The best independent garden centres to visit this spring

Telegraph

14-03-2025

Our gardening habits are shifting, and so too is the way we are shopping for our outdoor spaces. The recent news of widespread closures of garden centres owned by national chains including Homebase and Dobbies is perhaps not surprising to gardeners with a planet-friendly philosophy, who generally don't want to see endless shelves of harmful, wildlife-depleting chemicals or incongruous lifestyle collections when shopping for plants.
Instead, we want plants and accessories that echo how tastes have evolved – and those tend to be available from independent businesses, some family-run, others recent start-ups, and often helmed by those with a passion for plants. The garden centre is still a destination for many of us, especially over the next couple of months, as we get our gardens ready for the new season, but we will be spending time in stylish nurseries where the shop and café is as much of a draw as the stellar plant list.
Beth Chatto Plants & Gardens, Essex
Beth Chatto's trail-blazing gardens at Elmstead in Essex are adjoined by a bustling café, shop and plant nursery. As with its excellent online service, the quality of plants and advice here is second to none; plants are arranged following Chatto's well-worn philosophy of 'right plant, right place', with areas organised by their conditions. Surrounding the nursery are her famed gardens, where you can see that philosophy come to life in themed borders. Plants are propagated on-site from seeds, cuttings and divisions. bethchatto.co.uk
Great Dixter House & Gardens, East Sussex
As with Beth Chatto, you will find top-quality plants, propagated on site, that closely reflect the surrounding gardens at this superb nursery. Plants are grown in a loam-based compost blended in house so that plants get the best chance when transferred to borders. Founded by Christopher Lloyd in 1954, the nursery is also a charming place to while away an afternoon with shops (selling tools, seeds and hand-crafted accessories including chestnut hurdles, also made on site) close to the garden's café, where you can get delicious salads and sandwiches. greatdixter.co.uk
Burford Garden Company, Oxfordshire
Alongside the well-stocked selection of plants, shrubs and trees, there's a sprawling mecca of areas to browse in this Cotswolds stalwart: a fabulous and huge bookshop, acres of home and garden shopping and an unrivalled space for indoor plants and pots (with a huge selection of Bergs Potter designs) and beautifully styled, ready-made indoor planters and orchids. Alongside it all there is a busy (and award-winning) café and food halls. Originally opened in 1976, this family garden centre is as inspiring as it is joyful. burford.co.uk
Long Barn, Hampshire
A beautiful and stylish garden centre, Long Barn is spread across two barns and adjoining lavender fields with more than 100 varieties, including the National Collection of Lavandula x intermedia. There's a bright and airy café and a fabulous lifestyle shop that sells pots and planters, ornaments, Niwaki tools and gifts, alongside larger items including outdoor furniture and parasols. It also offers fresh flower deliveries using local seasonal flowers from Hampshire-based growers Hortus Poeticus. longbarn.co.uk
O'Kells, Cheshire
This independent garden centre has two sites, one in Tarporley and a recently-added, smaller neighbourhood site in Hoole to cater for a younger, more urban audience. This is browsing heaven, with stylish collections of accessories and homewares alongside an extensive selection of plants (O'Kells was a wholesale grower before it ventured into retail), including topiary. Both sites also have popular cafés. okellsgardencentre.co.uk
Daleside, Yorkshire
This family-owned garden centre has been growing and selling a wide variety of plants including perennials, climbers, shrubs, trees, conifers and rhododendrons since the 1950s, and the nursery now spans 20 acres. There's a garden shop with pots, houseplants and accessories, and the on-site restaurant, Paradise, serves seasonal dishes from a previously Michelin-starred team. dalesidenurseries.co.uk
Petersham Nurseries, Richmond
Arguably the original destination nursery, Petersham has a famed restaurant, a more informal tea room that segues into greenhouses, and expansive shopping areas packed with the most stylish selection of horticultural accessories alongside homewares and antiques. It set the bar for the garden lifestyle shop, and its signature details – bare hoggin floors, shabby-chic greenhouses, antique garden furniture and naturalistic details (including tree-stump tables) – are widely copied across the country, and beyond. petershamnurseries.com
David Austin, Shropshire
This ever-popular nursery may be best known for its riotous rose gardens, but alongside those there is also one of the biggest collections of potted roses here, as well as perennials and climbers. There are rose experts on hand and seasonal workshops on rose pruning and care. There's also a restaurant serving lunch and afternoon tea, as well as a shop. davidaustinroses.co.uk
