Peter Argles is one of a dying breed of well-mannered, erudite gentlemen. He is a man of old school courteousness who, like the plants that he grows, is individual, rare and distinctive.
Born in Kent, the fourth son of five boys, he was educated at Charterhouse and then Oxford where he read Geography. Peter met and married Anne in St. Andrews church, Buckland Monachorum in 1989 and they now have four grown up children.
Peter’s parents met at a horticultural research station in Kent just before the Second World War. Peter’s grandfather, Leslie Wates was a highly successful solicitor in London and had a hand in a variety of other businesses in the South West including E.B. Champernowne Nursery on the outskirts of Buckland. At that time the nursery produced daffodil bulbs for the wholesale and retail trade as well as shrubs, alpines and perennials. Leslie Wates bought the Nursery in 1945; Peter took over management in 1983 and bought the business in 1992.
Champernowne no longer produces daffodil bulbs but Peter has expanded the wholesale business and now grows 1500 varieties of shrubs and perennials, many of which are rare and unusual. The nursery covers 23 acres including 22 poly tunnels, two enormous glasshouses, outbuildings and a reservoir. Almost all of the plants are grown on site either from seed, cuttings or division. He has a full time Indonesian propagator and five part time staff - although this number swells in the summer when both the number of sales and the undesirable weeds increase.
Peter takes great pride in his plants; he especially appreciates the uncommon collections and believes there is merit in diversity “the plants have an intrinsic beauty and interest”. Walking around the poly tunnels is a delight, row after row of striking and unfamiliar glossy plants sit side by side with the more recognisable bushy camellias, viburnum and fuchsia. Peter’s horticultural knowledge is boundless and his self-taught plantsmanship is outstanding.
He is very much hands on in the business, and can usually be found in one of the tunnels hands deep in compost but every week he swaps wellies for trainers and goes “hashing”. He is approaching his 1000th run with the Tamar Valley Hash House Harriers and enjoys the opportunity for exercise.
Do not be fooled by Peter - bespectacled, bearded and benign he could pass for an ordinary common or garden fellow, but he is the most uncommon gardener I have met and his genteel disposition and idiosyncratic demeanour are, like his plants, much-admired.
To find out more about the retail outlets where you can buy Peter’s plants, you can visit his new website : www.champernowne.co.uk