24th September 2014

Weather: A bit overcast and wet (it rained overnight).

Young Hort Conference

George Hassall - the youngest speaker of the day.

Being more of a mature trainee, when I heard the word young, I thought that this event was aimed at people below my age. But it was still relevant to me because I am technically at the early stages of my horticultural career and it was great to see so many youths interested in this industry. I didn't enjoy all of it, as some of it reminded me too much of organisations I had worked for/ with in the past that was bias towards bigging up the importance of their field, I didn't like some of the celebrity associations and ideas of success or how some of the messages were delivered, even though I believe in the same cause. And I personally did not enjoy the video that was intended to entice young people into horticulture. It featured a man that was a bit loutish but obviously meant to be a bit likeable too, traversing the broad field of horticulture in a mishapful way. I understand that it is meant to be tongue in cheek and maybe it is the language/ way of enticing young people now. But I just don't like irony like that and felt that it undermined the perception of a horticulturist rather than help it. Of course this is just my opinion.

The things I did like was the youngest speaker - George Hassall who was only 9 years old. There is such a wonderful untainted enthusiasm children can have that is great, daring to love and dream, where anything is possible and they are not clouded by cynicism. It was also an example of how great parents can make great children! Plant hunter Alistair Griffiths from Evolution Plants offered an amazing prize as part of a competition - for a young hort member to go plant hunting with him in Monte Negro. Some of the speakers were nice and grounded. And the last speaker James Wong's talk was very refreshing, instead of pandering to how we should make horticulture cool and how we should be enthusiastic, he stated the obvious we don't have to 'make horticulture cool', it is already 'cool'. And that people did not need to be convinced to feel enthusiastic about it, because that is the reason that they are there already. He also gave a very riveting talk on urban growing in Singapore and the perception to horticulture there. He makes a point of saying that he is an ethnobotanist rather than a horticulturist, but I think this is what helps him give such an interesting slant on horticultural topics & issues.

The conference was also happening in conjunction with the Landscape Show which is a full of stalls presenting & selling their products and services, as well as their own line up of talks too. I was able to sit in on a Nigel Dunnett inspiring talk about Water Sensitive Design, an innovative approach to design, technology, urban planning & growing.

Then there was a great Young Hort Gardener Question Time special, where people like James & Pippa Greenwood gave interesting advice on a variety of horticultural queries.