Four Winds Nurseries - About Us

The Nursery | Plug to Plant | The Team

The plants you see when you go into a nursery or garden centre are usually the result of weeks of work. This involves various people giving the plant what it needs to grow into a good, strong bushy plant. What we hope to achieve here is to give you an insight into the various stages of this process.

Step 1 - Arrival of Plugs

Apart from the plants we grow ourselves, the rest are bought in as trays of small ‘plug plants’. These are grown by nurseries that specialise in this process and supply other nurseries all over Europe. The ‘plug plants’ arrive on trolleys in a temperature-controlled lorry.

Step 2 - Off-loading of Trays

The trays of plugs are then off-loaded from the trolley into a tunnel and checked for quality, and quantities are compared with the original order. This also gives the plants time to acclimatise prior to being ‘pricked out’ into their appropriate trays or pots.

Step 3 - Auger Filled with Compost

The ‘Auger’ (which is basically a big mixer for compost) is filled with bags of compost and additives, such as slow release feeds, are applied at the correct doses while the compost is mixing. We have a selection of composts that we use, depending on what plants are to be potted, as some have different requirements to others.

Step 4 - Trays Filled with Compost

Once the compost has mixed together correctly, empty trays of pots or packs are fed onto the start of the conveyer belt whilst the mixed compost comes out of the long tube and falls into the trays.

As the tray passes through the machine paddles rotate inside, levelling out the compost and ensuring that all the pots or packs are evenly filled.

Step 5 - Plugs Pricked Out

Now the little plugs can be ‘pricked out’. This involves a hole being made in the fresh compost and the plug plant being carefully lifted out of its cell, placed into the hole, and then gently firmed in. These are then labelled up so we know what variety and type of plant they are.

Step 6 - Trays Laid Out in Tunnel

As the trays are filled with plants they are laid out on the floor of the tunnel. We make sure that we lightly sprinkle the floor with slug bait as we go, as otherwise a lot of the foliage could be eaten in a very short space of time. Before long, a whole tunnel is filled; ready to be watered in and allowed to grow on. A constant temperature is then maintained by way of a heater or by adjusting the vents that you can see down each side of the tunnel.

Step 7 - Plants Ready to Go

After a few weeks, depending on the time of year and the type of plants that are growing, the plants should be ready to be taken down to the shop to sell to you the customer, or loaded onto trolleys to be sent out to other garden centres in the area.

Step 8 - Not Quite the End

Once the plants arrive in the shop, caring for them never stops as they have to be kept looking their best by regular watering and any ‘deadheading’ that may be required. Some are then used to make up various containers and baskets that we sell in the shop.

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