Jekka McVicar and Jamie Butterworth announced as new RHS ambassadors
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Jekka McVicar of Jekka’s Herb Farm
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Jamie Butterworth of Young-Hort
Jekka McVicar of Jekka’s Herb Farm, and Jamie Butterworth of Young-Hort, were today announced as new Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Ambassadors at the annual RHS Chelsea Flower Show press conference in London.
Renowned for her passion and knowledge of herbs, Jekka has been an expert in this field for the past three decades, during which time she has been awarded the Garden Media Guild Life Time Achievement Award for services to horticulture, design and education, as well as excellence in the field of organic herb growing.
A long-time exhibitor at RHS Flower Shows, Jekka has accumulated 62 RHS Gold medals as well as the Lawrence Medal in 2009, and will make her debut Show Garden design at RHS Chelsea this year. In her role as RHS Ambassador, Jekka will have a special focus on health, herbs and horticulture.
On becoming an RHS Ambassador, Jekka said: “I am very honoured to be an RHS Ambassador for something I feel so passionately about. It is a known fact that gardening, even gentle gardening, keeps one fit and healthy both physically and mentally. Medicinal and culinary properties of plants play such an important part in our day-to-day wellbeing and it’s so important to show what we can do to improve our own health within the context of gardens and plants.”
Graduating from RHS Garden Wisley with Distinction in summer last year, avid plantsman Jamie works as Joint Show Plant Manager at Hortus Loci, growing the plants for a range of RHS Flower Shows. After becoming a finalist in BBC3’s Young Gardener of the Year at just 16 years old, Jamie went on to co-found Young-Hort in 2013 to inspire more young people to choose gardening as a career. Jamie’s new role will involve sharing his passion for horticulture and getting secondary school children involved in gardening.
On his RHS ambassadorship, Jamie said: “Having studied with the RHS for two years at the flagship RHS Garden Wisley, it is an incredible privilege to be able to join the campaign to inspire young people across the UK. I can’t wait to get stuck in, promoting horticulture to young people across the UK, something that I am unbelievably passionate about. Horticulture is such a fun, exciting, rewarding career, and this isn’t being reflected in careers advice across the country. That needs to change.”
RHS Ambassadors champion areas of horticulture about which they are passionate, using their profiles and expertise to convey that passion to a wider audience.
As the world’s leading gardening charity, the RHS aims to inspire a passion for gardening and growing plants, promote the value of gardens, demonstrate how gardening is good for us and explain the vital role that plants undertake.