Russell's Garden Centre, Coventry

This is a totally independent GardenAction opinion of Russell's Garden Centre in Baginton, Coventry.

The main body of this article is from our review of the garden centre in 2007. Our visit in December 2008 concentrated on how the garden centre had changed over the previous 18 months. Details of our re-visit can be found on the last page of this article. To skip there immediately, click here.

As far as garden centres go, Russell's Garden Centre gave us the biggest surprise of them all. The site is set in over 20 acres of beautiful countryside and offers you a morning or afternoon out for possibly nothing. As well as excellent nurseries, on site there is another specialist nursery (Avondale Nursery) featuring a wide range of unusual cottage perennials and grasses. Avondale have their own plant-packed display garden which is free to enter if you purchase any of their plants.

In addition to that, Russell's have their own much larger gardens (admission free if you purchase £10 worth of plants) which has to be worth an hour of any gardeners time. These gardens have been designed by a master-designer. In the middle is a large waterfall with paths weaving up the garden slopes, a delight!

Finally, there is a huge display of paving, chippings and walling stones, the largest we have ever seen, all courtesy of Stonemarket. Take a peek inside Dave's wood working shed and you will be watching a master carpenter at work. The log cabin which houses the workshop has been featured in many a magazine article.

Russell's Garden Centre was started 80 years ago and is still run by the family. In 2006 there were negotiations with Webbs of Wychbold who were planning to takeover the garden centre but they fell through. With so much currently on the site, the Russell family now plan to refurbish it themselves for 2008. This garden centre offers so much for the gardener now, let's hope the refurbishment adds even more.

Note that in many of the directory listings on the internet, Russell's Garden Centre appear as Baginton Bridge Nurseries. This was true many years ago but the correct name now is definitely Russell's Garden Centre.

PLANTS

Most of the shrubs and especially the clematis are grown or potted-on on site and the quality shows. To the left is a long row of clematis, all in peak condition, of 30 or so varieties. If you plan on buying a clematis this is the place to visit. The larger garden centres simply cannot compete. And you know they are grown on site at Russell's so no large carbon footprint to worry about.

As well as a good range of bedding plants, Russell's stock a large variety of top condition shrubs some of which are not readily available at other garden centres. They also stock a large range of conifers (click the picture to the right to enlarge it). The plants were all healthy and well-watered.

There was a lack of signs in this garden centre which made finding plants difficult. Nurseries such as Russell's are often more spread out compared to the average garden centre which is pleasant. However, a few basic signs would be beneficial as well as organising groups of plants possibly into  alphabetic order.

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