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From our tiny beginnings...

Our Story

From our tiny beginnings on 1st May 1993, Pengelly Garden Centre has travelled on an amazing journey. I (and I am Sarah, the owner) was very fortunate to be given the plot of land we stand on by my family, plus five secondhand tunnels of all shapes and sizes to start me off. We made some mistakes along the way, but I was young and learning the hard way!

When we opened, we grew everything we sold: lots of bedding plants and masses of herbaceous perennials. We soon realised that people enjoyed seeing where plants were grown, so our plans to build a totally separate garden centre alongside the growing nursery were quickly changed. We stepped back, redesigned our plans and moved on. The shop and potting shed came along a couple of years later, but over time, the potting was moved out as the shop grew to what you see today. We also started buying in shrubs and trees from local, specialist nurseries as far as possible. The range of plants we stocked was increasing.

My old, secondhand tunnels were replaced with purpose built multi-span tunnels: a joy as the airy, bright, covered space suddenly allowed us to build mixed displays to inspire our customers and give them planting ideas. We love it when our visitors say they do just that!

A separate covered area was put up to house all the perennial potting and growing. This is  still where my passion is and where I would love to escape to when the paperwork mountain is about to topple over!

And so you find us now, stocking thousands and thousands of plants, including our original offerings of bedding and perennials, but expanded to include to seeds, bulbs, trees and shrubs from all corners of the globe, from the traditional to the exotic. And we hope, something for everyone.

BIG CHANGES

As those of you who come to see us regularly will know, we have moved ahead quickly with our expansion! We now have 3 brand new polytunnels, filled with lots of new stock.