Growing for gold
Country Life UK|September 15, 2021
It is the designer who gets the applause, but behind every successful Chelsea show garden is a nursery that supplies the plants. Val Bourne meets the busy Mark Straver of Hortus Loci
Val Bourne
Growing for gold

FOR creating a Gold Medal-winning Chelsea show garden, the designer receives all the credit, but they would be at a distinct disadvantage without good suppliers. It is plants of the highest quality, as well as eye-catching new introductions, that separate the Best in Show from the also-rans.

Mark Straver of Hortus Loci in Hampshire is the plant wizard responsible for turning many a designer’s plant list into reality and, for next week’s delayed show, he has been sourcing plants for Tom Massey, Robert Myers, Arit Anderson and Marie-Louise Agius. If you snapped him in half, the word plantsman would run right through his core. His Dutch grandfather was a nurseryman and his father sold shrubs, wholesale, in the Woking area of Surrey. Add in a French grandmother and a Scottish grandfather, for extra hybrid vigour, and you’ll get an insight into his energy levels.

Mr Straver started his own successful nursery business at the age of 19. By the time he reached 30, he was working seven days a week and realised that he hadn’t been anywhere. ‘I sold my share to my business partner and went travelling for a year.’ He became a personal trainer, but soon realised that he couldn’t walk past a flower shop, nursery or garden centre without going in. ‘I couldn’t get over plants, however hard I tried,’ he admits. ‘I applied to Crocus at the beginning of its internet plant business— although I knew nothing about computers or the internet. Founders Peter Clay and Mark Fane, who were businessmen with a love of plants, let me have a free hand and I spent 12 happy years there.’

This story is from the September 15, 2021 edition of Country Life UK.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the September 15, 2021 edition of Country Life UK.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM COUNTRY LIFE UKView All
Love and logic
Country Life UK

Love and logic

Two lovers who endured adversity and separation in life would become united in Paris after death, discovers Eileen Reid

time-read
3 mins  |
March 27, 2024
Don't mock them
Country Life UK

Don't mock them

Plant a philadelphus, or mock orange, now for improbably lovely scent and cascades of sparkling blossom this summer, says John Hoyland

time-read
3 mins  |
March 27, 2024
Home is where the art is
Country Life UK

Home is where the art is

No trouble is too much for the Marquess of Cholmondeley to display to best effect Sir Antony Gormley's sculptures against the magnificent backdrop of Houghton Hall, even if it means cutting a hole in the floor, as Charlotte Mullins discovers

time-read
6 mins  |
March 27, 2024
Bold and beautiful
Country Life UK

Bold and beautiful

The gardens at Broughton Grange, Oxfordshire The home of Sir Stephen and Lady Hester An arboretum, woodland garden, stumpery and heather garden all planted for artistic effect are among the many features that mark out this exciting garden, says Charles Quest-Ritson

time-read
6 mins  |
March 27, 2024
Land of liquid gold
Country Life UK

Land of liquid gold

Greek cuisine-from delicious mezes to shellfish-might be 'tightly bound to the sparse soil and the blue sea', but it is sorely underrated, laments Tom Parker Bowles

time-read
4 mins  |
March 27, 2024
An old way of life in rural France
Country Life UK

An old way of life in rural France

Arcadian tranquillity, a wealth of cultural richness and a slow pace of life enchant John Lewis-Stempel as he reflects on his existence in France profonde

time-read
5 mins  |
March 27, 2024
Deep in Hardy country
Country Life UK

Deep in Hardy country

Hardy's beguilingly pretty Wessex is the setting for three houses with links to people and places that fuelled the writer's imagination

time-read
5 mins  |
March 27, 2024
The benefit of foresight
Country Life UK

The benefit of foresight

The ability to anticipate the future is the secret of a successful building project

time-read
1 min  |
March 27, 2024
Nature's rarest gems
Country Life UK

Nature's rarest gems

G. Collins & Sons specialises in the sourcing and setting of the finest natural fancy coloured diamonds the world has to offer

time-read
2 mins  |
March 27, 2024
A prickly subject
Country Life UK

A prickly subject

Resembling a jumbo jacket potato on surprisingly long, scurrying legs, the hedgehog is Britain’s favourite mammal. Marianne Taylor takes a closer look beneath its spines

time-read
5 mins  |
March 27, 2024