Dr makes money from plant breeding

3:44pm Thursday 26th April 2001

BOTANY expert Dr Jack Ellis has featured in the national papers after he put his knowledge to good use and created a Pink Panda.

Retired Dr Ellis, of Well End, near Bourne End, created the world's first pink-flowering strawberry plant in the early 1990s and was featured in an article in a Sunday newspaper on making money from plant breeding.

"I breed various plants as a hobby now," explained 69-year-old Dr Ellis.

"But my research was centred on evolutionary relationships between species.

"How different species evolved and how they differ depending on where they are geographically."

The former University College, London, lecturer of 25 years still dabbles in plants and said even though the Pink Panda plant has had global success, the revenue is not that much of a financial gain.

He said: "It just covers expenses really. It depends on how far you go with it.

"I spent £2,000 on a greenhouse, then pots and compost.

"Where do you stop?"

The Pink Panda has sold well over one million plants since it was first launched in 1993.

It was created by combining a basic strawberry plant with foreign genes.

Dr Ellis said: "It was chromosomal engineering, not genetical.

"The Pink Panda is an ornamental strawberry plant and it flowers almost all year round."

His three children have gone on to become zoologists and Dr Ellis joked: "I think they saw too many plants at home.

"No, they have always had an interest in animals and particularly fish, as they had them when they were younger."

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