Horticulture Grower

**Grower (full-time position)**:
**5 days a week (working four weekdays and one weekend day)**

**About Perrywood Garden Centre & Nurseries Ltd**

Perrywood is an independent, family-owned garden centre and nursery run by the Bourne Family. Both our Tiptree and Sudbury centres are surrounded by beautiful countryside, and we have exciting development plans for our Sudbury site. Our mission is to offer a memorable garden centre experience; delivering wow customer service and giving our employees and customers, a reason to smile.

We grow more than 750,000 bedding plants per year in our modern nursery production area which sits behind our Tiptree Garden Centre. We are looking for a team player with experience of growing in a commercial environment, ideally with current certificates in spraying, pest & disease control etc.

**Rewards and Benefits**

In addition to your hourly wage you will receive the following benefits:
**o Discount**

From the start of your employment you will receive 10% discount on specific items. Following a successful probation period the discount increases up to 20% discount on specific items and after one years service up to 40% discount on specific items. (some exceptions apply)

**o Paid holiday**

**o Annual Christmas bonus**

**o Part-uniform provided**

**o Employee Assistant Programme**

a confidential personal and professional support service

available to all employees and their immediate families 24/7, 365 days a year.

**o Training & development**

as required. We have an e-learning scheme called GROW, and also

take part in other training with product suppliers and external trainers

**o Company sick pay**

following a successful probation period employees are entitled to 10 days

paid sickness (part-time pro rata and restrictions apply)

**o Access to our Retail Discount Scheme**

savings on retailers including Tesco, Pizza Express,

M&S,Waitrose, Argos, Apple, Currys PC World, Thomas Cook and 100’s more

**o Workplace pension**

**o Free parking**

**Key duties**
- **Carrying out roles as required to produce plants in our nursery.**
- Operating nursery machinery such as potting machine, seeder & transplanting machine
- Moving stock around - manually and with machinery
- General maintenance and plant care - could include watering & irrigation, weeding, pruning, propagation, cleaning etc.
- Labeling of products
- Grading and sorting plants as required
- **Assist in the day to day supervision of the nursery team**
- Assist in task planning with the nursery production manager, and ensure that the plan is delivered each day
- Monitor / maintain production quality, and assist in training unskilled team members. Lead by example and provide constructive feedback
- Deputise for the nursery production manager in their absence
- Pest and disease control in greenhouses, and across wider garden centre. Will include spraying using knapsack and pedestrian trolley sprayer (PA1 & PA6 certificate required) and biological pest control
- Work closely with retail Plant Area team, to ensure plants are ready for dispatch and they are regularly notified of crop readiness schedules. Occasionally assist in retail areas e.g. moving plants and stocking up, labelling, cleaning
- On occasion you may be required to visit our second site at Sudbury, to monitor crops and assist with pest and disease control

The above is not an exhaustive list of duties and you will be expected to perform different tasks as necessitated by your changing role within the organisation.

**Your capabilities**
- Ability to work both inside and outside in varied weather conditions
- You must be able to bend, lift and pull/push trolleys and barrows
- Ability to work as a member of a team, and able to operate in a fast-paced commercial facility
- Ability to use your own initiative, and you can quickly get to grips with ever changing crops, seasons and retail demands
- A keen interest in plants and related products, and current experience of growing within commercial environment

**Requirements**:

- You’ll need to work five days a week (working four weekdays and one alternating weekend day)
- Flexibility to work additional or varied hours according to seasonal requirements (for example spraying plant protection products outside normal working hours)
- You’ll need to work some bank holidays (as part of a rota with other assistants)
- Experience of working in a production nursery, Garden Centre or similar environment is essential
- Excellent bedding plant knowledge essential
- Good communication skills essential
- Current certificates in fork-lift truck driving and spraying / pest & disease control preferred, but training will be given if necessary
- As part of this role when assisting in bedding plant department you will be required to wear gloves (Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE) when handling certain crops which may be for large parts of the day

**Perrywood is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to ensur