James Wong: Homegrown Revolution Tour Review Part 1

Last week my better half and I went to a talk held at Wiltshire College, Lackham. The talk was one stop of many in James Wong's Homegrown Revolution Tour entitled 'Grow Your Own Way'. I'll run through a very brief summary of the talk and finish with what you can do next to ensure you're in the right position to advance your career (future or present) in horticulture. If you can't get to a talk, then it has very kindly been made available by University College Cork. The talk starts around 20 minutes in and is available here.

James conceived the idea for this talk on the back of an article in Horticulture Week (possibly this) and a press release from the RHS (possibly this) about horticulture being at crisis point with a real lack of people studying horticulture and botany.


He goes on to say that searching Google came up with the same sort of results time and time again, those results being poor, inaccurate information. James points to the generic 'Horticulture Worker' job profile on the National Careers Service website. Which, I have to agree is entirely unappealing - if I had to make a decision about where I wanted my career to go just by reading this profile, it would not be in horticulture! There are 4 pages of results when searching 'Horticulture' on the site, but none of the results are particularly appealing. James points out that the starting salary is £12000 and wonders where that figure came from and is equally dismayed when the job profile states "You do not usually need any specific qualifications to become a horticultural worker". Sadly, this is a viewpoint that widely believed.

So to counteract the misinformation found online and the lack of support for horticulture as a career path, these talks were born. And I for one, am very glad.

This lively and inspiring talk was constructed around horticultural super heroes, so I'll follow suit with an abridged version in this review.

First up was Patrick Blanc, the inventor of the Living Wall. A superb system of making dull and boring walls that may well be eyesores, into amazing mosaics of plant life using hydroponics. Patrick has completed many exciting projects using this system all around the world. But you know a thing is really good when the inventor uses it at his own home. There are many photos of the living walls at his home as well as other projects at Patrick's website. I think the point James was making here is that if you think differently, you can not only make something that is as fabulous as it is functional, but you can be paid very well for it.

James also mentions algae glass - something entirely new to me. A system of providing a living mechanism to provide shade during the summer as the algae grows and then power for the building as the algae die at the end of the season! Just amazing. Read more about it here. Find out more in the video below:



We also hear about Alex Erlandson the "tree whisperer", who grafted trees into amazingly wonderful shapes. Sadly, Erlandson died in 1964 and seemingly didn't leave any notes on how managed to shaped the trees in such intricate ways. If we've lost this horticultural knowledge, then we've probably lost much more. I think the point James is making here is that not only do we need skilled horticulturists to rediscover these lost skills, but to document and advance them - there is still a lot to learn.

China's Green Wall - James also mentions how horticultural skills are currently in demand in China. With desertification being a massive and very real problem in China, skilled botanists and horticulturists are needed to not only plant trees, but to choose the right trees over the thousands of miles that need planting. It reminded me of Africa's green wall project highlighted in last year's BBC Africa series. There's more about Africa's project in the video below:


Carlos Magdalena, a propagation expert at the Royal Botanic Gardens as Kew, was next up on the superhero list. I first heard about him a couple of years ago on David Attenborough's series Kingdom of Plants. In that series we heard about Carlos saving the world smallest known water lily from extinction. People like Carlos are so important to the world of horticulture and botany. Without them and their 'code breaking' abilities, plants like this water lily would quickly go extinct. But Carlos' skills, methodical approach to trials, and research led him to propagate this water lily and many other plants. As James says, if we wish to progress our careers in horticulture, we need to:

"Break the mould and be different"

Come back on Wednesday for part two of my review of James Wong's talk. James spoke about so many interesting things that I can possibly write about them in one post. So I'll publish the next part of the talk this Wednesday which will include James' rules on how to get ahead and some of my ideas about advancing your horticultural career.