Prior to the founding of Canterbury Horticulture, Todd Burnett grew up working in his parent’s landscaping and garden center business. Working as a landscape crew laborer then assistant stonemason during the summers and then ringing the cash register after school and on weekends was his first experience in the industry. He attended the University of Connecticut and studied horticulture and landscape architecture. After graduating he put his experience and knowledge to work at the rapidly growing family business in Salem, Connecticut as the woody nursery buyer.

After the sale of the family business, the idea for Canterbury Horticulture was hatched in the Burnett family basement sparked by Todd’s desire to provide the industry with a better plant at a competitive price. The gates opened in 1999 on the site of the former Verkade’s Nursery of Canterbury. Wasting no time, we shipped our first orders of perennials and a few shrubs that very same season. Since then, our 85 acre site has grown from 8 hoop houses to well over 100, and our production area under irrigation has more than quadrupled. Today we ship a wide selection of nursery stock and perennials to over 300 happy customers in New England and New York.

We take pride in growing beautiful premium quality, container grown, shrubs, perennials, and grasses that will thrive in the Northeast landscape. The majority of our plants are propagated by us right here on site from seed, softwood, and hardwood cuttings. We also pot up liners and shift up small material to give our customers the selection they need. All our material is grown out to its finished size by our team, carefully pruned, spaced and cared for to bring you beautiful “retail ready” plants. Our professional staff is hands on and closely monitors and nurtures our material to ensure that our customers get the very best plants we can grow. Our manageable size makes it possible for us to provide friendly, personalized attention to everyone. You can be sure that if you have a problem with a plant, we have the expertise to help you!

Our knowledgeable Customer Service team is always at your service. Our outside sales representative is on the road showing samples to buyers in season, and on the farm one day each week to keep current on the status of the crops. Our inside sales representative is hands-on at the farm and can give you up to date information on any plant, take your order, and route your delivery. They both wear several hats here at the farm, keeping them well informed and ready to do what it takes to keep our customers coming back for more!

Our customers are independent garden centers, re-wholesalers, and landscapers located in the Northeast. Our trucks deliver weekly to Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, and Maine. Every order is inspected for quality control before we load it on our own conveniently decked trucks. We take care to ship only the best material in the trustworthy hands of our own truck drivers.

In October of 2012 Todd and his soon to be wife, Meghan had the opportunity to purchase back the garden center in Salem where it all started. With a life time of experience in both retail and production nurseries, you can be assured that we know what it takes to help our customers be successful. We have a firm understanding of how sell through rates, turns and margins effect your business and strive to offer quality plants that you can count on moving out the door and weekly deliveries to reduce your need to stock up all at once.

It’s our mission at Canterbury Horticulture to constantly try to contribute to the growth of our skills, staff, customers and community.

Thank you for taking the time to check us out!
Todd and Meghan Burnett