The Covid-19 outbreak has had a devastating impact on the horticultural sector, with many nurseries unable to move their stock, some garden centres left without the capacity to deliver and millions of pounds worth of plants stuck in supply chains. Unfortunately, we are part of the trade facing unprecedented times with many challenges to our business, and we have had to make some difficult decisions. At Coolings, we were very lucky to have already had an online shop and we have been delighted that our customers have taken up our offer of deliveries with such enthusiasm! We have been very busy and would like to thank our customers for ordering with us.

Over the past few weeks we have moved our delivery vans to our main site at Coolings The Gardeners Garden Centre, Rushmore Hill, Knockholt. This has allowed us to expand the number of orders we can take and the number of deliveries we can fulfill. Our office team have been working around the clock to add more products to our shop, including highly in demand products such as bedding plants and compost! We have had thousands of orders, enabling us to get plants to our happy homes and keeping us in touch with our customers. Our on-site staff have been busy picking and processing orders and our friendly delivery drivers have driven many miles to get your orders to you. We are deeply grateful and once again, we would like to thank all of our customers for their support during this difficult time.

Our team have been working hard packing and processing your orders!

Our Horticultural Manager, Jon, ensuring plants in the nursery are well watered. 

Bedding plants are still growing on our nursery

We have moved our vans to Coolings The Gardeners Garden Centre, Rushmore Hill

Our nursery and plant teams have been hard at work ensuring that our plants are well cared for. We have had to move and protect much of our stock, a mammoth operation across our three sites. Luckily, we have our own on-site reservoir with a capacity of 6.7 million gallons. This means that at least we have plenty of water to keep our thirsty plants happy!

Our huge reservoir is full of water – great for watering our plants!

Spring is the busiest time in the gardening calendar, with everything starting to come to life and colour bursting out of the blue. A global pandemic hasn’t stopped nature and around our Coolings site there is colour everywhere! Arthurs garden is looking as wonderful as ever and our Plot to Plate scheme in our nursery, which grows food for Arthurs restaurant, is also growing rapidly. These are some of our favourite plants in bloom at the moment …

Ceanothus arboreus ‘Trewithen Blue’ (AGM) is a spectacular shrub with beautiful blue colour in Spring

Scabiosa ‘Pink Mist’ – this pretty pincushion flower is delightful for wildlife and flowers all Summer!

Clematis montana ‘Fragrant Spring’ is a beautiful pink climber, in full bloom this April

A Coolings favourite – Erysimum ‘Bowles’s Mauve’ is a beautiful purple flower. You may have spotted it in Arthurs Garden!