Steve Lyus is a committee member of the RHS Rhododendron, Camellia and Magnolia Group, and a Camellia Show Judge. He retired in 2009 from a lifetime working in the computing industry, and moved to the Wirral to create a garden for the many ericaceous plants he had propagated over the previous years. He volunteers at Ness Botanic Gardens, helping the botanist manage the gardens and collections there.

Steve found out, by chance, about Liverpool's amazing Botanic heritage, and was shocked to hear in 2014 that the remnants were about to be sacrificed silently on the altar of council budget cuts. Ever since then he has continued his research. and now talks to as many societies as he can to promote the existence of what is still left. There is a Gateacre connection, because William Shepherd - minister of Gateacre Chapel - was one of the founders of the original Botanic Garden over 200 years ago.