Information Session
Diploma Courses Information Sessions
Join us at The Chelsea Physic Garden for an informal Information Session and discover how our Diploma courses could transform your gardening journey.
Our Alumni
The English Gardening School alumni community brings together generations of gardeners and garden designers who have studied with us and gone on to apply their knowledge in remarkable ways including Pollyanna Wilkinson, Jo Thompson and Butter Wakefield. Discover the stories of a selection of EGS graduates and explore where an EGS education can lead.
Henry Agg
Henry Agg’s route into garden design began alongside a successful corporate career, with a growing passion for plants eventually leading him to retrain in horticulture and study Garden Design at The English Gardening School. He has since established his own garden design practice in East Sussex, while building a significant following for his practical, accessible approach to gardening. His work has taken him onto BBC Gardeners’ World and Alan Titchmarsh’s Gardening Club, and in 2026 he published his first book, The Weekend Gardener. Henry was also named one of Gardens Illustrated’s Horticultural Heroes in 2024, recognising his wider contribution to horticulture and advocacy around the restorative power of gardening.
Lucy Bellamy
From student to tutor, Lucy Bellamy’s relationship with The English Gardening School has come full circle. Her career between the two has taken her to the editorship of Gardens Illustrated, five published gardening books and bylines across The Guardian, Financial Times and The Sunday Times. An RHS Expert Tulip Judge, Lucy has established a distinctive voice in British horticulture, combining an editor’s eye with a deep knowledge of plants and planting. Today, she brings that experience back to EGS, teaching the next generation of gardeners and designers at the school where her own journey began.
Tania Compton
Tania Compton’s gardens are known for their exuberant planting, strong sense of place and ability to balance formality with a wonderfully natural looseness. She studied Garden Design at The English Gardening School in 1988 before developing a career that has encompassed both garden design and some of Britain’s most influential garden publishing. Tania spent 12 years as Gardens Editor of House & Garden and five years as a contributing Gardens Editor at The World of Interiors. She is a Trustee of the Garden Museum. Her acclaimed design work spans significant private gardens in Britain and abroad, while her own garden at Spilsbury Farm in Wiltshire has become an expression of her distinctive, plant-led approach.
Kate Coulson
Kate Coulson has built a career as a garden designer, writer and accomplished plantswoman, known for creating richly layered, atmospheric gardens with an exceptional sensitivity to plants, colour and place. Having studied Plantsmanship and Garden Design at The English Gardening School, her own gardens in Cumbria and Provence have since been widely celebrated and featured in leading publications including House & Garden and Country Life. Alongside her design work, Kate is a respected speaker and educator, and has returned to EGS as a tutor, sharing the knowledge and experience developed throughout her career with a new generation of garden designers.
Rachel De Thame
Garden design was the starting point for a career that has made Rachel de Thame one of the most familiar figures in British horticulture. After enrolling at The English Gardening School in 1998, Rachel went on to work as a garden designer before joining BBC Gardeners’ World in 1999, beginning more than two decades of horticultural broadcasting. She has since presented across the BBC’s gardening coverage, written several books and contributed to leading national publications. Alongside her media career, Rachel has continued to champion plants, gardens and the people who make them, bringing horticulture to audiences far beyond the garden gate.
Adolfo Harrison
Adolfo Harrison has built an award-winning landscape design practice, Adolfo Harrison Landscape Studio, creating beautifully crafted private and public gardens across the UK and Europe. After studying Garden Design at The English Gardening School, he established his own studio, bringing together his earlier training in Fine Art with horticulture and landscape design. His work has received numerous accolades from the Society of Garden + Landscape Designers, including the prestigious Judges’ Award three times, most recently in 2026. Named a House & Garden Rising Star in 2022, Adolfo has also sat on the RHS Chelsea Flower Show selection panel and continues to teach and mentor the next generation of garden designers.
Sophie Lane Fox
For Sophie Lane Fox, a lifelong connection to gardens eventually became a second career. After selling her food business, which itself grew from a love of cultivating fresh herbs, Sophie studied extensively at The English Gardening School, completing the Essential Garden Design and Good Gardening courses. She has since established her own garden design practice, working across private gardens, country estates and public healing spaces. Her designs are relaxed and free-flowing while retaining a strong underlying structure, with an emphasis on sustainability and the positive impact gardens can have on wellbeing.
