40 years at Triscombe – so
Stuart has all the answers
NURSERY
TIMES
Buy a plant from Stuart Parkman and you’ll get sound
horticultural advice thrown in free of charge. That, and the
tranquil atmosphere at Triscombe Nurseries, is what keeps
customers coming back time and again.
Stuart and his wife Mary run a refreshingly old-fashioned nursery
nestling beneath the Quantock Hills, without gifts and café,
special offers and other gimmicks. No card machines are used –
only cash or cheques at the till, an antiquated wooden fish-box.
A robin flies across the potting shed, a pile of loose compost
on the potting bench is ready for potting up plants. Among
the plants and old garden tools is a dish of bird food for the
almost tame blackbird.
The contrast between Triscombe and most garden centres is
dramatic – and while many have struggled, this one has been
recognised by the RHS as being in the top 50 nurseries in the Stuart Parkman – growing ‘whatever people want’
country.
Raising top quality plants and giving customers what they
For his 50th birthday Stuart bought a super commercial
want for their garden – that’s the working philosophy behind
glasshouse which he calls The Ark – ‘because it never stopped
this long success story. A reputation has grown over decades
raining when we installed it’. There he has evergreens, including
and people seek it out from far away.
a collection of hollies and camellias, kept in an atmosphere
that is unheated but always frost-free, with an automatic
Triscombe nurseries occupies what was the walled kitchen
ventilation system.
garden of Triscombe House, at West Bagborough, off the
A358 Taunton to Minehead Road, in five acres of nurseries
On Sunday mornings he walks the nursery like a farmer
and an arboretum. Started 50 years ago by Miss Jeane Atwell,
walking his land, mentally noting things that need doing.
the aunt of artist Mabel Lucy Atwell, as a wholesale nursery
Nearly all the plants and trees at Triscombe have been raised
supplying outlets around the West Country, the Parkmans
there. Propagating and grafting takes time, years in the case
have run it since 1986.
of fruit trees. Apple and pears, cherries and peaches, figs and
mulberries, all sorts of fruits in a mixture of old and modern
‘Raising top quality plants and varieties ‘whatever people want,’ Stuart explained.
giving customers what they want
Although not 100 per cent organic, chemicals are used
for their garden’
sparingly at Triscombe, only when absolutely necessary. Stuart
has observed how it’s best to leave natural predators to do the
job. Problems arise particularly with larger creatures, the mice,
Stuart Parkman joined the nursery in 1971, a young
voles and squirrels, the rabbits and deer off the hills, the latter
countryman brought up on a smallholding at Nynehead
being kept out now by an electric fence.
near Wellington, and with some experience of garden shop
There is a huge variety of plants and trees on offer, everything
retailing that was to prove very useful.
from herbaceous perennials to roses, climbers to rock plants,
Mary came to work at Triscombe and they were married in
conifers to bulbs, shrubs, ornamental and fruit trees.
1975. By the late 1980s it was proving difficult to combine the
They also specialise in open ground native trees and hedging
wholesale and retail sides of the business and they decided
plants during the dormant season from autumn to March. There
to concentrate on the retail side as an increasing number of
is a wide selection of soft fruit bushes as well as the fruit trees.
customers came in to buy plants
Location: Triscombe Nurseries, West Bagborough, Nr. Taunton,
personally. Stuart enjoys meeting
Somerset TA4 3HG. 10 miles from Taunton, 6 miles from
them, and is sought after as a
Williton. Signposted off the A358 to Triscombe between
speaker.
Crowcombe and West Bagborough.
Mary’s special expertise is with
Open: Monday – Saturday 9am – 1pm & 2pm – 5.30pm.
the Alpine plants, thousands of
Sundays & Bank Holidays 2pm – 5.30pm.
them in one of the poly-tunnels.
Four gardeners help at the nursery,
Telephone: 01984 618267
which is open seven days a week. Website: www.triscombenurseries.co.uk
Country Gardener
35
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