The Ruth Borun Scholarship
The Ruth Borun Scholar spends a year working in the garden at Great Dixter, is paid minimum wage, and is offered subsidised accommodation on site.
The scholarship is aimed at improving the skills within UK horticulture and is open to UK citizens or anyone who is eligible to work in the UK. We often recruit for this post through our other scholarship recruitment processes to apply please follow these routes.
This Scholarship is generously funded by The Anna and Harry Borun Foundation in memory of Ruth Borun.
Ruth Borun was a friend of Christopher Lloyd. He visited her garden in Los Angeles back in the 70s and wrote about it in his book Other People’s Gardens. Mrs Borun died in May 2018 and her husband Dr Raymond Borun came from Los Angeles to Great Dixter later that year, aged 100 years old.
With daughter Amy, he retraced the steps his wife had so often taken on the visits she made to Great Dixter over the years. Amy remembers her as, “a hands-on gardener who enjoyed living and working in her vibrant garden every day”. The scholarship is to honor Ruth Borun for her love of the Great Dixter and to support education.
Our Ruth Borun Scholar for 2025-6 is Taylor Thorson.
Taylor joins us from California, which was also the home of Ruth Borun.
She has spent the last 3 years working at Filoli Historic House and Garden as a gardener before which she gained experience in commercial horticulture as a greenhouse grower and vertical gardener. Prior to Covid she worked at the Davis Arboretum. She has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Horticulture and Urban Forestry from the University of California, Davis.
She’s especially looking forward to understanding the sense of place that is so important at Great Dixter and Chanticleer, as well as gaining more knowledge and skills in how to garden to promote and support biodiversity.
Taylor is producing a monthly report documenting her time as scholar. You can read about her experiences below:
Previous Ruth Borun Scholars include Hannah Phillips, Naciim Benkreira, Luke Senior, Colin Stewart, and Quentin Wallon.
It is very important to us that we preserve the international nature of our horticultural community here. If you live outside the UK and would like to volunteer in the garden, please visit our placement page to find out about further opportunities, or for any enquiries relating to this Scholarship, please email [email protected].
