From Cincinnati to Chanticleer: A Horticulture Student’s Journey

At the Perennial Plant Association’s 2025 National Symposium, Scott Beuerlein caught up with Trinity Tobe to get a youth perspective on the field of horticulture. A recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati, Trinity is embarking on her career with a mix of scientific knowledge and bold creativity.

She currently works as an assistant horticulturist at Chanticleer. Come fall, she will be moving to England to live, work and study at Great Dixter as the 2026–27 Chanticleer USA Christopher Lloyd Scholar. Read the interview and watch the video below to learn more about this horticulture student's journey.

Scott Beuerlein: Chanticleer is one of the greatest gardens in the United States. How did you get in there?

Trinity Tobe: During college I was working under Kris Stone at the Boone County Arboretum in Kentucky. I loved it, and it was an amazing organization, but I really wanted to grow roots outside of the Ohio–Kentucky–Indiana metro area. So Kris strongly advised that I apply to this place called Chanticleer, which at the time I had never heard of.

I completed a nine-month internship there in 2024, and it was just a blessing. I fell in love with it; I fell in love with the people. I went back in 2025 as a seasonal assistant horticulturist. It has changed my career in ways that I am incredibly grateful for.

To quote one of my professors, Jim Hansel, “The plants don’t read the books!” That’s something I really was able to lean into under the staff at Chanticleer—that we can really do some cool and interesting things that you don’t always read in books.

Related Article: A Conversation with Fergus Garrett, Head Gardener at Great Dixter

SB: Looking ahead, what direction do you want to go in?

TT: I have completely and utterly fallen in love with public gardening. Aside from being a gardener and horticulturist and a scientist, I consider myself an artist. Art can be so many things, but at the end of the day I think art is what makes you feel something, whether those are good emotions or bad emotions.

I think about how many gardens I’ve had the opportunity to go to now, and all of the feelings I’ve felt from those gardens, and how impactful it’s been on me and my career. And how impactful it’s been on my friends and family members and colleagues who aren’t gardeners! I want to be able to make the gardens and sell the plants and produce the landscapes that make people feel something.

SB: What’s your vision for your art as a designer going forward?

TT: So that is a hard question to answer, and a question I get asked at Chanticleer a lot, which has vastly different areas. People ask, “What’s your favorite area to work in?” I grew up in display gardening and I started my career in display gardening, so I love doing things like that and playing with annuals and things of that nature. But then I go to the Gravel Garden, or the Creek, or the Ponds, and I learn so much more, because those aren’t the plants or the palette that I’m used to. I think I’d love to find a convergence between all of those things.

I love seeing botanic gardens and everyone getting dressed up in their hats and their dresses and their nice clothes. We should hold the industry to the standard that is getting dressed up to visit a garden. It’s easy to play down at a job where you work hard and get sweaty and dirty and you’re outside, but truly we should hold it to the standard that a lot of people do when they come and visit.

We need to realize that not everybody is a gardener. Not everybody’s going to be as passionate about it as we want them to be or as we are, but we can create landscapes and situations that make people stop and notice and feel something. Everyone, whether you’re a gardener or not, should have the opportunity to experience a garden.

Photos: Courtesy of Trinity Tobe/Location: Chanticleer, Wayne, Pa.

Scott Beuerlein is Manager of Botanical Garden Outreach at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden.