Growing with experience since 1980
T: 01926 842797
E: [email protected]
T: 01926 842797 E: [email protected]
Menu
T: 01926 842797
E: [email protected]
T: 01926 842797 E: [email protected]
Over the years plants have been sourced from our own production as well as nurseries throughout England and Europe, the biggest countries being Holland, Italy, Belgium and France. Our customers are very varied and a delight to deal with and include landscapers, designers, developers, gardeners, hospitality trade, retailers and many other niche users of plants such as wedding venues & holiday properties. View the timeline below to see how our company has developed.
Greenfingers Kenilworth Ltd was formed on 29th February 1980. Prior to that Alan & Bev were both working for other wholesale nurseries but had started to carry out landscaping and garden maintenance to raise money to start their own business.
This continued and 5th February 1981 we opened a shop in Kenilworth which with available land adjoining belonging to the same landlord became a small garden centre and base for the landscaping.
In 1982 we bought the land in Claverdon at auction to develop a wholesale nursery. Initially we had to build everything from scratch. But quickly specialized in growing P9 herbaceous perennials, P9 herbs, P7 alpines along with containerised soft fruit to sell to garden centres. We also grew a wider range of plants including bedding plants and cut flowers to retail at Kenilworth.
1983 saw us exhibit at the Four Oaks Show which bought in many new customers. During the 1980’s we continued to exhibit each year at the ‘Four Oaks’ show but also ‘South West Regional Growers’, ‘Grow Show South’, ‘Scotgrow’ and ‘GLEE’.
In 1987 we sold the lease at Kenilworth ceasing retailing and at the same time ceased landscaping to focus on the wholesale nursery supplying garden centres across the UK.
In the late 1980’s we started to work closely with Dr Hugh Nunn and his wife Liz who bred Helleborus at Harvington. Their Harvington Nursery supplied us with young plants which we grew on. This started with the Harvington Helleborus Christmas Rose gradually expanding to include separate colours of Helleborus orientalis. Production peaked at 60,000 per year. This unique offering helped to open many doors to us.
By the late 1980’s early 1990’s we developed the Country Cottage Brand as a vehicle to promote plant collections in garden centres backed up with big correx boards and other P.O.S. This was very much ahead of its time. At the trade shows a real thatched cottage was rebuilt on all stands to help promote the brand which certainly got us noticed and showed off the brand and plants. As well as Helleborus these specialized plant collections included Tiarella Tiger Stripe a new introduction from the USA in 1998 , Garden Pinks, Delphiniums and Canterbury Bells.
During the late 1980’s early 1990’s our own production expanded and plant sizes increased with P9 and 2 litre herbaceous perennials, P9 alpines and herbs, soft fruit. We also traded more shrub lines from other UK growers and started importing more from Holland. This meant we could offer our customers a much bigger range facilitating regular orders over a much longer period of the year.
About 1992 we started selling Bay Trees in the UK from Gova BV specialist growers in Holland who produced on around 55 acres with plants up to 40 years old. Very quickly we were selling these into garden centres across the UK. Several trips were organized taking groups of customers to see the bay trees growing
In 1994 we started trading with Growforth Ltd in Scotland who did the reverse and distributed our plants in Scotland which worked well for both companies and gave the customers in Scotland a better service than we could from Warwickshire.
In 1999 we were a finalist in the grower of the year awards coming runner up which was quite an accolade as most of the finalists were large companies.
Also, in the 1990’s we ceased production of Heathers and started distributing finished plants from Highland Heathers in Argyll, Scotland. This in turn led to us selling on and distributing specialist plants from other Argyll growers including Rhododendrons and Azaleas from Braevallich Nursery, Meconopsis from Fynne Plants and Clematis and Climbers from Corachie Clematis.
In March 2000 we officially opened the Cash & Carry starting with just 3 beds and 2 tunnels. It expanded from these humble beginnings very quickly. We realized given our geographical location and the increasing costs of supplying garden centres that the Cash & Carry was the way forward for the business with the added benefit that customers paid for the plants at time of purchase.
The Cash & Carry has developed over the years with a loyal customer base. In the earlier years we held an annual party as a thank you to our customers. Then in 2008 we held 3 dutch style sample fairs per year. From this we developed our ‘Plantfest’ events which were very successful and well supported up until 2020 with the arrival of Covid.
In May 2024 Alan & Bev sold the business to Dan & Tracey O’Donnell and their Rosconn Group. Bev has now retired, and Alan is continuing for a transition period. We have many customers who have dealt with us for many years and are very proud to say that our oldest customer has dealt with us since 1980. Thank you, Dave Morris.
