Scouse Flowerhouse

In Tribute to Donald MacIntyre

Founder of Emorsgate Seeds and Wildflower Seed Pioneer

Together with colleagues at National Wildflower Centre at Eden Project, ex-colleagues from Landlife and current colleagues and allies at Scouse Flowerhouse in Liverpool, we are deeply saddened by the recent passing of Donald MacIntyre, Founder of Emorsgate Seeds and a true pioneer in wildflower seed production.  It’s important to acknowledge his remarkable contribution to British conservation—particularly in promoting carefully selected, ethically-sourced seed mixes, which so many now take for granted.
 
As wildflower seed production becomes increasingly corporate, it is vital to remember the origins, ethics, quality, and dedication of those who built this sector from the ground up.  People like Donald – and others such as Terry Wells, who carried out the first wildflower seed trials in the early 1970s – were working at a time when it was impossible to simply buy wildflower seeds.  You had to collect them yourself.  Donald’s extraordinary dedication and achievements deserve to be recognised by the wider conservation and ecological community.  He did not inherit his farm; he built up his land for wildflower farming and business from meagre beginnings and dedicated wildflower seed collection.  Gill, who worked at Landlife and the National Wildflower Centre for decades, remembers many fruitful and enjoyable phone conversations with Donald, who was always helpful and co-operative.

Indeed, our relationship with Donald, his wife Jane Lippington, and his colleague Richard Brown (along with Albert at Emorsgate) was long-standing and warm.  After the Centre at Court Hey Park, Knowsley was illegally asset-stripped by Boston Seeds, Donald was hugely supportive of efforts to protect the legacy of Landlife and the National Wildflower Centre.  He once drove up to Liverpool at short notice to help us safeguard our assets.  He also joined us at our “National Wildflower Conversation” at Great Dixter in 2018, where we discussed the future of conservation and how to protect this important work – an event which sowed many seeds for future collaboration.
 
Just this last January 2025, he wrote a message of encouragement to Scouse Flowerhouse, saying, “You have done well in creating an organisation that has so soon brought people together and made a difference” after we met at the again at the Citizen Zoo Wilding event in Cambridge.  Such words of encouragement like this from a trusted friend and pioneer make a big difference to our fledgeling co-operative.
 
Donald’s book, Restoring the Wild is a beautiful testament to his deep knowledge and legacy in wildflower conservation, representing a lifetime of effort and inspiration—putting seeds, quite literally, into the hands of so many people, and using them wisely, which of course we always believed in to enable wildflowers to work and thrive.
 
Donald’s love of the British landscape, his empathy, and especially his connection with shire horses, was evident to all who knew him.  His lifestyle embodied his principles, rather like those written about in Small is Beautiful by Schumacher or in the works of George Ewart-Evans.  His farmhouse was simple, beautiful and authentic, with stews always on the go on an old range, and the beams and the well as features, with his focus on the outdoors and the lives he shared his farm with.  He was as surprised as anybody when his relationship to his blind shire horse, whom he loved dearly, went viral after she had a new operation to give her sight as a youngster.  She went on to lose her sight and we saw how she immediately responded to Donald’s voice and lived with her best friend when I visited Donald’s farm in Somerset with my partner in 2015.  Shire horses are also rare these days and Donald put his life and energy to supporting underdogs, with his wonderful dry sense of humour.  Many remember his tales of his beloved sheepdog who was scared  of sheep, which brought much laughter.
Bravo, Donald!

and THANK YOU, on behalf of ourselves and so many people, plants and animals.
 
Thank you also to Jane Lippington and to Donald’s family, with whom we will be remembering his life this coming Friday 12th September together after his funeral.
 
By Richard Scott, National Wildflower Centre at Eden Project, based in Liverpool.  Richard worked as a Senior Project Manager for National Wildflower Centre and Landlife Seeds from the Centre in Court Hey Park and is now based at the World Museum in Liverpool, employed by Eden Project and is a Founder of Scouse Flowerhouse Ltd.  Polly Moseley is Producer at Scouse Flowerhouse Ltd

2019 Eden press coverage of wildflowers