Lady Penelope's 10th Anniversary Press Release May 2018
PRESS RELEASE
Lady Penelope Gardens…
Specialising in the care of fine
country gardens and estates
and now celebrating their 10-year
anniversary ….
Angela speaks about her success ..
and the need to always keep a pair of rose-tinted specs to hand!
how did they get there?
“I
was filming a wildlife documentary in Mozambique … that is where I decided … it
was time to follow my heart”
Angela
Palmerton, Director and Owner, Lady Penelope Gardens
Angela
Palmerton established Lady Penelope Gardens Ltd in 2008. The business has grown from just sole
gardener to a full-time skilled team of 12 (and actively growing!),
maintaining, managing and landscaping fine country estates and gardens across
Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire. Angela said “My first ten customers knew that I’d just started
out, I was self-taught and they appreciated the honesty … they trusted,
supported, and were happy to recommend me as a new starter”. Angela continued “I’ve
always aspired to work in larger estates and gardens - you can’t do that on
your own, I needed a team of people to work with me”.
2017
saw the business grow yet further to incorporate a new Senior Management Team,
which was not without risk, but essential to take the business to its next
level. “I
realised that I couldn’t do it on my own” said Angela, “so I invested in advice, from those with
more knowledge than me, and this gave me the focus, to make business decisions
on the expansion…I learnt to run it from my head and not my heart… it was good
business advice, but it’s still a constant battle with my heart!”. Many of Lady Penelope’s
very first clients still engage their services today, which is strong testament
to the quality of service and attention to detail that the Company is proud to
deliver.
Ten
years ago, Angela was working on the production of natural history
documentaries for broadcasters such as the BBC and National Geographic. It may seem a considerable leap from TV
production to gardening but having spent many years nurturing her own country
garden and having an innate love of wildlife and the environment, it was a
natural leap to make, and Lady Penelope Gardens was born. “Everybody
was under a huge amount
of stress … you just stopped enjoying the job you got into in the first place” said Angela, “I cherished the
initial 6 months working on my own in my first gardens…being able to take a
breath and quite literally ‘stand up and smell the roses’”.
It
wasn’t long before the scale of the gardens Angela was being asked to maintain
required the recruitment of other professional gardeners who could embrace her
vision and provide a high-quality service to her clients. Gardening is a highly skilled profession
after all, and a Client’s garden is their own private space making it essential
to offer continuity of care and familiar faces. The ability to attract and
instil trust in her clients and to recruit and retain her team are two equally
important qualities which have resulted in Lady Penelope’s continued success. “Typically,
gardeners are all quite a nice bunch … we’re all doing it because we love
gardening and the outdoors … I am as much a people-person as a plants-person
and working with a like-minded team is wonderful” Angela said.
So
what is next for Lady Penelope Gardens?
Angela actively invests in regular training and CPD for her team (and
indeed herself) ranging from specialist rose pruning techniques, to the
breeding cycle of frogs!! She encourages a shared vision for the future growth
of the Company, which encompasses giving back to the industry that nurtured her
by recruiting a new apprentice to join the team to help support new young
talent coming into the horticultural industry and help secure its’ future.
Angela has also shown her dedication to wildlife in this 10th
Anniversary year, by becoming a Corporate Member of local wildlife
organisations such as the Sussex Wildlife Trust, Bumblebee Conservation,
Hedgehog Preservation, and more to come in the future. Such investment means
that the future for Lady Penelope Gardens is a particular shade of rosy pink ….
For
further information, please contact Bev at bev@ladypenelopegardens.com
Langhurst
Farm, Balls Cross, Petworth, West Sussex, GU28 9JW
Tel:
01403 820321
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