With only weeks to go until the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, British growers are busy preparing their exhibits for the show. For bedding plant nursery Cook's Garden Centre, Chelsea is a staple of the horticultural calendar. We spoke to Paul Cook about the show, the nursery's cooperation with a Dutch hydrangea grower, and what the Brexit will mean for his business.
Cook's gold medal winning stand at Chelsea 2018
Cook's Garden Centre grows a range of both box bedding hanging basket plants and patio plants, producing approximately 4500 hanging baskets for early summer sales and displays. The nursery covers a little over three acres, and with over two acres covered, they've turned production to hardy perennial plants to extend their sales producing around 30,000 plants each year.
"All the plants we grow are for our sales at our garden centre and at open days on our nursery, which is open to the public for five weekends a year", Paul tells us. They raise money for charity on the gate, having raised over £100,000 for local charities all in all.
Paul and daughter Hannah with the 2017 Chelsea stand
Dutch hydrangeas
Along with their own production, Cook's adds forced hydrangeas to their crop, working closely with Hovaria and André van Zoest in Boskoop, the Netherlands. "Plants come in green from André and we finish them to full bloom for all the UK's top flower shows, helping to promote his Royalty Collection range of hydrangeas".
Last year, Cook's nursery sold in excess of 21,000 hydrangeas at the shows. Of those shows, Chelsea is perhaps the most important shop window. "It is the only show we sell mail order," Paul says. "Last year we serviced some 600+ orders. It is also an important window for André van Zoest, as it is here we show his new varieties and through his new company Roco many new varieties are on stream".
Apart from their partnership in Holland, Cook's Garden Centre gets young plants for their production elsewhere too: Syngenta, AllPlant, Walter Blom, Colegrave, Volmary and Fairweather's are among their suppliers.
Chelsea stand 2016
Brexit
Being so internationally oriented, it's no wonder that the UK's pending exit from the EU is an issue for the nursery. "Brexit is a huge problem to us in a number of ways", Paul says.
"Firstly the effect it has had on the value of the pound, making all our plants more expensive. When and if we leave, the increased burden of paperwork etc. will lead to yet more cost." In addition, he points that "the increase in time for the supply chain is also a problem when we are used to just in time delivery. And most recently the delays at the tunnel have caused us untold problems. Basically at the moment we have the perfect system, so whatever changes Brexit brings, they won’t be good ones".
For more information:
Cook's Garden Centre
01299 826 169
cooksgardencentre@yahoo.co.uk
www.cooks-garden-centre.co.uk