Headline on BBC news....not surprised in the slightest

went to one place and they were charging £25.00 for afternoon tea what do you think of that @shiney

 

The person we sold our previous house to who owned a huge garden centre (sold it about 6 years ago to Dobbies for £7,000,000) freely admitted he had hardly any gardening knowledge (showed after he wrecked the garden of my old house) and had zero interest in plants other than the profit they made. His garden centre went like a fare but not with selling plants, the cafe was the big attraction, plants just being the "bait" to get the punters through the door. Eventually the area for selling plants got smaller and smaller, the area for selling expensive tat and Christmas stuff increased dramatically. However, you couldn't blame him as that was what the majority of people seemed to want. The days of small privately run nurseries selling plants that haven't been forced and look perfect.....until you get them home and they experience true uk conditions! seem pretty much to have gone. Add in the likes of the supermarkets now selling a vast array of plants with often poor breeding (plead guilty to being tempted and bought 3 Rhododendrons from Aldi. Were fine the 1st season then 2 reverted and all died due to a cold winter so dreadful root stock obviously as my other 30 odd Rhododendron were fine) it's no wonder the decent British growers are struggling/almost non existent.
I now buy zero from anywhere other than specialist growers. The Rhododendron fiasco taught me the old adage of you get what you pay for. I lost 3 years of growing time with those disasters. I could have bought a really well bred plant for what it cost me to buy 3 dreadful ones, lesson learnt.

 

B&Q plants are always good value. Much better than my local garden centres. The plants seem strong too.

 

Our local Wyevale, well..it's six miles away.... has a couple of concessions in it, including, The Scotch Wool Shop and have recently expanded their café to include a "shoppers with dogs," area outside the former barrier that separated the café from the rest of the building. I noticed a couple of former messes on it that had been cleaned up Ugh! What really annoyed me was the introduction of a kids play area. You get a lot of screaming kids in there, whilst their mothers spend an hour or two in the café chatting to their friends over a cup of coffee, oblivious to the noise. It's not what the average garden centre visitor wants to hear.

We occasionally go to Bents, off the East Lancs Road, which is not that far away.
It's massive, considered the best in Europe.



They have a really nice restaurant there, nothing "ding." Trouble is , lunch and a few plants and there's little change out of nearly a hundred quid.

It's best to find out what days they get their deliveries and go that afternoon, I agree their plants can be good but their after-care until they are sold isn't so great. Insufficient knowledgeable staff.


We bought this acer palmatum there for £50. A decade or so ago. They'd just arrived and I found a "suitable case for treatment," among several. In that I could train it to obtain an even spread of branches.

 

I agree. This time of year is ok but in the summer, their plants can dry out a bit but tbh, my local garden centre doesn't do much better either.

Lovely Acer btw. I have five Acers one of them bought in Tesco's about fifteen years ago.

 

I have always found B & Q plants in very good condition, the staff in our branch seem to look after them very well . Now Wilkos is the one to be wary of , they provide no care at all . OK if it is a fresh delivery but a few days on the line - avoid.

 

Aldi are worse, they often have plants just in front of the checkout convey belt. Once I noticed some were wilting so I asked a "jobsworth," why no one had watered them.

The reply?

"We're not allowed to...elf n' safety!"

 

Sod the garden centres' and their inflated prices, we use the gardening club in crews hill and save a fortune. Good quality and knowledgeable staff.

 

Would that be Bents GC on the East Lancs Ian ? Everything is priced for the Manchester City and United players . Definitely a place to look around but not to buy anything.

 

Not been to Bents for years @HarryS always been expensive, it was at High Leigh near Tatton, another expensive place, for the Cheshire Set

 

As I buy all my plants seeds feeds etc etc out of season this gardening malarky is a cheap hobby. Love b&q if i/ you time it right and get there just as they slash the prices of bedding plants for baskets etc.