Young Horticulturist of Year Competition Irish Final 2012

yhoy_quizpicture

This year, more than 270 people contested in the heats of the YHOY competition held at several different venues throughout Ireland. Participating Colleges were Kildalton College, Cork-IT, IT-Blanchardstown, the National Botanic Gardens, Greenmount Campus, Bray Institute of Further Education and Grow Your Own Future.

yhoy_quizpicture

This year, more than 270 people contested in the heats of the YHOY competition held at several different venues throughout Ireland. Participating Colleges were Kildalton College, Cork-IT, IT-Blanchardstown, the National Botanic Gardens, Greenmount Campus, Bray Institute of Further Education and Grow Your Own Future.

It is encouraging to see so many contestants competing for the valuable heat prizes and for the honour of representing their college in the regional final. I would like to thank the host colleges for their continued support of this event and ask them to keep up the good work for next year.

The regional final, this year, took place in the College of Amenity Horticulture in the National Botanic Gardens, on March 28th, 2012. The contestants representing their colleges this year were:

  • Cara Tremayne Cork Institute of Technology, Co. Cork
  • Tom Farrer Kildalton College, Co. Kilkenny
  • Declan McKenna CAFRE, Greenmount Campus, Northern Ireland
  • Cristopher Foye CAFRE, Greenmount Campus, Northern Ireland
  • Michael Yallop Institute of Technology Blanchardstown, Co. Dublin
  • Stephen Seaman Institute of Technology Blanchardstown, Co. Dublin
  • Jarra Braidwood National Botanic Gardens, Co. Dublin
  • Mark Flahive Open heat entrant, Dublin

It was a very good quiz with two contestants starting very strong and running close till the very end. Finally the following outcome was achieved:

  • 1st Mark Flahive 56 marks
  • 2nd Jarre Braidwood 48 “
  • 3rd Cara Tremayne 26 “

On behalf of the Institute of Horticulture I would like to thank to our sponsors, and particularly Bord Bia in Ireland, for their generous support. Without it, this competition could not take place.

I would also like to thank the College of Amenity Horticulture in the National Botanic Gardens for hosting the Regional Final and providing hospitality afterwards. Finally, I would like to acknowledge all the help I got from the many colleagues in all the colleges, to ensure the heats and the Regional Final were a success.

The Grand Final of the YHOY will take place in the Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh, UK on Saturday May 5th, 2012. There, Mark Flahive will represent the Irish Branch of the IoH and compete with the 7 winners of the other respective IoH area’s in the UK.

Dr. Paul Fitters
YHOY Quiz Organiser, Irish Branch