Our History

In 1981, having spent thirteen years in Newbourne growing tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuces, John Coles purchased some land in Trimley St Martin, and began to put his valuable experience to use in establishing what has now become Roselea Nursery.

At first, produce grown on the Nursery was marketed solely through wholesalers but it later became apparent that the income this was making was not enough to support either John’s family, or the workers he employed. The decision was therefore made to explore selling produce directly through our own farm shop.

We purchased a second-hand building in which to accommodate this shop which, on its date of opening, earned the grand total of £4.58. However, through word of mouth recommendations and by widening our range of vegetables, salads and cut flowers, the nursery began to prosper. The building of a new glasshouse allowed for production of a more diverse range of bedding, basket, salad and vegetable plants, and we also began to venture into making their own jams, marmalades and pickles. As a result, in 2007, we were able to wave goodbye to our second-hand shed move into a larger, custom built shop.

Roselea Nursery has since continued to flourish and at requests from customers we now stock a number of additional locally-sourced grocery items including milk, bread, eggs and a range of homemade cakes. It is our own-grown produce however that we pride ourselves upon and our staff, some of whom have grown up with the nursery over the last thirty years, aim to supply this produce with a friendly attitude and a knowledge of both the business and the local area.

After John Coles sadly passed away in November 2015, Sally, Steven and Toni took over the business, we had all worked for John for many years, between us we have 70 years experience and continue to carry on Johns ethos and beliefs.

Growing & Ethics

All produce grown on our nursery is sown ourselves from seed. We always strive to harvest our produce at its optimum point, transferring it onto the shelves of our shop on the same day. As a result of this low food mileage we are able to provide a quality of freshness and taste that cannot be achieved in supermarkets.

We are extremely environmentally conscious during our farming process and strive to use as little amount of pesticides as possible. In 2012 we installed two wind turbines into our field, which help to power our shop’s electricity in a naturally sustainable way.