About us

We are Walberton Nursery (founded in 1973 by David Tristram), Binsted Nursery (founded in 1978 by Rosemary Tristram) and Fleurie Nursery (founded in 1986 by Chris and Martine Tellwright), nestled between the South Downs and the southern coastal plain in West Sussex.

All three businesses are now led by Mike Tristram with Managing Director Marc Jones and Directors Martin Emmett and Steve Carter.

Together with Toddington Nurseries, we form The Farplants Group – a cooperative of businesses supplying over 2000 varieties, worth more than £50 million retail.

Walberton, Binsted and Fleurie Nurseries operate across almost a dozen sites in the local area and employ 115 permanent members of staff, who with seasonal helpers, grow 7.5 million plants a year to sell through Farplants to garden retailers up and down the country.

 After working for Guinness in Ireland for 20 years David Tristram decided to come back to Sussex and start a nursery business. His family had long been interested in plants and his father, who worked in Stoke-on-Trent during the second war lecturing on gunnery, found and introduced Helleborus niger ‘Potters Wheel’. So it’s not surprising then that David also wanted to breed and introduce new plants.

 In 1973 David bought John Walbrugh’s 6-acre Homestead nursery. The site was given to John after his war service by the Land Settlement Association. John was from South Africa and had been partially blinded when clearing up anti-personnel bombs in Italy at the end of the war but had recovered enough sight to run a small tomato nursery. He had also developed an interest in and grown a collection of ornamental conifers.

In 1972 John had been a founder member of a cooperative group called Fargro Plants (later to become The Farplants Group) started and run by Edward Back to grow garden plants for sale to the new ‘Garden Centres’.

 The cooperative idea attracted David and he worked the nursery with John for a year before John’s eyesight became too bad and he had to retire. His place was taken in 1974 by a young man called Tim Crowther who worked with David as the Nursery Manager for 38 years until his retirement in 2012.

 During this time the nursery was able to use its profits to quintuple its size to over 30 acres by purchasing additional land from its neighbours; building new glasshouses, polytunnels and outdoor growing beds; making a lorry loading bay; drilling a 350’ deep borehole for water; and constructing micropropagation laboratories. Through most of this development work we have also been lucky to have the engineering and practical skills of Steve Forrest who has been with us since 1977.

Binstead Nursery

Binsted Nursery was founded in 1978, as a partnership including Rosemary and David Tristram, to grow garden plants for wholesale to retailers, starting with herbs, alpines and bulbs, as part of the Farplants co-operative. It had started with Rosemary and her friend Janet Whiting growing some herbs to sell to raise funds for repairs to Binsted Village’s 12th-century church, at a ‘Herb Festival’ including recipes and produce. The venture was so successful they decided to become professional herb growers, starting the Binsted Nursery site in a nearby field. It also led to the formation of the village’s traditional Strawberry Fair at which donated Binsted herbs and other local produce continue to be sold for charity.

 Mike Tristram joined Rosemary and David in the business in 1989, soon after which Rosemary retired to spend more time with family. From the 1990s Mike, together with Paul Bennett as General Manager and Martin Emmett in product development, worked to grow the business.

 In 2001, construction of a new purpose built garden plant site commenced at Lake Lane, Barnham. In the 20 years to 2015, production had grown from 300,000 to 3,000,000 plants a year, and had diversified to include perennials, garden succulents and autumn container plants.

 In 2015, the model facilities at Lake Lane were enhanced with a reservoir and flood-pond, and in 2016 a cooling shed for bulbs. In that year also, Marc Jones became joint Managing Director of both Binsted and Walberton Nurseries, and the businesses entered a new phase of development as part of a larger venture.

 Feurie Nursery

Chris and Martine Tellwright started Fleurie Nursery in 1986 by renting 1.2 Hectares of land on a County Council smallholding in Barnham, near Chichester, West Sussex. Initially crops were grown for sale through the on-site farm shop and there was also some contract growing of nursery stock. In 1988 the shop was closed to concentrate on the wholesale production of liners and finished nursery stock.

 Fleurie Nursery joined the Farplants cooperative in 1991 which led to considerable growth in business and expansion in the range of plants grown for the retail garden centre market.

 The company bought Eastergate Nursery in 1999 (it’s second production site) which added an additional 4 acres of production. The business continued to expand taking on a rented site of 4 acres, and in 2005 purchased Springfield Nursery (fourth production site) adding an additional 2 acres of production. The continuing development of this site has added an additional 3.5 acres of production area. Fleurie now grows on over 13.5 acres in a range of polythene tunnels, heated and cold glass.