As the inaugural Sissinghurst Scholar, Claire is training at the National Trust garden created by Vita Sackville-West
PORTRAIT JOHN CAMPBELL
Earliest gardening memory Squishing mistletoe berries into an apple tree graft. I spent my early years in a new build on an estate, and my dad was always trying to bring nature and the wild into our world. Not sure he’d thought about the toxicity though – what if I’d eaten them?
First plant love Primula vulgaris; once we moved to west Wales, Dad and I would spend hours every year dividing and replanting, and collecting seed. I’d give anything to have that ritual back.
Who has inspired your career? My great-great-grandfather. He was a head gardener in 1917 near Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds, for the family of the Soil Association’s co-founder Maye E Bruce. His son was a market gardener and seedsman. I wasn’t aware of these lovely horticultural connections until my father passed away.
You’re a career changer – what did you do before? I’ve worked with start-ups, creatives, thought-leaders and educators. I travelled the world helping connect ideas and bring them to fruition. I worked in the Arctic on a climate-science expedition. I now get to use those learnings while training for a future leadership role to help care for one of the UK’s most special gardens – an absolute tonic.
Horticultural heroes I’ve great respect for Gertrude Jekyll and Vita Sackville-West’s dedication to the art and craft of gardening and their love of rural skills. During my scholarship I’ve been getting to know their characters, planting styles, influences and connections to one another. Only the other day I was in Vita’s writing room and plucked off the shelf an annotated copy of Jekyll’s Home and Garden. Stuffed inside was a Country Living article on a recipe for p
