“On an antique cart at the entrance to the garden centre sits a display of verbenas, trailing ivy, purple heathens, lavender and echinacea, a recent downpour only making the greens more vivid.”
Petersham, on the outskirts of Richmond in south-west London, started life as a humble garden centre. It was run by an elderly couple when Francesco and Gael Boglione – whose 1680s hunting lodge abuts the Nurseries’ walls – bought it in 2000 and, after renovating it, reopened to the public four years later. Today, the family business includes the nurseries, where they grow and sell plants and trade antiques, a farm in Devon run by son Harry, restaurants in Richmond and Covent Garden – with seasonal fruit and vegetables provided by the nurseries – and Petersham Cellar, an Italian wine merchant run by their daughter Lara and her husband.
