Green-fingered genius whose Latin telegrams spooked MI5

RAYMOND would start every day with the larks, up early to water his beloved plants. He inherited his green fingers. His family had run a nursery near Waltham Abbey in Essex — he always insisted it was a nursery, never a garden centre — so he had a special relationship with the soil from childhood. Raymond could grow anything and was at his happiest discovering or developing a new variety of plant.

In his eulogy, the gardening expert Christine Walkden, who was a good friend, said Raymond had the ‘ propagation skills to root a broom handle, if he set his mind to it’!

He was greatly respected among horticulturalists. The plants he developed include Plectranthus ‘Hill House’, Plectranthus ‘ Sasha’, Crocosmia ‘Krakatoa’, Dianthus ‘ Old Mother Hubbard’, Dianthus ‘Little Miss Muffet’ and, best known of all, Nemesia ‘Bluebird’ ( right), which has sold over 15 million plants all over the world.

His skills brought him some unlikely attention, though. Back in the Sixties and Seventies, he introduced the idea of biological control — the use of ‘good’ pests to eat the bad and avoid pesticides — into commercial use.

He corresponded with experts in Russia by telegram, using Latin plant and insect names. At one point his messages were intercepted by MI5, who, thinking they had stumbled on a secret code, investigated him.

Raymond and I met because I was told by a friend ‘you must go to this marvellous nursery’. It was 1999, his first wife had died and he’d moved to Devon. I got chatting to this funny kind man who had such a passion for what he did.

His generosity was legendary. He often gave away plants to those starting out, and was always ready with advice. He wanted to pass on everything he knew to the next generation. His son Matthew now runs the nursery and tends his gardens. Raymond had such a full life and had a wealth of hilarious stories. He would recount how during his National Service he did a parachute jump in the dark and landed on the padre, who then offered him a wine gum. That was vintage Raymond. Raymond died suddenly and it was such a shock to all of us who knew and loved him. It was a huge loss to the industry and to his family. His name will live on in the plants he bred and shared with so many.

Raymond Hubbard, born march 19, 1933, died February 7, 2018, aged 84.