Woodview Nurseries

Brian Hutchinson, Woodview Nurseries and Garden Centre, 3 Cloghan Road, Richill, Armagh, Co Armagh, BT61 8RF

The present retail nursery and garden centre business has been a diversification from the family fruit growing business when my father cultivated 27 acres of Bramley apple in the 1970’s. I attended Greenmount College (now known as CAFRE) in 1985/86 where I studied commercial horticulture. I found that studying at Greenmount helped to broaden my experience and I was able to learn about a wider range crops.

After leaving Greenmount I then worked at Loughgall Horticulture Research centre for 2 years before returning home to the family business. I was keen to try out some of the ideas I had learned at college and I began to experiment with a number of new crops including Alstromeria cut flower and Pittosporum foliage. We then started to sell flowers direct to the public and from this a floristry business developed.

The farm based floristry business has expanded and now concentrates on arrangements and designs for gifts and special occasions. Weddings would be one of the main sections of the market. Charlene who is the florist managing the business is also college trained having attended the floristry course offered at Greenmount Campus in 2002.

In 1995 we invested in improved facilities for the farm shop and floristry outlets to add value to the farm output. This was a benefit in developing the infrastructure of the business. Addition of car parking and shop facilities helped increase the customer base.

After attending a cut foliage training event at Greenmount Campus in 2003 I identified an opportunity to target the local foliage market. I saw that the horticultural skills involved in fruit growing such as weed control and pruning were similar to those required to grow foliage crops. I was also able to use some of the machinery from the fruit growing enterprise such as pruning and spraying equipment.

Being a nursery we pride ourselves in growing as many of our own plants as possible and so I sourced Eucalyptus seed from Australia, raised the plants myself and planted an acre of Eucalyptus species. This has now been yielding good quality stems for 4 years.

The Eucalyptus stems are used in the floristry shop for flower bouquets and arrangements. I do feel that harvesting direct from my own plantation ensures the product is fresh and has longer vase life than imported material. Surplus stems are then sold on to the local wholesale market.

Today the family business is continuing to develop and the diversification from fruit growing has progressed with only 12 acres of the original 27 acres of apples remaining on the farm. The farm shop stocks seasonal fruit grown on the farm as well as selling flower bouquets and arrangements direct to the public. The opening of a new café on the garden centre has increased the attraction for visitors made the farm a more attractive destination.

For the future I am now looking at planting a number of new foliage crops such as Viburnum species that I have seen demonstrated at the Greenmount Cut Foliage project and which I feel have good market potential.