How it all began...

Before we moved to the nursery

May 2025 marks our official 30^th anniversary at the nursery, and that fantastic triple decade has flown by! Those 30 years have watched us grow up (well kind of), bringing many laughs, some tears, thousands of hanging baskets, crowds of wonderful customers and a few more silver hairs and laughter lines. Despite the official ‘est. since 1995’, our horticultural journey started a few years before that, from our front garden in Dove House Cresent (on the edge of the Britwell estate).

We moved to Dove House Crescent mainly because our little sister was coming along and we needed an extra bedroom – the house needed a lot of work (which didn’t deter our Dad Steve, who was a builder, so could easily do the renovations). Our Mum Maria had romantic ideas of a cottage garden, with a veggie patch and coy carp pond. She got her coy carp pond however the rest was given up in place of several polytunnels for us to grow on and pot up plants.

Did Mum mind? Nah…. our Mum and Dad are amazing – always looking for the positives and making everything seem possible, no better than possible: Fun! They have raised us as a team – all for one and one for all, and although in many ways we are very different, we have always been considered equals.

The three brothers, Rob, Mark and Russ, were entrepreneurial from a young age – you could say they considered themselves the junior Del Boys of Burnham! Rob led by example, by taking his briefcase (yes really) into school to sell chewing gum to his peers! That really set the precedence for none us to ever be cool! They would turn their hand to anything, from washing cars to selling eggs, to cutting lawns and doing ridiculously large paper rounds. Whatever they did, they did as a team – worked together, saved together and made decisions together. When their little sister Bonnie was old enough (from about 5 years old) they included her in everything they did – she was like a 4^th brother!

Many people assume that the nursery was started by our Mum and Dad, but in fact our Dad was a full time builder who did a lot of pub refurbs in London, and Mum was flat out feeding and looking after us (Mum and Dad are still flat out looking after our extended family to this day). So where did the love of plants come from? Well, both of our grandads were keen hobby gardeners, which must have sparked our passion.

Grandad Les (Mum’s Dad), is lovingly remembered by many of our early customers for sitting in the bedding tunnel, smoking his pipe, departing lots of gardening wisdom, and probably even more banter! Grandad Les had a beautiful garden, with a fantastic Dahlia collection, who would have a go at growing anything, and so had hundreds of pots and a riot of vibrantly coloured plants. He was a lover of traditional gardening – he saved his own seeds, took cuttings and would take the time to share his knowledge with us as youngsters. Grandad Les was a grafter, even into his late 60s he would come and help us plant up and would race to see how many baskets he could plant in a day. His example definitely inspired us not to be afraid of hard work, as the old saying goes ‘many hands, make light work’ and we are lucky that we have a family of helping hands when needed.

Our Grandad Hayd (Dad’s Dad), was equally in love with the concept of ‘miniature gardening’ – or what is more commonly known today as ‘fairy gardening’. He loved to create accurate scale models of buildings and sculptures from clay and then search tirelessly for the smallest plants that would fit the scale of the miniature scene. Grandad Hayd was a perfectionist and wasn’t happy unless he had done something to the best of his ability – another value that we try to carry forward.

Grandad Hayd was also a bit of an idealist sometimes – like the time he taught the boys how to root conifer cuttings, with the incentive that each one could be sold for £1 each. The boys were so excited about the business venture, that they sat for hours labouring away, and then realised that they would need to find hundreds of customers all wanting that particular variety of conifer! Those conifers probably didn’t all find their ‘forever homes’, but the idea had rooted, and they began to grow and sell plants from their front lawn.

The mind has a funny way of replaying clips from your memory, and although there must have been stressful moments, the most prominent clips that come to mind from those early days are of balmy summer evenings. We would compete to see who could carry the most trays of bedding plants, as we ran them from the front lawn to the back garden at the end of each day. Dad would light the barbeque, so you could grab a bite on the run, and Mum always put so much effort in, being sous-chef!

The beginning of Davies Brothers

Life was good, but we were outgrowing the front lawn and upsetting the neighbours with too many customers parking their cars (many of whom still loyally support us today – thank you.) In 1994 there was a recession and the construction industry (which was still Dad’s source of income) was struggling. It was time to decide whether we could turn plants into a full-time business.

Rob had just finished studying horticulture and garden centre management at college and felt confident that he had enough knowledge to put it into practice. Mark had just left school and was completely behind the idea, and Russ was in his last year of school.

