October 2021

If you’ve read the previous articles in this series entitled ‘The Secret Life of Plants’ you’ll have seen that we have covered the entire process of plant production, from taking cuttings to taking orders for the finished product. This final part sees our carefully nurtured plants being handed over to our valued customers.

Once an order has been received, a date for collection or delivery will be agreed with the customer using our logistics calendar. We will then pick and collate the plants and materials in readiness to be either collected from the nursery or scheduled for delivery by Robin, our Transport Controller.

For the latter, the delivery date and time will have been carefully planned to maximise the efficiency of our fleet of bespoke vehicles, having been grouped with other deliveries as close to the destination as possible, and ideally at a time that suits the customer.

Orders are then collated by our experienced team of pickers and expertly packed into either pallet boxes or onto Danish trolleys and brought into the dispatch shed. Here they are watered then grouped ready for moving to the collection point, or for loading onto the lorries the evening before delivery.

Our lorry drivers will leave the nursery at an appropriate time to enable them to arrive at their destination when the day’s first customer is expecting them, sometimes especially early to fit in with parking and other traffic restrictions in some cities.

On arrival, our drivers make every effort to be as helpful as they can with delivery to the kerbside, but currently need to adhere to strict Covid guidelines. Unless otherwise arranged, Danish trolleys will be unloaded at the point of delivery and returned with our vehicle.

If the delivery is on a pallet or in a pallet crate, the plants either need to be planted as soon as possible or unpacked and watered regularly.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this opportunity to share what goes into the production and distribution of our plants. We continue to challenge and evolve our production methods, and there are many exciting developments in the pipeline. Please watch this space…