英国 伍尔皮特苗圃 Woolpit Nurseries – 年供 25 万株花坛植物苗圃

从种番茄开始的一家人

伍尔皮特苗圃 Woolpit Nurseries 在萨福克郡中部，介于伯里圣埃德蒙兹和斯托马克特之间，A14 公路边上。1978 年由 Pam 和 Bob Jackson 夫妇创办，最初是商业化种番茄，后来才扩到花坛植物和吊篮花卉，直接卖给上门的人。

如今经营的是他们的女儿 Catherine 和女婿 Andrew Brain，苗圃靠 90% 的植株自家在场地上种出来这一点立足，是萨福克郡为数不多还留着的「种植型苗圃」——不是把别人的货转手卖，而是自己下地种、自己养大再出手。店里的价格也照这个路子走：小型多年生三镑四毛五，四株十二镑；两升盆栽灌木八镑九毛五，五升的十二镑九毛五，观赏草、矾根、蕨类和铁筷子一类九镑九毛五。

花坛植物与吊篮是大头

两项数字能看出这家的量级：每年供应超过 25 万株季节性花坛植物，每年种两千五百多个吊篮。吊篮按季节分，夏天的用矮牵牛、天竺葵、秋海棠、倒挂金钟和六出花，冬天的用三色堇、堇菜和常春藤，还有一种把香草和观叶植物混种的组合。自家温室里先把苗养好，再组装成篮，养到枝叶满了才算数，所以买回家的吊篮看上去已经像样，而不是刚栽的空盆。

除了买现成的，店里也备齐了花盆、基质、垂吊植物和花坛苗，愿意自己动手的可以照着配一篮出来。

除了花坛苗还卖什么

多年生植物有三百六十多个品种，灌木约一百八十个，还有观赏树和果树、绿篱用的苗、观赏草、花园玫瑰、软果、藤本，以及做成球形、锥形、棒棒糖形的意大利造型植物和常绿标准苗。意大利系的那一批有橄榄树、月桂、紫叶 Loropetalum、百子莲、斑叶卫矛和耐寒棕榈，专为向阳的花盆和露台准备。

园艺配套方面有堆肥、营养土、种植袋、花盆与露台容器、装饰砂石，秋天还卖一批春季开花的球根，都是当季进货、价格随时会变，页面上的价格只作参考。

给城镇做的花坛展示

除了散客，苗圃还给本地城镇、商户和公共场地供货，并负责安装花坛展示，常做的有伯里圣埃德蒙兹、萨德伯里、斯托马克特和纽马克特几处。以伯里圣埃德蒙兹为例，苗圃每年为市中心提供约六百个吊篮，这项供货帮该镇在「英格兰最佳城镇」和「全英最佳城镇」两项评比里都拿过金牌，也为当地街道添了不少颜色。

这类展示靠的是产量和按时交货，花坛植物一株株用纸杯或穴盘育在温室里，要摆出整条街的效果，备货量自然不是小数目。这也是苗圃把规模做上去的主要原因。

到店方式

苗圃不做网店，货只能在店里挑、在店里买，看到实物再决定是稳妥的。周一到周六九点到五点，周日十点到四点，现场有免费停车场。

因为自己种地，也知道本地什么条件合适：给向阳花境、给干燥土、给背阴角落、给风口位置，各有各的搭配，店员就是干这行的，可以直接问。秋季是栽植的好时候，土还留着余温、雨水也足，树木和灌木能先扎下根再过冬。

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A family that started with tomatoes

Woolpit Nurseries sits in mid Suffolk between Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, just off the A14. It was founded in 1978 by Pam and Bob Jackson, who began growing tomatoes commercially before moving into bedding plants and hanging baskets and selling direct to the public.

The business is now run by their daughter Catherine and her husband Andrew Brain. Around ninety per cent of what the nursery sells is grown on the site, which makes it one of the few remaining grower nurseries in Suffolk: not a shop reselling other people’s plants, but a place that grows them and sells them on. The pricing follows the same logic, with small perennials at £3.45 or four for £12, two-litre shrubs at £8.95 or three for £24, five-litre shrubs at £12.95, and grasses, heucheras, ferns and hellebores at £9.95.

Bedding plants and baskets are the bulk

Two figures show the scale: more than a quarter of a million seasonal bedding plants supplied each year, and over two and a half thousand hanging baskets grown annually. Baskets are seasonal, with petunias, geraniums, begonias, fuchsias and trailing plants in summer, pansies, violas and ivy in winter, and a mixed herb and evergreen range besides. The young plants are raised in the nursery’s own greenhouses and the baskets are planted and grown on until they are full and ready, so what you take home already looks established rather than newly assembled.

For anyone who would rather make their own, the nursery also stocks the compost, baskets, containers and trailing plants needed to do it.

Well beyond bedding

There are more than three hundred and sixty varieties of perennial and around a hundred and eighty shrubs, alongside ornamental and fruit trees, hedging, grasses, garden roses, soft fruit and climbers. The Italian range is a speciality: olive trees, bay, purple-leaved loropetalum, agapanthus, variegated euonymus and hardy palms, chosen for pots and patios that get the sun.

The garden side covers compost, top soil, grow bags, pots and patio containers, decorative gravel and stone, and a batch of spring-flowering bulbs in autumn. Stock changes with the season and prices are correct only at the time of publication.

Supplying the towns around them

As well as walk-in trade, the nursery supplies and installs town centre displays for places including Bury St Edmunds, Sudbury, Stowmarket and Newmarket. For Bury St Edmunds it provides around six hundred hanging baskets a year for the town centre, and that supply has helped the town take gold awards in both Anglia in Bloom and Britain in Bloom. It is work that puts colour into the streets of the towns around here.

Displays like that are a matter of volume and of turning up on time, with bedding plants raised individually in cells and trays in the glasshouses. Producing enough to dress a whole high street is a good part of the reason the nursery grew in the first place.

How to buy

There is no online shop; the plants are chosen and bought in person, which is a reasonable way to do it when you can see what you are getting. Opening hours are 9am to 5pm Monday to Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sunday, with free parking on site.

Growing the plants themselves also means the nursery knows the ground: there is planting for sunny borders, for dry soil, for shady corners and for exposed positions, and the staff are the ones doing the growing. Autumn is a good time to plant, with soil still holding some warmth and seasonal rainfall, giving trees and shrubs a chance to root before the spring growth starts.