Professional Work Placement; PWP in Propagation and Plant Trials

Location:

RHS Garden Wisley
Salary: £23,810 per annum. The RHS ensure we pay all staff at or above the National Minimum Wage, which is reviewed annually by government

Reports to:

School of Horticulture Manager and Placement Team Leaders

Start Date:

September 2026. One year (fixed term)
Hours of work:
Full time (37.5 hours a week on a rota). The working pattern is 5 days in 7 so your full-time hours will include some weekend working

Are you enthusiastic about horticulture? Do you want to develop experience and knowledge while working across a whole year in two specialist teams at RHS Garden Wisley? Are you interested in specialising and completing a Level 3 Award to further your career?

Our Professional Work Placement programme is a one-year paid work experience placement for horticulturists who wish to specialise. Applicants should have already completed (or be studying for) a Level 2 horticultural theory qualification or apprenticeship standard and have 3 months (minimum) full time practical experience in the industry at the time of application.

This placement at Wisley provides the opportunity to spend a full year in a joint placement immersed across the two teams below, whilst completing a Level 3 Award:

• Nursery and Propagation Team, working in the Nursery and Plant Reception Facility.
• Plant Trials Team, working in the Trials Garden and Edible Trialling area.

You will gain knowledge, skills, training and experience in your specialism, in a work‑based context, to prepare you for professional life in the industry.

In the Plant Trials Team you will develop and maintain specialist plant trials in the garden, while in the Nursery and Propagation Team you will learn skills to propagate, grow on, identify and monitor pests and disease and maintain the wide range of plants that we produce for the gardens here  will work in each of these teams at different times of year.

Nursery and Propagation Team and Plant Trials Team

Working in our state‑of‑the‑art nursery facilities (built in 2019), propagating, growing on, monitoring pests and disease and maintaining the wide range of plants that we produce for the gardens here at Wisley.

You will be given the opportunity to understand how the Propagation team grows plants for all teams across RHS Garden Wisley, whilst gaining a wide range of expert propagation skills including: seed sowing, cuttings, grafting, edible growing, irrigation and maintenance of protected environments. You will also develop knowledge of pest management through best industry practice and biocontrols. Each year there will be a protected cropping trial in the Propagation unit (previous years have included peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers), which you will have a chance to be involved with.

There will also be opportunity to see how the plants are processed through our reception unit and the procedures we use at the RHS to manage phytosanitary controls. You will learn best practice for biosecurity in a large public garden setting.

The Plant Trials Team work with a wide range of ornamental and edible plant trials, where plants and cultivars are assessed to identify the most robust, resilient, and beautiful plants, and provide gardeners with reliable recommendations through the RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM). You can learn more about our current Trials on our website.

The team works across two areas: our ornamental Trials Garden and our Edible Trials area. We do extensive work ahead of each trial which involves soil analysis, bed preparation and the selection and application of appropriate mulches and feeds. There are always new trials being planted each year, so planting opportunities will arise, as well as the harvesting of edible crops on trial, ranging from soft fruit and root vegetables grown both outdoors and under protection in containerised glasshouse‑based trials.

The tasks you will complete include planting out trials, maintenance of trial plantings to high standards, implementing plant specific care programmes, tying in plants to support them, tackling pest and disease issues, mulching, feeding and…