition in August, Peter Seabrook said in his gardening column in The Sun, ‘We are looking for the company that always offers a great range of topquality plants that represent good value – and which also gives sound and free advice and proper service.’

Recognising that for many gardeners, shopping for plants online and via mail order has become the norm, readers were encouraged this year to also vote for their favourite online and mail order plant retailers.

Whilst at Thompson & Morgan to present the award, Peter said, ‘We know how difficult it is for retailers to maintain the high quality of their plants – we had a long cold spring, scorching summer and then, more recently, we’ve had high winds and rain, so we felt it was right to celebrate the best garden retailers out there.’

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