Garden Centre Research Team
Drake Trees Garden Centre
🕐 Opening Hours
| Monday | 9:00 – 17:00 |
| Tuesday | 9:00 – 17:00 |
| Wednesday | 9:00 – 17:00 |
| Thursday | 9:00 – 17:00 |
| Friday | 9:00 – 17:00 |
| Saturday | 9:00 – 17:00 |
| Sunday | 10:00 – 16:00 |
A small specialist operation — call or message before travelling, particularly if you want to view specific stock. Orders can also be placed remotely.
Hours may vary on bank holidays — always verify before visiting.
🌿 What’s Here
Portuguese laurel, photinia Red Robin, willow, fruit trees and laurel hedging, in sizes up to twelve feet. Stock is described as consistently healthy.
Peter visits before you buy, looks at the space and advises on what will actually work — a service reviewers value more than anything else here.
Trees delivered and planted, properly staked, with tidy work and aftercare advice. Several customers describe him relocating existing shrubs while there.
Trees will be looked after on site until you are ready for them — used by several customers mid-project.
Orders can be placed by phone or messaging app if you cannot visit.
The site at Box Tree Nursery is shared with Plant Perfections, so the two combine in one visit.
⭐ What Visitors Commonly Mention
Themes from recent public Google reviews sampled September 2026 — editorial summaries, not verbatim quotes. Bars show relative prominence within the sample, not counts of all 40 reviews.
Sentiment summary: Overwhelmingly positive, and unusually personal — this is a one-man specialist operation and almost every review names him. The pattern repeats: an initial visit to look at the garden, honest advice about what suits the space and budget, then delivery and planting done carefully and on time. Customers describe him returning to check the result, and handling changes of mind without complaint. The single dissenting review concerns a tree-reduction job rather than the nursery side, where expectations about the finished height were not met.
Source: Google Maps public review data, sampled September 2026. This page is not a review platform and does not collect first-party reviews.
📍 Getting Here
Battlesbridge station is on the Southminster branch nearby; Wickford is the larger interchange about 2 miles away.
Battlesbridge is served from Wickford and Rayleigh.
At Box Tree Nursery on Beeches Road, Battlesbridge, off the A1245. Parking on site.
Pleasant Crouch valley lanes, though you will not be carrying a tree home on one.
Coordinates: 51.6219804, 0.5760037 · Open in Google Maps ↗
🗺 Nearby Garden Centres
Other garden centres from our Essex listings. Distances are straight-line estimates; drive times will be longer.
| Garden Centre | Area | Distance | Rating | Reviews | Notable For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Eastern Horticultural | Rawreth | ~1 km S | 4.1 ★ | 95 | Mail-order plug plants |
| View Garden Centre | Rawreth | ~2 km S | 4.3 ★ | 828 | Cafe and gift range |
| Meadow Croft | Battlesbridge | ~2 km N | 4.4 ★ | 2,572 | German Christmas market |
| Woodside Garden Centre | Rayleigh | ~4 km S | 4.3 ★ | 114 | Extra-large pots |
All centres listed on allgardencentres.co.uk. Ratings from Google Maps public data, September 2026.
📊 How It Compares Locally
Benchmarked against 65 Essex garden centres tracked on this site (September 2026 data).
A tree specialist at Battlesbridge run by Peter Drake, supplying screening trees, laurel hedging and mature specimens with a home assessment and planting service that reviewers rate exceptionally. rates above the Essex average (4.8 vs 4.45 ★ county mean).
65 Essex garden centres tracked on allgardencentres.co.uk. All Google public rating data, September 2026.
☑️ Before You Go
- Ask for a home visit before buying if you are screening a boundary. It is the part of the service reviewers rate most highly.
- Trees can be held on site until your groundworks are finished.
- Delivery and planting are available and consistently well reviewed — worth costing for anything large.
- Plant Perfections shares the same site, so you can do both in one trip.
- Tree surgery and reduction work is a separate service line — agree the finished height in writing before work starts.
🔍 Data & Source Confidence
Rating data: Sourced from Google Maps public listing, September 2026. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Google. Review themes are editorial summaries drawn from a sample of recent public reviews — not verbatim quotes from any reviewer.
Opening hours: Sourced from Google Business Profile at time of collection. Hours can change — always verify before visiting, especially on bank holidays.
Distances: Straight-line (as-the-crow-flies) estimates using GPS coordinates. Actual driving distance will be greater.
✏️ Claim This Listing
Are you the owner or manager of Drake Trees Garden Centre?
This listing is built from publicly available data. Claiming it is free and lets you correct inaccuracies, add photos, update seasonal hours, and earn an Owner Verified badge — which increases visitor confidence and click-through.
Verification is handled via your official business domain email — no third-party accounts or payments required.
📩 Request Verification →🔗 Related Local Pages
Browse all listings at allgardencentres.co.uk
