A Family Business

100 Years since the founding of Blooms Nurseries Limited.

We are pleased to announce that BNL is in our 100th year of when Alan Bloom set up Blooms Nurseries – originally in Oakington, Cambridgeshire, then moving to Bressingham in 1946. It was in 1947 that Blooms Nursery became Blooms Nurseries Limited.

The full history would take too long to tell but, over the coming year, will share with you snapshots of some of the plants, the original catalogues and some of the many people who have helped us on the journey so far.

Adrian’s  Comments

1934/35

We don’t have copies of the first few plant lists which indicate that, the nursery business Blooms Nurseries started in Oakington in Cambridgeshire in 1926 when my father was only 20 years old. It was a joint effort of my grandfather Charles and my father Alan Bloom. My father, who died in 2005 is of course no longer around to sort out the details for us, but looking at this 1934 catalogue, it was titled as C. H.Bloom and Son.

It might be interesting to note;

Wholesale lists and Catalogues were usually issued in the autumn as the standard shipping was not as today, spring but autumn. Alpine plants were grown in Terra cotta pots, and perennials from the field or open ground. C.H.Bloom supplied nurseries across the country, packed in wooden Boxes and shipped by rail

Note, few people had telephones, the Blooms Nursery was simply Histon 44

What was happening in 1934?

Hitler came to power, as the German  leader….and we all know how significant that event became.

 In China the long March began. China seemed  a very long way away, although Britain had a very great Empire

In England 10,000 people attended a Fascist rally organised by Oswald Mosley.

No one knew it but Britain would be at war in 6 years….