The Botanical Gardens has experienced difficulties attracting trained horticulturists because most Bermudians are not interested, curator Lisa Outerbridge has claimed.

She said most Bermudians were attracted to higher paid jobs in the financial sector.

And she said Bermudians were not as interested in gardening as previous generations.

The Botanical Gardens now has fewer skilled gardeners than before, partly owing to a work permit clampdown on Portuguese staff.

Writing in the monthly bulletin of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Ms Outerbridge states: "Looking around the Department and the gardens, we can see where we are lacking and that is in the area of well-trained local horticulturists.

"It's true. All the good ones have gone or retired (or both) and it is not a field that finds replacement easy, if at all.'' The Botanical Gardens currently have a full staff of three horticulturists, seven skilled gardeners, and others. Ms Outerbridge told The Royal Gazette : "The typical Bermudian does not go into the field of horticulture in the way they did in years before.

"There is a lot of competition in the workforce for other jobs in commerce and elsewhere.

"Whereas some older families grow up actively gardening, kids today are growing up with parents who may be involved in commerce rather than in gardening. In most gardens around the world, staff come to them who have had their training whereas we hire people with no training whatsoever, and that's where the problem is.

"Having said that, the Bermudian staff who come here are dedicated and they learn on the job. But they do not step up from being skilled gardeners to being trained horticulturists.

"People complain about the Botanical Gardens not looking as good as they did 20 years ago, but we have lost the Portuguese who did not have their work permits renewed five or ten years ago.

"We have no horticultural apprenticeship programme. There was one at the Department of Agriculture and there will be one at Bermuda College in the future.''