Okells: the family garden centre growing for over 40 years

Some garden centres feel like out-of-town warehouses. Okells, near Tarporley, feels like what it is: an independent, family-run business with its roots firmly in the soil.

Okells was established in 1982 and began life as a nursery at Duddon Heath, in the countryside between Tarporley and Chester. More than 40 years on, it is led by second-generation owner George Okell, and the family's horticultural heritage remains at the centre of everything it does.

Today the main site combines a traditional garden centre layout with indoor and outdoor plants, a curated selection of homewares and gifts sourced from independent suppliers, and a large café that has become a destination in its own right. It is the kind of place where a quick trip for a tray of bedding plants can easily turn into a leisurely morning of browsing and coffee.

That emphasis on independent suppliers is telling. Rather than filling its shelves with the same products found everywhere else, Okells has built a reputation for choosing pieces that feel personal, which makes it a favourite for gift shopping as well as for gardening.

In recent years the business has grown from a single site to two. Alongside the main garden centre near Tarporley, Okells opened a smaller shop in Hoole, just outside Chester city centre, offering a more distilled version of the Okells experience for city gardeners and houseplant lovers. The move brought a well-loved rural independent within easy reach of a new audience.

Garden centres like Okells play an important part in rural Cheshire life. They are places for advice as much as for shopping, where regulars come to ask what will thrive in a shady border or how to revive a struggling houseplant, and where a family business can build relationships with customers over many years.

It is a quietly impressive story of a family business evolving with the times while holding on to what made it special in the first place: good plants, thoughtful choice and a genuinely local feel.

Okells Garden Centre is at Duddon Heath, near Tarporley, with a second shop in Hoole, Chester. Visit okellsgardencentre.co.uk for details.