Garden centre prices

Funnily enough I grew some VB from seed last year. As the norm you get to many plants. Everyone at work has some now!

 

I bought a Dublin Bay climbing rose from 'the big one' outside Nantwich. I wanted it so paid top whack. When it flowered it became apparent that it wasn't a DB rose at all. Emailed them pictures and complained but no joy. Don't go there anymore! I'll have to have a gander round Arley Hall thanks

 

In our area Garden Centres seem to have diversified.
If you want Barbour Jackets, Jumpers, Tops etc., Glassware and other interior ornaments, Kiddies books, Birthday Cards, Conservatory Furniture, Fruit & Veg, Eggs etc. then GC's are the place to go if you want the expensive option.
Good quality plants seem to take the back seat, and some of them seem to have forgotton how to look after them anyway.
They give the impression that Plants are a necessary evil, required to be able to be called a Garden Centre.
As has been said already a good Nursery is well worth supporting.

 

I don't get it. At the checkout I see plenty of trolleys with plants / implements / fertilizer etc. I don't see any trolleys with glass/chinaware, yet half the garden centre is given over to glass & china etc. How does that make economic sense? Perhaps they sell only 1% of those things, but it has 100x more markup :(

 

I'm well served for GCs round my area and yes, I usually 'do the rounds' of them, but since I don't actually want any of the things gcc3663 has already listed, along with fancy garden seats which look nice but are incredibly uncomfortable, pseudo-Victorian bird cages or a barbecue costing anything up to £1200, I tend to waste a lot of shoe leather looking for actual plants.

I'm guessing it's the weather, but this year, unless you want marigolds or pansies the choices seem to be somewhat limited - not that that stopped the couple in front of me the other day spending £119 on a trolley full of 'instant' garden.

Me? I'm the exact opposite. If there's a plant I particularly want and can't perhaps find anywhere else, then yes, I might pay a fancy GC price, but in the main, I visit the 'sheds' or what I call 'casualty corner' of the GC where I can pick up a dried out, half dead, reduced for quick sale specimens that have the potential to respond to a bit of TLC - and even then I'm not above getting to the checkout and saying 'Are you sure this price is right?', which is how I came to get one of my 2m Salix Integra for .... £1!

 

When I started planting my flower border I planted 60% of it in this way, full price for the plants (shrubs, hardy perennials) would have been well over £500. I paid full price for a David Austin rose, but otherwise everything was about £1/plant and not more than £3 for any of them. It does seem though that either more people are getting to realise you can do this, or are more prepared to do it given the recession, or the GC is taking better care of its plants because there are fewer plants there when I look now.

I did apply for a job with a small one recently, looking after plants where I would have been in charge of a section and responsible for choosing stock for that area as well as keeping the plants watered and was told that as I have minimal retail experience they didn't want me to work for them, no matter I have horti qualifications and experience. I wouldn't be able to persuade the customers to buy apparently.

 

You should go to Wilko's Fidgetsmum.
You can often pick up a Rose Bush for 50p. Other plants from 10p.
They don't supply Iron Lungs though. The plants often look like they could use one.

 

I have to say I'm one of the ones that stupidly only usually goes to GCs however after reading this thread this morning I decided to go and have a look at a home run nursery down the road today. I have known it was there my whole life but never looked round. Well I was so impressed I shall never go back to a GC again for plants. He had so much to choose from at very little prices when I think I spent £20 yesterday at a large GC and came away with 3 plants I could have come away from his with over 100 for that money.
I came away with a honeysuckle and morning glory for £1.85.

Thanx very much and if ur ever in Sudbury, Suffolk pop and see him

Stacy x

 

Where in Oxfordshire are you?

There are a couple of hidden gems around here!

 

West Oxfordshire, near Chippy.

 

The Chiltern one? or is this another "find" that I have driven past all my life and never been into? !!

 

Another find Constitution Hill turn up from Waldingfield Road and he's on your right looks tiny from the outside but its goes back and back and back lol. R u in Sudbury?

 

No, but I do go through Sudbury from time-to-time, and Nurseries seem to be getting thin on the ground round these parts, so would be happy to give my custom to any survivors

 

On the site for 5 minutes and already in profit.
What a bargain this GC site is.
Well done Stacy.

 

we have a farmers market/carboot type sale every few weeks in Cambridge

some real bargains to be had .... but some of the guys there are just as expensive as the large garden centres