Tough and beautiful plants grown in the Scottish Highlands

Welcome

Site Updated 03/07/2020

We are a family-run retail plant nursery. We have been growing and selling an extremely wide selection of plants here in the beautiful and rugged Scottish Highlands since 1979. We have for sale: Alpines, Bedding Plants, Bulbs, Dwarf Conifers, Ferns, Grasses, Heathers, Herbs, House Plants, Perennials, Shrubs, And a few Trees. The majority of our plants are grown on site with care and love by Ben and Lesley Rushbrooke. We are not a Garden Centre, so no tearoom or gift shop, all our effort goes into producing top quality and excellent value plants. We offer an unmatched range of plants suitable for the West Coast of Scotland.

We have a regularly updated and almost fully illustrated availability list searchable by name, cultural preferences and such, so now you can see just what shrubs we have for windy wet and shady sites. We grow loads of very wind hardy shrubs, like Olearia, Hebe, Brachyglottis, Escallonia and Ozothamnus. We also grow lots of bog plant like Primula, Astilbe and Iris. We’ve also a fondness for woodland plants like Erythronium, Trillium and Kirengeshoma.

Opening Times

10am to 6pm. Monday to Saturday. March to Late October or by appointment. We are near Poolewe in Wester Ross, in the remote & beautiful North West Highlands of Scotland and 2kms north of the world renowned Inverewe Gardens. See our directions page for details of how to get here.

What We Grow

The prevailing conditions in our area is lots of salty wind, high rainfall and fairly mild but long winters, as well as lots of poor, shallow, highly acidic peaty soils. We specialise in plants to suit these conditions. ‘Conventional’ gardening difficult here and there is little readily available information on how to grow plants in our conditions. So we have written several informational pieces to help customers choose the right plants.

Markets - No Markets Until the End of Lock Down

Bookshops

Founder of the nursery Ron Rushbrooke now sells second hand books through the internet and from Ron’s Book Bothy upstairs in Poolewe Village Hall above his daughter Alison’s Button Bothy jewellery studio. Some of Ron’s Books can be found on ABE Books and at his ebay Store.

Find Us On Facebook

Click the logo to see our Facebook page. Lesley and Ben post to it fairly regularly to let everyone know what we’re up to.

Throughout the warmer months Lesley has a stall at various local markets (check Facebook for dates): Poolewe Tuesday Market - Every Tuesday in Poolewe Hall (also with salad & books). Ullapool Market - Generally fortnightly, plus some extra weeks, on Saturdays, in front of the Seaforth Hotel. Lochcarron Producers Day - in Lochcarron Village Hall the last Friday of each month. If you want Lesley to bring you a particular plant e-mail or phone ahead on 01445781777

Availability List

COVID-19 Update 3rd July

WE ARE NOW OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AGAIN. We are limiting the ammount of people in the nursery at one time to avoid crowding. Our nursery is entirely outdoors and large enough for safe spacing to be maintained. We are rammed with lovely, colourful plants though and would love for people to come to see, and hopefully buy them! Ben has uploaded a video tour of the nursery to our Facebook Page. Gardening is a great for your mental and physical health and weather permiting this is a great opportunity for you to get busy in your garden. If you need any gardening advice give us a call (01445 781777 / 07468 250719). Please use our Availability List to browse our stock (which you can search by things like habit, flower colour and cultural preferences as well as name) for ideas. Our Gardening Information pages also have lots of tips for improving your garden for both you and wildlife. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for updates and highlights from the nursery.

Doing It For The ‘Gram

Most days Ben takes a few snaps of flowers in The Nursery and adds them to his Instagram story, it’s a good way to get an idea of what we have that is looking good on the nursery right now.