A Gardeners’ World expert has died aged 67 after being diagnosed with a fatal brain illness.
David JC Austin died at home in Shropshire after being diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, an incurable neurological disorder.
His flower nursery David Austin Roses appeared regularly on Gardener’s World, presented by Monty Don.
Richard, James and Olivia, Mr Austin’s children, said: “First and foremost, Dad was a gardener. That was at the heart of who he was.
“He was kind and modest, with a playful spirit, a sense of adventure and a real enjoyment of life. He carried our grandfather’s vision with humility and an unwavering sense of responsibility, always putting the roses, the family business and its people before himself.”
Born in 1958, Austin joined the family rose business with his father, a revered gardener also named David, in the 1990s.
Beginning his business in the 1950s, the senior Austin’s vision was to combine the colour range and repeated flowering of then-modern roses with the fragrance and growth of older roses.
The younger Austin developed several unique rose varieties in his decades at the helm of the family business – including one for Sir David Beckham at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show.
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