With training at Beth Chatto’s and Wildegoose Nursery already under her belt, Hannah is currently an Elizabeth Hess Scholar at Tresco Abbey Gardens
PORTRAIT ANDREW MONTGOMERY
Earliest gardening memory Deadheading pelargoniums with my grandmother Daphne. Carefully being taught how to hold the scissors, and working side by side.
First plant loveOnions, which ironically I can’t eat. I became obsessed with growing a show-sized onion after visiting a local Onion Fair with competitions for giant vegetables.
Life before gardening? I spent four years training as an apprentice coat maker at Henry Poole & Co on Savile Row and subsequently worked freelance. After years working in a basement workshop, the pull of a work life outdoors became too great to ignore.
Inspiring mentors? Jack and Laura Willgoss. I first worked at their nursery Wildegoose as a volunteer, and their passion for plants and their encouragement of me is something I will always be grateful for.
Horticultural heroes All the gardeners who show up to work on a cold January day and care for the gardens everyone else enjoys once the weather warms up.
Landscape that has influenced you A journey on the train from Palma to Sóller in Mallorca aged 12, through groves of citrus, started an obsession with citrus and the Mediterranean productive landscape and its ties with the food I love making. The scent wafting through the train windows has stayed with me.
Most valuable training I have been fortunate that all my traineeships have involved propagation. At Wildegoose and Beth Chatto’s it was in equal proportion to time spent in the garden. It has been immensely useful to feel confident working with plants both ornamentally and commercially.
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