Horticultural Curator

The Organisation

The Royal Parks (TRP) is a charity created in March 2017. We manage over 5,000 acres of diverse parkland, rare habitats and historic buildings and monuments in eight Royal Parks across London. These are Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, The Green Park, St James’s Park, The Regent's Park and Primrose Hill, Greenwich Park, Richmond Park and Bushy Park.

We also manage other important public spaces, including Brompton Cemetery and Victoria Tower Gardens. Our eight Royal Parks and other iconic green spaces are among the most visited attractions in the UK with tens of millions of visits every year.

We are now looking for a Horticultural Curator to join us on a full-time, permanent basis, working 36 hours per week.

The Benefits

• £48,000 - £51,000 per annum depending on experience
• 26 days' annual leave plus public holidays, increasing to 29 days after 3 years’ service
• Pension scheme (3% employee contribution; up to 10% employer contribution)
• Hybrid/agile working options
• Private medical insurance and healthcare cash plan
• Employee assistance programme and access to mental health first aiders
• Learning and development opportunities
• Cycle to work scheme
• Offices in a beautiful location

This is an unmissable opportunity for a high-calibre horticultural professional who has managed curated public landscapes and possesses broad plant knowledge to join our iconic charity organisation.

You’ll have the rare chance to influence horticulture on a remarkable scale, leaving a visible and lasting mark on more than 5,000 acres of parkland, historic landscapes and public spaces.

What’s more, you’ll join an organisation that values both professional growth and personal wellbeing, with learning and development opportunities, a supportive team, and offices in a beautiful location.

So, if you’re ready to help guide the future of horticulture across these cherished sites, read on and apply today!

The Role

As a Horticultural Curator, you will support the development of beautiful, resilient and biodiverse landscapes across The Royal Parks.

Specifically, you will deliver one of our key strategic objectives to ‘Conserve and Enhance’. This will involve five key themes: everyday wonder, creating iconic horticulture, diverse planting, respecting heritage, and a sustainable future. More information about each of these themes is available when you select the apply button.

Working closely with our eleven Head Gardeners, you will support horticultural projects across the parks through both practical and planning input, ensuring planting schemes respond to heritage, climate change and biodiversity challenges.

You will help source plants from a diverse range of nurseries, support procurement planning for larger projects and ensure new plantings deliver the best outcomes for people, nature and long-term landscape sustainability.

Additionally, you will:

• Manage and issue horticultural guidance documents and support quality standards
• Oversee and administer the Expert Horticultural Counsel volunteer group
• Support the Head Gardener team with plant sourcing and horticultural diversity across the parks ensuring each park has its own style and identity without duplication
• Contribute to Landscape Character Assessments and Park Management Plans
• Support the development of National Plant Collections in collaboration with Plant Heritage and the Head Gardener Team

About You

To be considered as a Horticultural Curator, you will need:

• Experience working at management level in a curated landscape garden setting that has a wide breadth of plant groups
• Demonstrable experience working in spaces open to the public
• Experience curating a broad range of plant groups
• Experience writing copy to explain and communicate changes and evolution of horticulture for media, press and PR interpretation and fundraising material
• Broad knowledge and understanding of horticultural plant diversity, its display and curation, and how to interpret it to visitors
• Knowledge of the UK and, in some cases, European nurseries
• An understanding of the sensitivities involved with evolving planting styles
• Wide reaching networks through plant committees and industry bodies to enable collaboration and best value for the charity

Other organisations may call this role Botanical Curator, Garden Curator, Parks Horticulture Manager or Head of Living Collections.

We want to put everyone in the best possible position to succeed and use Recite-me accessibility software. At the top of the application page, there is an “Accessibility Tools” button which you can use to complete the application form in a way that works for you. If you think that you may need more support to complete our application process, please do get in touch.

The Royal Parks is strongly committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace and is an equal opportunities employer. We value diversity and encourage applications from candidates from all backgrounds. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. Please visit our website to find out more on our approach to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

So, if you are interested in this unique opportunity as a Horticultural Curator, please apply via the button shown. Successful candidates will be appointed on merit.