The great country houses of Victorian and Edwardian England had large kitchen gardens which produced all their own fruit, vegetables and cut flowers. Extensive parklands were planted with conifers and forest trees, rather than ornamentals. Woods Nurseries, and then RCN, supplied this market comprising of a relatively small number of key customers.

The imperious Head Gardener was a "highly important person", as his custom was critical to the Nursery. On visits to the nursery he was ceremoniously received and conducted around, as his large order was hopefully written down. Each summer RCN invited all the Head Gardeners to a special tea party in the yew hedge garden on the Nursery. At Christmas he wrote to each employer requesting permission to send a Christmas box to the Head Gardener.

After the First World War, the number of staff looking after large gardens declined - as did the annual orders. The business adapted to supply many more modest houses, with their smaller gardens and orders.

These orders were delivered locally by horse and cart, and later by one of the first lorries in Woodbridge. More distant orders were expertly packed in bracken, "a torture to use" as the stems split, and caused wrists to bleed as the willow shoot ties were tightened. Large orders were collected from the fields and taken straight to Woodbridge Railway Station to be packed directly with wet straw into goods wagons.

Orders still came from visitors conducted around the Nursery, and from the ever important shows, but also increasingly from the catalogue. Originally intended to aid other methods of selling plants, this became the only annual contact with many customers across the country.

RCN became particularly interested in the many new trees and shrubs, such as Prunus 'Ukon' and Fraxinus oxycarpa 'Raywood', being sent back by plant hunters, like Forest Wilson and Kingdom Ward. These plants were grown on the nursery and introduced to cultivation. His catalogue, which listed 961 varieties of general nursery stock in 1897, grew to 2,724 varieties in 1936, including a total of 19 plants raised and selected by RCN. In 1904, he raised and selected four varieties of Papaver orientale, following this by 1919 with three varieties of Aster Novi Belgii. He raised and selected Cotinus 'Notcutts Variety' in 1928, Viburnum opulus 'Notcutts Variety' in 1930 and Hibiscus syriacus rubus 'Woodbridge' in 1937 amongst others.

During the Second World War, there was a reduction in nursery staff numbers. Fields were turned over to vegetables; five of the seven greenhouses grew tomatoes, and the frames were full of cucumbers. In only two greenhouses was Johnny Crane, then propagator, able to save precious stock of many plants. Despite his efforts, many varieties, including some of RCN's own introductions, were lost, and by 1947 only 989 varieties were being grown.