"If you are passionate, write a book. I’ve done two and they are my proudest moments"
Chris Young on storytelling, scouting talent and staying rooted in horticulture
With over a decade at the Royal Horticultural Society, including roles as Editor of The Garden magazine and Head of Editorial, Chris Young has helped shape how thousands of people learn, grow and connect with plants.
Now working as Consultant Gardening Publisher at DK, as well as a landscape and garden designer, and running a content consultancy, Chris continues to influence the horticultural landscape.
In this interview, Chris reflects on career highlights, shares what makes a garden writer stand out, and offers honest advice for anyone hoping to turn their passion for plants into something more.
You spent over a decade at the RHS, including time as editor of The Garden and Head of Editorial. What were some of the highlights of shaping content for one of the UK’s best-loved gardening magazines?
The highlight was the breadth of content that we covered; every time I met or read something new I felt I was learning something new! There are so many knowledgeable and generous people in the gardening and plant world, and representing The Garden magazine gets you access to almost anyone. From colleagues across the RHS to specialists in the trade, or celebrities to amazing writers, you could be at the cutting edge of latest thinking and design - and just a few months later be giving that to RHS members.
But of course there were particular highlights. Celebrating 150 years of The Garden magazine with a special cover, so too the 100 years of RHS Chelsea Flower Show; diversifying content to include more garden design, food and environment writing; and increasing the amount of science and educational content.
One of the big pushes I made was to really celebrate people’s voices and their writing – for a while the content in the magazine was heavily edited, but I wanted to hear different views, opinions, approaches and beliefs. The diversity within our industry is huge and I hope I helped broaden what RHS members read.
Balancing the needs of long-standing RHS members with the interests of a new generation of gardeners can’t be easy. How did you approach creating content that appealed to both traditional readers and younger, more digitally engaged audiences?
In all honesty, it’s a really big challenge – and I never believed one magazine could do it all. One of my main projects, about 10 years ago, was to explore the idea of having different publications for different segments of the RHS audience. It can be done but is a big piece of work.
As Editor of The Garden I was also Head of Editorial, which means you oversee the website content, all specialist publishing, books, podcasts, Society publishing, 300,000 digital images and so on. So you have to take the view that all those different channels will appeal to a range of users - some of the content on the website, on the podcast, on the RHS app and so on will appeal to those who aren’t interested in reading a paper product.
The most important thing, for whoever your audience is and whatever platform they are engaging with you on, is to ensure the quality of the content is appropriate for the RHS. So all the advice and information has to come from the same place, but how you deliver it and in what tone of voice depends on what platform you’re working on. That’s the way to engage audiences and to ensure they get the RHS knowledge… and magic!