A WEST Devon nursery has been shortlisted for a national award.

Hewton Nursery near Bere Alston has been nominated for the Four Oaks Nursery Stock Grower of the Year, to be chosen at a ceremony at Harrogate next Tuesday.

Peter Rogers, editor of Grower magazine which organises the awards, said: 'Under the ownership of Nigel Timpson, Hewton Nursery is regarded as a highly professional company at the forefront of the young plant industry.

'Its strategy has been to build its reputation on reliability and integrity.'

The Grower of the Year Awards, now in their fifth year, recognise individual and corporate achievements in British horticulture.

Mr Timpson will go to Yorkshire for the prize giving, although he modestly said he was not optimistic of scooping the top award.

'It just depends — I think we have got quite a good case,' he said.

Mr Timpson bought the nursery at Hole's Hole in 1976 — the business now employs 30 full-time staff and produces 1.4 million plants a year from its three-and-a-half acres of glasshouses and polythene tunnels.

'We have got about 350 customers from all over the United Kingdom now, but we do quite a bit of business with France and Southern Ireland.

'We've been affected by the strong pound, but we're still keeping up,' said Mr Timpson, who explained the heavy rainfall throughout last year had not affected production badly so much as lack of sunshine.

Sales at Hewton Nursery have increased by 68 per cent over the last five years, with turnover for 1998/99 expected to top £1.3-million.

The nursery supplies very young plants to other nurseries to bring on, including many of the leading wholesalers.