About Howard Nurseries

 Howard Nurseries is one of the country’s largest, wholesale perennial specialists. Established fifty years ago from humble origins our business, like our plants, has grown steadily in the beautiful Suffolk countryside. Over the years we have strived to develop valued and long-term relationships with our customers and suppliers.

 Howard Nurseries was founded as a partnership in 1969.The partners had a dream, many years of practical experience, a few stock plants and half an acre of poor, rented land.

 The nursery has steadily grown and now covers over 150 acres making it one of the foremost perennial producers in Great Britain.

 Not all the land is used for herbaceous perennial production, as a proportion is either fallow or down to agricultural crops as part of a crop rotation programme. The foundation of the company is built upon David’s passion for service, quality and plant range.

 Annual production includes fieldgrown plants as well as 9cm and 2L with a few 5L.

 The plant range is constantly expanding and now stands at approximately 1600 varieties.

 Our fantastic nursery team has around 40 full-time members of staff with additional support from seasonal workers during busy periods. They are the ones who grow and sell the plants and take a personal interest making sure everything looks fantastic when it leaves the site ready for your garden.

 In April 1999 David became the sole owner of the business and since April 2000 has traded as Howard Nurseries Ltd. In 2006 his daughter Christine joined the company and is now Managing Director..

 Field Production

 Our Open Ground team look after around 140 acres of our field-grown, bare-rooted perennials. The plants themselves are planted by either a bare root or module planter or dibbling machine.

 Your smaller bare root orders will be dug manually and larger orders are lifted by machine.

 Weed control is an important part of our production process but so are maintenance of field margins and crop rotation.

 Many of our plants related to species targeted by herbicides which is why we employ tractor and hand hoeing instead.

 We also rotate our fields with arable crops allowing us to use different herbicides to clean the land.

 Irrigation is provided by three boreholes and our on-site reservoir distributed via hydrants.

 Propagation

 We pride ourselves on offering plants which are true to name. We propagate the majority of our own products and a small percentage are brought in as weaned tissue culture plugs which allows us to have complete control over our propagation.

 We operate a strict ‘rogueing’ programme amongst our beds to remove any plants which aren’t true to type. The key to this programme is our propagation team, see right, who are based in our 35m x 33m Cambridge glasshouse. They produce the cuttings and plugs which grow into our stock.

 Our fantastic nursery team has around 40 full time members of staff with additional support from seasonal workers during busy periods. They are the ones who grow and sell the plants and take a personal interest making sure everything looks fantastic when it leaves the site ready for your garden.

Dispatch

 We deliver throughout the UK 12 months of the year and have varying transport options available to cater for all sizes of order.

 Whether it’s a small carrier delivery or a lorry full, our sales team review each order and will always work with you to find the most practical and cost effective delivery option based on your requirements and delivery timescale.

 For more information on delivery costing, please contact our sales team with your requirements.