In 1864 Edwin Hillier bought a small nursery and flower shop in Winchester. He, and his grandson Harold Hillier after him, steadily grew the business, investing in land to develop their production capacity of top quality trees, shrubs and hardy plants.

Today the company has grown beyond all recognition with two tree nurseries, a wholesale production nursery and fourteen garden centres in the Midlands and the south of England.

The wholesale nursery is the largest tree and plant nursery in the UK- what is its size and how many varieties do you stock?

The Wholesale hardy plant nursery covers over 50 acres in Ampfield, producing around 2 million plants in pots from 2 litres to 30 litres for sale to UK garden centres.

The Amenity nursery comprises two tree nurseries: the 500 acre Andler’s Ash nursery has over half a million open-ground trees across 150 species in production at any one time; whilst Broadmead tree nursery produces 20,000 trees a year in containers up to 1,000 litres in volume on 75 acres.

We also have two Cash and Carry sites at Ampfield and Sunningdale, supplying trade customers such as local authorities, landscape contractors, landscape gardeners, house builders and garden designers. 

How would you describe Hillier Nurseries?

Hillier Nurseries is a proudly British nursery with an established reputation for quality, excellence and innovation. Our staff are passionate about what they do, and that shows in the product. It is a huge team effort that has been rewarded with 65 consecutive Chelsea Gold medals to date, the accolades of ‘International Grower of the Year 2010’ and ‘UK Grower of the Year 2010’ amongst numerous others, and many prestigious contracts most notably to supply the trees for the Olympic Park.

What are the most popular ranges that you supply to garden centres?

We specialise in top quality, good garden plants including A-Z, promotion and specimen feature plants for instant impact.

Hillier are launching a Meadow Seed Mix to help bees and butterflies. Tell us about the Natural Choice range.

Meadow Anywhere is a seed mix of native wildflowers and grasses, developed with Habitat Aid, a social enterprise promoting conservation charities and British plants.  50p from every sale goes to Butterfly Conservation and 50p to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

What new ranges are Hillier presenting at the Chelsea Flower Show this year?

Acer palmatum ‘Marlo’ is a superb new Japanese maple with deeply lobed leaves, dark green in the centre conspicuously edged with pink.  The colour becomes more intense during spring and autumn.  One of the most vibrant new maples available, this new cultivar, although similar to Acer palmatum ‘Taylor’, has more strongly variegated foliage and is more reliable in the garden.  Hardy throughout the British Isles; height and spread after 10 years: 1.5mx1.5m.

Acer palmatum ‘Shania’, a beautiful small tree of columnar habit, is a sport of the ever popular Acer ‘Bloodgood’.  The deeply lobed palmate leaves are ruby-red, turning rich crimson in autumn.  Conspicuous winged red fruits appear in late summer.  Hardy throughout the British Isles; height and spread in 10 years: 4mx2m.

Exochorda ‘Niagara’ is an excellent new form of exochorda with a graceful compact habit.  Masses of pearl buds open to a flood of pure white flowers during the spring, creating drama in the contemporary container or as a delightful addition to the border.  Hardy throughout the British Isles; flowers in April-May; height and spread in 10 years: 1mx1m.

We are also exhibiting Hillier premium container trees as a trade exhibit for the first time.

The Hillier Gardening Club has been incredibly successful since it was started in 1990. I understand that it now has over 250,000 enrolled members and runs a programme of gardening holidays, workshops and events. Please tell us more about the various activities.

The Hillier Gardening Club Magazine is mailed to members three times a year, packed with practical articles, design ideas, information on the latest plants, workshops and holidays, offers and promotions.  Every issue of the club magazine features a prize crossword.  These fiendish puzzles have gained a large cult following and there are some fantastic prizes to be won.

We hold Gardening Club workshops at the garden centres and the Hillier Gardening Club holidays are very popular.  All of our trips are bespoke and organised specifically with our members in mind.  Gardening club members are sent periodic special offer leaflets and occasional member discount days.

What are your main concerns in this current economic climate? Have you changed your business strategy?

As a retail business, and a supplier to garden retailers, our main concerns are lack of growth in turnover accompanied by escalating costs in operation.  The housing market has slowed the demand for ornamental planting but we continue to encourage gardeners and win new business. 

Our strategy has not really changed: we are very focussed on what we are good at, which is growing and selling good quality British-grown trees and plants for UK gardens. We have maintained the profile of gardening in our centres, but at the same time we have expanded our catering operation through the development of our own high quality coffee shops. In February this year, we launched our flagship, eco-friendly store in Eastbourne at an investment of £3 million - and so far, so very good!   

What is your general opinion on the future of the garden industry, given the economic climate?

Britain is a nation of gardeners and will continue to be.  In recent years the focus has been very much on grow your own.  It is now up to us to encourage gardeners to fall in love with ornamentals again and appreciate their value in enhancing our environment.  Our objective is to make people ‘Feel Good about Gardening’, and so we have taken this as the subject of the Hillier Exhibit at Chelsea this year.

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