The good news is we’re past ‘Blue Monday’ and the Winter Solstice is more than four weeks behind us; St Brigid’s Day comes hot on the heels of pay day, while already the braver spring-flowering bulbs have broke cover. On the downside, it’s 10 weeks until the clock goes forward and beginning of what is notionally the growing season, that time when we start to enjoy the garden, rather than visit it only to toil.
At this time of year, short days and weather that’s often either too wet or too cold for gardening mean the opportunities to enjoy our favourite pastime are limited. It’s a situation that can create immense difficulties for those tasked with writing about all things green-fingered, as topical subject matter is scarce. Suffice to say we are in the ‘silly season’, that period when trivial items that wouldn’t otherwise be deemed newsworthy gain some traction.
It’s the lull before the deluge; the deepest dormancy immediately ahead of rebirth. Within a matter of weeks, the weekend sections will be brimming with articles recommending the best heritage potato varieties, the most colourful tulips for containers, and advice on where to see the most breath-taking daffodil displays, but for now the half barrel that could be fashioned into a rustic water feature come spring, is being scraped with demented enthusiasm.
One such news item typical of the closed season is coverage of the recent remarks by Gardeners’ World presenter Monty Don in which he appeared riled by gardeners who call themselves horticulturalists. It’s difficult to know whether it was an attempt at satire, a dig at an unnamed colleague or counterpart, or just a thought fart he felt compelled to share on social media.
There are lots of words and expressions in current use that irritate me - (dont get me started on 'gifting') but one that is particularly pertinent seems utterly unnecessary: Since when did the term 'horticulturalist' replace gardener? And why?
— Monty Don (@TheMontyDon) January 5, 2024
“There are lots of words and expressions in current use that irritate me – don’t get me started on ‘gifting’ – but one that is particularly pertinent seems utterly unnecessary: since when did the term ‘horticulturalist’ replace gardener? And why?” he wrote on Twitter/X.
The 68-year-old author and presenter described dropping the H-bomb as an “unnecessary and pompous inflation” and expressed his “intense irritation” at being referred to as a horticulturalist himself.
In a scenario familiar to those of us who use social media, his comments drew plenty of reaction, with a considerable number passionately disagreeing with his assertion. Responding to one comment, Monty wrote: “A gardener is someone who gardens. The idea that a horticulturalist is some kind of superior gardener is absurd.”
He said that he was aware horticulture was a profession but insisted that gardeners were inaccurately using it to describe themselves. “Gardening and gardener — of every kind — have poetry inherent but horticulture and horticulturalist is all function and prosody,” he wrote.
Perhaps Monty will elaborate at a later stage on what he meant – he may even get another book out of it. Essentially though what he appears to be stressing is the distance on the gardening spectrum between art and hobby at one extreme versus science and professionalism at the other. Both deal with the cultivation of plants, plus all the associated tasks and routines, but the horticulturalist tends to take him or herself more seriously.
Rest assured, however, that there are no plans to re-name this column the Casual Horticulturalist.
