Harnett succeeded Zelari Piante's Stefano Sogni as Horticultural Ambassador. Sogni handed over the baton with a heartfelt citation.
HortWeek editor Matthew Appleby told delegates how Kernock Park Plants is one of the UK’s leading propagators of ornamentals. Located in Pillaton, Cornwall, just over the Tamar Bridge from Plymouth, it was established in 1981.
Since 2012, the business has amassed more than 50 awards, including a silver medal at the 2019 AIPH International Grower of the Year awards, two silvers and a silver gilt at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival, 10 HTA National Plant Show awards, 13 Four Oaks Trade Show awards, nine South West Growers Show awards and many more.
Known for cuttings-raised bedding plants, and the development of the patio plant category, Instaplant and the Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis), the business is also founder member, grower, distributor and financial headquarters of Proven Winners Europe.
In 2004 Bruce Harnett came into the business and took on the role of managing director, following a BSc degree in environmental science including a year working in South Africa and an MSc in management of technology and business. In 2014, he was awarded a Nuffield Scholarship to study technology in horticulture and identify opportunities for its adoption within ornamental horticulture.
This passion to continually push the envelope on technical matters was central to the involvement of Kernock Park Plants in groundbreaking trials and research involving the University of Plymouth, Stockbridge House and Philips on the use of LEDs in multiple growing areas, and thereafter to its substantial use in the business.
