Very sad that a fantastic Supplier of Rhododendrons and Azaleas etc is all but packing it in.

I received this email today. About 85% of my many many Rhododendrons and Azaleas plus other wonderful hard to find shrubs have come from Glendoick over the last 35 odd years. I have shrubs which I have never seen for sale anywhere else.....certainly the likes of M&S, Aldi, Lldl and other supermarkets who sell mostly rubbish plants at cheap prices are putting the really specialist nurseries at risk of going out of business.
If the likes of Glendoick, when they are renowned, and have been in business for so long are struggling, what chance do other specialist growers have? It will get to the stage that only a few bog standard varieties of plants which suit supermarkets ie ones that don't grow too tall,but grow fast and flower early so as to attract buyers will be offered.
I'm lucky as I only live about 20 miles from THE BEST Rhododendron and Azalea retailer, I can see the day when species Rhododendrons which take ages to flower (15 years in my case and oh so worth the wait) will be nigh on impossible to buy. Looks like we will be lucky to be able to use ANY effective weedkillers or pesticides in the future either. I have just ordered another 5ltrs of Roundup as a spare as still have loads left in my current container. 5 ltrs of Roundup lasted me about 25 years ie I only use where absolutely necessary and so by buying another lot before I need to will"see me out"and before the powers that be decide to ban that along with just about everything else.

Glendoick Gardens Mail Order comes to an end

Glendoick Mail Order comes to an end
After 63 years, Glendoick Gardens is sadly discontinuing its mail order business to all but a limited number of customers whose gardens we are designing. We will continue to grow a range of material which will include the bestselling species and hybrids.
Customers will still be able to order plants to collect from our garden centre and we may be able to help societies who wish to club together to place orders of a substantial size and deliver to one address.

For over 60 years, Glendoick have introduced new plants from the wild, bred new hybrids and sought out the best plants from the best growers to introduce into the UK.

We are incredibly grateful to all our customers over the years, many of whom have become friends and plant-hunting companions. It is amazing to see so many Glendoick plants in gardens all over the UK, Europe and further afield. We are also very grateful to our long serving staff. Happily we have managed to employ some of them in other roles at Glendoick. But sadly Jane and Chris are leaving. We wish them the best.
Why is Glendoick discontinuing Mail Order?
1. Economics. Brexit, economic downturn, bureaucracy, and plant selling prices are not keeping pace with increases in minimum wages and have therefore made specialist nurseries uneconomic. M&S,for example, are selling large rhododendron hybrids for £10. We can’t compete. I fear that specialist rhododendron growers will be a rare breed when the current nursery owners retire.

2. Climate Change and Pest and Disease threats
All gardeners are suffering from the effects of climate change, particularly in S. E. England. The last time I visited the Valley Gardens at Windsor, I could see what the future of rhododendrons in this part of the world might be. We have had no rain for months and have been watering day and night to keep things goings. Meanwhile, the number of pests and diseases increases year on year: soft scale, petal blight, ash die back and sudden oak death. And the chemicals used to control them are disappearing off the market, so we have nothing to turn to. Systhane, the best mildew control, has just gone off the market. Glyphosate (Roundup) looks like it may join the others on the list. The E.C. is sleepwalking to disaster, allowing plant imports of plants with soil from Asia, New Zealand and other countries. The latest pest to come from New Zealand is a mealy bug which eats Meconopsis roots.

3. Phytophthora ramorum
This disease is now established all over the UK, and much of Europe. It has spread around Larix plantations in the UK and is clearly an airborne disease as well as a waterborne one. This means that, like Ash Die Back, it cannot be controlled by hygiene. In common with most UK woodland gardens and nurseries, Glendoick has had small outbreaks of this disease and have satisfied the criteria which the plant health authorities demand. This has allowed us to continue to trade. But this disease cannot be eradicated and we will all need to learn to live with it and mitigate its impact. At present, all infected plants are destroyed without compensation. We don’t want to be forced to close the nursery in the future, so are taking steps to protect ourselves from this eventuality. Having taken advice, we are discontinuing open ground production and moving to container only, and are eradicating all susceptible varieties from commercial production.

3. Plant Hunting
The Nagoya Protocols, which bans plant collecting worldwide, have made plant-hunting for a nursery like ours more or less impossible. While we quite understand the reasons for this legislation, and broadly support it, the effect is likely to be counter-productive in terms of conservation, as threatened plants may become extinct, if they cannot be collected and distributed. We were lucky to have three generations of Cox plant-hunters. And we still have every intention of going looking for plants again, but perhaps not in the same way. I don’t anticipate the next generation of Coxes being able to do what we did.

