It is sad to read today that the memorial to one of the most famous gardeners of modern times has been vandalised by mindless idiots. Unfortunately, as we are all too aware, it is not just the well known and famous personalities that are targets of this type of mindless behaviour but when it does involve a name like Percy Thrower it highlights the problem. 

Percy Thrower was an inspiration to millions of gardeners who watched his television programmes and read his books. My first gardening book was by Percy and it is still in my collection and, even though my collection of authors has grown over the years, it is still regularly thumbed and a key part of my introduction to gardening. 

Many television gardeners have come and gone since Percy Thrower retired from our screens and hundreds, probably thousands, of books have been written on various aspects of gardening. New ideas and new techniques quite rightly come along but many of those new ideas are based on good gardening basics. Those good gardening basics are what Percy taught. 

Let us hope that the culprits are caught. It would be nice to think that they have a conscience and will feel remorse but that is probably too much to hope for. 

Yobs destroy memorial to gardening legend Percy Thrower By Richard Smith 9/10/2009 The family of former TV gardener Percy Thrower were devastated yesterday after callous yobs wrecked the star’s memorial. Daughter Margaret, 65, who had the bronze bust built in tribute to Percy who died in 1988, visited it on Wednesday to find it smashed up and the flowers torn. Advertisement – article continues below »She said: “Percy would be turning in his grave to think his memorial had been desecrated. It’s so sad and now it will cost a fair bit to be repaired. “Fans visit the memorial in Shrewsbury, Shrops, to remember Percy, who rose to fame on Gardeners’ World and Blue Peter, though it was also vandalised in 2005.Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski pledged a “substantial” reward for the prosecution of the culprits. He said: “We can’t allow things like this to happen.”