Recent University of Cincinnati grad Trinity Tobe learns by doing: by getting her hands dirty, being outside and cultivating the flowers she studies.
This fall, Tobe will venture across the pond to Great Dixter, an internationally renowned garden in East Sussex, England, working as the apprentice of the lead groundskeeper.
Tobe said she earned the opportunity because of her hands-on experience at UC’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning.
“It was awesome. I didn’t know that studying horticulture was a thing at all before coming here,” she said. “Coming to UC has made me more well-rounded horticulturist and provided me professional experiences I would not have without pursuing this degree.”
Tobe was a transfer student who came to UC to study plants after falling in love with her job at a local greenhouse. But when she started working toward her degree, the academic approach of the classroom intimidated her.
“Truthfully, I was going to drop out,” Tobe said. “I got to college, and everyone was speaking Latin and saying names I didn't know. And I thought, ‘Nope, not for me.’”
But one of her professors, Jim Hansel, encouraged her to stick with it.
“He told me to stay for a few more weeks and see if I changed my mind,” Tobe said. “He said he had a feeling I was meant to be here.”
Hansel’s intuition was right: Tobe grew into the program and took full advantage of its opportunities before landing her upcoming UK apprenticeship. She carved out her own co-op within the program before it was even a requirement of her major.
“Trinity’s work ethic, curious mind and willingness to dive into new challenges has set her up for success,” said Hansel. “She shares her love of horticulture with anyone who will listen and can back up knowledge with experience.”
Cultivating her own path
Hands-on experience puts the classroom into practice, and the DAAP School of Planning’s horticulture program is officially integrating cooperative education next academic year.
UC is the birthplace of co-op, a system of alternating classwork with semesters working in the industry, with students gaining real-world experience. What started as a requirement of the engineering program has expanded across the university over the past century.
“Launching co-op is going to be really great for our program,” said horticulture professor Brian Grubb. “What we’ve done up to this point, before we formally launched co-op, is we just really highly encouraged our students to take their summer experience to do internships.”
Tobe did that and more. She completed multiple internships with Northern Kentucky’s Boone County Arboretum and ended up working there part-time while in school.
She also took an entire academic year off to work at Chanticleer Garden in Philadelphia.
“It was such an amazing opportunity that I almost didn’t want to go back to school, but it’s funny because I got there because of school,” Tobe said. “When I went back to UC to finish my degree, I was able to digest what I was learning so much more and talk to my professors about plants on such a deeper scope.”
Her work with Chanticleer introduced her to the Chanticleer USA Christopher Lloyd Scholarship at Great Dixter, a yearlong experience working under late garden writer Christopher Lloyd’s protégé, Fergus Garrett.
“I found out I got the position the day before I graduated college,” Tobe said. “I was required to read Lloyd’s books in school. It was a very serendipitous moment.”
Remembering her roots
Tobe’s experiences may bring her across the country and around the world, but her goal is to bring all her expertise back home one day.
“Tobe really was the model of what we like to see with our students,” Grubb said. “She was attentive in class, asking lots of questions and trying to gain as much practical experience as she could.”
Tobe’s capstone, which won a Director’s Choice award at DAAPWorks, was to redesign the Boone County Arboretum’s Children's Garden.
“What we’re trying to do is get students out into the community during school so that they can find needs within the community,” Grubb said. “Tobe was able to do that through her capstone, and I think she had some meaningful experiences doing that.”
The actual design is on hold due to highway construction, but even with her upcoming opportunity abroad, Tobe’s goal has always been to make a positive impact in the Greater Cincinnati community.
“It’s really easy as a gardener to pick up and move to Philadelphia, the UK or anywhere else with amazing gardening opportunities,” Tobe said. “But I think it’s a better testament to be able to bring it back to Ohio. We just don’t have public horticulture on the scale that these other places do.”
Tobe reasoned that she will feel fulfilled bringing her experience back home — spreading the seeds of her learning, so to speak.
“To just up and leave forever, it’s not fair to everyone in Ohio that deserve great public gardens, too,” she says.
Latest from Nursery Management
- The Growth Industry Episode 14: Meet Lionel van der Walt, AmericanHort's new CEO
- Growers and suppliers say BFG Supply Co. will close
- Stemmer from BioWorks
- BioWorks introduces Stemmer silicon-based plant health solution
- Silver Fern awarded grant to expand AI-powered demand planning for greenhouse, nursery growers
- All-America Selections announces first three new AAS Winners for 2027
- 2026 Special Recognition Award recipients announced at PPA National Symposium
- [WATCH] July issue recap
