Seeds guru Tom Sharples is celebrating 40 years  of service with the same company.

He started his career with Dobies in Llangollen as trial ground manager after completing his degree at horticultural college. He went for the interview in a suit in pouring rain, having stayed overnight in a tent.

He progressed from trials to young plants manager and was the first to bring in seedlings and plugs by post for the home gardener.

When Dobies was taken over by Suttons, Tom moved to Devon as Dobies catalogue manager. Dobies was the first company to introduce a separate young seedlings and plugs catalogue. He then introduced desk top publishing and optical image storage to catalogue production.

Later he moved to new product development and took the position of marketing manager on the retail side of Suttons, working with garden centres and multiples.

He still works for Suttons three days a week, with responsibilities involving staff training and technical back up.

In Tom's expert view, the best new variety through the years was the Begonia ‘Non Stop’ series  from Benary of Germany, introduced by Dobies and still not beaten for performance.

|He believes the best development is the relatively recent advent of grafted vegetables, which Suttons pioneered.