Horticulture student who won bronze at BBG Gardeners World Live

A massive congratulations to our Royal Horticulture Society Level 2 student, Donna Sutton, who won bronze at BBG Gardeners World Live 2025! This year’s theme was ‘Cultivating connections’, encouraging participants to consider how even small and awkward garden spaces can be a powerful tool to foster a range of connections. 

This was Donnas’ first time competing in the BBG Gardeners World Live. Donna realized her ‘heart was no longer in her accounting career’ and made a career change into horticulture last September. 

Donna’s design ‘From Mother to Maiden’ is a border that stands for her transition from maiden to mother. Her design features fairies and a willow weaved bridge with gorgeous plants intertwined. The annual plants used represent her maiden phase, where life could be fleeting. It transitions across the bridge that represents becoming a mother and then into the perennial plants portraying the forever phases in her life. 

Donna said that “each plant sparks a memory of a connection I have made through my journey from maiden to mother”. Askham Bryan College was honoured to support her as a sponsor, buying a range of seeds for her to grow, using their new propagation benches to raise her seedlings. 

Attracting more than 90,000 visitors, the show had a record number of entries this year. A panel of award-winning garden and landscape designers congratulated the variety, creativity and quality of this year’s contestant creations. Lucy Tremlett, Event Director at Immediate Live, organisers of BBC Gardeners’ World Live, said “Congratulations to Donna Sutton for their brilliant Border which is sure to have inspired and impressed our visitors”. 

Donna went on to say, “I never imagined doing something on this scale so early into my horticultural career, I have learnt so much and met some wonderful people during the process, it has been magical.”. 

Donna went from attending the show last year and dreaming of having her own border to winning third place the very next year. She said, “It shows that you should always try and whatever the outcome there will be something to be learned.” 

Donna is continuing to do RHS courses with us at Askham Bryan College and study design courses at The Yorkshire School of Design. 

Congratulations Donna, we can’t wait to see what you do next! 

Look below to see horticulture student Donna’s design, which won bronze at BBG Gardeners World Live for Gardeners World.