What we do best
We are growers of an extensive range of hardy ornamental and native trees, hedging, shrubs, fruit trees/bushes, roses and more. Over the years our nursery has steadily grown and now has over 25 acres under plantation.We are a family run business and most of our stock is grown on site, here in Co. Wicklow.
We supply and cater for Landscapers, farm schemes, tidy towns and community groups, new build sites and individual gardeners.
From saplings through to the more mature, we have potted stock all year round and bare-rooted and root-balled from autumn through to spring. Whatever your needs are, just 1 plant or 100, we pride ourselves on offering great quality, great advice and unbeatable value.
Woodside Nurseries Established 1954
Billy Moules tree nursery in Wicklow is a landmark for those who plant trees.
Back in the 1950s, as a young boy growing up just outside Aughrim village, Billy Moules was fascinated by the woods that grew close to his parents’ garden and by the skill and knowledge of the forestry men who tended the trees. As a teenager, he dabbled with the idea of doing a course and working for the forestry himself, but then decided to go it alone as a nurseryman. By the tender age of fourteen, he had bought his first parcel of land just outside Aughrim. “Four acres for £35 in old money” He remembers, ‘and I was too young, legally, to put my name to it. But I was my own boss by the time I was eighteen.” He also remembers his first sale vividly. ‘Lawson’s Cypress, 100 of them, for 25 shillings, ” He says smiling at the memory.
Some years later, Billy bought seven acres of land right in the heart of Aughrim, and his busy tree and shrub nursery, Woodside, is now run from these premises.
Copy writer Fionnuala Fallon and photograpic by Richard Johnson taken from a feature in “The Irish Garden Magazine”.
Billy Moules
Set on the sunny south-facing hillside above the village, the nursery slopes steeply down to street level. Standing in its field at their highest point above the houses, you can – on a clear day – see right across the hills to the Irish Sea.
All around are row after row of shrubs and tress, immaculately maintained, labelled and in vigorous good health.
From autumn until spring, Woodside Nurseries sells mainly bare-root trees and shrubs, nearly two-thirds of which are grown form seed, on site and in open ground. This makes it very different from the majority of tree and shrub nurseries, where young plants are bought is as ‘liners’ and then grown on, often under the protection of plastic. Billy Moules is very proud of Woodside’s reputation in this regards, and of the fact that it produces a plant that’s particularly strong, healthy and accustomed to the irish climate. He also grows plants from cuttings(again in open grind), particularly hedging plants such as escallonia, griselinia and box, and with fifty years’ experience under his belt, is very knowledgeable on the subject. He explains, for example, that box hedging needs a small wound in the cutting, almost to the wood, for it to produce roots, while other plants, such as fuchsia, root far more readily.
As a young nurseryman, he learnt much form men such as John Doyle, the foreman at a nursery in Shellelagh, who gave him valuable advice and encouragement. Billy’s uncle, Pat Kennedy (who worked for Coillte for many years), was another formative influence.
Vanessa Moules
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PHONE:(0402) 36101