York florist Jacob Verhoef, of Dutch Nurseries, Haxby, dies

Jacobus ‘Co’ Verhoef, a Freeman of Haxby who was once one of the biggest horticulturalists in the region, died at his home on Moor Lane, Haxby, on July 4.

Affectionately known across York as Mr Haxby, his life will be celebrated by family and friends on Monday, August 17 at Haxby Memorial Hall.

Jacob Verhoef, pictured here as a younger man, has died, aged 97. (Image: Family photo)

Born on May 18, 1929, and raised in Aalsmeer, the Dutch flower capital of the world, Jacob – as his friends knew him – left school at 14 to work in a nursery while studying horticulture at evening college.

At 23, he gained his degree at Utrecht and successfully answered an advertisement to manage a nursery in England – despite not speaking English.

He came to York in 1952, arriving at Southlands in Haxby to manage the Hollandia Nurseries.

He previously told The Press that his English was limited to ‘sweetheart’ and ‘umbrella’, admitting that they weren’t the most helpful words to know.

Jacob Verhoef, photographed in Haxby in 2010. (Image: The Press)

However, he won over the team at Hollandia Nurseries with his horticultural brilliance, making the estate flourish along with its flower shops in Church Street, York, and on a site in Davygate later occupied by Bettys tearooms.

Jacob met his future wife Audrey at New Earswick Dance Hall on July 4, 1953. He and his bride launched Dutch Nurseries in 1957 and lived in a caravan on the site for four years.

They went on to buy four-and-a-half acres of wetland consisting of 28 allotments, and by 1970 more than half of the site was filled with glasshouses.

The couple also acquired a packing shed to handle the 10,000 carnations he cultivated each day, bound for wholesalers all over Yorkshire and the North East.

Audrey and Jacobus Verhoef, right, with their staff outside The Dutch Nurseries at Haxby in 2007. (Image: The Press)

During the Arab oil crisis in the early 1970s, Jacob diversified into a garden centre, later setting up what he called The Bargain Centre, selling second-hand garden tools and government surplus stock.

By 1985, the glasshouses were ageing, and he sold the land for building to Evans of Leeds, who in turn sold it on to Barratts Builders, which built retirement flats there.

Jacob Verhoef, selling his florist shop in Haxby back in 2010. (Image: The Press)

Within the complex, the couple had two shops built, and one of them became the Dutch Nurseries Flower Shop, which he later sold in 2010 as he was facing major surgery, aged 81.

“Selling it after 53 years means the end of an era, but all good things must come to an end,” he said at the time.

Jacob’s decades of public service and community spirit, including volunteering his time to tend to the all-year-round colourful floral display at the junction of Wigginton and Moor Lane, led to him being formally granted the honour of Freeman of Haxby in 2015.