Percy Thrower

Percy Thrower was determined from an early age to be a head gardener like his father, and worked under him at Horwood House for four years after leaving school.

He lived in the bothy at Windsor, along with twenty other improver gardeners and disabled ex-servicemen who were employed on full wages.

The couple received a wedding gift of a set of Burslem china dishes from Queen Mary.

For many years, Percy Thrower was the leading face and voice of British gardening on television and radio.

Godfrey Baseley, the presenter of a Midland regional BBC radio programme, Beyond the Back Door, recognized Thrower's enthusiasm and talents, offering him a regular slot.

He gained national recognition known through presenting these programmes and regularly hosted Gardeners' World from 1969 until 1976.

Although Ferdinand said he had no knowledge of the events, as the discussion continued he eventually joked that he had "helped (them) over the wall"; the next day, he was approached by a tabloid journalist bearing pictures of a sobbing Thrower, telling Ferdinand they were intending to put his "confession" on the front page.

In the 1960s, Thrower, a habitual pipe smoker, was asked by the radio producer Tony Shryane to provide sound effects for The Archers.

In 1970, in partnership with Duncan Murphy, he bought the firm of Murrell's of Shrewsbury[11] and turned it into the Percy Thrower Garden Centre.

He retired in 1974 from the post of Superintendent of Parks at Shrewsbury and started a weekly column for the Daily Mail in 1975.

The BBC dropped Thrower in 1975 when he agreed a contract with Plant Protection, for a series of commercials on independent television.

As a television personality, he appeared with Morecambe and Wise (1971) and Benny Hill, and was featured in a This is Your Life programme in 1976.

They established the Percy Thrower Floral Tours Company, chartering ships for lecture cruises and he was also involved in English Gardening Weekends.

Percy had a succession of black labradors, after duck shooting with his maternal grandfather, who had one as a gun dog.