Woodburn Nursery was established in the early 1980's with the principle aim to propagate plants for use by the Authority in its parks and open spaces.
Initially all plants were produced from seed and cuttings. This was, however, an extremely labour intensive and very specialised operation, which upon evaluation proved to be an uneconomical method of producing finished bedding plants.
In 1990 the need for change was apparent when the nursery continued to make operating losses. This necessitated not only a managerial change, but also a change in the method of plant production.
In addition, the decision was made to allow the unit to stand-alone and be financially self-supporting. To achieve this, tenders were sourced from other external public bodies.
The first major tender secured by the Nursery was with the London Borough of Bromley and over time was extended to eighteen other Local Authorities around the country.
For the future the Nursery and its management are fully aware of the need to continually trial new initiatives and products on the market. These are to meet two aims, firstly, increasing pressures on client budgets and secondly, the issues around sustainability and Local Agenda 21.