The Victorians had a huge passion for collecting plants to fill their homes and gardens. They would pay between ten shillings and hundreds of guineas for seedlings depending on the rarity, just so they could have something new to show off to their friends and neighbours.

Who would have thought that a boy born in a little village near Honiton would grow up to have such an enormous influence in the horticultural world for generations to come.

John Dominy was born in Gittisham in 1816, the fifth son of Erasmus, a labourer and Sarah (nee Richards). After working for five years as a gardener for a private household in Redruth, John obtained a position as a foreman with Messrs Veitch & Son in Exeter. They specialised in introducing exotic trees, ferns, seeds, palms, bulbs, fruit, vegetables, tropical plants into the UK which were collected from all corners of the world and then raised from seed for commercial purposes.

In 1858 John Dominy had created the first ever hybrid orchid named ‘Calanthe Dominii’. The idea was suggested to John by Dr. Harris, a surgeon in Exeter and the process took him four years before his first orchid had flowered. The Exeter Horticultural Society awarded a silver medal to him for perseverance and success with his experiments in hybridisation.

James Veitch transferred the nursery business to a fifty acre site named ‘The Royal Exotic Nursery’ in Kings Road, Chelsea and John became the manager there. John continued specialising in orchids and in total he produced twenty five different varieties of hybrid orchids. He also developed pitcher plants and several hybrid fuchsias including one named 'Dominiana.’

In 1880 the Council of the Royal Horticultural Society awarded him a gold flora medal in recognition of his services to horticulture. On John’s retirement the Society’s President, Sir Trevor Lawrence presented him with a gold watch and a purse of 200 guineas on behalf of subscribers who held him in high esteem and praised his personal qualities and his extraordinary skills in raising and growing orchids. John also mentored John Seden who went on to create over 500 orchid hybrids over 30 years.

In February 1891 John died of pneumonia aged 75 in Chelsea and his wife Susan passed away two weeks later. They are buried together in Higher Cemetery, Exeter.