5 questions with Carl Mason

Five questions in five minutes with Carl Mason – our technical area sales manager for Yorkshire and the East Midlands. An experienced nurseryman, he joined our team in 2018.

Why horticulture?

Horticulture is in my genes.  I started growing vegetables aged nine – working on the family’s market garden in Lincolnshire.  What started as a hobby, quickly developed into a passion, I never tired of planting seeds and watching them grow. On leaving school I trained in cut flowers and studied part-time at Brackenhurst College to become a Craftsman in Horticulture. For the first ten years, I worked with bedding and brassica crops. I left to become a Growing Manager at Bell Brothers Nurseries, producers of a phenomenal range of seasonal plants, where I worked my way up to Production Manager.

Why did you switch from growing to advising?

After 20 years as a commercial grower, I’d reached a turning point. While I knew I wanted to stay in horticulture, I was looking for a change in direction and new challenges. I was attracted to the ICL role as I’d be working with a broad range of growers, advising, and looking for solutions – this appealed more than the selling! It was a good fit as I had plenty of experience growing bedding and pot plant crops propagated from seeds, cuttings, and bulbs, as well as practical hands-on experience of ICL’s products.

Has it provided the challenges you craved?

As a technical area sales manager, I’m now also working with perennials and hardy nursery stock as well as trees – which keeps it interesting. Like all jobs, it has its challenges but also great rewards. It’s fulfilling playing a part in the production of quality ornamentals and helping growers embrace new developments, such as transitioning to peat-free, and new products including bioinsecticides and biostimulants.

What is a typical day?

There isn’t one – while it’s good to try and plan out your week, I find things often take a different route! I really relish getting out on to different nurseries to look at crops, to see if, and where, we can make improvements. No two crops are the same, there are always different scenarios – different crops, and different production systems. The challenge is to create bespoke solutions, or change systems around, to make improvements. I’m continuing to learn, in this constantly changing industry I don’t see that changing.

What about weekends?

My wife Julie and I own six vintage tractors – including one painted pink!  After a fair amount of rebuilding, all are road worthy.  We help organise the annual Lincolnshire Tractor Run – a parade of vintage models that so far has raised over £90,000 for Cancer Research.  I’ve lived all my life in Lincolnshire and I’m a countryman at heart, although I also enjoy live music and go and see bands when I can.