The Independent Sat 7th Feb 2009

50 Best Garden Centres

"This is run by real enthusiasts ... They have been growers for years and have sap in their veins, they should win an award for their sheer knowledge and passion"

Preston is a unique nursery and plant centre in east Kent, specialising in growing ornamental and woodland trees, large specimen shrubs, hedging and screening plants including larger evergreens. On the main street of the small village of Preston, near historic Wingham, just 6 miles from Canterbury, Preston was a wholesale flower salad and vegetable nursery for 60 years and still has 1000s of sqare feet of old mobile and fixed glasshouses which have been adapted since 1998 to a highly individual garden centre and nursery business, open 7 days a week and delivering all over the south east.

We also offer a full range of feature plants to complement our trees. These include palms, bamboos, olives, tree ferns and maples from around the world in sizes from a couple of feet tall to giants for instant effect planting. We also grow many garden shrubs in the larger 10 litre size pots as well as climbers on trellises. This is in addition to herbaceous plants, herbs and a full range of pots, containers and composts.

Although we stock interesting pots and slate products our primary interest is our plants and we pride ourselves in keeping the stock levels high and looking good in meticulously kept shade structures, glasshouses and display areas.

Services
We are a family-owned and run business and in addition to selling plants, we offer other services such as advice and assistance in selecting plants, free information leaflets on care of certain plant groups, annual tree and hedging catalogues, and planting instructions. We offer a weekly, countywide delivery service.  

Ethos 
We work hard at making the nursery a pleasure to visit. To this end we supply benches and corners with interesting spaces and features including kinetic sculptures. We also exhibit outdoor art works in dedicated areas for display. We are always pleased to offer local artists space for display and sale of sculptures, ceramics etc.