Man turned gardening hobby into career after loss

A man who spent his youth training to work in occupational health before turning to gardening has won a prestigious award.

Chris Reeve, 50, from Ipswich turned his hobby into a career after he lost his mum to cancer.

His first job was working at Helmingham Hall near Stowmarket and he is still working there after 25 years, delighting visitors with his plant topiary sculptures.

Mr Reeve's creations - including a giant frog prince - led to him winning second place in the Henchman inaugural Topiary Awards for 2024.

Explaining how he got into gardening, Mr Reeve said: "I was actually going to go into a medical profession, I was studying to become an occupational therapist.

"I'd done physiotherapy at Ipswich Hospital, I'd done health care assistant work, caring for the elderly and that was the whole trajectory I'd have.

"Unfortunately in 1994 I lost my mum to cancer and it became increasingly hard to continue working in hospitals because I'd just see the patient in the bed as mum.

"It was a horrible time in my life."

Mr Reeve left his course and turned to gardening.

Despite not being too keen to start with, he studied environmental landscape management, design and conservation at Otley College, which is now known as Suffolk Rural as part of Suffolk New College.

After three years, his first job took him to Helmingham Hall where the former head gardener noticed Mr Reeve had "an eye for topiaries".

He developed his skill and has created several sculptures in the grounds, including a frog, an old work boot and even a snowman.

Mr Reeve found out about the Henchman Topiary Awards via a newsletter from the Professional Gardeners' Guild and said he thought: "Why not?"

He won second place in the professional gardener category and took home a bundle of Henchman prizes.

Asked why he loved topiary so much, Mr Reeve added: "It's just the creativity of it.

"You've got a standard hedge that most people will clip into a ball, a box or a small hedgerow but you can do so much more with it."

Mr Reeve and Helmingham Hall are working to create more topiaries on the grounds, as well as to inspire more children into gardening and horticulture.

He felt there was a lack of education around the career in schools.

"It's a big void, really. There's a skills shortage coming up behind the younger members of staff."

"It's such a valuable job, especially going forward into the future where nature and horticulture is so very important to us all."

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