Patio Heaters are carbon negative!

Contrary to recent publicity we believe patio heaters are carbon negative and will increase our efforts to sell them. Propane and Butane are inevitable by-products from refining oil and will be burnt in one form or another. Vast quantities are burnt off in the flares you see at refineries. If burnt in patio heaters instead, the CO2 is released much nearer the ground. This makes it much more likely that the gas will be absorbed by plants instead of being released into the atmosphere and it promotes plant growth.

Bob Gault – Chairman of the Klondyke Group

Congratulations to
Webbs, the UK Garden Centre of the Year, which is celebrating 70 years at Wychbold in Worcestershire with an exhibition highlighting the family firm's remarkable history on the site.

This year is a significant milestone for the company which has grown into a national leader in the gardening business and a regional tourist attraction annually welcoming over a million visitors. Webbs were thrilled with the public response earlier in the year when local people were invited to get in touch with their photographs and memories to help the firm capture what life had been like at Wychbold, particularly in the early days.

The roots of Webbs began in the middle of the 19th century when Edward Webb, a successful agricultural seeds merchant, began trading from Wordsley in the West Midlands in1866. Due to the quality of the firm’s products, Webbs soon earned the highest seal of approval by being appointed seedsmen to Queen Victoria and every monarch since. To assess the quality of their seeds, trial grounds were established and in 1937 with the growth and popularity of the motorcar, William Webb, Edward's grandson, moved the seeds trials alongside the A38 in Wychbold. That year the famous Webbs thatched building, the floor of which was designed to incorporate wood from all countries of the Commonwealth at that time, was completed by Messrs Braziers of Bromsgrove as a reception centre.

Vivid memories of those times are recalled by Eddie Wormington, whose father Alf was among the first on site at Wychbold and worked for Webbs until he died, aged 80, in 1983.

Eddie, then aged about seven, remembers Major Harcourt Webb arriving at their cottage in his Armstrong Siddeley car and inviting his father to go for a ride. They drove to a field where Major Webb told Alf that this was to be the site of the new trial grounds and that he would be responsible for getting it up and running. Eddie remembers his father thinking what daunting work lay ahead once he had taken in his surroundings, which included a gravel pit and particularly stony ground!

Eddie recalls the two six feet high coke burning furnaces needed to heat the greenhouses and garden frames and his father touring around large farms in the county negotiating the purchase of hundreds of tons of stable manure to feed the ground.

He explained, "It cannot be imagined today, the amount of manual work that went into the preparation of the land. Each bed was ploughed with a single furrow plough share on a 2 wheel trusty tractor. Afterwards it was rotovated ready for hand preparation and planting. The results were a sight to behold. The plants would eventually cover two thirds of the site, giving both a magnificent display of flowers and unbelievable cropping of vegetables."

Alf engaged a team of local women on a seasonal basis and trained them to pick out by hand the individual seedlings in their thousands without bruising them, holding them by a single leaf and carefully lowering the root into the hole they created with a peg.

There were hundreds of visitors walking around the displays on weekends and double-decker buses and coaches would bring people from far and wide to the site, dropping them at the main gate where the Walls ice cream man in uniform would serve from his 3 wheeled bicycle on warm days.

The war years saw Webbs continue to breed and trial seeds (with anti aircraft guns situated by the river behind the seed grounds) and on throughout the 1940s, 50s and 60s, successfully exhibiting at all the major flower shows during this period. Photos from the era show how the company used to book a whole train to take the workforce on outings, such as a trip up the River Thames in 1950.

Richard Webb, the great grandson of the original Edward Webb, then purchased the site with his wife Marigold and began the development of Webbs into both a garden centre and nursery. As the popularity in gardening flourished, the site at Wychbold expanded and developed to meet the growing demand. Television fame soon followed when Webbs made an appearance on Gardeners World Live and Anneka Rice's Challenge Anneka asked Webbs to build a multi-sensory garden at the RNIB New College in Worcester.

In 1996 Webbs won gold at Chelsea Flower Show. The winning design not only proved a favourite with the Judges but also with HM The Queen. The design was based on the idea that every man's home is his castle and had rampart style hedge, a draw-bridge and cannon.

In 2000, visitors to Webbs were invited to relax and be inspired in the Riverside Gardens, designed by Marigold Webb, Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal Winner. Four years later, the New Wave gardens were opened, adding even more for visitors to enjoy. Designed by cutting edge plantsman and designer Noel Kingsbury, these gardens reveal a more contemporary style. Both these gardens are free for everyone to enjoy and are visited by many thousands of people each year.

Webbs still believes in trialling all new species thoroughly before introducing them to the market so in 2005 Webbs joined forces with Bransford Nurseries to create the Bransford Webbs Plant Company enabling them not only to produce plants for Webbs but garden centres nationwide.

In 2006 Webbs opened its £5m expansion, seeing the Wychbold site becoming Britain's biggest garden centre. Now with a workforce of almost 400 people, Webbs is a major local employer and continues to thrive at the heart of the community. Webbs still has long-serving staff today with several employees notching up more than 30 years loyal service to the company.

In 2007 Webbs was given the highest accolade, when it was crowned UK Garden Centre of the Year by the Garden Centres Association (GCA) representing the best garden retailers in the country. Webbs has also just launched an online shop, expanding worldwide through the internet.

Today, the business is led by Ed Webb, great, great grandson of the firm's founder who explained, "Throughout the years the site at Wychbold has expanded and developed with Webbs establishing itself as a leading horticultural centre and regional tourist attraction, with a succession of retail awards recognising garden centre expertise. There have been many developments in the 70 years we have been in Wychbold, but one thing has never changed - the name over the door - Webbs."

The exhibition will be on view at Webbs from Monday 30th April until July when the 70 years at Wychbold anniversary culminates in a weekend of celebrations on 7th and 8th July.