Horticulturist - Amenity

Salary
Starting salary: £12,000 to £15,500
Junior manager: £16,000 to £20,000
Senior manager: £20,000 to £40,000

Main Employers

• Public bodies
• Botanic gardens
• Commercial leisure enterprises
• Commercial companies
• Environmental and conservation bodies

Job Profile
Amenity horticulturists are involved in gardening, designing, constructing, managing and maintaining living, recreational and leisure areas. These can be country parks, nature reserves, wildlife gardens, urban tree and roadside plantings, botanic and public gardens, sports facilities, historic gardens and landscapes, cemeteries and crematoria and theme parks. Interior landscaping is a new area of amenity horticulture, with the planning and maintaining of interior plantings in shopping malls and arcades.

Roles and Responsibilities
Jobs will vary according to each employer; however you could expect to be involved in:

• Supervising and assisting in all stages of cultivation and maintenance 
• Managing pest control programmes
• Conducting environmental assessments
• Researching historical sites to plan restoration programmes
• Designing layouts and planning planting programmes for ornamental gardens
• Planning tree planting programmes 
• Organising presentations, technical visits and demonstrations
• Preparing operational plans

Qualifications
Relevant further education subjects include: Agriculture; Crop and Plant Science; Environmental Science; Food Technology; Horticulture; Soil Science

Horticulture is open to all, whether you have higher education qualifications or not. Many of those now in senior professional posts entered the field straight from school, gaining qualifications through part-time study. However, the situation has changed recently with more new entrants having a horticultural qualification and managers now need qualifications and practical experience.

Career Development
The horticultural industry has not experienced the same difficulties as agriculture but there has been a gradual reduction in the number of vacancies advertised. A network of personal contacts in the industry can be valuable as many posts are filled by informal networking.

Competition is increasing, due to mature career-changers seeking entry to the industry. However, demand for graduates to train as managers and technical specialists appears to be growing. Councils increasingly use private contractors to do the work, so opportunities also exist here.

Promotion will depend on your ability to develop your own skills, both practical and managerial. A portfolio containing details of successful projects will be an invaluable aid to promotion. Career progression is more likely in large organisations where there are opportunities to transfer across to the commercial sector or to landscape design. 

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