What was your journey into the horticulture industry?
Started selling lettuce at six and bedding plants by age of 8 using wooden fish boxed with 40 plants per tray, using homemade John Innes substituting leaf mould for peat and river washed sand from the river Witham.
Part time job aged 13 before joining full time at 16 at Jacksons of Allington growing tomatoes, chrysanths and bedding plants, started Belton Garden Centre with boss’s son in law in 1969.
I was offered a place at Kew or Edinburgh and chose Edinburgh. I couldn’t cook so asked a young local girl to marry me and same day we got married we moved from Lincolnshire to Edinburgh for a three-year Dip course where I gained a Hons pass.
In 1976 I needed a job and was offered parks manager at Cumbernauld New Town or horticulturist training officer with Birmingham City Council. I chose Birmingham to primarily teach all aspects of parks work, with special responsibility for teaching arboriculture.
By the early 1980s I realised that Central TV were making a gardening programme in the park where I was based. Used to take mail over in return for bacon butty and before long was giving them ideas and supplying props.
My big break came in 1984 when after having the role of horticultural advisor to the programme was asked to try presenting and went on to research, present and help edit (making sure it was horticulturally correct) During this time I was still employed by the parks department and loaned to Central TV in return for them paying to film.
I started Kings Heath Gardeners Weekend shortly after starting to present which attracted around 30,000 people in mid-September each year. Officially Central never made a profit or loss, then the council took it over and lost huge amounts of money after we were pushed out by the BBC who recorded there for a short while.
During my early years we extended the garden 300% and ran trials of plants and seeds and we became the first council to have a Fleuroselect trial garden. We worked very closely with the trade and visited press days trial grounds and even attended the early days of Glee.
I worked with ExtraCare Charitable trust for 25 years using gardening to keep the residents fit with annual competiti0ons, travelled 3,000 miles each year judging and meeting residents. This was an early benchmark for the link between getting old and keeping fit. During this time, I also wrote for Garden Answers, Birmingham Sunday Mercury and the Black Country Bugle. I also helped develop HPS plant labelling system, with my design for the database and more recently trying the latest windows-based version, adding my comments and observations, many of the images in the original database were from my own personal library. I have my own website where I will report on news trials and new plants and products along with Jobs for the month etc.
After the programme was stopped (we were too old!) and replaced with younger presenters the new format lasted only a few weeks before being scrapped. Meanwhile I started leading day trips and holidays in the UK, Europe and as far as New Zealand. I began a 25-year spelling of giving advice at Ashwood Nurderies and am still associated with them today.
What have been some career highlights over those years?
Career highlights must be Gaining all the awards except one at Edinburgh Botanics, I only last that one award as being slightly dyslexic I knew all the plants in an ID test but spelt several wrong, just got the right letters in the wrong order, another lad who didn’t know all the plants beat me as the deducted a mark for each mistake (they being George Anderson now of the BBCs Beechgrove Gardening. Programme)
Becoming a Fleuroselect Trial Garden, a first outside company trial grounds in the UK.
Being lead presenter and consultant on Central TV's Gardening Time.
Being offered job of head gardener personally by now King Charles at Highgrove. Sadly it didn’t work out and became presenter of gardening programme four weeks later
Visiting some of the best gardens around the world, and still finding fantastic gardens, nurseries, and trials. (Helmingham Hall this week)
What would you say are your areas of expertise?
Areas of expertise include most areas of amenity horticulture including plant trials. Passing on the skills in horticulture which are rapidly being lost. It is my all-round horticulture that seems to make me popular with the many gardening clubs I visit each year. I can combine the horticultural knowledge with my interest in computers and presentation skills from ten years fronting a television programme to find the correct level of content and humour for each group. Plant collecting is a life long hobby and have over the years maintained huge collections of different genera. I currently have five greenhouses full of mainly Crassulaceae especially Aeoniums and Echeverias.
What is your fantasy future horticultural innovation?
My fantasy future in horticulture would be in better access to gardens for all young people and there is so much scope for new products and plants yet we are not giving youngsters the chance to participate in one of the best professions and hobby in gardening. I love to see youngsters better introduced to gardening, at the moment there is a huge gap in introducing a massive number of new people to gardening and as journalists we are not doing that, in fact some information is out and out wrong, I want to see only solid information available, social media is a nightmare with inaccurate information.
What are you most looking forward to at Four Oaks as a visitor?
Why do I look forward to Four Oaks every year? It’s the news about new plants and products that I often want to try and its maintaining contacts to keep up with the very latest news from what is a large almost family like gathering. I sometimes feel that I try to be the link between the incredible trade and the home gardener, I will never be another Peter Seabrook but I try in my own little way.
Howard Drury is a judge at the Four Oaks new plants awards 2 September 2025
