What better way to celebrate my MBE for services to Plant Science Education than to share the news with friends and neighbours at my annual seedling swap, where everyone brings and swaps surplus seedlings, mostly veg for the season but occasionally other plants too. Of course we catch up on other news as well over a cuppa, and this time …
Spreading the word: look for the UK-grown logo
Is there someone in your family you could prompt to look for the UK grown logo at garden centres and explain why it’s worth doing? Last May I wrote a short blog on this after visiting my local garden centre (https://celiaknightconsulting.co.uk/uk-grown-logo-look/). This year when my daughter said she was going to buy some plants I realised this is easy advice to …
Amazonia!
Disclaimer: All species and details have not yet been verified. Contact me if you intend to quote any. I was fortunate to be invited on a boat trip to Amazonia. I knew I would write a blog of some kind, but what would be the message? There could be so many. I settled on one of hope; hope for a long life …
The UK Grown logo – look out for it
Over the sunny bank holiday weekend, I called in to my local garden centre to buy a few plants for some patio pots. This is standard practice for me at this time of the year and normally I select a few varieties based on colours and combinations that appeal. This I did until I saw the “UK grown” logo on …
Quality student opportunities across the UK
My last post (Building the Plant Health Profession) called for applications from academic researchers to offer undergraduate summer studentships that address Plant Health research. We had a good response and applications are now open for undergraduates to apply for one of 9 studentships to run this summer. The skills focus on offer is varied, from developing pioneering disease detection technology …
Building the Plant Health Profession
After a successful pilot scheme last year with 4 studentships, the RSB is now offering 9 Plant Health Undergraduate Summer Studentships to be run in 2018. In addition to funding from Defra, the BSPP and N8-Agrifoods are contributing funding to help address Defra research priorities in 8 themes. Maybe other funders will be inspired to join this scheme too in …
Pushing at an Open Door
Last week I attended my 3rd annual meeting of the Plant Health and Seed Inspectorate to promote the RSB Plant Health Professional Register https://www.rsb.org.uk/careers-and-cpd/registers/plant-health-register I was delighted to share in the success of some of those now on the register who received their certificates. Defra’s Chief Plant Health Officer Nicola Spence, gave an introductory talk entitled “Communicating our message” and I …