May we introduce ourselves? We are a husband and wife team. Our names are Harry and Denny Caddick, and we established our Clematis nursery some seventeen years ago. This was as a result of seeing, in 1977, a wonderful example of clematis Nelly Moser, growing against the grey Lakeland slate of a house in Ambleside, in the Lake District.

The huge, plate-sized mauve pink flowers took Harry’s  breath away, and from that moment, he developed an all consuming passion for the clematis plant.

He became obsessed with them, and soon built up a large collection of varieties, travelling all over this country and abroad to add to his collection. Always a keen gardener, he read everything he could about this plant, and taught himself the rudiments of propagation – not always successfully at first (1600 cuttings one season, with very little success!). Gradually, as he began to understand the plant, he became more successful, obtaining better results, and friends and relatives became the recipients of these successes.

During this time, Harry held a full time occupation as a Lockmaster at Latchford Locks, on the Manchester Ship Canal in Warrington.. His irregular working hours gave him much time to devote to his new interest in propagating clematis plants, and in this spare time we developed a catalogue of our ever-growing collection of plants, and started a mail order business from our home. We devised our own packaging system, and can proudly boast that our plants are rarely damaged in transit. Many letters from satisfied customers are testament to this.

By 1984 our mail order business had grown to the extent that visitors were arriving on the doorstep to look around Caddick’s Clematis Nursery – and were dutifully shown around the large garden with its five greenhouses, and the packing department (which was also known as the kitchen!). Some rethinking had to be done, and in 1985 a suitable location of some six acres was found just two miles away from our home. Here we set up a display area, an office and one greenhouse, and Caddick’s Clematis Nursery was officially opened to the public.

For the next two years, we continued with our ‘proper’ occupations, running the nursery in our spare time, but in 1987, after working on the Manchester Ship Canal for twenty-one years, Harry decided to leave and concentrate on his clematis nursery. One year later, I also left my job, and joined Harry full-time in the nursery, on the administration side of the business.

In 1991, we moved the nursery to its present address, where we continue to develop and collect new and interesting varieties of clematis from all over the world.

We are founder members of the British and International Clematis Societies.

Through our mail order service, we have supplied plants to Buckingham Palace gardens, and to the private garden of the Prince of Wales, at Highgrove House, in Gloucestershire. We regularly supply plants to National Trust properties throughout the UK.

Visitors are more than welcome to the nursery, which is open to the public from 8^th February to 30^th November, Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm, and Sundays 11am to 4pm.