Architectural Plants, West Sussex
This specialist nursery in West Sussex is set within 32 acres overlooking the South Downs – a big backdrop to its dramatic sculptural and exotic plant selections that span topiary, palms, bananas and many rare trees, much of which is grown on site. You will find all the kit for sale too, including tools, tripod ladders, pots, irrigation and other accessories. There's also a well-established design and planting service. architecturalplants.com
Holden Clough, Lancashire
This almost century-old nursery in the beautiful Ribble Valley has dramatically expanded over the past decade under horticulturalist and grower John Foley, whose family first took over in 1978. Plants are propagated and raised outside in growing fields on site, so they should cope with the toughest conditions. The nursery stocks fruit trees, shrubs, perennials and topiary alongside perennials, bulbs and annual bedding, which is all laid out in the original Frame Yard with its 1920s growing frames. Via their Wonder Garden project, the team will tailor-make garden borders and ship all the plants. There are extensive areas of interior accessories, indoor plants, tools and seeds, along with a busy café and workshops. holdenclough.com
Place for Plants, Suffolk
Rupert and Sara Eley took over this fourth-generation garden in pretty East Bergholt in 1995, and opened a nursery the following year. Set across 20 inspiring acres, there are large collections of camellias, rhododendrons, magnolias, flowering dogwood and rambling roses, and an arboretum (there are often open days and garden tours here too). The extensive nursery is sited in the two-acre walled garden, which also houses a café with seating indoors and out. placeforplants.co.uk
Hillier, Hampshire
Visitors to the Chelsea Flower Show will be familiar with Hillier's fabulous displays: it is the most successful exhibitor, with 74 consecutive gold medals. The company, which was founded in 1864, is also a royal warrant holder for ornamental trees and shrubs. The fifth-generation family business now has 22 centres, but the original site is in Winchester, close to the growing fields; it is the largest grower of semi-mature trees in the country. The nursery's plant offering reflects that, with huge variety, including the many favourites that have been introduced by the company's breeding programme over the years. hillier.co.uk
Old Court Nurseries, Herefordshire
Almost all the plant stock is propagated on site and potted using peat-free compost at this family-run nursery in the stunning Malvern Hills. There's no café here, but there's a one-and-a-half-acre garden with woodland and herbaceous borders that is also home to the National Collection of Michaelmas daisies, with more than 400 varieties blooming through September and October, which makes this a destination for plant lovers. oldcourtnurseries.co.uk
Cambo Walled Garden, Fife
The 2.5-acre walled garden is reason enough to visit the glorious Cambo estate on the stunning east coast of Fife. There's almost year-round interest here, from the National Collection of snowdrops through the transporting prairie planting that lights up the borders in late summer and autumn, and the stellar planting also inspires the imaginative selection of plants for sale. The excellent on-site café serves seasonal vegetarian and vegan food. cambogardens.org.uk
Wildegoose Nursery, Shropshire
The perfectly positioned tea room (serving cakes and light lunches on Burleigh pottery) at this charming plant nursery in the Shropshire Hills gives far-reaching views from the vibrant planting across the inspiring borders and to the bucolic surrounding countryside. Set in a restored Georgian walled garden complete with renovated curvilinear glasshouses, the nursery began life specialising in hardy perennial violas but has since diversified into perennials and grasses of the new perennial movement, which is where the planted borders here take their inspiration. Almost all of the plants are propagated on site from seeds, cutting and divisions without the use of any herbicides or pesticides, and using peat-free compost. wildegoosenursery.co.uk
Duchy of Cornwall Nursery, Cornwall
This destination garden centre was originally a slate quarry and started out supplying forest trees in the 1960s, becoming a plant nursery the following decade under the leadership of plantsman Eric Baker. The plant list is extensive but also reflects the particular conditions of Cornwall, which has a mild maritime climate that is perfect for growing all sorts of rare and tropical plants that came to the country with the plant hunters of the 19th and 20th centuries. Plants are no longer propagated on site but brought in from many local growers. There is a stylish shop and a large selection of pots here – a nod to the King's own obsession with terracotta vessels. A big draw is the café and the newer Orangery restaurant, where lunch and afternoon tea are served.