Flourish & Bloom – About Us

Professional Gardeners

Rich

Co-Owner

I have been working in horticulture since 1993 and qualified in 1997 with a National Diploma from Sparsholt College. Whilst at college I earned a Silver Gilt at Chelsea with my course team.

My career has taken me from council parks to garden centres to nurseries and domestic landscaping. I finally settled for 10 years at a large award winning estate garden in West Sussex where I spent many years as a propagator and nurseryman. After kick-starting a national propagation forum and giving propagation workshops for the RHS I switched my role towards the maintenance and improvement of the garden.

During 2005 I embarked on a study tour in South Africa to enrich my knowledge of South African flora and won the “Christopher Brickell” prize for my report which now resides in the National Geographic Library.

Cath

Co-Owner

I qualified with an NVQ II in Amenity Horticulture and a Pass With Commendation in the RHS Intermediate Certificate in 2006. Following this I worked in the Nursery and Tropical Centre at Sydney Botanic Gardens whilst travelling around Australia. It was during this time and my further travels in Australia that I became particularly interested in orchids and also the Proteacae family.

On my return to the UK I worked at a large private estate where I was involved in all aspects of garden maintenance and had sole responsibility for the gardens in a transition period between Head Gardeners.

I then went to a privately owned estate that has 17 acres of formal gardens open to the public. Whilst in this position I have received training in Integrated Pest Management and also the legal and safe application of pesticides.