Meet RHS Tatton Park Flower Show 2023 Master Grower Holden Clough Nurseries – a grower from the Ribble Valley
Celebrating the UK’s finest specialist plant growers and nurseries, the RHS Master Grower scheme awards those who go the extra mile, nurturing beautiful, healthy plants, while also taking a sound, skilful and sustainable approach to production. This year it goes to Ribble Valley’s Holden Clough Nurseries.
“If it grows at Holden Clough, it’ll grow (almost) anywhere”
No stranger to the awards circuit, (they’ve won Gold medals at RHS Flower Show Tatton Park, as well as Southport and Harrogate Flower Shows), Holden Clough Nurseries started out as the kitchen garden of Holden Clough House. It became an alpine nursery in the 1920s and was bought by the Foley family in 1978.
For nearly 15 years it’s been run by John Foley and his partner Kate, and is renowned for its huge range of perennials. “If it grows at Holden Clough, it’ll grow (almost) anywhere” is their slogan, and all the plants tough it out in the Growing Field before graduating to the nursery to be displayed in helpful customer-friendly groups.
Ensuring that their plants thrive in their customers’ gardens is vital to the nursery and it informs everything from their approach to growing-on plants in a rugged environment, to how they lay-out the nursery for sales.
Kate says, “We’re set in the beautiful Ribble Valley with rolling hills all around. Our plants are set out by type for you to choose from, with frames full of cottage garden plants, wildlife friendly species, white garden planting or shade-loving woodlanders. This helps educate customers on which plants sit well together and where they will or won’t grow. All our plants are tried and tested for growing well in the northern climate”.
The Master Grower display can be found in the Floral Marquee.
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