The history of gardening
About us

We are a small perennial nursery that cultivates its favorite plants. If you want to know a little more about us ...
“You're not that stupid!” was one of the typical reactions to my dream job - gardener. Well, after an apprenticeship, a university degree as a vocational school teacher for horticulture and a master’s degree in horticulture and landscaping, this has been sufficiently confirmed to me and it is really a prejudice. You don't have to be stupid, but you have to love plants, enjoy digging in the earth and see the germination of a seed as a miracle.
The first few years in my husband's nursery I was at a great disadvantage compared to perennials in general and his special ranges of alpine and liverworts, but he has proven to be a good teacher. Fortunately, if you have been working with the plants every day for more than 25 years and looking after them from reproduction to sale, knowledge is fortunately inevitable. After Jürgen officially retired in 2013, I feel quite able to continue running the business. And luckily he is at my side every day with words and deeds.
There are always astonished inquiries about our range. Why in the Hamburg area Alpine? And why bluebells or even the Japanese liverwort? Well, we are ‘hunters and gatherers, we simply cannot resist when it is said that“ the culture is extremely difficult ”and why should a nursery cultivate blue asters and red poppies, there are already specialists for that.
But there are also very practical reasons, e.g. For example, the climate here in Schleswig-Holstein is balanced and, thanks to the higher humidity, is perfect for growing alpine perennials such as gentians and edelweiss. The bellflower collection arose from the crazy idea of a “blue nursery” and the crazy liverworts for over a thousand euros? The gardener lived out his own personal passion for collecting and accumulated a lot of knowledge, connections and know-how over the years - all of which must be used.
It is also a rumor that gardeners may or may not speak three related words. In order to check this again and again, and simply because we have a lot of fun, we give lectures on a wide variety of topics. So if you represent a group that is interested in liverworts, bluebells, perennials or other things from our range - please contact us.
Once or twice a year one of us can appear in front of a larger audience by visiting the MDR garden and reporting something on current seasonal topics in front of the television camera. And of course we are always available for a good technical discussion at the plant markets or on the phone - we just enjoy gardening!

Opening times
Since we spend many weekends at plant markets, we offer postage as a service for customers who live further away and actually most of our plants themselves cultivating there is simply no time for regular opening times. You can make an appointment with us at any time by phone or email, we look forward to your visit to the nursery.

Founder Walter Peters senior
The company founder Walter Peters senior, born on November 16, 1896, has a garden in Erfurt - and studied fruit growing. On March 14, 1924 he bought a plot of land with a house, stables and a good one hectare of agricultural land. The first crops were cut roses for the Hamburg wholesale market. Hard to imagine today, the roses were packed in two baskets by train in the direction of Hamburg and carried there on the shoulder to the market, where young vegetable plants, summer flowers and cut gladioli were grown for the weekly markets in the area.
2. Generation
Walter Peters junior, took over the business shortly after World War II after training in ornamental plants. Despite the other specialization, he kept very close contact with the then extremely innovative tree students in the Pinneberg district. This often made him a pioneer among perennial gardeners, e.g. B. with the introduction of plastic pots. In 1963, a flower shop was built in addition to production and at the same time he cultivated what was then the world's largest acreage of gypsophila for cutting production - an impressive twenty hectares. In addition to production for resellers and weekly markets, he was already looking for new challenges, e.g. Christmas roses for Christmas pruning and young aquatic plants.
3. Generation
Walter Jürgen Peters had to take over his father's business for ten years for ten years after a successful perennial gardening apprenticeship with Karl Wachter, surprisingly in 1975 due to a stroke. In 1985, father and son shared the range and the nursery. While Walter Peters chose Helleborus and aquatic plants as a focus, Jürgen Peters remained true to his preference for rarities and sells his alpine treasures and, increasingly, liverworts (Hepaticas) via the fashionable plant markets. Despite postage, the gardener family treated themselves to a large sales area for private customers. Upon reaching retirement age, the perennial nursery was officially closed as it was not allowed to be handed over to the wife.
4. Generation
Since 2013, Susanne Peters has been running the small perennial nursery in line with the Peters gardeners and their ranges, and Jürgen Peters is still there to help. At the same time, she tries to leave her own footprint somewhere. Today, in addition to the familiar spring roses (Helleborus) and liverworts (Hepaticas), there is also a large assortment of bluebells (Campanula) and violets (Viola). Despite the significant reduction in the size of the nursery, almost all of the product ranges were retained. Perhaps at some point the nursery’s increased communication through lectures, television and websites will become its trademark?