Topline Broadhurst, who has died aged 95, was one of the venerated gardening writers who in the 1960s, 70s and 80s inspired householders to make their own space, of whatever size, as attractive as the gardens of stately homes. Though he was christened Creighton Broadhurst, to myriad gardeners in Britain he was always Topline, his nickname, which came from the call signal he used during the second world war when commanding motor gunboats.
The only child of George Broadhurst, a Lloyd’s underwriter, and his wife, Vera (nee Leins), he was educated at Charterhouse school and was also briefly a Lloyd’s underwriter before the war began. After demob, he had another spell in the City, but found it boring, and decided to become a dairy farmer, buying a small farm at Staverton, near Ashburton, Devon.
It was here that he began growing roses, and it was on these that he built his reputation. He produced leaflets with useful tips on successful rose-growing – such as the importance of applying potash before the end of September, and how essential “blood, fish and bone” is in spring – and placed them in garden centres. This led in the early 60s to a slot on Westward TV, the Plymouth-based south-western television company.
When Westward lost its franchise in 1981, Topline had his own programme on local radio, and in 1982 joined Central TV’s Gardening Today, presented by Cyril Fletcher. He also had a syndicated newspaper gardening column.
I met him in the mid-80s on a press trip to Portugal (for the launch of a new lightweight hover mower) and was immediately attracted by his charm, his voice and height. It would have been a field day for an astrologer, for he and two other gardening writers in the group, Rosie Atkins and Roddy Llewellyn, shared the same birthday.
Topline was the characteristic voice of Westward TV – “soothing and agreeable”, wrote one reporter: “Many West Country folk over a certain age smile with fondness when his name is mentioned.”
He is survived by his second wife, Kitty, whom he married in 1981; a son, Christopher, and daughter, Sarah, from his first marriage, which ended in divorce; and four grandchildren, Creighton, Katherine, Julia and Philippa.
