Sarah Raven

Ah - I understand now @katecat58. Apologies. I'll blame my deteriorating brain on not getting that!
I just assumed that since they would normally not send out young clems, ie anything less than 2 years old, that they'd be ok. That's very disappointing then. I presume they'll just sell off what stock they have. Seems a bit pointless taking over Taylors if they weren't going to continue with them, but maybe things have become too much for them, in all sorts of ways.

Your comments are very interesting @gks, and it makes you wonder how many other good suppliers of live plants will gradually disappear too.

 

It will depend on the market and what the big supermarkets and garden centres focus on selling.

There is 2 large bedding plant growers near me, about 12 miles away. One has added 8 hectares of glass in the last 10 years, there has been rumours of him expanding more.
When you look at which sector in live plants is growing and which aren't, you then start to understand why.

There was a report that since the pandemic, the sales of bedding plants has increased by 50%. Tesco also reported a 130% increase in the sales of houseplants since 2019. yet the sales of hardy stock plants has be in decline yearly. The guy who I supply with compost for bedding had cleared all his stock and was in Greece by the last week in June, I had sold all my bedding by then also. Yet the 2 big bedding plant growers near me were still shipping out bedding begonias, cosmos, french marigolds etc etc the last week in August, which was never the trend in the past.

There are other factors that can affect the sales of live plants, mainly the weather but new house builds tend to have smaller gardens than previously, people want low maintenance gardens and so on. So if your a hardy stock grower and the market trend is changing, which it is when you see the supermarkets and discount stores mainly focusing on bedding, it then makes the business for hardy stock growers less viable going forward.