Manoj Maldé
Eighteen years in the fashion industry gave Manoj Maldé an instinct for colour, composition and drama that now defines his work in garden design. Following his studies at The English Gardening School in 2010, Manoj has gone on to design at RHS Chelsea, including the Silver-Gilt-winning Beneath a Mexican Sky in 2017 and Tackle HIV Challenging Stigma in 2025. Alongside his design practice, he is an RHS Ambassador and Judge, television presenter and author of Your Outdoor Room. His bold, joyful approach has made him a distinctive voice in contemporary horticulture, using gardens not only to create beauty, but to tell stories and bring people together.
Polly Nicholson
A fascination with flowers has taken Polly Nicholson from The English Gardening School to becoming one of the country’s foremost authorities on tulips. After completing her Diploma in Plants and Plantsmanship at EGS in 2003, Polly founded Bayntun Flowers, her certified-organic flower farm in Wiltshire, and developed the UK’s largest private collection of historic tulips. She holds the National Collection of Tulipa (Historic) with Plant Heritage, is the author of The Tulip Garden, a member of the RHS Bulb Expert Group and Tulip Trials Forum and is Chair of the Gardens Committee at Benton End in Suffolk.
Joe Swift
Few garden designers have brought the profession to as wide an audience as Joe Swift. After studying garden design at The English Gardening School in 1990, he established his own design practice and went on to become a familiar face on BBC Gardeners’ World, alongside presenting the RHS Chelsea Flower Show coverage for more than two decades. Now design director of Modular (Design & Build), his work spans private and public gardens, show gardens including a gold medal at RHS Chelsea, writing, broadcasting and podcasting. Joe continues to combine professional practice with a remarkable ability to make great garden design engaging and accessible to a broad audience.
Jo Thompson
Since graduating from The English Gardening School in 2003, Jo Thompson has become one of the defining figures in contemporary British garden design. Her practice spans private gardens, significant public commissions and celebrated show gardens in the UK and internationally. A multiple RHS Chelsea Gold Medal winner, Jo has created 13 RHS show gardens and also serves as an RHS Shows Judge and member of the Show Gardens Selection Panel. Throughout her work, she is known for an exceptional sensitivity to place and a romantic, painterly approach to planting, creating gardens that feel established, atmospheric and deeply connected to their surroundings.
Nick Tripp
What began with a lifelong love of gardens led Nick Tripp away from an early career in accountancy and into landscape design. He trained at The English Gardening School under Rosemary Alexander and Anthony du Gard Pasley, before co-founding Taylor Tripp in 1996. Nearly three decades later, the practice is known for elegant country gardens that bring together architecture, history and the surrounding landscape, softened by romantic, naturalistic planting. Nick has maintained his connection with EGS throughout his career and today returns as a tutor, sharing the depth of experience gained from designing and overseeing exceptional gardens across the UK.
Butter Wakefield
Butter Wakefield has built an acclaimed career creating joyful, plant-rich gardens that combine strong design with an instinctive use of colour, texture and pattern. After completing the Year Diploma in Plants and Plantsmanship at The English Gardening School in 1997/98, Butter went on to establish her eponymous garden design studio. Her work has since received numerous industry accolades, including Society of Garden Designers and BALI awards, while she has been named among House & Garden’s Top 50 Garden Designers. Her distinctive approach is informed by an earlier career at Colefax and Fowler, bringing an interior designer’s understanding of scale and detail into the garden.
Frederic Whyte
From an RHS Chelsea Gold Medal to his most recent appearance at RHS Sandringham, Frederic Whyte has established a distinctive career in landscape design since graduating from The English Gardening School in 2009. Working across the UK and Italy, his gardens combine formal structure with naturalistic, painterly planting and a strong sensitivity to history and place. Frederic has exhibited at major RHS shows including Chelsea and Hampton Court, winning Gold at Chelsea in 2013, and has developed a body of work recognised for its confident planting, elegant structure and deeply considered response to its surroundings.
Student Outcomes
An education at The English Gardening School has been the starting point for remarkable journeys in garden design and horticulture. Our alumni have gone on to shape beautiful gardens, establish successful careers and make meaningful contributions to the horticultural world, carrying the knowledge, confidence and connections formed at EGS with them.
Founded garden design studios
Created remarkable gardens
Exhibited at RHS Flower Shows
Returned to study at EGS
Published books and garden writing
Became teachers and mentors
