Meet the Team
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Alan Down With over 40 years of gardening and growing experiences to call on, Alan has an exceptional knowledge of all things gardening. Owner, with wife Felicity, of Cleeve Nursery since 1983 the business has grown to be regarded as the place to go for great plants! Having previously been assistant to the production director of world renowned Hampshire based Hillier Nurseries, Alan has experience of growing over 5,000 species and varieties of hardy plants. The plant nursery at Cleeve Nursery produces over 65% of the plants now sold in the garden centre and this is one of Alan’s prime responsibilities. Since taking over Cleeve Nursery, Alan has been garden expert for Radio West and BBC Radio Bristol. For 6 years he, Felicity and Sue King presented from their garden the highly acclaimed HTV Garden Calendar programme every week. Since 2005, Alan has been the Western Daily Press gardening correspondent and his double page spread with useful tips and recommendations can be found there every Saturday.
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Felicity Down Also with over 40 years of gardening experience to call on, Felicity’s too has an exceptional knowledge of gardening. Joint owner, with husband Alan, of Cleeve Nursery since 1983 the business has grown to be regarded as the place to go for great plants! Felicity was senior florist at world renowned Hampshire based Hillier Nurseries when she and Alan met. Her eye for colour and artistic flair is put to good use in displays on the garden centre at Cleeve. Primarily responsible for the garden centre and its busy coffee shop, she is assisted by a very experienced team headed up by manager Geoff. Since taking over Cleeve Nursery, Felicity has been garden expert for Radio West. For 6 years she, Alan and Sue King presented every week the highly acclaimed HTV Garden Calendar programme from their garden. |
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Geoff Piper, Garden Centre Manager. After training as a chef and working for 12 years in the hotel and catering trade, Geoff joined the team in 1993 as a sales assistant. Since then he has attained various qualifications including the RHS certificate, the HTA Retail Plant Care Award (Gold Level), as well as a handful of management qualifications. Promoted to manager in 2002, Geoff is responsible for keeping the centre stocked with plants and the day to day running of Cleeve Nursery |
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Judith Field Judith joined Cleeve Nursery in 2003, having gained an HND in Horticulture from Pershore College. Initially employed as a Garden centre assistant she became Garden Centre Supervisor in 2008. Aside from general plant and customer care, Judith is responsible for our climbing plants and for purchasing our garden sundries, tools, fertiliser, pest control etc. and the wildlife section. Judith is also one of our team of designers who under take gold and silver level plans, as part of our Border Design Service |
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Geoff (Digger) Dykes Geoffrey has been in horticulture for 44 years and has attained a broad range of horticultural experience. His interest started young in his grandfather’s greenhouse and progressed from school to an apprenticeship at the Royal Parks, London. He joined the diploma course at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, graduating with a diploma at credit level. This prepared him for a supervisor’s position which he held for over seven years at Dyffryn Gardens near Cardiff. He then took a very big step and accepted a position as gardens manager at a very large hospital and residential complex in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which he held for fifteen years. Geoffrey joined us in September 1999 and is responsible keeping our plants healthy with compost tea and by other complementary methods. |
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Callum Holman Callum is the youngest member of our team at Cleeve Nursery and is serving a modern day apprenticeship. Last year Callum studied at This year Callum is studying one day a week at |
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Sharon Sharon joined the team at Cleeve Nursery in September 2003, after working many years in nursing. She is a keen home gardener,with a special intrest in growing her own fruit and vegetables. She takes every oppotunity to improve her small but interesting flower and shrub garden. |
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Karl Karl remembers'companion planting' Marigolds and carrots aged 4, he has contiued to enjoy gardens and gardening. Now, after many years as a silkscreen printer, he is happy to divide his time between looking after the Long Acre production nursery and teaching guitar. |
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Sarah Sarah trained in Hotel and Catering Management and spent several years working in hotels, She then started working for Sainsburys and took managerial roles in both the Coffee Shop and Delicatessen departments. While at Sainsburys, Sarah married and family life has now taken over. With two boys to look after, she is now enjoying the freedom of working part-time in the coffee shop here at Cleeve Nursery. |
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Gill Gill has worked in the Coffee shop at Cleeve Nursery since May 2008. She lives in Cleeve and enjoys gardening and walking her dog Chester around the local lanes and fields. |
