Historic and Botanic Garden Training Programme


The Historic and Botanic Garden Training Programme began in 2006, with an aim to ensure that the skills needed to work in a historic or botanic garden were passed on to those passionate and committed to a career in horticulture.

The Programme:

  • The HBGTP provides full-time paid work (minimum of national living wage) as a trainee gardener in a UK historic or botanic garden, placements last 12 months and start in September each year.
  • Specialist on-the-tools training is combined with written projects, plant idents and a daily journal.
  • Anyone over the age of 18 is eligible to apply but must be able to demonstrate some prior paid or voluntary experience working in the horticulture sector.
  • You can apply from the 1 March to 31 March each year, via the HBGTP website.

2023 Placement Gardens

  • Aldourie Castle
  • Audley End (English Heritage)
  • Chatsworth House
  • Fulham Palace
  • Hatfield House
  • Mount Stewart Gardens (National Trust)
  • National Botanic Garden of Wales
  • Ness Botanic Gardens
  • Osborne (English Heritage)
  • Tregothnan
  • University of Dundee Botanic Garden
  • University Parks, University of Oxford
  • Walmer Castle (English Heritage)
  • Winterbourne Botanic Garden
  • Wrest Park (English Heritage)