Now that the festive period has successfully burned holes in our wallets, many of us are no doubt hoping to ring in the new year with a dash of prosperity. Given the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, the key to a prosperous and happy new year arguably lies in being prepared for every eventuality. This approach has been exemplified by Coles Nurseries – a Leicestershire-based, family-run hardy nursery stock supplier that boasts 600 acres and 100 members of staff.
In the spring of last year (2018), this pioneering business expanded its operations by opening an extra nursery in Market Deeping (near Peterborough). Members of the industry – including growers, buyers, specifiers, designers, and landscapers – were invited to have a look around the new 20-acre nursery at an open day in the autumn.
There, amenity sales manager Gareth Ashenhurst explained to us that the site has put Coles in a better position to meet its customers’ needs. “We are now producing large numbers of amenity-quality plants so we are finding it a lot easier to fulfil orders on short notice – such as 48 hours. So, we are reacting to what our customers want, which is an important thing.”
We learned that the site is largely home to 200,000 five-litre specimen shrubs, which are popular because, say Coles staff, they offer “size, effect and impression” without the larger additional price increase of the bigger 10-litre specimen plant.
Like all trailblazers, Coles has ensured that the Market Deeping nursery is run as efficiently as possible. For example, it has carefully timed its growing operations to make sure that there are groups of plants at different growth stages. This helps Coles to have a continuous supply of stock.
Furthermore, the new nursery has benefitted from investments in innovative technologies and growing methods to reduce its labour requirements. These include a conveyor belt – a system which paid for itself in the first year – that helps transport the young potted plants (grown in an ICL Levington Advanced Sustain compost mix) to the plant beds. Coles staff members (across all its sites) also now top the plant pots up with a wood-based mulch that helps control weeds. Operations manager Ian Edwards says: “This is our first year of mulching and I would say it’s been worth the investment. We’ve saved £50,000 on hand-weeding. You still get weeds, you still have to spray, but it’s worth it.”
Looking at the type of plants Coles is growing at Market Deeping, there are lot of lavenders, ferns, grasses, and hedging plants such as Portuguese laurel (Prunus lusitanica) and Japanese euonymus (Euonymus japonicas). Gareth observes: “I think one of the trends that people are looking for is plants that are uniform and symmetrical.” He adds: “We are also finding that taller sizes are being asked for more and more – 80cm, 100cm, or 120cm+ tall.” Gareth also reveals that Coles is now putting two plants into a pot so that when people are planting up the stock it “looks like instant hedges.”
After visiting Market Deeping, I learned that today’s nursery stock buyers are increasingly requiring last-minute, cost-effective deliveries of plants that add instant greenery and structure to a plot. With this in mind, growers’ new year’s resolution should perhaps be to follow Coles’ lead and prepare for their customers’ needs.