Preston family business who attended first-ever Southport Flower Show prepare for 100th anniversary event

Boy (left) is Andrew, Susan's son who is now nursery manager. — Boy (left) is Andrew, Susan’s son who is now nursery manager.

A Preston family business that has been exhibiting at the Southport Flower Show for over 100 years is preparing for its special anniversary event in just under two weeks time.

W. Robinson & Son (Seeds & Plants) Ltd, also known as ‘Home of The Mammoth Onion,’ is a 161-year-old family business, now run by sisters Susan and Margaret Robinson.

The seed and plant nursery, based on Sunny Bank just outside Forton, was founded in 1860 by William Robinson. He had a passion for growing unique crops at that time such as apples, plums and onions.

W. Robinson & Son (Seeds & Plants) are known as ‘Home of The Mammoth Onion’

The next generation, also called William Robinson, then started to improve the size of onions and leeks to which the ‘Home of The Mammoth Onion’ was established.

In 1924 the family attended the first-ever Southport Flower Show, where they exhibited onions and vegetables.

Now Susan and Margaret are carrying on the legacy and will be celebrating the 100th show with old prize cards and memorabilia.

“We have an old diary of my grandfather’s which we are going to bring along. There’s a diary entry from when he attended the first show.

“We’ll also bring some old photos and we have kept all the prose cards since 1924, there’s hundreds!”

Susan and Margaret have been attending the Southport Flower Show for decades.

The sisters are looking forward to the special anniversary and just hope for good weather as it ‘adds to the atmosphere’.

They reflected on how much it has changed over the years with fond memories of the horse jumping and 60ft long exhibitions.

“The first day of the show always used to be a special event.

“All the ladies dressed up in their finest outfits, if you didn’t wear a hat you wouldn’t be part of the fashion,” they joked.

“There only used to be one celebrity per show at the time too. We have been attending for 70 years and it has changed during that time.”

The business won a ‘master grower’ award at the RHS Tatton Park Show.

Susan and Margaret start preparing for the show as early as December, with other shows lined up in the summer.

They attended the Chorley Flower Show a few weeks ago, where they took away a gold award for ‘vegetables which taste as good as they look’ and the week before, won a ‘master grower’ award at the RHS Tatton Park Show.

W. Robinson & Son will be exhibiting in stand B1 in the Floral Marquee at the Southport Flower Show.

Their business is at Sunny Bank, Preston Lancaster Road in Preston – the same spot they have been since 1860 – and they are open Monday – Friday, 10am – 4pm.

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