The centre has just completed a complete refurbishment and is attracting new customers. During the process Pam decided to hand over the higher-level responsibility and step down from her 21-year role as centre manager to focus on customer service and sharing her gardening knowledge.
When Pam joined the company in 1980, founder Paul Richards was running a small pick-your-own business selling runner beans, tomatoes, rhubarb, cucumber and melons. Pam would pick beans during the morning and sell them to the public.
A move to a larger site – where the centre is still based – meant Pam would sit on the floor in a wooden greenhouse, pricking out seedlings. That expanded into producing hanging baskets and wider ranges of produce and plants.
When Paul started a wholesale trade side of the business, Pam’s site became focussed on retail and became the forerunner of the current garden centre.
In 1989 she was appointed manager and helped shape the centre as it gradually expanded and took on new product ranges, including giftware and a tea room. Pam ran the tea room for its first year and even baked the scones and cakes.
She said: “Tea rooms compliment a garden centre really well; customers appreciate having both on the same site and in terms of business, they mutually benefit each other.”
Pam’s favourite plants are herbaceous, which are gradually taking over her garden at home in Ferndown.
She said: “I’m told my garden is a bit of a jungle but I love it that way; it’s also full of shrubs and trees and I spend all the time I can there, especially on the herbaceous which take a bit of work.”
Director Simon Edwards said: “What Pam doesn’t know about gardening isn’t worth knowing; she has phenomenal experience that she loves sharing with our customers. She has always been a very core member of our team, and still is.”
www.golden-acres-nursery.co.uk Photography by Phil Dowding
