Woodlark was founded in 1963 when nurseryman Ian Hopkins took over the lease on land owned by Walton Charities in Burhill Road, Hersham. Coming from a family with more than 120 years’ experience in horticulture, Ian set about transforming an empty field into a small business. First growing outdoor cut Chrysanthemums, vegetable crops and tomatoes and naming it ‘Woodlark’ after the lands historic title (a name which can be traced back to the 1500’s). By the late 60’s outdoor vegetable production ceased to concentrate on bedding plants.

Throughout the 1970’s glasshouses and polythene tunnels were built allowing for a big increase in production with plants being sold at the Covent Garden Flower market.

The following decade saw more modern glasshouses added and 1984 saw the first attempt at growing poinsettia’s – a crop that would become a Woodlark Christmas staple.

In 1987 Colin Edwards joined the business and over the next decade we changed growing bedding plants in trays to only growing in pots and baskets. The early nineties saw us change from supplying wholesale markets to garden centres only.

After continued growth, in March 1995 it was decided that Woodlark would become a limited company. In 2013 Woodlark celebrated 50 years in business. Sadly, in June 2015 our founder, Ian Hopkins passed away.

In 2016 we installed a biomass wood chip boiler and we hope our 2017 poinsettia crop will be solely heated by this heat source.