Sad news. We have just heard of the death last night of Jim Pearce, former President of the Daffodil Society, who judged the daffodils at Harrogate Spring Show for over forty years. He had recently gone into hospital near his home in Colchester.
The funeral is on Monday 11 February at 11am at Copford Church, leaving from the house at 10:30. Our condolences go to Marion and the family who have requested family flowers only. Donations may be made to the Parkinson’s Society (www.parkinsons.org.uk/).
There is an obituary of Jim by Reg Nicholl on the Daffodil Society website at
http://thedaffodilsociety.com/wordpress/?p=2197
I agree with Jan, we shall never see his like again. He was my mentor too when I was training to be a judge, he never made me feel inferior, he’d just say “come on lass” and off we’d go, round the extremely daunting Daffodil Show at Harrogate. He judged at high speed so you had to keep up, and keep out of the way because he often jumped back to get a better overall view of a class. His knowledge of garden plants was phenomenal, James and I worked with him on his book ‘Gilded Walls – a guide to climbers, wall shrubs and fruit’ which was dedicated to his wife Marion in the year of their diamond wedding, 2005, at which point, aged 80 he was still gardening full time and leaping around like a twenty year old.