FIFTEEN extra acres have been planted out with large specimen plants in North Yorkshire to help feed the demands of the house building frenzy in the south.

Johnsons of Whixley, the UK's biggest nursery grower, is using the land to cultivate huge shrubs, including three-metre tall hedging plants for corporate landscape gardeners in the south-east, who are unwilling to wait to grow plants and want mature hedges now.

The area is part of 60 acres recently bought by the company alongside its site in Whixley, between York and Harrogate, and now means that the firm has 450 acres of trees and shrubs under cultivation in North Yorkshire.

It also means yet more "green" credentials for the company which is bidding to become the Best Environmental Company in the 2004 Evening Press Business Awards.

Next time you visit a shopping centre or business park, or drive down a stretch of motorway, bear in mind that the avenues of trees and shrubs or the beautified car parks were probably originally furnished with greenery by Johnsons.

The family firm, founded in 1920 by Eric Johnson, using his gratuity from service in the First World War, was bought on his retirement in 1964 by John Richardson.

At that time the business employed 11 full-time staff and had a turnover of £39,000. Today the firm employs 170 full-time staff and had a turnover of more than £10 million and now grows about ten million plants and trees every year at its six production nurseries dotted around York.

In those 40 years, Johnsons of Whixley has grown and sold 160 million trees and shrubs, including millions of trees for the National Forest, for country parks and new housing developments.

All its processes are geared to social and environmental best practice. The firm has led the way in working with other growers and manufacturers to develop alternatives to peat and container-grown varieties are cultivated in a peat-free growing medium. Waste from pruned plants is composted.

Water used to nourish plants in dry periods is drawn from the company's own boreholes and waste water is recycled.

Updated: 11:01 Wednesday, September 01, 2004