Hidden from public view in the centre of Hyde Park, the new Super Nursery is the fourth to be built on a site that has produced quality plants for The Royal Parks for over 100 years.  

The redevelopment, costing £5million, has a new state-of-the-art Deforche glasshouse at its centre.  While the footprint is 25% larger, by employing the latest technology the growing area has increased by 50%. The new structure promotes higher light transmission, due to larger panes of glass and less aluminum and − employing Deforche Cabrio technology − has a retractable roof. Greatly reducing labour and the need to move plants, it gives phenomenal control over plant growth.

The Deforche 8000m2 glasshouse has 12 growing compartments, 10 with 5472m2 of mobile benching and 13 separately controlled zones. A central corridor houses the control stations, heating controls and irrigation valves for each compartment and can also double up as a production area. One compartment has overhead misting nozzles for propagation and is also fitted with LED grow lights, two compartments are benchless for winter plant storage of tender species such as bananas and tree ferns and one compartment is a roof only for hardening off plants.

RA Merediths London Limited has been the contractor for the eight Royal Parks for 26 years. Under the leadership of Mike Jones, nursery manager for the past 26 years, this single site produces over 500,000 bedding plants as well as small shrubs and semi-tropical plants annually.  The plants are destined for Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, St James Park, Regents Park, Richmond Park, Bushy Park, Greenwich Park and Green Park as well as the front of Buckingham Palace, the gardens at Downing Street and the Brompton Cemetery.  

Each of the eight Royal Parks has an Assistant Manager, responsible for designing the planting schemes. Plans are submitted twice yearly, 1 September and 1 February, for a total of 300 beds with a growing list exceeding 1000 varieties.  Meticulous scheduling by assistant nursery manager Molika Wenceslaus is key as all the plants for a single bed are dispatched together on Danish trolleys on a pre-agreed date, to fit in with each park’s planting programme.

“When I arrived in 1992 we relied on Levington professional growing media and it is testament to its continuing quality that we still do today,” says Mike.  “Obviously over the years we’ve tried other mixes but have remained loyal to Levington as it consistency delivers – it does what it says.”

Due to planning restrictions, the new glasshouse is the same height as the previous structure.  While physically impossible to accommodate big bale machinery, the existing mobile potting equipment continues to work well on the new nursery.  

“The potting machinery is highly portable and suits our busy production programme with so many varieties and pot sizes,” explains Mike. “We simply move the potting machine around the glasshouse, taking it to where it is needed. With so many start dates and different species we aim to get ahead of ourselves filling pots when we have down time on the nursery.  We take delivery of Levington Advance M1 Pot & Bedding in 75l bags, which can be easily moved around the site.  This system continues to work really well for us.”

The Royal Parks follow a peat reduction programme, which is being rolled out over its whole operation and continues to evolve. 

“We are constantly reviewing our options and assessing our needs for the future,” says Mike.  “Richmond Park is a SSSI, so plants destined for this park are already grown peat free. We are currently trialing the new Levington Advance Sustain peat free pot and bedding (product) – we trust ICL to supply a good consistent product - a good combination of quality peat alternative raw materials, which look and feel right for us.”

In close proximity to underground rivers and culverts, the nursery relies on an underground water supply.  “We don’t harvest rainwater or use any mains water,” explains Mike.  “Three large underground water storage tanks, with a capacity in excess of 90cu m, supply all our irrigation needs.

“We have to be on the ball in regard to costs. ICL’s precision nutrition software tool AngelaWeb 2.0 helps us analyze our fertilizer programmes taking in to account our hard water.  It’s useful to revisit this from time to time, take a new water sample for analysis and tweak our feeding programme as necessary to maximise efficiency.”

For 12 years the team has relied on the Peters Excel for hard water range.  “Water soluble fertilizers give us the flexibility to react to weather and crop demand,” Mike explains. “Due to the extremely high purity and quality of the Peters product it reacts very quickly and it’s formulation considers water quality for added efficacy.   

“To ensure our hanging basket give the desired results over the season, we employ easy to use Osmocote Exact controlled release tablets.  Once it’s in, it’s job done.”

The team also plans to use ICL’s H2Gro Liquid to aid water management.

 “While reducing the time between watering, and avoiding dry edges, it makes water soluble fertilizers more readily available,” says Mike. 

“ICL provides excellent service - we find the technical and support staff very helpful, the products are spot on and the service is quick.   We are confident deliveries will arrive when scheduled so we won’t be left high and dry.  If the relationship didn’t work we wouldn’t keep going back.”