John Ravenscroft

John was a pioneer of gardening and of garden retailing.

Always with an eye for a good garden plant, John and his wife Liz developed a remarkable garden centre which in spite of its rural location became a must visit gardening emporium. 

Realising that customers needed to have a good reason to travel into the countryside, John arguably created the first destination garden centre. This ensured that not only did masses travel to his centre but they then spent a whole day there. He and Liz were perhaps the first to add what has now become an essential ingredient of a modern garden centre and that is of course a cafe! He also added on-site show gardens which were sometimes show gardens that were given life after winning trophies at major garden shows. John used these to film and present his own gardening TV shows which he then sold to TV companies.

Alongside the large destination garden centre, John developed a thriving nursery that supplied great plants to his garden centre planteria.

Ultimately he sold Bridgemere Garden World to Wyevale Garden Centres and then in turn this has become a Blue Diamond Centre.

Not satisfied with quietly retiring, John planted  and developed a remarkable arboretum filling it with fine hardy and interesting trees.

John’s great impact on the UK garden industry was recognised by the HTA by the highest award of the Pearson Memorial Medal.

Alan Down, Immediate Past President HTA

The funeral will be at St Luke’s Hodnet Shropshire on Monday 29th June.

See also GTN's tribute to John Ravenscroft in the June-July 2026 Issue.