Behind The Scenes

There are four of us who work full time at the nursery with three students who help us in their holidays.  My name is Cath and I am 'the boss' although that is sometimes debatable!  Cath's Garden Plants was set up in 1999 in a small way when we attended two Flower Shows - Gateshead and Shrewsbury - just to dip our toes in the water of the retail sector.  With a Gold medal awarded for our first display at Gateshead we were on our way and things grew 'just like Topsy'.  The nursery has been open to visitors in the walled garden at Heaves since Good Friday 2003 although initially we were not open 7 days a week.  I spend most of my time making sure that the sales area is tidy and plants kept clean and weed free as well as serving and advising customers both in the nursery and at the shows.  I do like to work on the growing and propagating of plants whenever possible.  We are lucky to be able to work in such a lovely environment listening to the birds sing but it isn't quite so pleasant during the colder, wetter weather.  I am also responsible for the marketing and website and so am not always at the nursery every day.

Bob, my husband, is the 'man who knows' as he has over 40 years of knowledge and experience of working with a wide range of plants and also designing and landscaping gardens.  He impressed some colleagues recently whilst we visited Hampton Court Flower Show when he stepped in to help at a busy time and was able to give the customers lots of advice about water plants.  Bob is responsible for the design of all our displays at the Flower Shows creating larger and more innovative exhibits every time.  2009 has been our best year yet for medal awards.  Please see Show Awards for more details.

Andrew also has horticultural training and so he is the person we turn to if Bob is not around.  Andrew spends most of his time at the nursery doing a lot of the potting and other work in the growing area but is also happy to advise customers.  Recently he has been more involved in the building of our Flower Show exhibits working as part of the team and helping to achieve our prizewinning successes this year and also helping with selling at the shows.

Kate prefers to be behind the scenes whenever possible.  Kate has also become more involved in building the Flower Show exhibits with Bob and Andrew, allowing me to stay behind at the nursery as building the exhibits is not one of my strengths.  Kate, a talented photographer, has also been responsible for many of the images on the website.  She works on the nursery and is especially interested in the Barnhaven primroses and is going to be responsible for our display plants in 2011.  

Our student helpers, Stuart, Nicola and Rachel help us in a variety of ways.  We are very grateful that they work as part of our team as we would struggle to fit in everything without their help.