The Curator is responsible for the horticultural team, overseeing the maintenance and development of the living collections and wider estate which includes the National Nature Reserve, Farm and Regency Restoration, in accordance with the Botanic Garden’s 10-year strategic plan.
Alex Summers is a child of horticulture with two parents who trained and worked in the industry for many years. A brief interlude to read a degree in zoology further developed on a passion for natural history and conservation.
Alex started his horticultural career at Cambridge University Botanic Garden (CUBG) as a trainee and, from here, moved to Kew and completed the Kew Diploma in Botanical Horticulture. Alex spent a year in the U.S. as a part of the RHS/GCA Interchange Scholarship, working at Longwood Gardens. Alex returned to a full-time post at CUBG as Glasshouse Supervisor, and spent 10 years in this role, growing a huge range of rare and bizarre material, before taking up a similar role here in Wales.
Alex has a master’s degree in plant taxonomy for which he revised the little-known plant family Neuradaceae.
He has visited many countries in pursuit of plants and has collected in Vietnam and the Richtersveld, in the northern deserts of South Africa.
His interests include gardening (unsurprisingly), travelling, botanising and cycling – both riding and watching the sport.
