Our Story

Brookside Nursery

Brookside Nursery was established in 1999 by James Thomas initially as a wholesale nursery growing bedding plants to supply local shops and garden centres. James soon realised that the skills and approach he had developed of only supplying the best quality plants at the time when the customer needed them could greatly benefit the mail order plant market, and in 2009 our website was launched. James found that customers loved the convenience of being able to pick the week that their plants were sent out to them. This in turn allowed us to precisely time and fine-tune our nursery production schedules to dispatch the best possible plants in the freshest condition, perfect for potting on.

Best Quality Plants

In recent years the business has grown rapidly, adding a second production nursery in nearby Lichfield. However, our ever-growing team still share the same, all-important ethos of supplying only the very best quality plants at a time of the customers choosing. James remains at the forefront of the business and can be seen at the numerous shows and events that we attend around the country to showcase our business. See our up to date event list here.

Why Buy From Us?

Although we’re still a traditional nursery at heart, we’re constantly keeping up to date with the latest technology and logistics. We’ve developed tried and tested systems to allow you to select a specific dispatch week for your plants when you place your order. This allows you to accurately plan your crops, help you save money by avoiding unnecessary heating of greenhouses and reduce inconvenience around delivery timings. Further recent investment in our systems now means that not only do we allow you to pick a dispatch week for your plants, if you have supplied us with your email address, we will now advise you in advance of the day that we intend to dispatch your plants on.  

Our Team

We take pride and care in nurturing the plants we supply from the time they enter our greenhouses until the day that they leave us. All our plants are carefully hand checked and selected by our expert order packing staff who all live locally to the nursery, returning to us every year to help during our busy spring season. All our plug plants are securely packed in specially designed packaging to keep the root system in place and the foliage protected in transit. Our plastic ‘blister pack’ packaging is manufactured from recycled material and is fully recyclable. Our cardboard packaging is also fully recyclable. We send out comprehensive growing instructions with each order to help you get the best from your plants.

Customer Care

We’re well-known for and very proud of our first-class customer service with a friendly team based at our nursery office in Hints village. Speak personally to our customer care team who love to take your orders, deal with queries and offer you advice and guidance to help you get the most from your plants.

Our Nursery

After training at Pershore College of Horticulture and managing several commercial nurseries, James took over the Nursery site in Hints village back in 1999 after spotting a small classified advert in a local newspaper. The Nursery having previously grown tomatoes had been unoccupied for several years and had fallen into disrepair, leaving James with quite a task on his hands to return it back to a viable condition for growing plants again.

The Nursery in 1999

One of the old greenhouses in 1999 (the orange strings were used for supporting tomato plants)

The Nursery full of thousands of trays of bedding plants in 2002

Over time, the old wooden framed greenhouses were replaced with modern greenhouses and polytunnels to provide the optimum conditions for nurturing tender young plants.

Hints Village Nursery

Our retail nursery is situated in the picturesque village of Hints near Tamworth in Staffordshire. The village has a rich history and is mentioned in the Dooomasday book in 1066, read more on the Hints Village Website.  The Nursery is now open to visitors for 8 months of the year (from March to October) with a huge range of home grown bedding plants, hanging baskets,  perennials and shrubs for sale still all grown on site. Read more here.

You can also pick up your online plant orders from the nursery too, read more here.

© 2023 Brookside Nursery Ltd. All rights reserved. Registered in England & Wales No. 09849367