The former Blue Peter gardener, and now head of horticulture for Garden Organic, on his colourful CV, selling roses to the Japanese and the perils of living next door to hungry gorillas. Portrait Charlie Hopkinson <\/p>
Chris Collins likes answering job adverts, particularly if they have a hint of the extraordinary about them; those where your roommates are chimps, for example, or your workplace is a Royal church. Few people can claim to have so varied or unconventional a CV. It\u2019s driven in part by a sense of adventure, but Chris\u2019s passion for his subject is so infectious and exuberant, it\u2019s easy to see how he\u2019s traversed the globe for his love of plants.<\/p>
You may also like<\/strong><\/p> It all started back in 1984, in his home town of Brighton, where as a teenager he got an apprenticeship with the famous Brighton Parks. \u201cI got to work with a lot of old boys, really good gardeners, who gave me a good standing,\u201d he says. It was there where he saw a job advert in the back of Horticulture Week for the diploma at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh<\/a> and thought: \u201cI\u2019ll try for that.\u201d The next thing he knew he was in Edinburgh loving every minute. \u201cYou were being taught by world authorities in this amazing garden,\u201d he says.<\/p> It was in Cameroon that he ended up living with four rescue baby chimpanzees<\/p><\/blockquote> After finishing at Edinburgh, eager for adventure, he went to work at the Limbe Botanic Garden in Cameroon. The garden was a window for the surrounding landscape and when he wasn\u2019t gardening, he was collecting in the rainforest<\/a> around it. It was here that he ended up living with four rescue baby chimpanzees in his house. \u201cThere was an animal sanctuary next door,\u201d he says by way of explanation. \u201cI was making a bed for plants from the Zingiberaceae family when a gorilla that had recently been rescued came and ate the whole bed in a morning.\u201d He loved his time there, sleeping on the top of Mount Cameroon watching the Milky Way and fireflies, but after eight months he thought it was time to come home.<\/p> He was the first person to sell David Austin roses in Japan<\/p><\/blockquote> He managed just six weeks in Edinburgh before he saw an advert in The Scotsman: \u2018gardener wanted in Japan<\/a>\u2019. Six months later he was back on a plane, this time to Tokyo to work for Mitsukoshi, Japan\u2019s oldest department store. His job was to sell the \u201cconcept of English gardening<\/a>\u201d. Here he specialised in container, balcony<\/a> and roof-top gardens, all subjects perfect for this most cramped of cities. He was also the first person to sell David Austin<\/a> roses in Japan. \u201cIt was exciting and full on; a brilliant experience to set up such a thing,\u201d he says. But after four years or so, he was ready for home.<\/p> \u201cBlue Peter<\/em> was such a laugh. I got to do mad stuff that I loved”<\/p><\/blockquote> He came back to a job at the South Arboretum at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and stayed for 14 months before another job advert caught his eye, this time as head gardener for \u2018The Queen\u2019s church\u2019 or, as the rest of us might call it, Westminster Abbey. The gardens had been rather neglected, the soil was terrible and there was just a tiny lean-to greenhouse for propagation, but the job allowed Chris to flourish. He was able to combine all this previous knowledge and just \u201cplant up loads of stuff\u201d \u2013 everything from exotic container gardens<\/a> to bedding from his parks days to planting trees. But those job adverts, they just kept appearing. \u201cOut the blue I saw an advert for a screen testing for TV,\u201d he says. Of course, he had to answer it. This led to the series The Plantsman<\/em> on BBC Two and from there to a slot on ITV\u2019s This Morning<\/em>, and eventually to the famous children\u2019s series, Blue Peter<\/em>, where Chris got the coveted gardener role, previously held by Percy Thrower. \u201cBlue Peter<\/em> was such a laugh. “I am a people person as much as a plant person”<\/p><\/blockquote> These days he divides his time between running his own education and consulting company, CM Collins Horticulture, and his role as head of horticulture for the organic gardening charity Garden Organic, where his role is also a largely educational one. It\u2019s something he clearly enjoys, whether it\u2019s giving talks or creating designs for housing associations and community gardens. \u201cI am a people person as much as a plant person, and I love getting people through the door,\u201d he says. He spent a decade teaching children (and no doubt a few parents too) how to garden<\/p><\/blockquote> He acknowledges that Garden Organic has been through hard periods. But with CEO, Fiona Taylor, Chris is confident Garden Organic has a bright future. \u201cThe pandemic gave us three million new gardeners,\u201d he says. \u201cHow are we going to reach them? If I can pass on the knowledge about the social and environmental implications of gardening to as many people, including kids and university students, as I can \u2013 and show how organic gardening has a huge part to play in that \u2013then that would be great.\u201d <\/p>