A dedicated gardener who still growing strong at the grand old age of 90 has no plans to give up his prize-winning ways.

Raymond Cardy, of Saunders Avenue, Braintree, officially celebrated his 90th birthday on Friday with friends and family but has already enjoyed many birthday celebrations this week.

The great-grandfather, who is originally from Cornish Hall End, still enters his roses in The Finchingfield and Cornish Hall End Horticultural Society exhibitions, as he has done for the past 60 years.

On Monday members of the society presented him with a birthday cake, and Mr Cardy described previously receiving the society’s Rose Bowl for his 50 years of service as one of his proudest moments.

He still tends to his roses and spends about an hour a day in the garden.

He said: “I have no plans to stop and I still do it to the best of my ability.

“Where there is a will there is a way and I still find a way of doing it.

“I am not Superman, but I think it is the open air, I have been in open air all my life and I think that is what has kept me going.”