Visit to the Plant Specialist, Great Missenden

We had a good turnout for the June visit. One of the owners, Sean Walter, first told us about the development of the Plant Specialist nursery on the site of old allotments 20 years ago with his business partner, Keith Pounder. The Nursery specialized in growing a wide range of new and unusual herbaceous perennials including many hostas and ornamental grasses.

He then gave us a private tour around his extensive nursery beds. He explained how he propagated plants in his nursery beds then moved them to his stock beds. When he had sufficient and large enough stocks he would then pot up and move plants to the sales area.

He very much enjoys a hands-on approach to selecting, propagating and nurturing plants. He has his own soil mix made especially for him, which is much heavier than most composts and includes topsoil so there are plenty of nutrients for the plants to take off very quickly. He explained that his plant philosophy plus the weight of the soil, meant that they decided not to go down the mail order route.

Over the years they have drilled their own bore hole in the chalk for plentiful water, extended the nursery beds and developed the sales area. They have also re-designed the display area where you can see all his plants growing. We all enjoyed wandering round the beautiful gardens and seeing the plants in situ.

After the guided tour we had refreshments and many of us took the opportunity to purchase some of the wonderful plants.

The Propogating Area

The Display Gardens

The Sales Area