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Ray Hulme is a horticulturist and entrepreneur. Born 4th October 1946 in Maidstone, Kent. UK. A direct descendent of the botanist John Ray after whom he takes his name. Ray Hulme was born into a horticultural family with his grandfather being head gardener to the Duckhams Oil empire (now Castrol) and his father being a nurseryman and a journalist to many trade magazines and newspapers.

As a teenager he started his entrepreneurial ways by growing unusual plants and selling them at local markets. In 1964 Ray Hulme completed his horticultural training at the Kent Farm and Horticultural Institute (now Hadlow College) and began working for the family nursery business in Kennington, Ashford, Kent. Having been inspired by the garden center revolution in the USA he turned the business into a retail plant centre and is credited as being one of the claimants who started the first garden centre in the UK.

Whilst the US garden center operations potted up their plants into discarded cans from the food industry(most popular being the 1 gallon ex baked bean can) a system followed slavishly in the UK, Hulme experimented with various other pot materials and persuaded a company producing polythene extrusion to make various sizes of black polythene bags, perforated for drainage. These soon became the popular alternative being easy to store, cheap to purchase and simple to remove without damage to the plants. Rigid plastic pots were also used for the more expensive plants. The development of these other pot materials revolutionised the way growers and garden centres produced and presented plants for sale.

In 1974 the Hulme family purchased a green field site at Hamstreet on the edges of the Romney Marshes and developed a major garden centre business with adjoining supply nursery. The business continued to thrive and when the business was sold in 1989 it included 13 other franchised businesses with the operation. The Financial Times described it as "The premier garden centre in the South East" The centre was known for innovation and was one of the first computerised garden centres, able to produce their own printed labels and bar-coding and having full stock control through sophisticated tills previously only used in large supermarkets.

The company based it's success on an aggressive marketing strategy consolidated by having horticulturally trained staff. Realising that having helpful and knowledgeable staff was was the way forward for the industry in 1989 Ray Hulme started Horticruitment the very first recruitment company for garden centres.

At first, this was viewed with a great deal of suspicion by many employers who had, for generations, employed people purely because they had a passing interest in plants or simply just wanted to work in the open air. As a respected figure in the industry Hulme was able to gain access to many leading companies and convinced them to try his recruitment agency to fill their vacancies. It soon began to show as students from horticultural colleges were quickly snapped up and garden centres became the place to go for solid help and advice on plant selection and gardening problems.

Within five years Horticruitment became the accepted route to find qualified staff and garden centres were acknowledged as becoming as professional as the burgeoning DIY superstores or hypermarkets. Garden centre groups became highly acquisitive and expanded quickly and other recruitment companies became interested in this growing market. In 1999 Ray Hulme was noted as being the fifth most influential person in horticulture in a poll for the Garden centre manager magazine, just one place below the chancellor of the exchequer and above the prime minister!

The company continued to flourish and expanded into recruiting for all areas of horticulture including landscapers, gardeners and florists. In the year 2000 Ray Hulme sold