Thirty thousand of its perennials fringed with trees and hedging are captivating crowds at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show this year, a spectacular contribution from UK nursery Hortus Loci that reveals what a well-tended business with a passion for plants can achieve. Founded from scratch by Mark Straver and Robin Wallis 15 years ago, their 17-acre operation in Hampshire has repeatedly flowered commercially and now has a £7million turnover.

Run by a team of 38 plus a network of sub-contractors, Hortus grows roses, shrubs, and larger perennials on site while its retail Plant Centre offers many of the varieties featured in shows so gardeners can easily display “the look”. Larger bushes and trees – some 30 years old – are also acquired from specialists across Europe. “We’re a one-stop shop offering sourcing, contract growing, delivery and professional planting – a complete garden supply service to both wholesale customers and consumers,” explain the horticultural heavyweights.

As one of the largest suppliers to RHS shows they work with leading designers and landscape architects, including Adam Frost and Joe Swift, to deliver medal winning gardens. For this year’s Chelsea it is supplying plants for gardens showcasing the Eden Project, the South Australian and Western Australia Tourism boards, The Children’s Society and The Woodland Trust. Months of exacting work goes into each show and they’ve learned to thrive on big event pressure. “Chelsea very quickly teaches you that there’s no such thing as no can do,” they observe.

Spotting an opportunity for a specialist nursery they teamed up making their focus high quality plants for the design-led landscaping sector. First supported by £125,000 of private backing and then a £480,000 bank loan that enabled the game changing move of buying their site’s freehold and greater freedom for their ambitious talents.

The post-lockdown trend to get outside in nature has also reinforced the joys of gardening and as a consequence the enduring value and importance of nurseries. Wallis is “the rock” for domestic business while Straver handles the international side where trade with The Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Spain is flourishing and Hortus is a partner in a Barcelona nursery.

During those travels Straver gains insights into one of the biggest challenges facing the sector – climate change and extreme weather. “Seeing what is growing well, what is struggling and availability all help our decision making,” he explains. “Tree nurseries in particular who plan decades ahead are at the forefront of this environmental dilemma and are adapting to more resilient trees and shrubs.”

Expansion plans now include developing a containerised nursery on the spare five acres of land, an online shop and more concessions such as “glam cabins and stylish pots” alongside their furniture and stone materials ones. “Few nurseries in the UK combine the same scale, specialist knowledge and show garden experience like us,” say the pair who suggest to boost a garden’s wow factor a deep burgundy Night Owl rose, a pink lemonade Baptisia plus some delicate lupins and delphiniums to evoke waves of nostalgia. www.hortusloci.co.uk

Whether they are producing Dalefoot, an organic peat-free compost brand much favoured by gardeners, restoring ravaged peat bogs to carbon capturing glory or raising rare breed ewes, spreading good is second nature to entrepreneurs and Chelsea Flower Show gold medal winning icons Jane Barker and Simon Bland. With a compost formula that’s a slow release nutrient mix of harvested, potassium-rich bracken, hydrating wool fleece and herbal booster comfrey, there’s no need for additional fertilisers and this operation is now part of a unique group business model the couple have developed. Underpinned by the environmental science expertise of Barker, a University of Cumbria professor, and Bland’s as a seventh-generation Cumbrian hill farmer, from its Penrith site the company makes and despatches a wide range of compost blends. These cover most gardening needs from sowing seeds and growing veg to clay busting best seller Lakeland Gold. Sales are direct to consumers and through retailers, garden centres and nurseries while folk in the Falklands are also fans. Harvesting bracken makes good use of a “highly invasive plant that has a negative impact on sensitive habitats”, says Barker while composted wool offers an alternative use for a commodity that once powered the British carpet industry and “helps the threatened culture of hill farming”, Bland explains.

Coupled with fully-traceable Dalefoot is their Barker & Bland venture. One of the UK’s most experienced peatland restorers with 45,000 hectares revived to date, the business reverses the damage caused by extraction, over grazing and climate change through its partnerships with environmental heavyweights such as Natural England, NatureScot, the RSPB and wildlife trusts.

Healthy peatlands can store 20 times more carbon than trees and “restore the bog from within the bog is our ethos. We hold a patent for an innovative method of bare peat restoration, the most carbon emitting part of a degrading bog, so instead of carbon release into the atmosphere there is carbon storage,” declares Barker.  Their work planting sphagnum moss on fragile landscapes such as blanket bogs in Scotland and the north of England is painstaking and complex. “We shun carbon hungry helicopters and use our own specifically designed and fabricated machinery,” says Barker. “Engineering specialist equipment lighter than a human footprint is needed because surfaces are so delicate.” A £2.1 million group turnover is forecast for 2026/27 and a lighter pellet format compost is in the pipeline. “This will save on plastic and transport costs,” explains Bland and he and Barker consider a move into river restoration.

Future proofing is now a top priority as the business works with the RSPB to deliver bog restoration across all fronts. “Biodiversity, water quality, flood management, not just carbon but deep-rooted change not sticking plaster,” spells out Barker whose top compost-buying tip is to avoid those containing low nutrient coir. www.dalefootcomposts.co.uk