New Covent Garden Flower Market veteran Eric Connick is celebrating a major milestone this year, completing 40 years’ service with plant wholesaler Evergreen Exterior Services Ltd.

Eric’s career has mirrored the growth of the business from its humble beginnings as a greengrocer with a small plant yard in Thornton Heath to one of the best-known horticultural suppliers at New Covent Garden. Today, Evergreen has a wholesale nursery supplying garden designers and landscapers, local authorities, schools, sports facilities, private estates, stately homes and more than 100 garden centres.

Above: Eric Connick of Evergreen Exterior Services celebrated 40 years' service with Evergreen in August 2026

For Eric, a 12.30am alarm call has been a way of life for most of his working life. Now approaching his 65th birthday, Eric remains as enthusiastic about the horticulture trade as the day he started. "I love the job," he said. "I love dealing with the plants and I love the customers."

Eric first joined Evergreen in 1986 as a casual worker during busy seasonal periods, helping with bedding plants and Christmas trees. At the time, the company operated from a greengrocer's shop with plants stored in a small yard. As Evergreen expanded and acquired a nursery, Eric continued working seasonally before moving into a full-time role when the company's transport operation grew.

"There was only one driver back then," he recalled. "Then they bought another lorry and I started driving a seven-and-a-half-tonner full time." The role involved early morning trips bringing stock to New Covent Garden Market before returning to the nursery to deliver plants to garden centres and landscapers across the region.

Over the years, Eric became a familiar face in the Market, not only behind the wheel but also on the sales floor. During particularly busy periods, colleagues began asking him to help serve customers and process orders. "When it got busy they'd say, 'Eric, can you pick a book up and book a customer out?'" he said. "Then I did more and more of it, and eventually I ended up selling."

Today, Eric manages Evergreen's unit at New Covent Garden Market, combining sales expertise with decades of horticultural knowledge. His favourite part of the job? The people. "It's the customers, the people and the banter," he said. "You can have a good laugh with them, but you're also helping them. A lot of people don't know one plant from another, and you can explain what works, what doesn't and what needs doing at different times of year."

Eric is especially passionate about sharing practical advice, from seasonal planting tips to the simple but often overlooked art of watering correctly. "You water into the soil, not over the top of the leaves," he said with a smile. "People are always surprised when you tell them that."

Having experienced both the Flower Market on Wandsworth Road and its current interim home on Nine Elms Lane, Eric remembers a very different atmosphere in years gone by. "The old Market had a lot of banter," he said. "I loved it. This place is great too, but it's not the same. What hasn’t changed is that the customers remember you," he said. "They remember the first part and the last part of the service. That's important."

Despite reaching retirement age, Eric has no immediate plans to hang up his Market boots. While he hopes to reduce his workload after years of six-day weeks, he intends to remain part of the business he has helped build.

In two years, the Flower Market will relocate again to its permanent location on the ground floor of the Food Exchange building, with Eric looking forward to working in his third Market location. "I should have retired this year," he said. "But they want me to stay on. I'd probably like to cut it down to four days a week and have a longer weekend."

Eric clearly remains deeply attached to the Market community and the relationships he’s built here. For now, however, Eric’s focus is on celebrating a milestone birthday with family, friends and colleagues. A self-confessed fan of rock and roll and rockabilly music, he’s organised a party complete with a live band and DJ. "There'll be a few of the New Covent Garden Market guys there as well," he said. "It's going to be a big birthday party."

After four decades of pre-dawn starts, Christmas tree rushes, seasonal plant sales and countless customer conversations, Eric's affection for the Flower Market remains undimmed. "It is hard work," he said. "But then you look back and wonder where the time's gone. I've loved every minute of it."