CHRIS COLLINS

Chris Collins likes answering job adverts, particularly if they have a hint of the extraordinary about them; those where your roommates are chimps, for example, or your workplace is a Royal church. Few people can claim to have so varied or unconventional a CV. It’s driven in part by a sense of adventure, but Chris’s passion for his subject is so infectious and exuberant, it’s easy to see how he’s traversed the globe for his love of plants.

It all started back in 1984, in his homefor the diploma at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and thought: “I’ll try for that.” The next thing he knew, he was in Edinburgh loving every minute. “You were being taught by world authorities in this amazing garden,” he says.