Is this the real reason Monty Don despises ‘horticulturalists’ like me?

The ‘Gardeners’ World’ presenter has declared that people who use the H-word are ‘pompous’ and ‘ridiculous’. Could this be because he’s green with envy, asks Amy Oliver

Haughty culturalist: ‘Gardeners’ World’ presenter Monty Don (Marsha Arnold/PA)

My name is Amy, and I’m a horticulturist.

After a gruelling 18 months spent studying with the Royal Horticultural Society, learning about plant biology, chemistry and botanical Latin (oh, so much Latin…) – all the while holding down a job and bringing up a young family – I should be proud to use that term.

Instead, the patron saint of gardening Monty Don thinks I’m “pompous”, and even “ridiculous”, to describe myself as such, when “gardener” should be good enough, thank you very much.

On a rainy day last week, when the 68-year-old Gardener’s World presenter was perhaps polishing his trugs at his Longmeadow estate in Herefordshire, Don wrote on Twitter/X of his irritation over the dreaded H-word.

“There are lots of words and expressions in current use that irritate me,” he said. “But one that is particularly pertinent seems utterly unnecessary: since when did the term ‘horticulturalist’ replace gardener? And why?”

Like much of the nation, I’m a sucker for the dulcet tones of the Don every Friday evening on BBC Two. But his statements are not only an infuriating display of reverse snobbery, but also further devalue an industry that is already struggling to recruit the next generation because of an image problem.

Rightly, Don has quickly found himself shivering in a virtual frost pocket.

On a 3,000-strong Facebook group for women in gardening I belong to, one member wrote of her pride at calling herself a horticulturist because it “encompasses all my skills, knowledge and training that I worked bloody hard for”.

Another simply wrote: “I have an MHort, not an MGard.”

Most referred to Don as something unprintable that rhymes with stick.

Right now, industry bible Horticulture Week is conducting a survey on whether Don is right, leading one MD of a Scottish nursery to wonder if the presenter has “just got a chip on his shoulder as he trained as a jeweller?”

Don has long maintained he is an untrained gardener, and has learnt gardening by trial and error. In November, he said he was “flattered” to receive an honorary degree from the University of Stirling in recognition of his outstanding contribution to, er, horticulture. Nothing wrong with any of this, but please don’t dismiss those who have spent time and money gaining actual qualifications.

My level two in practical horticulture (not gardening…) is the RHS’s entry-level qualification, the one most green-fingered employers, from nurseries to private estates and, yes, the BBC, expect you to have.

This year, I’m putting myself through the RHS’s other entry-level plant science course, learning everything from cellular structure to cultural controls for woolly aphids. It is intense and dense and, yes, there’s more Latin.

That’s just level two, the nursery slopes. One woman on the aforementioned Facebook group said she’d spent £28k gaining a masters. And that’s just the training.

Once you get into the real world of horticultural work – and, yes, that encompasses everything from gardening to growing cabbages to staring down a microscope at Kew Gardens – you discover you’ve learnt all that stuff to be paid an absolute pittance.

Over the summer, I had a short-lived gardening job at a grand country estate. There were two other gardeners, both untrained but with a wealth of knowledge no qualification could rival. They sometimes worked six days a week in all weathers, yet talked about themselves as less than.

This was reflected in the pay. At first, the owner offered me £15 per hour, but warned me not to “tell the others” as they were paid less. (She later tried to beat me down to £13 per hour…). The empty bottles of expensive wine in the recycling crate suggested they were not on the breadline. At another estate, the head gardener revealed she barely got more than minimum wage.

It’s no surprise there’s a crisis in recruitment in the horticulture sector. A recent study conducted by Cardiff University found the reasons for such a skills shortage were, in part, caused by poor public perception of the industry. It was deemed “unsexy” by young people, the majority of whom perceived it as a route for those who lacked ambition and intelligence.

There is currently a flurry of younger people on Instagram growing flowers and veg who will hopefully help to reverse this trend. If they or anyone entering the industry want to call themselves horticulturists rather than gardeners, then Monty of all people should be championing, rather than scolding.