James Andrew Douglass, BSc Horticulture with Plantsmanship, Edinburgh

“I was looking at options for study, and was split between SRUC and Cornwall College. But SRUC had more of that university experience, it’s a bigger institution with lots more research and it has ties to industry. I knew that, if I wanted to go somewhere, SRUC was where I had to be.”

James Douglass, like many, left high school without a clear idea of what he wanted to do. He had enjoyed various subjects, such as history, but not enough to make any of them a degree choice.

It was the opportunity that summer to undertake some part-time gardening work that led to the discovery of an unexpected passion, horticulture.

The 26-year-old from Somerset had never expected to find he had green fingers, but soon one thing led to another and soon he knew it was where he wanted to make his career,

“I loved everything about horticulture, I just knew it was the thing I wanted to do. I looked at the courses available at SRUC and saw they had loads of different aspects of biology, plant science and horticulture in one place. They seemed like a great fit, so I applied and was accepted for the HND” he said.

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Following this, after two years James moved to the BSc, where he found his mind was opened even further through an introduction to research. Moving from a more purely practice-based approach didn’t come without challenges, but he found there was more to the subject than he had expected. Soon he was taking every opportunity to work in research that he could find,

“For my first lab experience, I did three months of research with the Crop Health team looking at soil-borne pathogens on spring barley. I absolutely loved it, really enjoyed it” he said. “I’ve also done six months of research independently as part of a £5,000 small grant scheme for Botanic Gardens Conservation International, looking at UK collections of Australasian trees.”

It wasn’t just new directions that he found through study, but personal growth too. As with many young people first finding their feet, James experienced issues with confidence, and especially public speaking. Through his course however, that was something he quickly became proficient in,

“When I started, I genuinely didn’t have the confidence to even speak up in front of four people. I’d get really nervous doing presentations, and even more nervous if I was on camera” he said.

“But being forced to do it everyday, where you have to convince yourself that, look, it will be fine, soon things change. You realise it’s something you can work on, a skill like any other.”

However, James didn’t just become more confident speaking in front of peers, he went a little further than that. This year he was offered a position, which he has since started, as a full-time lecturer with the Royal Botanical Gardens Edinburgh, speaking to classes full of students on a daily basis.

Not only that, but he has also just come second (for the second year in a row) in the Young Horticulturalist of the Year awards, and has been named in HortWeek’s 35 people to watch under 35.

From a young man for whom the prospect of a phone call with a stranger might have caused anxiety, he has come far, and for him the reason has been obvious, the staff who supported him along the way,

“At SRUC, the best thing has been meeting peers, lecturers, researchers, people working in this industry from all different backgrounds, all difference life experiences and all different specialities” he said.

“There’s just so many passionate people, and the horticulture unit are so cheerful and so friendly. They’re so supportive and you always felt listened to. Study here, it’s just been for me, by far, the best experience.”