Peter Bunting 

Peter Bunting was the only child of Arthur Eric Bunting (Eric) and joined the firm at the end of the second world war in which he had served as a commissioned officer in the Queen's Royal Regiment. He married Peggy Catherine Hunneyball from Pond Hall, Wix and they had two children, Stephen and Benjamin (Ben), who joined the business in 1967 and 1973 respectively. Peter inherited the firm upon the death of his father, Eric in 1964.

Peter Bunting oversaw a period of great expansion and diversification in the business. By the 1960's the main production of Japanese lilies had been expanded to include tulips, freesias, iris, mushrooms and tomatoes. In 1969 the firm moved from North Station Road, where the land was sold for redevelopment, to Great Horkesley where it built over a period of five years about 5 acres of heated glasshouses and a large complex of other buildings to specialise in the intensive production of Japanese lilies, freesias and tomatoes. 

In the mid 1970's the firm diversified further to include Biological Control of pests on crops. Horticultural production was switched to mainly intensive tomato production at the Great Horkesley nurseries in the 1980's and the biological control techniques that had been developed were employed on the crops there to enable them to be grown without the use of chemical pesticides. 

Other innovations were devised to improve both crop yield and quality and these are covered in the "Horticulture" section. Most of the production was sold direct to local wholesalers with a small quantity going to market, but usually only during a few weeks of the year in peak season when production outstripped local demand.

Several UK and overseas independent Biological Control companies were established by Bunting & Sons to research, produce, develop and distribute biological control and these were operated alongside Bunting & Sons.

Peter and Peggy Bunting retired as partners of the firm in November 1992 but Peter continued working as a valued member of the team "for the love of it", enjoying nothing better than the daily selling of the freshly picked tomatoes before adjourning to the Rose & Crown across the road from the Great Horkesley nursery for "a well deserved pint". 

Sadly, as the 1990's drew to a close, the production of year round high input crops heated by expensive fossil fuels became unviable, as well as uncompetitive against cheap foreign imports and without being able to find any other crops to grow profitably, the firm ceased glasshouse crop production at the end of 2000. Since then in light of changes in the economic climate generally the firm has been considering and planning what the best long term solution would be for the site to continue the family business in the local community.

Peter Bunting continued to take a keen interest in the business right up to his death on 6 August 2005 and was always a source of encouragement to the partners in their endeavours to diversify and develop the business for the long term. Peter's tenure of the business represents the final chapter in the "Past" section of this overview. However, this is far from the end of the story. 

The business has strengthened and more diversification has followed under the tenure of Peter's two sons, Stephen and Ben who for the the last decade or so have been joined by Daniel, Kate and Hector (the sons and daughter of Stephen) and Tom, (the son of Ben).