We were looking for some land nearby to rent, but as sometimes happens, life gave us a little push in the right direction, by introducing us to a special lady called Kathy, who showed us a nursery for sale on Dropmore Road. There was no personal gain to be had by Kathy, but she made it her mission to convince us that it was the right choice to buy the nursery rather than rent somewhere. The move would mean taking on a large mortgage, even in its dilapidated state, but we knew that as a team we could make it work. We looked at the worst-case scenario, and even if the nursery wasn’t a success, we could pay the mortgage between us and get labouring jobs.

Mum and Dad put all their faith into supporting their 19, 17 and 15 year old sons (and Bonnie, aged 4 just tagged along for the ride)! Grandad Hayd stepped up as guarantor should we fail to meet our mortgage payments.

As our oldest customers know, we were far from the polished article, but what we lacked in experience, we made up for with enthusiasm! We moved in on May 5th 1995 and started selling plants the next day – nothing was sacred, Rob even sold Mum’s hanging baskets from the front door! We decided to open seasonally so that we could use the quiet times of year to renovate the nursery. Dad’s construction knowledge was invaluable, as for every problem he helped us to find a solution.

Every new structure felt like a milestone, although there have been some funny oversights along the way. Some of our favourites include when we built up an area of ground with some free manure from the local field: Little did we realise that when it rained it would turn into Burnham bog! Another has to be when we decided to use a plastic sheet to make the shade-netted area waterproof. In the short term it worked well, but heavy rain caused it to sag, so we had to pierce holes in the plastic, causing it to leak a bit. One particularly wet and windy day, the plastic sheets were drooping with water, and just as a poor unsuspecting lady walked in, the wind thrust the sheet into the air and completely drenched her! That is the price you pay for building on the cheap!

Little by little we tried to evolve the site and improve it where we could – this is the same with our growing methods, there is always something to improve. We couldn’t have put up our first game changing greenhouse, without the help of both our granddads. They gave us a no interest loan to pay for the construction, which gave us a chance to pay them back stress free.

Some of you will remember our café, when our lovely Mum shared her culinary talents beyond the family. She made the best cakes and bacon sarnies, but instead of turning a profit, we all turned a bit podgy, the carpark wasn’t big enough to accommodate café customers as well as plant customers - plants were our priority so the café had to go.

Helping hands along the way

Although we had the plant knowledge and willingness to graft, we didn’t have a clue about how to set up a website or email at this stage (everything was still done by fax and phone calls!) Luckily, we have the best neighbours in the world, who not only put up with our late night (out of tune) singing along to the radio, but also put a lot of work into helping us set up our first website. Thank you Nigel, and later Leah for your technical support, and the whole family for being absolutely lovely!

Our other neighbours were the Whelehans, who specialised in big construction and ground work projects, and hence had lots of heavy plant machinery. Whenever we needed to dig big holes or trenches, it was never a problem for them to offer us their machines. Sometimes Russ probably made up an excuse to borrow them, as he loved driving them so much! With different neighbours on either side, life would have been much harder. Not forgetting our understanding neighbours down Chalkpit lane, who put up with our deliveries and queues of traffic without complaint.

Our team

Despite looking professional with our website and email, we were still not great at replying to emails, answering the phone and didn't really have a clue what social media was until Louise joined the team. She serves at the till all day and then answers enquiries by night. She genuinely enjoys helping people and getting good feedback. She also has an awesome sense of humour and comes up with some funny ideas for social media posts. She takes great joy in directing short clips of us making ourselves look silly (although you will notice that she is hardly ever in the videos herself). Lou has recently passed an RHS horticultural course recently so now her plant knowledge is officially as good as her communication skills!

That’s the thing about a team - we can't be good at everything so we must play to our strengths: In our team, Rob (or Bobbie as you might hear us call him), orders all the plants and is in charge of growing schedules, as well as the paperwork and admin. That makes it sound like he is ‘behind the scenes’, but in fact you will often see him with his hands dirty getting stuck in. In our eyes he is pretty much a Michelin star chef of the plant world. He lives and breathes the nursery, coming up with different recipes for hanging basket combinations, is always looking out for the next up and coming plant, and keeps in tune with advancements in growing practices. You honestly couldn’t do what he does without immense passion, and the nursery would not be what it is without all of his effort and enthusiasm. (I promise that bit wasn’t written by Rob!)

