Veitch Nurseries

How I became interested in the story of the Veitch Nurseries

Well, it's long story so I'll try and keep it brief...

...I came to live in Devon, in the heart of south west England, in the early 1970's. I was a child and my family settled in the old sea-trading town of Topsham, on the outskirts of Exeter.

Like most kids I took only a passing interest in plants unless they could be eaten or turned into useful toys. However, I was exposed to the usefulness of plants from a young age as one of my Great Aunts was a professional herb farmer and visits to her Herefordshire home always contained magical new discoveries of the 'secret' properties of herbs and wild plants. This experience had a profound influence on me which I did not appreciate until I became a teenager. During this period, unbeknown to me at the time, the nurseries of Robert Veitch & Son were still running a nursery and operating a traditional Seed Shop in the heart of cobbled Exeter which I must have walked past on numerous occasions as a youngster.

Being a practical sort of chap and interested in the outdoors, I found myself being asked to help the elderly neighbours with their gardening. It wasn't long until word spread around town and I was quickly inundated with local gardening work. However, my plant knowledge consisted of knowing little about plants but the elderly have a wealth of knowledge and are usually good teachers and I was keen to learn.

One day I was left to 'weed' a flower bed and remember thinking what a thorough job I thought I was doing and how my 'employer' would be pleased with me, only to have the old lady of the house declare in horror that I had pulled up all her precious hellebore seedlings. Well, I soon learned how to identify those from a young seedling stage!

After leaving school in 1984, I went on to study further education at my local college with the idea of pursuing a career in graphic design. But it was not long until I realised that I was now more interested in plants and the environment. But I was also keen to learn about operating a business and work in a people-based environment and was quite naturally drawn to working in my local garden centre. This experience paved the way for a career in horticulture.

During this period (1986), I studied a part time horticultural course at Bicton College of Agriculture, where I later learned that James Veitch had co-ordinated the replanting of the famous Monkey Puzzle avenue and an estate which James Veitch junior had such an influence on for many years.

Pershore College of Horticulture, was my next stop, where I studied a three year diploma, my middle year being spent in Cheshire at the impressive and unique plant paradise known as Bridgemere Garden World.

I was always keen to return to Devon but hunger for trade experience led me for the best part of the next ten years to take up a number of interesting challenges around England. A marketing role at Blakedown Nurseries which exposed me to some of the exciting opportunities for introducing new plants into the British garden market as well as the disciplines and challenges that face the nursery industry. In 1993, I joined Notcutts Nurseries, as a Management Trainee where I was to spend seven years in various garden centre supervisory and management roles.

So what has this all got to do with Veitch I hear you say?!

Well, throughout all these years I was being exposed to thousands of plants with very little knowledge of where they all came from. Of course, I knew that many garden plants originated in the wild and that often their specific names give clues to their native homeland, such as japonica for plants coming from Japan, chinensis for China etc. and that most modern cultivars dirive in commercial nurseries. Some people however, believe that all plants originate in nurseries!

For a variety of reasons, people too are often commemorated within a plant name. Such as curtisii for plants introduced by the Devonian Charles Curtis, mariesii is used to denote plants found by Charles Maries, endresii after A.R. Endres from Costa Rica, lobbii in appreciation to one of the Lobb brothers, Thomas and William from Cornwall and wilsonii after a chap called Wilson. Wilson? Not Ernest Wilson? Ernest Henry, 'Chinese' Wilson? Yes, that would be him! Possibly the greatest plant collector of all time, whom, it is said, has introduced more than 1000 new plants into Western gardens.

What do you think all these collectors have in common? Yes, youv'ed guessed it, they all worked for the great nursery dynasty of Veitch. And let us not forget this great family in our attributations, for veitchii, veitchianum, veitchiorum, veitchianus all feature in plant names in remembrance of this once mighty firm.

Well, I didn't know all this as I pursued my career and I was much the poorer for it.

Eventually, after all those years of working around the country, in 2001 I decided to return to my own homeland of Devon. I found myself back in my childhood home town of Topsham and started work at my local and well-respected nursery, St. Bridget Nurseries in Exeter, where I worked for three years as assistant to the Managing Director before leaving to finally start my own business.

It was when I joined St. Bridget's, that I learned that they had purchased the business of Robert Veitch & Son of Exeter in 1969. This followed the ill health of Mildred Veitch who was the last in a long line of Veitch's to run a nursery. By this time, she was an elderly lady who had struggled for years to 'groom' a willing younger Veitch to succeed her in the family business and continue to work to her own strict principles. Without another Veitch to continue the business, she decided to sell.

I had always been interested in history and let's face it, British history is a deep and broad subject. The flame of an interest in the Veitch Nurseries and garden history was now lit and I was to become deeply involved in which plants were introduced through the Veitch Nurseries, from where and by whom? And how was this family of nurserymen able to build such a formidable business which was to last for so many years, change the industry for ever and lay many foundations which are still with us today?

Click here for more details about the Veitch Nurseries.

Please contact me by email if you have spotted any errors in the details about the Veitch Nurseries or the plant collectors exploring for Veitch. I would also welcome any further information or references which help to fill any gaps in the above.

Links to other sites are for reference and further information.
No responsibility will be accepted for advice or views expressed by other organisations.

^^ Back to top ^^