@Wintersong - That hellebore is lovely. I really like them. My main border in the back garden is quite damp and shady so I reckon it would be perfect. There was a reduced H. Orientalis in Morrisons today but they still wanted ??7.50 because it was in a terracotta pot. Tried explaining that I wanted the plant not the pot but they were having none of it... @Gardeningfantic - Your garden looks like it would be lovely to stroll around. Very pretty.
@Rob Stevens, Yeah, I fell instantly in love and my plant cost a tenner for 2lt pot.
I would normally balk at such a cost, but it is a heavy plant and read that they are slow from seed and I never resent a nurseryman his dues if its a plant that needs extra attention.
We went down to our local Wyevale garden centre yesterday (yes, it was raining heavily again). (This is the one in Thornbury which got into trouble a few years ago for killing robins.)
BH and I are both absolutely staggered at the price of some of the perennials. £7.99 for small hostas!! £6.99 for small geraniums!! Kicking myself as I've been throwing better plants away! I cannot understand how they can justify these prices. Nor can I understand who pays them - these are very simple plants to propagate.
@wintersong, for a beautiful plant like yours I totally agree, however for a Morrisons reduced section job that may or may not survive I thought it was extracting the urine somewhat... @Excitable Boy- Wow, that is steep! I'm quite lucky in that I've found a nice cheap independent nursery near us. Seems like nurseries are cheaper than actual garden centres - the one near us is also scandalously expensive.
I think 3.99 is the most I have paid for a plant, I either get very small plants, reduced ones, seeds or scrounge cuttings from my parents. I think there is a group of people who just buy plants for instant effect. My neighbours bought 4 box balls at 30 quid each, planted them badly and I had to just watch them die. But these are the people keeping GC's in business.
You can see how poundland have become a sensible place to buy plants.
B&Q are supplied by a company called Verve, its now on all their labels.
They do three tiers of plants, small job lots such as buy two 1Lt pots for £5, a middle 2Lt pot for £8-10 or the semi mature versions that cost £25-30 or upwards.
Over the last few years I've found actual garden centres to be the priciest places to shop, stocking worthy plants but with that plastic commercial smile I don't like. I would always support a local nursery purely because its a small business, likely to be family run and I've always found them to be honest and helpful. A few years back we bought some mature plants knocked down and even got free delivery!.
At the moment both the above are out of my walking distance to get to, so B&Q is my only supplier and whilst the advice is mind blowingly bad and the plants are mass produced with a bit of a gamble as to cultivars, I still find them okay. The plants are always healthy with a good variety to cater to most tastes. I think the prices are pretty reasonable especially if you go at the end of seasons when they are reducing plants that are going over. I love sniffing around the half price trolley!
My only complaint would be the labelling and not just missing labels like today, but the information they give you is poor. Last year's purchase of Callistemon leavis is currently sitting in a pot cut back hard after it turned brown post snow. I dug it up with the intention of dumping it on the customer services desk because the label did not mention it being tender at all, only the base was not dead, only its top growth. so I cut it back hard (apparently they recover from this as its like a bushfire) and stuck it in a pot to look after it better, but if the label had warned me, I wouldn't have bought it in the first place.
I'm lucky enough to have an excellent nursery (www.hillhousenursey.com) about 4 miles away, which is wonderful, inspiring and well priced. Would thoroughly recommend a visit if any of you ever venture down this way. There's also an agricultural store and seed merchants right in town, which does plants and veg seedlings as well, huge selection of seeds. Both places have very knowledgable and helpful staff, Hillhouse even has a very well-thumbed copy of the RHS A-Z of plants so you can check on cultivation requirements. Just up the road there's a semi-wholesale nursery - which is like a sort of plant battery farm, but very well priced and the condemned section is irresistible, especially if you're looking for a lot of bedding plants. I got a 2l thyme, 2x 2l sages and 3x 1l thymes for ??16 there a couple of months ago Last time I went to B&Q was to get some guttering for seed sowing, had a wander through the plant section and didn't see anything I was remotely interested in.
Posts
@Geoff
@Rob Stevens,
Yeah, I fell instantly in love and my plant cost a tenner for 2lt pot. 
I would normally balk at such a cost, but it is a heavy plant and read that they are slow from seed and I never resent a nurseryman his dues if its a plant that needs extra attention.
No... they prefer moths and flying insects, lol.
We went down to our local Wyevale garden centre yesterday (yes, it was raining heavily again). (This is the one in Thornbury which got into trouble a few years ago for killing robins.)
BH and I are both absolutely staggered at the price of some of the perennials. £7.99 for small hostas!! £6.99 for small geraniums!! Kicking myself as I've been throwing better plants away! I cannot understand how they can justify these prices. Nor can I understand who pays them - these are very simple plants to propagate.
I think 3.99 is the most I have paid for a plant, I either get very small plants, reduced ones, seeds or scrounge cuttings from my parents. I think there is a group of people who just buy plants for instant effect. My neighbours bought 4 box balls at 30 quid each, planted them badly and I had to just watch them die. But these are the people keeping GC's in business.
You can see how poundland have become a sensible place to buy plants.
B&Q are supplied by a company called Verve, its now on all their labels.
They do three tiers of plants, small job lots such as buy two 1Lt pots for £5, a middle 2Lt pot for £8-10 or the semi mature versions that cost £25-30 or upwards.
Over the last few years I've found actual garden centres to be the priciest places to shop, stocking worthy plants but with that plastic commercial smile I don't like. I would always support a local nursery purely because its a small business, likely to be family run and I've always found them to be honest and helpful. A few years back we bought some mature plants knocked down and even got free delivery!.
At the moment both the above are out of my walking distance to get to, so B&Q is my only supplier and whilst the advice is mind blowingly bad and the plants are mass produced with a bit of a gamble as to cultivars, I still find them okay. The plants are always healthy with a good variety to cater to most tastes. I think the prices are pretty reasonable especially if you go at the end of seasons when they are reducing plants that are going over. I love sniffing around the half price trolley!
My only complaint would be the labelling and not just missing labels like today, but the information they give you is poor. Last year's purchase of Callistemon leavis is currently sitting in a pot cut back hard after it turned brown post snow. I dug it up with the intention of dumping it on the customer services desk because the label did not mention it being tender at all, only the base was not dead, only its top growth. so I cut it back hard (apparently they recover from this as its like a bushfire) and stuck it in a pot to look after it better, but if the label had warned me, I wouldn't have bought it in the first place.
If you want to buy over priced plants-visit Wisley-there prices beat everyone elses but not in a good way.
Am going to B&Q this morning-it is 10% off day-does anybody want anything?
I shall be of course be wearing the beige to blend in