Rowden Gardens was created from a bare field by John Carter and his wife in 1982 and is one of the leading nurseries in the country. In the Showing Field it has won medals at Chelsea, Hampton Court, N.E.C. Birmingham, Malvern, and other major Shows. It has appeared on BBC's Gardener's World, Channel 4, and in other national and regional television programmes, and has been recommended in "The Gardener's Guide to Britain", and in the RHS Garden Finder. Numerous articles have been written about the Gardens and visitors come from all around the world to see the very significant plant collections.

John Carter has judged for the RHS, and as an expert in his field, has contributed to many magazines including "The Garden", "The Water Gardener", and "The Plantsman". He is also the author of "Water in a Small Garden" published in 2007 by Dorling Kindersley for the Royal Horticultural Society and an advisory contributor to the 5th edition of the RHS Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers. He is a past President of the Devon group of the NCCPG. His wife Galen is the Iris laevigata Representative for the Iris Society.

 The Gardens themselves are laid out in a level rectangle of about an acre, with eight canal-like ponds displaying the National Collection of Water Iris, containing over 100 varieties, as well as substantial numbers of water lilies and other aquatics. Around this basic plan other plants have been arranged to create colour schemes, with groups of the same genera growing together so that visitors can see representative collections, and more easily choose the best plants for their needs.

As specialists in damp loving and water plants we do not stock varieties that are commonly available in the ordinary Garden Centre, as we find most of them are quite unsuitable for the average pond. We grow all our plants on the Nursery, and, in the case of Iris and other species that do not come true from seed we only propagate by division, so can guarantee they will be as named.