Crews Hill, North London

[col]

Well, I thought I'd been just about everywhere - until I discovered Crews Hill, Enfield earlier today. Never seen so many GCs and nurseries all in one place. Most of them completely naff GCs, to be honest, but with the odd gem. Paramount Plants (in our 'Places of Interest' section) is pretty darn good, if a tad pricey. The one outlet that stood out from the crowd was Ausferns of Theobald's Park Road, Enfield, which is a nursery with no great fancy pretentions but keeps a good range of 'staple fare' exotics at pretty low prices.

Heads up - Ausferns are selling good sized Gunnera manicata with leaves already about 10 ins across and a foot tall for just £2.50 each. No need to go there first thing in the morning - they've got oodles of them

Col

[Mark]

I have been wanting to visit Crews hill for a while now to see the GCs and reptile places.

Owen has said you can get plenty of bargains from time to time.

Oh well I will have to go now.......owen,DaveN22 put the kettle on

[Gaz]

This is another place we have been meaning to get to for quite a while. Would really like to get there before the summer. we dont really have much of an excuse as its only 40 mins drive.

[Nigel Fear]

...any chance of a further up-date on here of what other stuff's there if anyone does go back?

[col]

This is another place we have been meaning to get to for quite a while. Would really like to get there before the summer. we dont really have much of an excuse as its only 40 mins drive.

No excuses, Gaz - its nearly 300kms for me to get there! You'd be there in half a sparrow's phart....

Col

[col]

...any chance of a further up-date on here of what other stuff's there if anyone does go back?

Ausferns, as the name suggests, do Australian stuff - as well as palms, etc that you'd expect. Lots like that..........

[Nigel Fear]

cheers Col.

[col]

cheers Col.

Sorry Nigel - I've just done Crews Hill to just short of the Humber literally non-stop and I'm completely bushed! What I should have said is that Ausferns have cracking tree ferns at good prices, as well as, say, jaw-dropping collection of Xanthorrea. Plenty of stuff like that. Sorry for being so vague mate - I'll be fine in the morning!

Col

[Nigel Fear]

cheers Col.

Sorry Nigel - I've just done Crews Hill to just short of the Humber literally non-stop and I'm completely bushed! What I should have said is that Ausferns have cracking tree ferns at good prices, as well as, say, jaw-dropping collection of Xanthorrea. Plenty of stuff like that. Sorry for being so vague mate - I'll be fine in the morning!

Col

None taken Col...

[redsquirrel]

chief trading post was ausfern years ago according to one of the sales persons there.they still have many ausfern labels so i guess its true.would explain the massive stock of tree ferns there

[bev]

try crews hill gardening club, almost opposite paramount. it looks like a large warehouse
and when you get inside you wont believe how big it is. head out into one of the back greenhouses and youll find large palms, nanas, cycads, yuccas, strelitzias and exotics at about half price or less than most other places. it also has an exotic cafe.
this is easily my favourite place in crews hill. its about a fiver to join for a year but you can look around for free and you would save that fiver in one plant easily.
heres some pics i took a couple of weeks ago

[Essexman]

I popped down last month and seem to have missed some of the better nurseries. It all appeared a little run down. Springtime nurseries and the Chelsea Garden Centre have effectively closed. Wyevale's is still represented but perhaps a little mainstream. Paramount have expanded but seem to target the large specimen plant market exclusively. Thompsons landscaping and soils is excellent. I shall have to return and seek out the ones I missed.

[col]

I popped down last month and seem to have missed some of the better nurseries. It all appeared a little run down. Springtime nurseries and the Chelsea Garden Centre have effectively closed. Wyevale's is still represented but perhaps a little mainstream. Paramount have expanded but seem to target the large specimen plant market exclusively. Thompsons landscaping and soils is excellent. I shall have to return and seek out the ones I missed.

I tell you where possibly you may have missed some of the good stuff Essexman, is that its not all on one single road. If you come down the incline and past Crew Hill railway station, you'll see all the GCs and nurseries along the road in front of you. However, if you go to the bottom of the road and turn right into the next road, there's about the same number again. I would reckon a lot of visitors may miss that

[col]

I was talking to my brother who is a lawyer specialising in property and land matters and based in Kentish Town, London. I mentioned Crew Hill to him because where I come from, GCs want to avoid competition from each other and the worst thing in the world would be to share the same road with another one - so why in Crew Hill are there about 20 or so GCs and nurseries cheek-by-jowl? Commercial suicide, surely?

The answer lies with the planning laws of the 60s and 70s. In those days, if you wanted to build, say, a hotel and leisure complex then all you had to do was open a nursery selling plants (quite permissible - anyone can do it), you'd run your business as a nursery for a few years and then apply to the Planners for change of use. In those days, change of use was quite often granted. In the case of Crews Hill, speculators with varying plans to create this and that opened up nurseries as the first step to achieving what they wanted. There was one big problem for them though - the council's planning department decided enough was enough and they denied change-of-use and have maintained that stance ever since. As a consequence, all those nurseries are now stuck with being nurseries for ever more, all down the same stretch of road. You can turn into a full blown GC if you want, and even sub let to somebody selling reptiles or whatever. But, as for that restaurant and spa complex - forget it!

Col

[Mick B]

Col, you are correct. I live in Enfield, Crews Hill just around the corner. Here is a few links if interested:-

Crews Hill website:
http://www.crewshill.com/

Tropical Plant specialists:
http://www.paramountplants.co.uk/

Massive Water World ponds, fish, tropical , large Koi (some tropical water lilies, and bog plants esculenta 'Black Magic' & Thalia dealbata etc..). Well worth a visit.
http://www.wildwoods.co.uk/

The Gardening Club as mentioned is absolutely massive ( I am a member), with good prices. They currently have six feet plus 'Xanthorrhoea' (blackboy) various prices around £100 - £150.

Last year I bought a six foot Dicksonia Squarossa for £40 with full fronds. Ensetes Maurellis for a fiver (nice size). Antarticas are currently 8-10 feet at £100 - £120.