A History of House Plats at Ruxley Manor

Houseplants have always had a strong association with Ruxley Manor, going back to when the holding company, H.Evans & Sons was founded in 1876. Over the years, not only did we grow Outdoor Plants in our many glasshouses but in the run up to Christmas, the glasshouses would be converted into a carpet of red, as poinsettias were grown by the thousands, in preparation to be delivered to Marks & Spencer stores across the country, amongst others. However, as time moved on, our Houseplant Department somewhat diminished, as customer interest for indoor plants waned and therefore, whilst the rest of the garden centre grew, our Houseplant Department became smaller and smaller.

Your New Houseplant Haven

Thankfully, over the last couple of years, perhaps driven by Covid and people working from home and therefore wanting to improve their environment, interest in Houseplants has increased significantly and it became clear to us that our indoor plant offering was no longer big enough, with too small a selection of both plants and pots. Therefore, we were extremely excited to recently open our brand new Houseplant Department, located next to our Food Hall, with a far bigger range of plants and accessories.

Growing Forward, Inspired by Our Past

The whole department also has a close link to the history of the business and our association with Covent Garden, when we used to sell our home grown plants there. Andrew and James (our current Managing Directors), remember going up there a few times when they were children, in the very early hours of the morning, to help (well they thought they were being helpful!) and being amazed at the hustle and bustle of the market. It was almost like another world happening whilst everyone else was tucked up in bed, fast asleep. In the new department, you will see one of our displays has a backdrop of an original image of the H.Evans & Sons Ltd stall at Covent Garden Market, with John Evans (4th generation) and his father Cyril (3rd generation), hard at work.

Where Our History Comes Back to Life

The history of the business is something that we are extremely proud of and therefore it is great to be able to showcase it within the new Houseplant Department and to see a resurgence in an area in which we have such a strong association. Therefore, please make sure you do pay it a visit when you are next at Ruxley and do look at some of the old family images within our Gift Wrap Area, where you’ll be able to see the carpet of red for yourselves!