Bowdens Nursery,Sticklepath

Bowdens Nursery occupies a single site at Bowden Place in Sticklepath, on the northern edge of Dartmoor, where Roger and Ann Bowden began collecting hostas in the 1970s and established the garden that bears their name. Their daughter Ruth and her husband Tim Penrose took over the business in 2004 and hold the Plant Heritage National Collection of Modern Hybrid Hostas, alongside a National Collection of Agapanthus. The nursery has exhibited at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show since 1996 and grows hostas, ferns and bamboos for mail order and for visitors to the adjoining display garden. The family-run business deals directly with customers by phone and email from the Sticklepath site rather than through a call centre.