John Brian Edmonds, father of Nicci Gow - Fresh@Burcot Garden Centre - died on January 8th after a long illness.

GTN published an article 12 or so months ago about Nuffield Scholarships of which he had been a recipient. Both Nicci and Neil Gow have asked that we help spread the word of his death within the trade that he was still working in daily age 85.

Neil writes:  "While not known to many in the horticultural retail field of today the work John was doing back in the 1960's, 70 and 80's with growing plants in containers and Bransford Nurseries set many of the trends still being followed today. A leading light in the agricultural and horticultural world, being NFU country chairman and setting up one of the first regional HTA groups with Mike Dunnett, Johns' innovative thinking, along with many others like Eddie Topping and Peter Seabrook still shapes much of what we know today.

"The processes of growing plants to a retail standard needed innovation as well as tenacity and often those processes required 'invention. That was where Johns' engineering ability also came into play constructing things from 4 wheel nursery trailers to conveyor belts and sand beds to potting machines."