TRIBUTES have been paid to an award-winning gardener and devoted member of the Epping Horticultural Society, who has died aged 78.

Richard Collar, known to most as John, won numerous awards and widespread admiration for his allotments and pristine garden, and regularly featured in the pages of the Guardian.

He was so devoted to his hobby that he continued gardening even when he was bound in a plaster cast after breaking his foot, and would sometimes get up as early as 5am to tend to his plants.

Mr Collar was born in Leyton, but spent most of his formative years growing up in Buckhurst Hill.

After completing a stint of national service in the RAF, he became a sales rep at the age of 24, and went on to work for companies such as Huntley and Palmer and McVities.

He moved to Rayfield in Epping in 1957, in the days when the area was surrounded by fields and grazing horses, and quickly made a name for himself with an impressive allotment patch in Crows Road and then later in Meadow Road, winning several accolades from the Horticultural Society and the district council.

He died after contracting pneumonia.

He is survived by his wife Valerie, daughter Zoe, son Richard and granddaughters Victoria, Charlotte, Nicola and Samantha.

Richard Collar, 51, said: “He leaves a massive void in all our lives that will never be filled.”

A funeral service is to be held on Wednesday January 27 at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Epping, before his burial at the nearby Bury Lane cemetery.