Run by Adrian Steele, Endsleigh Garden Nursery was set in a five acre Victorian walled garden once owned by the Duke(s) of Bedford in the Tamar Valley. The nursery offered a wide range of grafted trees, including Japanese Maples, Wisterias, Cornus and Magnolias.

In addition to growing shrubs, alpines, herbs, hedging, roses, perennials, conifers, bedding, fruit trees and soft fruit, the nursery was known for cultivating old Tamar Valley Apples and Cherries collected by James Armstrong-Evans and Mary Martin – which were nearly lost to cultivation.

Plant nurseries are the lifeblood of gardening in the UK. The end of Endsleigh means the sad loss of yet another nursery, expertise and in this case, champion of rare (West Country) fruit cultivars.

Commenting on the nursery closure Ben Robert, Freelance Gardener and Horticultural Writer wrote on LinkedIn: “Gardeners say they value traditional nurseries and that they value the often rarer and more unusual plants they grow, but the truth is that garden centres and online retailers continue to outpace traditional nurseries. The loss of each small independent nursery represents a shift towards a more homogenised range of plants available to gardeners, and a scarcity of nurseries brave enough to try a more diverse range of plants. Small nurseries, especially grower-retailers, are an important part of our horticultural heritage; they’re not easy to run and even harder to start from scratch, and as we lose them we risk losing the diversity of plants they produce and sell”.