Like a gardening superhero, Boyd Douglas-Davies is a man of action who likes to get things done. You may have never heard of him, but Boyd is one of the most prominent figures in the horticultural industry.
He helped to elevate the garden centre business from old-fashioned plant shops to modern stores where everyone, young and old, can enjoy a day out, and during the pandemic, he saved us all from being cooped up indoors after persuading the government to re-open garden centres. He’s also the recently appointed chair of Greenfingers, the charity that makes gardens at children’s hospices.
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On first meeting Boyd, it’s easy to see why he’s been so successful in a career spanning more than 40 years. Boyd knows how to put people at ease, a skill learned from his father when the family lived above their garden shop in Warwickshire.
“My granddad was a seed merchant in Lancashire and Dad followed in his footsteps. We had a group of shops on the high street, with yards at the back stocked with plants, compost and beehives,” he says. “Dad then expanded the business to out-of- town sites near Warwick and Banbury, where he started selling more plants.
t seemed crazy that our industry didn’t mark the start of the gardening year, and I thought a special day would be a great way to celebrate the power of gardening while raising money for charity.
Boyd left school at 16 with eight O levels and a goal to attend nearby Pershore College to study garden centre management. During the second year of this sandwich course, he worked for Richard Hall, retail manager at Webbs Garden Centres and wholesale nursery. “That experience reinforced my love for retail, and during my time there, Richard explained that I would learn more about the industry on the job than at college,” he says. “So I never completed my course, returning instead to my dad’s business, where I worked for the next few years.”
Boyd wanted to take over the family business when his dad retired, but that meant buying out his father’s business partner. “The garden centres were doing really well by the 1980s and I needed a huge amount of money, which was just too daunting in the end.”
Richard Webb, owner of Webbs, had remained in touch, and in 1991, he offered Boyd the job of sales manager at his nursery business. “I spent two years visiting some of the most successful garden centres in the country, while harvesting all their best ideas.” Boyd stayed at Webbs for 20 years, rising through the ranks to become CEO.
In 2011, looking for a change, Boyd left Webbs to start his own chain, Hillview Garden Centres. With his usual determination, he grew the business from one to 11 centres, launching Garden Re-Leaf day along the way. “I got the idea while watching Comic Relief,” he says. “It seemed crazy that our industry didn’t mark the start of the gardening year, and I thought a special day would be a great way to celebrate the power of gardening while raising money for charity, and inspiring more people to visit a garden centre.” To date, the day has raised more than £1 million for his beloved Greenfingers Charity.
I argued that just like supermarkets, we were an essential service selling perishable goods, a message the Government finally listened to a few weeks later when the value of time in the garden had been realised
Alongside the growth of his own business, Boyd’s friends Charles and Robert Stubbs were building the British Garden Centres group and in 2019 they joined forces and became the largest garden centre group in the country. Boyd sold his share but stayed on as communications and plants director, then left in 2024 to set up his consultancy business, The Boyd Partnership.
Never shy to take on other responsibilities, he also served a three-year tenure as president of the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA).
“The role wasn’t supposed to take up too much time, but when the pandemic struck, we were faced with an existential crisis that threatened the whole industry, as garden centres closed and plants perished. It was imperative for us to open again and I argued that just like supermarkets, we were an essential service selling perishable goods, a message the Government finally listened to a few weeks later when the value of time in the garden had been realised.”
Add to his exhausting to-do list his drive to put horticulture on the school curriculum, and to engage more young people in careers in gardening, and you start to wonder how, or if, Boyd ever relaxes. He smiles and says one of his ambitions is to finish the garden he and his wife Sally are creating – a busman’s holiday, perhaps. We all need a Boyd on our side in life, and the horticultural industry is blessed to have this charismatic optimist on theirs.
Useful information
Find out more about Greenfingers Charity at greenfingerscharity.org.uk
