Would you want to run a plant nursery?

By Victoria Plum

In my last column, I forgot to mention the Reepham & District Gardening Club trip in early July.

About 40 years ago I bought one or two Peter Beales roses from their nursery at Intwood Hall. They moved to a new site at Attleborough, and although I saw the sign every time we drove down that main road I had never visited until the club’s recent coach trip.

Now I see I can buy the business for £1.45 million with an annual turnover of £2.3 million. I don’t know the profit margin or perhaps I might be tempted.

Would you want to run a plant nursery or a garden centre? Think about the difference between the two.

The equation I see is a nursery where you grow many plants for love and struggle in all weathers with hard work or a garden centre where you sell smelly candles, greetings cards (high profit), and coffee and cake, and some plants grown by someone else, with their plant passports.

Anyway, the gardens were lovely with impressive structures holding up torrents of gorgeous roses, as you would expect.

A few years ago, we had a gardening club visit from someone at Peter Beales who showed us slides of the fantastic, award-winning show displays and had cut-price roses for sale.

I was pleased to buy a Ferdinand Pichard for only £5 (usually £15) – what a bargain! I first saw this lovely rose on a visit some time ago to Raveningham Gardens near Beccles. It was one of the originals I had bought on my visit to Intwood Hall and lost in a house move.

We then travelled half an hour down the road to Fullers Mill. The garden is tended by Perennial, a charity that looks after a few gardens, and will eventually look after our own local gem, the Old Vicarage Garden at East Ruston, and also looks after those who work or have worked in horticulture who might need help. If you join Perennial for £30 you can enjoy free entry to their gardens.

Fullers Mill was outstanding, interesting and, with natural plantings, sensitively looked after by friendly and knowledgeable staff and volunteers.

There is too much to describe so please visit for yourself; it’s at Bury St Edmunds. Good tea and cake, but I warn you that there are no smelly candles for sale.

Good luck with your entries for the gardening club summer show on Tuesday 15 August, at 7.30 pm in Reepham Town Hall, Church Street. Go a bit earlier to register your entries.

I see that in November we have a talk about the daylily. Did you know that you can eat the flowers?

I mention this now in case you still have some flowering your garden and you want to try them. I eat them; they taste of sturdy lettuce, and the dark ones are quite spicy. This is safe to do as they are not actually a lily.

Top: Rose arch at Peter Beales. Below: Ferdinand Pichard rose. Photos: Tina Sutton