Gardening centres rant.

I may be in the minority here but, as a relative newbie to gardening, I'm going to put it out there anyway to see what you fellow newbies, or experienced gardeners think.

I realise that garden centres are there to sell plants, so it's vitally important for them to ensure that those plants are in immaculate condition as to attract the attention of the would be buyer, ie, us!

And of course they have certain "tricks" up their sleeves to pull this off. The houseplants section of my GC for example is a huge room, plenty of light, always warm, it's like a jungle. And the plants exhibit jungle like growth and healthy lushness.....until you get your new purchase home and a few weeks later you can't believe the downward transformation in its appearance. Even outside plants are in poly tunnels where it's not cold, wet or windy at all, and similarly to the houseplants they never seem to look the same once you've planted them outside in your own garden.

What set this rant off was something I saw today. The camelias at my GC look beautiful. They have huge healthy buds, some are even opening. Foliage, buds and early flowers look fantastic. They must be flying off the shelves.

Then I look at my camelia in my back garden. It looks ok at best, no where near as lush as the ones at the GC. Plenty of buds too, albeit small, and a good % of them are black, dead. The cool temps have got to them no doubt, and I doubt I'll get many flowers, and the ones I do get will probably be wimpy.

This example is just one of many where the reality of outside gardening in the UK is far from the image of the plants you see at the GC. I understand, from a pure business point of view that these "tricks" they use are essential for their business. But once those plants leave the store, in the vast majority of cases, those plants will never reach the highs of their time in the GC.

It's never wet, windy and cold at the garden centre, unlike many of the gardens throughout the UK. Couple that with inexperienced gardeners such as myself and it is a recipe for disaster for all but the real hardy plants.

Am I the only one who feels this way?

 

What you are saying is reality.
All plants, apart from maybe hardy shrubs that are usually in the outside section of garden centres are grown under cover.
Its been like that for years, so buyer beware.

It is slightly a seasonal thing though, as the summer comes on most plants will not be in quite such a forced state as they tend to be in spring.

 

I get fed up with having to make my way past the garden furniture, the barbecue kit, the bird food and the pond section before reaching the plants and seeds; it's worse from autumn to January as they are rammed with Christmas tat.
A couple of suggestions: do some research and decide what you want before you go so you know what conditions it requires; put what you buy somewhere sheltered, when you get back home, to harden off over a couple of weeks; for example against a house wall out of the wind if bad weather is forecast then initially put it in the porch or garage until the weather improves.
Look for smaller nurseries and garden centres as these are often better for advice, the plants are more likely to be living outside rather than a polytunnel, unless that's what the plant needs, they are often cheaper as well.

 

I prefer small locally owned garden centres and nurseries. They're more honest and they have better a knowledge of the plants.

 

A lot of the forced stuff is imported from Holland.
They even use temperature controlled trailers to bring them over in.
Its basically florists stuff with roots.

 

Garden Centres are slowly killing off home gardening imho. Too expensive to bother with now for many. Just passby the plants and head to the Cafe like everyone else.

By the time youve bought the plant, compost, feed, container, saucer etc you realise this simple plant has cost you a fortune.

 

And a good many of their products are cheaper in Wilko.

 

Nigel has the right thinking. Most garden centres are aimed at the gullible and non gardeners who buy because something looks pretty, without giving a thought to how the conditions in there garden can affect the plants. I flinch when seeing people paying out for forced annuals that are in full bloom early in the year, knowing that they will be dead within a few days or weeks because they've been planted out too early.

 

I worked at a smallish garden centre where most of the plants were open to the elements.
What you have to understand that many people want a plant so they go to a garden centre they don't want to go to B&Q.
People also want advice and they won't get that at B&Q (well not usually).
Our compost was the cheapest around like 3 x Jack's magic was £12.

 

Camilias were specifically mentioned. These have very specific requirements regarding their soil type, thriving only in acid soil. Most of the UK is neutral to mildly alkaline.

I do understand the point though. It annoys me that garden centre plant labels miss a load of vital information. But worse than that, the biggest travesty of all, is how they use artificial colouring, specifically spray on colouring, for some of their plants. Have a look at some of the crazy vibrant colouring on their heather packs. It's fake. It will grow out in days, and then just look like the moorland heather it really is. That's if it doesn't just die, because it's not in the full sun, moist, acid soil it would have in its natural environment.

 

It seems i'm not on my own then regarding my dislike for the GC "superstore" where cash is king with little consideration for anything else.

It's interesting that many of you mention smaller GC's as the way to go. We have several smaller ones dotted around our area, but I currently never go to them. I think that may need to change.

Maybe I'll get proper advice from places such as these.

 

There's another side to the question. How many people genuinely prepare a welcoming home for their new plant(s)?. Unless your garden soil is naturally light and/or peaty, any plant is going to struggle to get it's roots out from the cosy peat (or peat substitute) rootball that it's been grown in. Which means that too often, a plant like a Camellia or heather is sat in a small, claggy hole where the roots drown in winter and dry out terminally in the first summer. I'm sure present company is excepted from this, but I saw and still see it happen so often. Then feeding.....the plants have been fed to get them to their pristine, healthy state. How many people take the trouble to find out what sort of plant food is appropriate and incorporate it at planting, then make sure the plant (or the soil) is fed in the following years? That's where good labelling or advice comes in, but it's only any use if people follow them.

 

Yes, I fully understand that. There are several aspects that come into it. Initial plant choice, soil composition, positioning of said plant, ongoing feeding, pruning etc etc. All vital elements in the plants aftercare. I take all that on board.

My main gripe is that the big GC's have most of their plants inside, whether it's the jungle type environment for houseplants that I mentioned, or the vast poly tunnels for outside plants. The only types of outside plants that my GC have outside open to the elements are proper hardy types such as Berberis for example.

Other less hardy ones are in poly tunnels. A fantastic example are cordylines. A load of cordylines have gone to mush these past couple of months. Not at my GC they haven't. Masses of thriving cordylines and phormiums of all different varieties are lined up in poly tunnels!!

In my opinion GC's are selling masses of garden plants that are going to struggle with our soggy cold UK climate (predominantly northern areas). They're fine in summer but it's nothing more than a coin toss once the weather goes south.

There are countless thousands of species of garden plants that we can choose from, which will be fine in our climate. These are the ones they should be selling. I think they're taking the proverbial trying to sell plants which are more accustomed to warmer climates.

No wonder they put them all in poly tunnels. If they didn't they'd have the same problem as us gardeners as soon as summer was over.

The plant care issues I mentioned in paragraph one are one thing. The fact that GC's are selling plants which are unsuitable for our climate long term is another thing. Gardening can be difficult enough as it is if you're just starting out, GC's are just adding to that difficulty level imo, with the sole aim of lining their own pockets.