The Trustees will only usually consider grants of between £500 and £10,000, although, exceptionally, larger grants may be considered at the Trustees’ discretion. Both corporate and private individuals may apply.
So far, grants, or the promise of grants, have been awarded to:
- Alnwick Garden Trust
- The Garden House
- Horniman Museum and Gardens
- Joy Mead Charitable Trust
- Reading University
- Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum
- Cecil Higgins Art Gallery
- Friends of Cruickshank Botanic Garden
- Institute of Horticulture
- Back Care
- Gardening Leave
- Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust
- Kelmarsh Hall
- Park and Gardens Data Services
- Plant Heritage
- Queen Alexandra Hospital Home
- ROKPA Trust
- Courtauld Institute of Art
- Great Dixter
- Hertfordshire Garden Trust
- National Botanic Garden of Wales
- The Public Catalogue Foundation
- The Grange Centre
- Margaret Easter
- Tim Upson (Cambridge University Botanic Garden)
- Alnwick Garden Trust
- Fortescue Garden Trust
- Greenfingers
- Institute of Horticulture
- Plant Network
- The University of Northampton
- The Victor Murphy Memorial Trust
- The Holfords of Westonbirt Trust
- The Watts Gallery
- The Professional Gardeners’ Guild
- Turquoise Mountain Foundation
- The University of Oxford Botanic Garden
- Headway North West London
- The Lindley Library of the Royal Horticultural Society
- Ashburnham Christian Trust
- Friends of Urchfont Garden
- Stanton-by-Dale Parochial Church Council
- Ventnor Botanic Garden Friends' Society.
For further details and an application form, apply to:
Angela Moon, The
Administrator, Finnis Scott Foundation, c/o Hewitsons,
7, Spencer
Parade, Northampton, NN1 5 AB, United Kingdom.
Tel: +44 (0) 1604
233233 - fax +44 (0) 1604 627941
Email: administrator@finnis-scott-foundation.org.uk
Press Clippings
Below is an article taken from Mary Keen's Daily Telegraph 'SAGEWORDS' column from 10/10/2009 www.telegraph.co.uk
"Finally, some recognition for the professional gardener
Professional gardeners, and by that I mean the hands-on kind - not designers, nor writers, nor owners of famous gardens - but the ones who do the actual work, rarely get the credit for the places that could not exist without their skill. It was a milestone to see that Pam Schwerdt who, with Sibylle Kreutzberger, was head gardener at Sissinghurst for 31 years, was given an obituary that had pride of place in this paper and good coverage in other newspapers, as well as on the Radio 4 Last Word programme.
Only six years ago I wrote an article for these pages, designed to raise the profile of the working gardener. One of the "intelligent young gardeners" that I chose to write about was then in charge of the BBC Gardeners' World garden at Berryfields. After some discussion with him and with various highups at the BBC, I was persuaded to drop him from the list of young pros going places, because "the public perception was that Monty does the gardening at Berryfields".
As Monty freely admits, and I knew perfectly well, his base was over an hour's drive from Berryfields and there was no question of daily involvement with the garden where viewers saw him once a week on screen. At the time it made me furious that the man who was doing the work should not get the recognition he deserved. It also coincided with a patch of my life as a designer when clients often used their highly professional gardeners for log stacking, car washing and odd work of the fetch-and-carry sort. The clients were always surprised and dismayed when I protested that skilled professionals sould not be treated as casual, manual labour.
Gardening is a profession that combines real craft with lifelong learning, It is not a dead-end job for those who do nothing else.
Clever people like Pam Schwerdt choose to devote their lives to working outside and do not regret it for one second. The best gardeners I know, Sue Dickinson, of Eythrope, in Bucks, Peter Dennis, ex-Hidcote, Mick Evans, at Packwood, Graham Gough and Derry Watkins who run their own nurseries, are all professionals. No working gardener earns as much as they ought, but that never bothers them, because unlike most people they love what they do. Although the obituary accorded Pam Schwerdt is a sign that times are changing, getting your hands dirty is still treated with condescension. The 20 year-olds who I meet and who ask about career prospects in gardens, still want to be designers, rather than work outdoors. But any designer who is not also a gardener is never going to be any good.
Pam Schwerdt could be quite frightening. When she came here she used to say: "What are you going to do about that?" Quite often, I could not even identify what exactly she was referring to. It might have been ground elder, or some pest I had not noticed, or a plant that was sulking. Even after a lifetime of gardening, I remain an amateur compared with those who trained at Kew, or Waterperry, where Pam and Sibylle learned their craft. But in spite of their professionalism and their meticulous ways, they were always generous with their knowledge and kindness itself to young gardeners.
I wish there were more inspiring role models around like the Sissinghurst "girls", to encourage people into the profession. Various options are available for young professionals. The Finnis Scott Foundation set up in memory of Valerie Finnis, who was a working gardener and teacher at Waterperry is an enlightened helper of working gardeners and The Garden Museum has set up an internship in response to concern about the training and recruitment of professional gardeners. The National Trust also runs a careership programme taking on 13 trainees each autumn for a three-year apprenticeship. A gardener lucky enough to find themselves under the wing of any of these organisations, might one day end up as respected as the late Pam Schwerdt.
More information on www.museumgardenhistory.org"
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