Have you had a look in Homeleigh @Hostafan1. They sell perennials 3 for a tenner, ok they do have other stuff, and lots of Christmas tat, although, it’s expensive tat😀 but no one can make a living selling plants 12 months of the year. They employ a lot of local people who would otherwise not have jobs.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
No one can make a living selling plants 12 months of the year.
There is a wonderful full-scale nursery just north of London that seems to do well. They have a small shop of tools and acres of greenhouses where they grow everything themselves. It's very cheap and well patronised.
I agree whole heartedly, the prices are outrageous - £10.00/£12.00 for a 2L perennial when I can pop further along the road and get them for £4. The quality and variety of plants is also shocking, it seems they often water less than the supermarkets.
Unfortunately we don't have another GC " along the road" . Even Wyevale is almost 10 miles away.
The three next to each other are in Bagshot but it’s worth the journey for us. Do you order your plants online Hosta? Or swap with friends?
I guess we are spoiled for choice here, in spite of the fact that our most local GC (that had become a Wyevale) getting taken over for a Jewish free school- so they don't just go for housing! St Albans is not too far away from us and 3 out of the 6 "best" GC's as voted by Which members are near there. We also have an area- Crews Hill in Enfield where their is a whole road of nurseries & GCs both chains & independents, some are getting quite run down though. One of my favourites is an independent near Capel Manor, they have resisted putting in a cafe etc, grow a lot of their own stock & seem to be doing ok. All these depend entirely on people having a car.
I suppose you can compare the situation with independent pubs which do a great range of beers and food who end up being bought out by the big boys and end up with the same beers and menus that you find in a thousand other places. Independents normally just don't have the purchasing power to resist.
Wyevale has agreed to sell its eight largest garden centres to Blue Diamond.
The transaction comes after Wyevale parent company Terra Firma appointed property advisors Christie & Co to manage the sales process of its 145 garden centres.
The Wyevale centres that have been sold include those in Bicester, Cardiff and Cadbury.
Blue Diamond said it planned to invest £16 million in remodelling the newly-acquired stores over the next three years to make them more like its Redfields Garden & Living Centre in Hampshire and its Blue Diamond Garden and Home store near Nottingham.
Is Redfields the place which does masses of cut flowers? or used to? I don't think our locality could sustain something of that size. @chicky , did you ever go to Springfields , near Bordon? That was a proper garden centre / nursery. 99% stuff for the garden and some odd bits and bobs. No £1,000 suites of furniture, no coffee shop . The owner retired a couple of years back after over 30 years there and just shut up shop. He didn't even sell it.
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They employ a lot of local people who would otherwise not have jobs.
Wyevale has agreed to sell its eight largest garden centres to Blue Diamond.
The transaction comes after Wyevale parent company Terra Firma appointed property advisors Christie & Co to manage the sales process of its 145 garden centres.
The Wyevale centres that have been sold include those in Bicester, Cardiff and Cadbury.
Blue Diamond said it planned to invest £16 million in remodelling the newly-acquired stores over the next three years to make them more like its Redfields Garden & Living Centre in Hampshire and its Blue Diamond Garden and Home store near Nottingham.
I don't think our locality could sustain something of that size.
@chicky , did you ever go to Springfields , near Bordon? That was a proper garden centre / nursery. 99% stuff for the garden and some odd bits and bobs. No £1,000 suites of furniture, no coffee shop . The owner retired a couple of years back after over 30 years there and just shut up shop. He didn't even sell it.