Lecture: Plant Hunters & Pioneers – Caradoc Doy

Monday, 20 November 2023 at 8:00 pm - 9:15 pm

Caradoc Doy is a professional horticulturist, keen gardener and plant conservationist. He grew up in the Exeter area and studied horticulture at Bicton College of Agriculture as a teenager before studying a three-year diploma in horticulture at Pershore College of Horticulture in Worcestershire (1987-1990). A year of his training was spent at the remarkable Bridgemere Garden World in Cheshire, under the visionary ownership of John Ravenscroft. This has been followed by over 30 years working in the nursery and gardening industry in various parts of the country.

Having a passion for plants, plant conservation and garden history has given him a good foundation to research the stories and the histories of plants which has led to the fascinating study into the Veitch Nurseries of Exeter and Chelsea.

After leaving school in 1984, Caradoc was already interested in plants, partly due to the influence of his herb-farming great Aunt Madge Hooper in Herefordshire, where Caradoc was born. He was also keen to learn about operating a business and work in a people-based environment. Quite naturally, he was drawn to working in his local garden centre and at the same took his first horticultural studies at Bicton College of Agriculture. This paved the way for a career in the industry.

He studied a diploma in horticulture (specialising in garden centre management), at Pershore College of Horticulture between 1987 and 1990. His middle year was spent at Bridgemere Garden World which at the time, offered the largest selection of plants in Europe.

Over the best part of the next ten years he took up a number of interesting challenges around the country. This included a marketing role at Blakedown Nurseries, which exposed him to some of the exciting opportunities for introducing new plants into the British garden market as well as the disciplines and challenges that face the nursery industry.

In 1993, he joined Notcutts Nurseries, as a Management Trainee where he was to spend seven years in various garden centre supervisory and management roles. Also during this time he had a spell at Otter Nurseries in Devon as one of their plant advisors.

In 2001 he decided to return to his roots in Devon and started work at his local and well-respected nursery, St. Bridget Nurseries in Exeter. He spent three years as assistant to the Managing Director before leaving to start his own business. Caradoc currently works as a part-time gardening speaker and Veitch researcher and also for a large garden retail business in Devon.