“We can work in shorts and t-shirts!”

Scott Taylor explains what it’s like to work in the Kew glasshouses all year

Scott has been at Kew for 14 years. He started as a Kew Diploma student in 2005 and worked in the Palm House for four years, before moving to the Temperate House where he was supervisor for three years. He now manages the Palm House, Temperate Glasshouse and Princess of Wales Conservatory, leading a team of nine gardeners and up to 11 students and volunteers.

How does working in a glasshouse differ from working outdoors? We’ve created artificial environments in which these plants live, so we need to maintain them. We’re constantly checking thermometers and planning for cold weather, so we can adjust the conditions inside the glasshouse. It’s demanding for people to work in 35C (95F) and 90% humidity, so we make sure heavy digging and planting is done in spring and autumn, leaving summer for light maintenance jobs. We need to make sure everyone stays well hydrated in the warmer months.

Which plants are looking their best in December? In the Temperate House a lot of the plants in the north section, which focuses on Asian plants, are starting to look good – such as rhododendrons and early-f lowering camellias. In the Palm House and the Princess of Wales Conservatory visitors can find lots of lush foliage, which seems to like this time of year when the sun isn’t beating down.

What jobs do you and your team do in winter? In the Princess of Wales Conservatory we’re planning for the annual orchid festival from February to March. We’re ordering in plants and we’ll start the build in January.

In the Palm House a lot of pruning needs doing, so we’ll bring in cherry pickers to access the taller tree canopies. To allow more light in, we’ll prune out new top growth and clean the glass, also tying in climbers.

In the Temperate House we’re thinning out a lot of the plants. For the glasshouse reopening in 2017 we deliberately overplanted, but the plants have settled in well, so we need to divide and move some of them around.

What do you love about Kew in winter? I love working in the warmth! The outdoor teams have to wear layers and layers, whereas we’re in shorts and t-shirts, although the transition from indoors back outside can be a bit tricky! I also love the structure of the trees without their leaves and the early signs of spring. The first signs of rebirth – the snowdrops and other early-flowering plants – always fill me with hope.

How do you control pests and diseases in the glasshouses?

We use integrated pest management, which means we try to give plants the conditions they need to thrive, then we’ll use cultural methods, such as pruning out infected leaves or spraying pests off with water. The next step would be to use biological controls, and as a final option we’d apply a chemical spray, but we try to limit this as much as possible.

What’s the best part of working at Kew? I’m always learning new things and coming across new plants. There’s also the wide variety of people who work at Kew – that’s special. Just being part of the fabulous work Kew does is important to me, even if I’m only a small cog in a big machine.