About Us

Back in 1913, James Coles – the current MD James Coles’ great-grandfather – purchased an eight-acre site in Evington, Leicester, and from these humble beginnings, one of the UK’s largest wholesale plant nurseries has grown.

Although initially limited to growing fruit and vegetables to support the war effort, the business soon transitioned to focus solely on the production of high-quality nursery plants. Thus, Coles Nurseries was born.

Now, over a century later, we’ve grown far beyond that original plot to encompass six sites spanning over 550 acres in total. This includes:

• Thurnby (21 acres): This is home to our head office, propagation unit, dispatch yard and retail plant centre.
• Gaddesby (375 acres): Our largest site by far, where over one million container plants and over 1 million field-grown trees are produced annually.
• Syston (60 acres): This nursery is home to one million container plants and 100,000 field-grown trees, as well as five acres of glasshouses.
• Stoughton (42 acres): A tree-only production site that holds around 250,000 field-grown trees.
• New Field (38 acres): Located a stone’s throw from our head office, here we grow around 150,000 non-rosaceous field-grown trees.
• Market Deeping (20 acres): Our specimen shrubs are grown here, with space for over 250,000 plants outside and in glasshouses.