While we try to highlight the work done by women in the horticultural industry throughout the year, International Women's Day offers another perfect opportunity to give a shout out to the women working in gardens, doing amazing things, who we may not often read about.
Below is our list of women who are leading and head gardeners that are forging a path in the industry. Have more people to suggest? Get in touch with us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
You may also like
- Women do inspiring work: we need our voices to be heard
- Inspiring female designers in British history
- There are brilliant women in gardening. Why don't we see more of them?
- Women in gardening: key dates
Midori Shintani, Tokachi Millenium Forest, Japan
Midori Shintani is head gardener of the renowned Tokachi Millennium Forest in Hokkaido, northern Japan. The brainchild of entrepreneur Mitsushige Hayashi, the master plan of the garden was created by Fumiako Takano in collaboration with Dan Pearson, who also designed the gardens, for which he won a prestigious Society of Garden Designers award.
Midori maintains and manages the garden and wider forest park. “This garden is a bridge between humans and nature," she says. "We use minimum tools, minimum management, but maximum vision. We have a mission to introduce a new garden movement. The potential is exciting.”
Read more about Midori Shintani here
Claire Greenslade at Hestercombe Gardens, Somerset
Claire is head gardener of Somerset's Hestercombe Gardens, where the formal garden is hailed as one of the finest examples of the world-renowned partnership between garden designer Gertrude Jekyll and architect Sir Edwin Lutyens.
She has a degree in fashion, but was distracted by a job advert for an organic gardening course and became hooked on horticulture.
"Gardening isn't an exact science (although I am sure that most scientists wouldn’t agree). Don’t be afraid to have a go, it might work," she advises.
Read more about Claire Greenslade here
Katy Merrington, Hepworth Wakefield, West Yorkshire
Katy Merrington is Cultural Gardener at the Hepworth Wakefield gallery, for the public garden that was designed by Tom Stuart-Smith and features sculptures by artists including Sir Michael Craig-Martin, Barbara Hepworth and Kim Lim.
Katy has worked as the head gardener here since its opening in 2019 and in 2023 was recognised in the King's birthday honours list.
Read Katy's picks of top books about plants
Andrea Brunsendorf, Lowther Castle and Gardens
Andrea Brunsendorf took over as head gardener at Lowther Castle and Gardens in 2022 after working in the USA, Austria, France, Germany, South Africa, Botswana and Israel. She is best known for her work at Inner Temple gardens in London and Longwood Gardens in America.
Now, Andrea works with just five full-time gardeners across 130 acres of the estate in northern England, which is being restored, redesigned and reinvigorated to a long-term masterplan by Dan Pearson. Her intention is to see the garden develop from being a visitor attraction – “I do shudder at the term” – to a destination garden. Chatsworth has been an inspiration. “Lowther is a garden of great ambition,” she says. “I love being part of that journey. Now we want to make it into one of the great gardens of the north.”
Read more about Andrea here
Åsa Gregers-Warg, Beth Chatto's Plants & Gardens, Essex
Åsa Gregers-Warg
Åsa Gregers-Warg is the current creative force behind Beth Chatto's Plants & Gardens in Essex.
“I first came over one very, very cold January in 2001,” she recalls. “I had seen an article about Beth in a Swedish garden magazine. The whole ethos and philosophy attracted me: her wide knowledge of plants, her artistic eye and her passion for working with nature. So I stayed in London and I came down on the train on the windiest day. It was bitterly cold and I couldn’t see another living soul. But even in winter I was so impressed – I was taken aback by the bone-structure of the garden." She has worked at the garden ever since.
Read more about Åsa Gregers-Warg
Jenny Barnes, Cottesbrooke Gardens, Northamptonshire
Jenny Barnes, nicknamed 'Niff', head gardener at Cottesbrooke in Northamptonshire, has developed her own new way of rose pruning and training, with her technique being named after her. If your roses have been 'niffed', you'll see Jenny's distinctive sculptural signature.
Tour around Cottesbrooke with Jenny
Suzi Turner and Moy Fierheller, deputy head gardeners at Knepp Castle Garden, Sussex
This job-sharing duo have been working together since college, and now help to run the new rewilded garden at Knepp with head gardener Charlie Harpur. The two of them are horticultural partners in crime and reframe weeds at Knepp as plants that have arrived on their own steam.
Discover more about Moy and Suzi
Coralie Thomas at Great Dixter, East Sussex
Native New Yorker Coralie Thomas Is a member of the garden team at Great Dixter, arriving in 2016 as the Chanticleer North American Christopher Lloyd Scholar.
She has been inspired by Gelene Scarborough at Wave Hill in New York who exposed her to a whole world of plants, and, of course, Fergus Garrett at Great Dixter.
Read more about Coralie Thomas
Georgia Smith, urban gardener at Better Bankside, London
Georgia Smith works to bring greenery to London's Bankside, working for Better Bankside. She focuses on creating both permanent and temporary pocket parks within the Bankside environment.
"We’re trained to look after parks and large gardens rather than the urban landscape. The concept of what constitutes a garden is changing, so we need the understanding and knowledge to create and look after a whole range of garden spaces."
Read more about Georgia Smith
Millie Souter, Serge Hill Plant Library, Hertfordshire
Head gardener of the Plant Library at Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith’s Serge Hill Project CIC in Hertfordshire, Millie Souter’s knowledge of plants and design impressed the Gardens Illustrated team reader day there in 2023.
Having originally studied Fine Art, painting and drawing at Falmouth College of Arts, Millie went on to study Garden Design at Inchbald, where she was awarded the Garden Design School Prize on graduation. She also took part in Channel 5 TV show The Great Garden Challenge in 2019, with Max Parker-Smith, where they were runners-up.
Millie made our list of ones to watch in 2024
Kate Burtonwood, Trinity College Oxford
Head gardener Kate Burtonwood manages the gardens and the garden team at Trinity. After a career change, a traineeship at Oxford Botanic Garden, a stint working with Andrea Brunsendorf at Inner Temple Gardens and a few other gardens along the way, she ended up in Oxford.
Here's more on inspiring women garden designers in British history
Rosie Fyles, Head of Gardens at Chiswick House & Gardens, London
Rosie Fyles is Head Gardener of Chiswick House, in London and a Trustee of Silent Space, a charity that promotes peaceful time in green spaces.
Rosie was head gardener of the National Trust's Ham House and Garden and was a National Trust ‘Garden Champion’, providing guidance to other head gardeners. Rosie previously had a career in communications.
Here's Rosie on the best spring bulbs for pollinators