We will review any orders held over from Spring 2017 and you are welcome to come and collect any plants we can supply. We won’t be sending out any more catalogues but we will have an Excel listing of stock we can send you and we will keep the website updated with the plants we are still growing.

This is a sad time for us at Glendoick and we are sorry for the disappointing news.
Thanks once again for your support of Glendoick over the years. We hope that you will continue to visit Glendoick. We will continue to stock the largest range of rhododendrons available in any UK garden centre and we are continuing to develop new hybrids.
We have just named 2 new evergreen azaleas Glendoick Candyfloss and Glendoick Ruffles and have selected a new double yellow azalea for testing. (see images below)

Kenneth Cox's monumental book Woodland Gardening will be published in May 2018.. he just needs to finish it....

 

You can see the stock going down at many garden centres, which are now mainly lifestyle centres and not majoring on plants anymore. I miss real nurseries like Chris Pattison's one in North Gloucestershire.

 

Interesting post, @silu. It does say they are continuing their business, just not doing mail order anymore so hopefully not all is lost and the scarcer plants will continue to be grown. You make the very good point that the supermarkets undercut real growers making it hard for them to continue which I have sympathy with.

 

All the below came from Glendoick. I have many more which have either already flowered or not flowering yet They were bred by them and not available from anywhere else that I'm aware of. The Azaleas also have wonderful scent.

 

They're stunning Silu!

 

Thank you @Sheal. I take zero credit for them looking so good, it's just good breeding and the company make it very clear when each variety flowers and are honest about how hardy they are which is vitally important when you live away from the mild areas of the UK. It makes me furious to see all sorts of tenderish plants being offered for sale close to where i live and I know for certain that they will be lucky to survive 1 winter far less be around in years to come. Ceanothus is 1 example, you have to be very careful which variety you buy up here in Scotland and then plant it with some shelter if it is to perform. The other plant I see for sale regularly (no wonder as they don't last long!) is the variegated Pieris which is way more tender than the non variegated varieties. Once you get sorted with new house/garden (hopefully soon) pay a visit to Glendoick (between Perth and Dundee).Only warning is that your wallet might take a hammering

 

I've been taking note of temperatures both day and night since we arrived here @silu. I may not have a garden yet but there's no harm in doing a little homework. It's also been a mild winter on the whole so I'll see what next winter brings.

I think the Rhodo's and Azaleas have put on a lovely performance everywhere this year. My neighbour has several in his front garden and they look amazing.

 

Argh didn't know a ban of Roundup was going to happen.....I will be stocking up also!!!

Love those piccies....what is the 3rd azalea down? (The orangey one).

I salvaged one out of my new garden as it wasn't doing well at all....put it in a pot with ericaceous compost and gave it a good feed and its come up beautifully (albeit only a couple of flowers- i thought they were beauts).

Didn't realise rhodos took years to flower? Explains why the two in my new garden haven't flowered-I thought I was doing something wrong!

 

I think the orange Azalea is Parkfeuer but not too sure. I am not the best at remembering varieties! hybrid Rhododendrons which is what most garden centres sell don't take too long to flower, it's the species ones which take forever @Snorky85 . Both Rhododendrons and Azaleas do respond well to being pruned if they have gone leggy. A few years ago I saw a large bed of Rhododendron at Glendoick which had been about 8 ft tall and they had been pruned down to about 1ft. I was amazed at how severe the pruning was, hence why I took so much notice. 2 or it might have been 3 years on when I revisited Glendoick the severely pruned Rhododendrons looked spectacular. Having seen how good the response was I tackled a massive Azalea Luteum after it flowered. I reduced the shrub from about 6 ft to 2 1/2 ft. The following year it didn't flower quite so well but it was gorgeous the 2nd and subsequent years after being attacked. It will need doing again maybe next year after flowering. Glad you managed to rescue your Azalea. They a probably my favourite shrub having wonderful flowers and often scent plus many have spectacular Autumn colour. You can't ask more of a shrub than that!

 

I don't fully understand why the mail order side is being discontinued .

Regardless of the economics - the offer to mail should be made available - and then customers can decide whether they want to pay for postage. People will probably pay more for a rarer variety that the stores don't normally stock.

There must be something more behind the decision...

 

The vast majority of their mail order plants were sold bare rooted unlike most other mail order plant companies and needed to be soil-less for being sent abroad i think. When I have visited their fantastic woodland gardens you see large areas where the Rhododendron and Azalea cuttings are being grown on for future sales plus trial beds of their new varieties. The below basically means their whole production is having to be altered.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Cox family have just decided to pack in the mail order as it's not worth the hassle any longer following god knows all what rules and regs.