Saying that, an equally dedicated member of the team, working just as many hours in different ways is Mark. Markie is the watering and deadheading King who keeps the plants nice and healthy. Nobody is allowed to pick up a hose without his permission for fear of over or under watering! If Markie has a job to do, no matter how unachievable it may seem, he will get it done, in time without compromising on quality, and with his trademark cheery smile. He also has a great knowledge of construction and plans the jobs for our wonderful team.

Our workforce are more like family. We are very lucky to have such a loyal, hardworking and conscientious team working with us. Not only do they work incredibly hard, but they are always happy and a pleasure to be around (which is a must when you work so many hours together).

Sadly in 2021 our brother, Russy left us to join our army of spirit helpers. At first when you say ‘goodbye’ to someone you love so much, it is hard to see reminders of them everywhere. Russ was a massive part of our family and of the nursery. He was so talented at carpentry, he built all of the original display benches. He was also very creative in many different ways, including displaying plants – a gift that he taught his Sister Bonnie, who still wonders what he would think when she completes displays. As time passes though, we find ourselves laughing more than crying about his memory, because he was the most incredible practical joker! Memories of him remind us that although sometimes we need to be serious, it is so important to find the fun wherever you can – hence ‘World Naked Gardening Day’ being one of the highlights of our year!

Bonnie beautifully displays the plants and takes on some garden design projects out of season. She has designed some show gardens at Hampton Court and Chelsea Flower Show (winning a silver gilt and gold), but now prefers being creative, arranging plants and giving advice at the nursery. While there is a buzz to be had from planning a show garden and then bringing it to life to then (hopefully) be praised for it, it is actually much more rewarding to put that effort into the nursery every day and to overhear nice comments, from smiley people as they walk around. Flower shows are all about prestige and aiming for perfection, but most gardens are far from ‘perfect’ and that is what makes them beautiful: Every plant can have a memory, every faux pas can make us laugh, we grow and learn through gardening. No matter how stressful our days might have been at work, the garden is a place to relax - to listen to the birds singing, and watch nature going about its daily routine. It's a place to have BBQs or picnics with the people we love, and a place to grow fresh fruit and veg to add to your meal. It’s a place to watch little ones run around, build fairy gardens and play ‘mud kitchens’. Whatever your garden is to you, hopefully it’s a place that makes you smile.

We have already mentioned mum and dad, but they need another mention, because without them the team just would not work! They literally help in any way we need them to, from deadheading, to pressure washing, to looking after / taxiing their grandchildren, to creating gourmet meals to keep us fuelled on the longer working days - they are the roots that anchor our family tree.

Our first taste of ‘Shopify’

The Christmas season is a big deal for us, mainly because our Dad is the real Father Christmas, and hence has his beard all year round. He loves talking to the families that visit him and sharing words of wisdom where he can. In 2023 he became so popular that grotto queues were stopping people from driving into the carpark to buy a Christmas tree, so the grotto now operates an appointment system, which can be booked online with all profit going to charity.

Talking of ‘online’ makes us remember the Covid pandemic, when we really felt the backing of our fans. We had just finished displaying the plants ready for opening day at the nursery, thinking that the lockdown warnings might just be hype, and then the next day a full lockdown was announced! Soooo…..we had to think on our feet. All the plants had to go back on trollies in orderly lines: We began by taking telephone orders, whilst quickly setting up the online shop. It was different to anything we had ever done so we were learning on the job, but everybody in the team piped up with different ideas when things weren’t working until eventually, we became quite streamlined.

Thank you for bearing with us as we quickly built an online shop and worked out what we were doing – transforming Mark from an analogue to a digital man in the process (although he still prefers a calculator to a scanner!) We reckon the boys now have most local road names and postcodes imprinted in their memories, and the girls will never be able to walk as many steps in a day as they did in 2020, whilst putting orders together!

When we tell people the hours we work during the season, some people think we are workaholics, but we are very lucky to feel that it's not work. Watching plants grow, caring for them, displaying them in all their beauty, seeing the bees buzz around them, and sending them home with happy ‘plant parents’, to their forever gardens is an amazing job (ok, maybe not as good when it's freezing cold and rainy!) On top of that, we have such lovely kind customers, both human and canine.

So that’s a little bit about how we got to where we are today, thanks to the support of our lovely customers, and we hope to be here, adding colour to your gardens for a long time yet, because that’s what we love doing!

The Davies Family x