Date of Birth: 21 August 1948    Nationality: British    Marital Status: Married 1980

Slough Technical High School 1959-64

General Certificate of Education O’Level in:

English, Mathematics, Physics with Chemistry, Metalwork

Aylesbury College of Further Education, Dept. of Agriculture 1964-69

City and Guilds in Horticulture Stages I (1965-6) in:

Principles of Horticulture, Fruit Crops, Decorative Horticulture, Vegetable Crops, Crops under Glass, Horticultural Machinery

Royal Horticultural Society’s General Certificate in Horticulture (1967)

City and Guilds Stage II (1968) in:

Principles of Horticulture, Glasshouse Horticulture, Ornamental Horticulture including Turf Culture, Horticultural Machinery

Principles of Horticultural Supervision (1969)

Records and Accounts (course)

Accepted as a Corporate Member of the Institute of Horticulture in 1985 on its foundation

London Tourist Board’s Britain in Bloom Committee ‘Pat Moran’ Award for outstanding contribution to London in Bloom 1984

Slough Corporation, Parks Department:

Indentured Apprentice 1964-69

Certificated Gardener, Chargehand 1969-76

Thames Water Authority:

Nursery Head Gardener 1976-82

Nursery Manager 1982-89

Self-employed 1989 to date:

Interior plant display business 1989 on

Garden Centre houseplant department franchise 1989 -95

Sutton Green Garden Nursery

Design and construction of this retail nursery (freelance) 1991-2

Manager of this retail nursery (freelance) 1992-2001

Site surveying, site layout, drainage, plan drawing, landscape and planting design, design of seasonal bedding displays, design and layout of show groups and design of retail nursery inc. provision of services

Planting and maintenance of seasonal and carpet bedding displays

Maintenance of parks, sports fields and open land

Propagation and cultivation of seasonal bedding, flowering and foliage plants, shrubs, herbaceous and trees.

Floral decoration and flower show displays

Installation and maintenance of office plant displays

Use and maintenance of mowers and other grass cutting machinery upto flails and other horticultural machinery

Use and application of pesticides

Retailing inc. display and sales

Layout and construction of a retail nursery

Soft fruit production for PYO

Staff management and supervision of contractors

Budgeting and budgetary control

Financial and management report writing

Crop production planning and supervision of production

Costing of production and schemes

Purchasing, stock control and stocktaking

Sales promotion, publicity and advertising

Pricing, sales (wholesale) and invoicing

Use of computers

Basic accountancy inc. trading accounts and balance sheets

Implementation and supervision of incentive bonus schemes

Preparation of work schedules

Operation of a small business

Training and Health and Safety

Indentured Apprenticeship 1964-9

Practical experience in nursery, parks, landscape and technical office.

1969-76 employed at Slough Corporation’s Central Nursery as:

Certificated Gardener 1969-70

Propagator (cool glasshouse crops) 1970-72

Responsible for the propagation and cultivation of cool glasshouse crop

Propagator (warm glasshouse crops) 1972-74

Responsible the propagation and cultivation of bedding plants, tropical foliage plants and other crops

Charge-hand (glasshouse section) 1974-76

Overall responsibility for the day to day supervision of the glasshouse section of the nursery and responsibility for the nursery in the absence of the Nursery Manager.

Flower Shows and Exhibitions: Slough Corporation was a regular exhibitor at horticultural shows at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Fortnightly shows and Chelsea Flower Shows and the National Chrysanthemum Society shows as well as local horticultural society’s shows. During the period between 1969-74 I was heavily involved in the growing of plants for exhibits and also the design and layout of such exhibits. Slough Corporation won many Gold and other medals and trophies during this period.

I joined Thames Water Authority in 1976 as Nursery Head Gardener as part of a management team of Head Gardeners under the Gardens Superintendent responsible for the maintenance of gardens and grounds around offices and pumping stations and other installations within the Metropolitan Division.

Thames Water’s Central Nursery covered 3 hectares with approximately a quarter of a hectare under glass and polythene supplying plants for the Metropolitan Division and all the locks on the River Thames.

Responsible to the Gardens Superintendent for:

Day to day operation of the nursery

Supervision of staff, 7 full-time plus trainees

The annual production of plants:

200,000 seasonal bedding plants

40,000 shrubs and conifers

3,000 trees

12,000 flowering and foliage pot plants

Provision and maintenance of office plant displays and floral decorations for functions

Designing seasonal bedding displays

Training of trainees employed under the trainee scheme

Health and safety

Due to a reorganisation of boundaries and operations my position was made directly responsible to a group manager (who was a civil engineer) and the job title changed to Nursery Manager and regraded.

Responsibilities remained the same as above but with the addition of:

Budgetary control

Landscape planning and planting plans for water installations and River Thames’ locks

Advice on horticultural matters within the Authority

In 1984 it was decided to operate the nursery on a commercial basis as well as continue to supply the needs of Thames Water under the new Commercial Directorate.

In 1985 the nursery was renamed Waterside Nurseries and opened as a wholesale nursery supplying garden centres and landscapers as well as wholesale markets.

Responsibilities:

The efficient day to day operation of the nurseries

Supervision of full-time staff of three with the addition of up to 10 seasonal full-time and part-time temporary staff

Crop planning and costing

Annual production:

500,000 seasonal bedding plants

60,000 containerised shrubs and conifers

30,000 flowering and foliage pot plants

Provision and maintenance of office planters

To develop and expand a wholesale market

Full financial control, including purchasing, pricing, stock control and invoicing

Producing management and financial reports and business plans

Health and safety and training

8 Certificates of Excellence from the London Tourist Board's Britain in Bloom Committee

In May 1989 I became self-employed starting a business called ‘Plants Indoors’ to carry out installation and maintenance of interior plant displays for offices etc.. This business is small and currently I have one technician carrying out the maintenance work for me, while I do the administration. The business was based at a Vermeulen’s garden centre, for whom I also operated their houseplant department on a franchise, this franchise continued until 1995.

In 1991 I was asked by Peter Vermeulen, owner of Vermeulen’s Garden Centre if I would like to design and construct a new retail nursery and Pick Your Own soft fruit site for him from a green field site. Now known as Sutton Green Garden Nursery, this I accepted and then went on to manage, under contract, this new nursery from its opening in March 1992 building it up into a business profitable.

The majority of plants sold at this nursery we raise on site with production at:

Shrubs from liners 2,500

Herbaceous from liners, roots & division 4,300

Summer Bedding: in multicells 16,000 units, in pots 11,000

Autumn Bedding in multicells 4,500 units

Primroses in 9cn pots 9,000

Herbaceous & Alpines in 9cm pots 5,000

Bulbs in pots 1,200

Spring Pansies in multicells 1,600 units

in 9cm pots 4,500

My management contract required me to supervise all day to day operations including staff, carryout production planning and scheduling, propagation and cultivation, financial control of purchasing, bookkeeping and banking.

At the end of 2001 I decided to terminate my management contract with Sutton Green Nursery and now solely manage my interior plant display business.