Obituary for Peter Catt (1936-2025)
Peter Catt worked with plants from leaving school at 15, working market stalls with his father selling their produce and plants, to managing, then owning Liss Forest Plants in 1976. Here he specialised in propagation and meticulous production of often rare and unusual shrubs. He also took to breeding new cultivars such as Spiraea japonica ‘Golden Princess‘ (Lisp) and Choisya ternata ‘Sundance' (Lich) launched onto the market in 1986. There followed other introductions including Caryopteris x clandonensis ‘Hint of Gold' (Lisaura) and Malva x clementii ‘Burgundy Wine'. He also went plant hunting around the world to the far east, USA and South America.
Peter was a great supporter and often host to visits by IPPS, awarded the Rose Bowl for promoting the interests of IPPS and professionalism of propagation and production in 2010. He had a distinguished role at the Royal Horticultural Society including being a judge at shows and chairing the Woody Plant committee. He was awarded the Veitch medal 1998 then the highest accolade of VMH (Victoria Medal of Honour) for his service to horticulture.
I first met him on a visit from horticultural college around 1980 and remember his infectious enthusiasm for plants and his willingness to share priceless knowledge. He later welcomed our local Southern Growers Group on an evening visit where he shared his latest breeding work.
Tim Lawrance-Owen