Could any members and their guests please get in touch with us as soon as possible if you would like to join us on this very special trip out in May, you can contact us via the website or on the message button of both social media links below.
Finer details and timings of the day will appear here when we have that information, for anyone who does not have transport there will be car share when we know of numbers. Thank you.
Over 60 Years of Cactus Growing Expertise 1956 – 2017
Like many specialists plant nursery operations, Abbey Brook grew out of hobby which started with 6 plants in 1947. The nursery began trading as Abbey Brook in 1956 whilst founder Brian Fearn was a student of Botany at Sheffield University. It became a full time nursery on his graduation in 1959. The nursery name originated from Abbey Brook, a small stream which has its source on the nursery land, and ran to Beauchief Abbey. This Abbey was founded in 1183 by one of the four knights who murdered Thomas Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury. The nursery remained based in Sheffield until 1976.
Agriculture and Flower Shows were the main shop window in the early days, but a small mail order catalogue was produced from the very beginning. Abbey Brook has always had the aim of propagating a wide range of species, a policy which still continues to the present day. People began to make tracks for our doors all over the world, because we propagated plants which were unobtainable anywhere else. Our current computer label file has over 4,000 species on it!!!
Brian Fearn (founder) with ECHINOCACTUS INGENS
Our use of growing room technology was a key element in this and seedlings were produced in this way as early as 1965. This was long before the idea of growing plants under intensive artificial lights was taken up commercially by the bedding plant industry, where it is now standard practice.
Abbey Brook was the first commercial nursery in the world to declare in 1963 that it would not deal in field collected material. This was decades before the current awareness of environmental issues.
In 1976 the nursery moved to its present site just outside Matlock, which is easily accessible by road and rail.
We are members of the British Cactus & Succulent Society, a nationwide organisation which encourages interested people to cultivate, learn about and help to conserve cacti and other succulent plants. For further information, or to become a member, please see www.bcss.org.uk’
