Plant expert Michael Perry will be this year’s guest of honour at the annual Duchy College Rosewarne Prize Day. The TV and radio presenter is a world renowned plant expert, who scours glass houses and exotic gardens for Thompson & Morgan who are one of the UK's largest mail order seed and plant companies.

Michael said: "My gardening journey started when I was a mere toddler, shadowing my grandparents as they reared exhibition quality chrysanthemums and dahlias in their greenhouses. I was hooked from a young age, and soon my flower patch in my parents garden became the whole garden and, at 14, a small mail order herb nursery!”

Michael travels the world looking at rare plants, sourcing new varieties and studying plants that could do well for the UK market: "The careers advisor suggested horticultural college, and I joined a National Diploma in horticulture at Otley College after school finished. Now, I couldn’t reverse a tractor for toffee, and always got soaked by the hose in the sports turf class, but, plant ident classes and garden design and care seemed to be my forte.

"After entering a competition to design a garden at a mail order plant company, Thompson & Morgan, I wrote in asking for a job, and was taken on as a sort of apprentice. I was helping source new products for the seed catalogue, and soon began working on the plant catalogues too. I had an eye for unique plants; whether they were brand new, or finding ways to rediscover those plants which performed but gardeners had forgotten.”

Michael’s TV career sees him presenting new plant varieties on home shopping channels such as QVC and he is heavily involved as a radio gardening expert for the BBC. "I think there are probably only a small handful of similar jobs in the UK actually; my role of new product development manager at Thompson & Morgan is a blend of 50% horticulture and 50% marketing, with the added flair of being able to choose something different, something that’s more than just another purple petunia.

"Each year, I need to co-ordinate almost 200 brand new plants; which are shared across our 3 different brands, and divided between spring and autumn seasons. They appear in our catalogues, on our website or through our TV sales channels. To make this happen, I maintain a huge network of contacts, attend trade shows in Europe, make plant-hunting roads trips, organize a trial of more than 1,500 plants, arrange and supervise photography, prepare marketing."

The prize day, at the Wesley Chapel in Camborne, recognises all of the students completing their studies at Duchy College. There are also awards for students who have shown an outstanding dedication to their studies and the College.

Prinicpal of Duchy College, Andrew Counsell, said: “We take great pride in celebrating all of our students’ achievements; it’s a real pleasure to be a part of this event.”

For more information on Duchy College Rosewarne you can visit the Open Day on Sunday 21st of June or by visiting www.duchy.ac.uk