Blue Diamond has invested in five new nurseries to supply over 11 million home-grown, locally produced, British plants to its 44 garden centres and 8.8 million customers. 

The acquisition of these nurseries will allow Blue Diamond to grow new and exciting varieties each season and to offer an even wider selection of high-quality plants for its customers. 

“We are growers, gardeners and horticulturists. We don’t just buy and sell plants, we grow plants. We are hands on and deeply invested in providing the right care for our plants so they reach our customers in perfect condition.  Our garden centres are built on strong horticultural foundations," said Jim Teague- Head of Blue Diamond Nurseries.

Gardeners’ increasingly have an expectation for healthy, British-grown plants with a minimal environmental footprint. The value added for Blue Diamond customers is the availability of a wide range and variety of high quality, British grown plants, with provenance, which have been grown with robust plant health controls, an emphasis on reducing environmental impact, produced in peat-free growing media and in the case of hardy stock, come with a 5-year plant guarantee. 

The focus on sustainability extends to packaging. Blue Diamond is aiming to be at the forefront of the development of new packaging that could reduce the use of plant pot plastic altogether. The pots the plants are currently grown in are made from recycled plastic and are fully household recyclable.

The majority of the British-grown plants are already growing in peat free compost. Blue Diamond aims to be completely peat free, in plant production, by the end of 2025. The nursery acquisitions give Blue Diamond more control in developing compost mixes and plant care techniques from nursery to point of sale in the post peat era. 

A garden centre group the size of Blue Diamond, with sales of over £330m, needs to control its own plant supply to ensure it has the range and variety of plants of the right quality for its customers.  Blue Diamond has a huge range and probably has the largest range of British-grown plants available, of any UK garden centre group.