Ashton Glen Perennial Nursery has been selling plants by wholesale and retail to all corners of New Zealand since 1985. Our Online Shop offers the easiest way to purchase our plants. In the beginning we wholesaled only and we had to grow a massive amount of plants to earn a living. It was a lot of work! 37 years ago when expecting our first son we started to make the switch to Mail Order, and this meant only having to grow a third of the plants. Now only 15,000 plants in the nursery. This we have stuck with and enjoy. However a few contract orders for commercial operators / landscapers etc., do sneek in to grow for too.
Our property is located at Clinton in South Otago, near the bottom of the South Island of New Zealand. Very close to the Otago & Southland border, halfway between Gore & Balclutha. The nursery is placed to one edge of the garden and is a small part of our farm. We farm grain, sheep and cattle. So as a family we are kept busy and out of mischief. Our three sons when they were little people were only too willing to be helpful - once bribed! They have been given a good grounding in Agriculture and Horticulture - and learned to live with soil under the finger nails. The oldest son is an Agronomist with an agricultural company, the second son farms wih us and the youngest is in Melbourne as a technical consultant in the construction industry. Now 4 grandchildren love to help fill pots They're laugh a minute as they boss each other about & teach each other the "correct" way to pot a plant. Giving them a hose is not wise!
The Nursery and Garden is not open to the public anymore. It became a lot of work just keeping the place up to standard and always tidy for the large amount of grouped visitors we had. There became less time left to grow the plants, which was defeating our purpose. Family commitments overruled too with our want and need to do things with our children ..... and now grandchildren! So that gate has remained closed and we created a new pathway - shopping for plants here online! However, I never turn anyone away should they just arrive on me, but they must just take us as we are - often in the middle of something and in an organized muddle! If you have made the effort to find us, then we will make the effort to share our place with you. We hope that we can help you enjoy your patch of garden.
I have just reached 45 years of horticulture. Growing plants started as a primary school child, but as a teenager my horticultural career started "officially" with my practical time for pre-Lincoln University in Febuary 1979. I started work at Stuart's Nursery at Clinton (trees & roses). Oh where have the years gone!
Thankyou to those who have employed/trained me, worked with me and brought many many times from me when Ashton Glen Nursery began a few years later. Immense appreciation to my support crew: husband and sons, and the greatest thanks to my now gone parents & in-laws (who, all-together certainly encouraged my plant addiction). The grubbing around in the soil got in under my finger nails and into the bloodstream ...... and an uncontrollable hobby begun. Something I share with many others - you know who you are!
