11 women changing the face of horticulture
From garden design, landscaping and grounds maintenance, women have played a crucial role in the development of horticulture.
This International Women’s Day, Pro Landscaper is celebrating just a handful of inspirational women who are changing the face of the industry.
Liz Nicholson
Managing director of Nicholsons and spearhead of Elemental, a collaborative green design tool, Liz Nicholson specialises in English country garden design with an interest in educational charities and forest school programmes.
Eager for the tool to be a collaborative effort, Nicholson engaged various industry bodies and experts to form technical advisory groups to help drive forward the audit’s potential. These have focused on the key pillars of the tool: Waste & Soils; Carbon; Biodiversity & Ecology; Water, Irrigation, Drainage and Air; Sustainability, Site and Materials; and Society. Nicholsons, alongside the Society of Garden and Landscape Designers, the British Association of Landscape Industries, the Landscape Institute, and the RHS are all funding the tool.
Humaira Ikram
Humaira Ikram is a professional garden designer with over 10 years’ experience at Studio Ikram. She runs the Garden Design Diploma at the KLC School of Design, advises RHS Hyde Hall, and serves as a judge and panel member for the RHS. She is co-curator of thehub. earth and an award-winning broadcaster who has contributed to BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time and various gardening publications. She has been writing her opinion piece, Comeback Kings, for Pro Landscaper since 2024.
Lucy Fisher
idverde’s operations director Lucy Fisher was named Sustainability and Biodiversity Leader at the Pro Landscaper Sustainability and Biodiversity Awards 2025, marking her an extremely important person within the industry.
In Pro Landscaper’s March 2025 issue, Fisher says “I see myself as an advocate for integrating sustainability into ideverde’s day-to-day operations, starting at a local level with the aim of demonstrating more broadly what can be achieved; a good deal of this has involved pushing training and engagement with the operational teams,” including the delivery of idverde’s Sustainability Workshop, which has been introduced across all operational teams to “build sustainability literacy and drive cultural change from within.”
Carolin Göhler
Carolin Göhler FLI is president of the Landscape Institute, with her presidency due to run for two years until the end of June 2026. She has over 35 years’ experience as a chartered landscape architect and horticulturist, and over 10 years’ experience as a CEO in the charity sector.
Sarah Eberle
The most decorated designer at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Sarah Eberle, is coming out of her show garden retirement to celebrate the centenary of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).
She last took to the show ground in 2022, winning her 20th Gold medal for the Medite Smartply Building the Future Garden.
With the support of Project Giving Back, the self professed “country girl at heart” will be returning to next year’s Chelsea with a garden that will showcase the countryside as a living, shared space in what is her 50th year in horticulture.
Shereen Chung-Blake
As the Future Gardeners program coordinator at Bankside Open Spaces Trust and Garden Founder and manager of Camberwell Triangle Community Garden and Allotment, Shereen Chung-Blake enables people from all walks of life to access the industry. Pushing a love for gardening and horticulture in general, the Future Gardeners ten-week course is an environmental and volunteering charity working to develop outstanding green spaces and outdoor activities that enhance health and wellbeing.
Natalie Boynton
The Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) presented the Pearson Memorial Medal to Natalie Boynton last year, making her the fifth woman to receive the accolade over the past 20 years.
A Pro Landscaper 30 Under 30 Award winner, Boynton from Happy Plants Ltd and co-founder of the Young People in Horticulture Association (YPHA) was awarded the medal due to “significant contribution to the industry,” explains Will Armitage, HTA president.
One of the first UK growers to move away from carbon-pigment-free plant pots and introduce compostable carry trays to the market, Boynton has also contributed to the HTA through participation in committees, working groups and conferences over the years.
Clare Matterson
Clare Matterson CBE is the director general of the RHS. She was previously executive director of engagement at the Natural History Museum and spent 17 years with the Wellcome Trust leading its work in engagement, education, policy and strategy. Clare was awarded a CBE for services to public engagement and a Fellowship to the British Science Association for outstanding contributions to public engagement and was named on GQ’s Most Connected Women in Britain in 2015.
Nicola Spence
The UK chief plant health officer at the department for environmental food and rural affairs (Defra), Nicola Spence is also a member of council for the RHS. She is a pioneering figure in fighting risks from plant pests and diseases. She has been working closely with the plant sector including landscapers through organisations such as British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) and the Landscape Institute (LI) over the last 10 years, to deliver initiatives like National Plant Health Week which is now in its fifth successful year.
Saira Ali
Bradford Metropolitan District Council’s Saira Ali, who leads the Landscape Design and Conservation team, will be the new president of the Landscape Institute in July this year.
She’ll be taking over from the Institute’s current president, Carolin Göhler, from 1 July, after which Göhler will continue the two-year transition as the immediate past president. Ali calls it a “defining moment” for the profession. “I will champion our collective expertise as a force for climate action, social equity, and cultural resilience.”
Her priority is to ensure Institute members are “empowered, celebrated and heard and that we step forward as mentors” to inspire the next generation.
Cristina Refolo
Cristina Refolo is a Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute with over 20 years’ experience. With a background in socio-economic research, landscape architecture, green and blue infrastructure and the built environment, Cristina is a regular judge for the Landscape Institute Awards and is a global spokesperson for landscape architecture and nature-based design. Cristina is also an accredited Assessor for Building with Nature, the UK’s first green infrastructure benchmark that aims to support and encourage developers in creating high-quality, sustainable environments for people and nature to thrive.
Here’s to the women that are shaping the industry, for we must celebrate them always – not just on International Women’s Day.