The Young Horticulturist of the Year Competition 2005 results

The Institute of Horticulture has now completed its Young Horticulturist of the Year Competition for 2005 .The winner was Michael Evans, a National Diploma in Horticulture student at Greenmount College in Northern Ireland. He plans to use the £1,500 Percy Thrower Travel Bursary to visit New Zealand. Click here for more details of his win.

Runner up Hannah Chalmers also finishes her National Diploma in horticulture at Kingston Maurward College this year. Her immediate plan is to travel to south and central America and later to work in a botanic garden, focusing on horticultural science.

Edward Miles achieved third place for the second year running. On completing his HND in organic horticulture at the Welsh College of Horticulture this summer, he plans to work in, and help manage, the college’s organic production unit and to study further.

Aubrey Kirkham, chairman of the Shropshire Horticultural Trust, which administers the Percy Thrower travel bursary, said that he was impressed by the knowledge shown by the finalists. ‘I’d like to echo Percy Thrower’s own words’, he said. ‘If all young people can be encouraged to take an interest in horticulture, the whole world will be better for it.’

Sponsors of the 2005 competition were: