NEARLY 200 students and local people have found out why horticulture is the industry of the future at a talk by a best-selling author and presenter.

James Wong, who was most recently seen on our screens on BBC Two’s Great British Garden Revival and is a self-confessed Botany Geek, gave the talk at Pershore College with the aim of inspiring young people to think about horticulture as a career.

The talk was part of his Grow Your Own Way tour and he gave examples of horticulturalists creating spectacular living walls, putting on flavour-tripping parties with miracle berries and exploding daisies, and constructing spectacular public parks on top of Singapore skyscrapers.

Before the talk he spent time meeting with some of the college’s horticulture and arboriculture students and staff, finding out about some of the training and projects they are involved with, as well as offering advice and tips.

"He tweeted afterwards “Wow what an experience at @PershoreCollege! Young horts all with such an inspiring entrepreneurial, rule-breaking attitude. It does exist!”

Georgia Sellars, aged 16, a Level 3 horticulture student at Pershore, presented James with a thank you gift on behalf of the students and said: “It was a great talk from James tonight – it has really opened my eyes to all the opportunities in the horticulture industry.”

Tamsin Jones, Acting Principal at Pershore College thanked Mr Wong for his "inspirational" talk on Tuesday, February 4.