The RHS survey further revealed that 70 per cent of 18-year-olds do not think gardening is a career to be proud of, while 79 per cent of those aged 40 or over hold exactly the opposite opinion. Of course there are many young gardeners, but for the most part it seems that gardening, like classical music and crown green bowling, is something that creeps up on people of a certain age. At a time of massive youth unemployment, and with the British horticultural industry lamenting the increasing lack of skilled home-grown job applicants, this is bizarre. Quite apart from the damage to the industry, there’s the human cost that comes from (as the survey also found) the 70 per cent of adults who reported that no one mentioned even the possibility of horticulture as a career when they were leaving education.