How we choose what to stock

We grow about a third of what we sell. Here is what happens to the other two thirds before it reaches the bench.

People assume a garden centre buys a catalogue and puts it out. Some do. We would rather tell you how ours actually works, because it explains why we sometimes do not have the thing you saw on television last week.

Grown here

Roughly a third of the plants on site were propagated in our own houses, mostly the perennials, the herbs, and anything we can take cuttings from. Those are the plants we know the history of, and they are the ones we will replace without an argument if they fail in the first year.

Bought in

The rest comes from four nurseries, three of them within seventy miles. We visit each of them at least twice a year and we buy standing crops rather than lists, which means we have seen the plant in the ground before it has our label on it.

What we will not stock

Anything sold as hardy that is not hardy here. Ludlow gets colder than the label writers in the Netherlands seem to think, and a plant that dies in its first February is not a bargain at any price.

We also will not stock peat, and have not since 2022. The compost on the pallet outside is a bark and coir blend made forty minutes away.