Gardening at Charlecote Avenue

The first step in bringing our new Avenue site back into Charlecote's estate is to open a small plant centre. Every purchase you make here directly funds our work at Charlecote.

We have opened our new Avenue plant centre on a tiny budget. We've collected fittings and equipment that other National Trust properties were offering for recycling, and the Trust's carpenters at Dudmaston have made our wooden benches from their own woodland timber.

We're open from 10.00am to 5.00pm every day.

All our plants are in peat-free compost, and we're trying to source lots of the plants that you'll find growing in our garden borders. Do ask if there's anything you can't see - we're adding to the list all the time.

With new stock coming in every week you'll find plants from Pershore College, the NT plant centre at Lanhydrock, Hairy Pots, David Austin roses, perennials from peat-free specialists Prenplants, and F.P. Matthews fruit bushes (blackcurrants and raspberries).

We have the full National Trust gardening range - plenty of practical and decorative items for your garden and British-made Hawes watering cans. Look out for our colourful glazed pots and terracotta planters in all shapes and sizes. We've also commissioned Whichford Pottery to make a bespoke range of their pots for us later this year, and we already have some of their traditional garden pots in stock.

We have herbs too – all your cooking favourites, 5 different types of thyme, as well as strawberries, angelica, horseradish, buckle-leaved sorrel.

There’s always lots of seasonal colour for your garden. We recommend buying one or two plants throughout the year rather than all at once - that way, you'll ensure something interesting in your garden all year round.

The National Trust has been a key player in the drive for peat-free compost for many years. We’re stocking SylvaGrow multi-purpose compost - awarded two Best Buys by Which? Gardening and endorsed by the RHS. It doesn't contain any "green waste" and is suitable for seeds, cuttings, potting on, planters and as a growbag too.  

We’ve also got Rootgrow mycorrhizal fungi granules – scatter it in the hole around the roots when you plant out something new and your plant will establish much more quickly and successfully without needing artificial fertilizer.

We hope you'll understand that the former privately-run plant centre on this site was the result of years of hard work and extensive knowledge. Our retail staff are mostly new to horticulture and it will take time for us to build this new venture.

Every plant you buy from us here will help fund our work looking after Charlecote. Thank you.