Nicholsons awarded "Highly Commended" at Grower of the Year Awards 2009

Last night Niel, Merlin, Catherine and I attended the Grower of the year Awards 2009 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in Hyde Park, London. John Inverdale presented the awards to a wide range of growers from seed companies to edible crops and ornamental crops (our category). We were awarded "Highly Commended" behind the winner who went on to win grower of the year in ornamentals. We are very happy with that as we are a much smaller nursery than the winner and we do not supply plants to the multiple garden centres. The announcer on the microphone was the one and only Alan “voice of the national lottery balls” Dedicoat; Catherine got his autograph for her mum (good excuse Catherine!). I was not as subtle when I asked John Inverdale for his!
An enjoyable evening was had with fine food and the company of likeminded horticultural growers, even if some of them were heavily into their tomatoes!!

Our new tree surgery truck is here! After ordering the truck in August expecting delivery in November the truck did its first job on Monday afternoon. Before buying the new truck the forestry team undertook many calculations on payloads of vehicles and realized that a 3.5 tonne vehicle would not be sufficient as we would be overweight with half a ton of chips! So our new vehicle is a 5 tonne and will be able to take away more chips and timber from site! This has come with many hurdles to jump from a restricted operator’s license, the use of tacographs and getting the team through training courses but it will all be worth it to stay legal!

Don't let the snow damage your plants...

When the snow was bad Niel spent time walking about with a soft brush in order to knock the snow off the plants. As you can see in the photo, the branches of the olive are weighed down by the heavy snow. Make sure that you remember to check evergreen trees and shrubs along with topiary for any damage that the might have occurred. Prune off any broken branches.

Nicholsons in the snow!

Well, the worst snow storms for a while had their own impact on Nicholsons as we were not able to find the plants let alone plant them. Full steam ahead now as we only have 6 weeks left in the bare root planting season.

Enjoy the views of Nicholsons in the snow!! Click on any of the images to view an enlargement.