• Swindon & Wiltshire Awards
• Tuesday April 21 2026

Trust awards will help horticulture students’ gardening skills to blossom

Three horticulture students at Wiltshire College & University Centre have been honoured by the Wiltshire Gardens Trust for their dedication to developing their gardening skills.

The Wiltshire Gardens Trust Horticulture Education Award is given every year for education and training that will enhance a student’s scope to continuing learning and to fulfil their future career goals in horticulture.

Applicants for the award must have a certificate in horticulture from the college’s Lackham campus, either as an apprentice or after studying for an RHS certificate.

They must demonstrate to judges that they want to improve their understanding, knowledge and skills and be pursuing a career in horticulture, as a gardener, garden designer, landscape architect, groundskeeper or as a technician in a plant nursery.

The three award winners for 2025 were Stuart Warnock-Coles and Emma Strange, who studied RHS level 2 Practical and Theory, and Saffron Barlow, who studied an apprenticeship at Level 2 in Horticulture.

They were presented with certificates and £500 towards their further studies by Wiltshire Gardens Trust Chair Camilla Ritchie at its AGM in Edington.

“We are delighted to be supporting Wiltshire College’s Horticulture students on their paths to careers in gardening and horticulture,” she said.

“We congratulate each of the award winners on their success. Our thanks to the Lackham tutors, Sarah Moor-Bardell and Gemma Neech, who helped promote the award to their students and to all of those who applied. There was a very strong field.”

The awards were judged by Sarah Rivett-Carnac and Alexandra Gray and co-ordinated by Grants and Awards Team Lead Victoria Nye.

Stuart moved from a career in the travel industry to fulfil a passion for horticulture and is working at Longleat as well as having his own business. He now wants to learn more about garden design.

Saffron is coming to the end of an apprenticeship at Hartham Park and has an interest is growing vegetables. She wants to learn about herbalism.

Emma is self-employed with a number of clients and will be using her award to learn garden design.

The trust has a long-standing relationship with the college and is looking forward to running the scheme again next year. Its members give talks at Lackham and welcome students into their gardens for study days.

The charity aims to encourage more students to become gardeners.

Pictured: Saffron Barlow, left, Stuart Warnock-Coles and Emma Strange with their Wiltshire Gardens Trust Horticulture Education Awards