Dr John Grimshaw has been interested in plants all his life, as both a gardener and a botanist, and holds a First Class Degree in Botany and a Doctorate in African Forest Ecology from Oxford University. He has travelled widely to see plants growing in habitat and his first book was ‘The Gardener’s Atlas’ (1998), recounting the journeys plants have made from their source to our gardens.

John worked in The Netherlands for the seed company K. Sahin, Zaden. B.V., where he developed perennials and other plants for the seed trade which gave him invaluable experience of commercial horticulture and management. Following that he was Gardens Manager at Colesbourne Park, Gloucestershire, from 2003-2012, where he maintained and developed the historic Elwes family garden, especially the snowdrop collection and was a co-author of the definitive snowdrop book ‘Snowdrops: A Monograph of Cultivated Galanthus’ (2002) with M Bishop & A Davis. Between 2004-2009 he was principal author of a major book on trees introduced in the past 35 years, entitled ‘New Trees, Recent Introductions to Cultivation’, with co-author Ross Bayton.

In 2012 he became Director of The Yorkshire Arboretum, North Yorkshire, with responsibility for the 120 acre arboretum and 20 acre Ray Wood, on the Castle Howard estate. He is a member of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Advisory Group on Nomenclature and Taxonomy, and is Vice-chair of the Woody Plant Committee. In 2012 he led the RHS review of the Award of Garden Merit.