About Us

History of Whartons Garden Roses

Whartons Nurseries was founded in 1947 by John Wharton and is now run by his son Robert and grandson Paul. John started his working life with Morse Roses near Norwich before striking out on his own, renting greenhouses and a corner shop in Harleston. In the corner shop he sold fruit and vegetables, whilst growing tomatoes and flowers on the nursery. The second world war halted production of his early rose crops as food took a priority, but John was allowed to retain enough propagating material to launch Whartons’ Nurseries Ltd after the war ended. Fast-forward to the present day and Whartons are the UK’s largest grower of garden roses, propagating over 1.5million roses a year and employing 50 full-time staff, many of whom have highly specialist skills. Field production now covers over 60 hectares of land at any one time, with three production sites taking the field grown roses through grading, potting and despatch.

You can find out more about the production or our breeders here.