Our History

The Northern Liner Company started life as the propagation and liner nursery for Garden Centre Plants Ltd, a member of the Barton Grange Group, and a large wholesale supplier to garden centres and sheds. Our Lancaster Road site was purchased in 1986 to replace their old unit. The site had previously been used for tomato production. From 1987 to 1990 we produced plugs and liners solely for GCP.

In 1990 the nursery started to produce stock that was surplus to the requirements of GCP with the aim of selling this on the open market and by 1994 approx half of all our production was being sold to customers other than GCP.

The decision was taken in 1995 to split the propagation and liner site from GCP and create The Northern Liner Company within the Barton Grange Group, thus enabling the propagation and liner business to expand in its own market.

Today Northern Liners is split over two sites. Our Carr Lane site, comprising 5 acres, is a specialist propagation unit producing 2 million plugs per year with a planned expansion to 5 million by 2006. Our main unit at Lancaster Road comprises of 11 acres of glasshouses and polyhouses growing 1 million 9cm and 500,000 1L plants per year.

Northern Liners focuses on growing hardy plants for supply to commercial growers for growing on in 2 and 3L pots for supply to the garden centre market. The range grown at Northern liners encompasses shrubs, climbers, perennials, grasses, bamboo and ferns, in total some 1400 varieties are in regular production.

New varieties are in constant demand and at Northern Liners we make over 100 new additions to our range each year, sourcing plants from all over the world to achieve this.

Our commitment is to providing both a top quality product and service to professional commercial growers throughout the UK and The Republic of Ireland.