Moongate Plant Centre is based on the Apley Farm site between Telford and Bridgnorth. Aswel as plants you will also find interesting antique salvage items . They also offer a service to help you design you border plant scheme.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00So we're here at Moongate Farm Shop, hello sir. Hello there, how are you? I'm good thank you,
00:04what's your name and introduce yourself to our viewers. It's Mark Lavers, I'm owner of
00:08Moongate Plant Centre, we've been here since 2017, we expanded it in lockdown,
00:18made new gardens etc. So yeah, you've got a lovely little walkthrough garden haven't you,
00:23which it is not even this time of the year, it's looking fantastic. We're trying to give
00:26people ideas basically of what they can do with their own gardens, obviously trying to sell the
00:32plants that are here, but yeah a little bit different to most places. Yeah, you've got
00:36your greenhouse, you've got some of the plants you're turning to in there and also you do,
00:40is it special orders? We do particular orders for customers, they basically send through their
00:46requirements or quotations and then from there we do back-to-back orders, deliveries to basically
00:52wherever we can over the country really. So yeah, and your background was working in nurseries
00:58isn't it, it's still kind of in the Shropshire area back in the day, supplying garden centres
01:03and that, so you've got quite a history with plants and gardens. Yes, I've come from a wholesale
01:07background and then switched to the retail about five years ago basically, so experience of both
01:13which helps, we also grow our own plants here as well which is also quite a big plus point.
01:19And what I've not seen in places of a similar nature, you've got quite a nice little
01:24quirky items as well that pop up from now and again, there's a lovely old antique lamp
01:28I've clocked, is that a bit of a... We do a little bit of salvage, try and do a few things that are a
01:33little bit away from the norm as well. Yeah, just quite unique really, a little bit specialist
01:38definitely. So it's situated in Appley, if people know where Rapley Farm Shop is, that's where you are.
01:44Yeah, between Bridgnorth and Telford. And when are you open, is it a seven day a week operation?
01:49Seven days a week, hours vary a little bit between the seasons, but essentially in the main
01:55season we're open from nine till five o'clock. Any particular kind of plant at the moment that
02:01people seem to be getting into? Probably alpines, that's the main thing at the moment, they're
02:06coming into flower, and it's their season really early spring, so that's really one of our
02:12kind of strengths. And a particular favourite plant of your own? We use quite a lot in schemes,
02:19so I tend to kind of go with a bit of a mix really, but we do a lot with heucheras. Heucheras
02:25are good, we've got quite a range of those, we also grow those ourselves here, try and pick some
02:29of the new varieties. So do you get involved in kind of designing people's gardens and that
02:34element as well? Yes we do, we do a border creation service where people can either basically come to
02:40us with their areas, or we go out to them, pay them a visit, and then basically pull together
02:46something for however big the border. We've done great big schools plantings to a very very small
02:53courtyard plantings, but yes we kind of specialise in that outside of here.
02:59And I've noticed that lovely purple building with the gifts, is that quite newish? I don't
03:04remember that when I've been previous. That's been here, but we've kind of expanded
03:08that and also again looking at unique items in there, and a little bit different away from
03:14kind of most garden centres really, and also made it a lot more, there's a lot more colour there as well.
03:20Well thank you sir, and we look forward to traipsing down in the summer with our listed
03:25hands, and let's hope you have a good year, a good garden season, all the best. Thank you for coming in, thank you.