The nursery is open to visit Fridays 9-5pm and Saturdays 9-2pm from April 11th to September 27th (and other times by appointment)
The garden sits in a peaceful woodland edge setting and has been evolving since Paul’s arrival. We balance the aesthetics and enjoyment of the garden, with its function as a stock bed for many of the plants we then propagate and sell in the nursery and at our fairs.
The garden is only open to organised groups, workshops and tours, please contact us or visit our pages on the website to book these.
The established hedges and trees have created a sheltered and secluded garden with a gentle north facing slope on much improved clay. The garden showcases a wide range of herbaceous perennials, woodland plants and ferns, hardy exotics, unusual shrubs and annuals which alter from year to year. There is always something new to see, such as the bog garden and mini prairie border being developed for 2025.
Please join us on one of our popular garden tours or workshops.
Our woodland edge setting lends itself to showcasing plants that thrive in the shade and partly shaded settings we can offer.
We love to use the contrasting textures of ferns to complement perennials.
Our shade is almost all created by neighbouring trees and shrubs so we have become expert in plants that are able to cope with root competition and the dry clay of summer.
Our established hedging and woodland clearing has created an excellent opportunity to capture the light with tall and transparent perennials and grasses.
A classic design trick is to have borders backlit by the sun.
The contrast of light and shade is accentuated in the garden by overhanging trees and the low light at dawn or dusk.
The sense of delving deeper into the undergrowth is an exciting transition in a garden.
A gentle north facing slope in the garden and the protection offered by layers of hedges allows us to fill a border with statuesque perennials.
Whilst a meadow area is never as low maintenance as many imagine, the effort is worth it.
On our rich and retentive heavy clay we rely on bulbs and a limited array of self seeding natives to create beautiful and wildlife friendly meadow effect in spring and early summer.
A restful area, dominated by structural plants and serve as a practical multi-purpose area but also as a sorbet to clear the palate between starkly contrasting border areas.
There’s no better way to express the joy of a summer’s day than to create a hot border.
Clashing and contrasting warm colours are a great way to add interest, but remember to add warm blues or pinks to make the vibrant colours shout.
Pelham Plants is in a beautiful woodland edge setting in the Sussex Weald. We garden sustainably and produce plants using traditional, low impact methods. All our plants are potted in peat free compost. For pests and disease management we use natural products and biological controls.
This is a first class nursery, with everything grown on site. A wide selection of familiar and unusual plants. I have been delighted with the health of the plants bought last year and this year. Great advice from Paul on planting and habitat. Highly recommended.”
Mrs A. Jones
“A very successful and enjoyable trip to a local small independent nursery Pelham Plants, having made an appointment, returning with a car literally stuffed to the gunwales with high quality plants.”
Mr E. Flint
“We very much enjoyed our drive to you along the country lanes and then to find a lovely welcome on arrival was just perfect. We wandered at leisure around Paul’s nursery, which is set in an idyllic and peaceful location. Paul also gave us some top tips on taking care of the plants once home. This is a special place to visit for any gardener looking for beautiful and well cared for plants, which you wouldn’t pick up in a large garden centre. We went home very happy with a range of crocosmia and asters – we hope they will flourish as much in our gardens as they have done with you. Now we have found Pelham Plants we will be back often with the family! Thank you again.”
Mrs L. Hack
Pelham Plants nursery and the Rose Cottage garden have a wealth of experience and resources to share.
We enjoy training gardeners as they bring an energy and thoughtfulness to garden practice that is sometimes lost when we work alone.
Each year we have a WRAG scheme trainee and we also take numerous short – term volunteers and welcome horticultural groups for practical days.
Hardy Plant Society Sussex trip to Pelham Plants today. We had a wonderfully instructive talk as we wound our way through the packed borders. Then plenty of time for some retail therapy in the nursery, buying many of the plants that we had just seen. The sun shone and all was right with the world! Hardy Plant Society – Sussex Group
