"talking down the season".......... Round here you couldn't have got to the garden centre even if you'd wanted to, and if you'd bought plants you couldn't have set them in the frozen soil. I haven't seen any skips full of jettisoned plants, nor any discounted plants. Our local garden centres are well managed and have obviously made sensible decisions about ordering from wholesalers. I suspect that undue influence from some of the big names has led to this story. And the newspapers are well-known for making a fuss. £50m is about one small pot-plant each. What is the annual turnover of the garden centre industry?
I don't know the figures, but I have it on very good authority that our local (National) GC had their highest takings ever last Thursday - obviously because we'd been promised a good weekend's weather - gardeners aren't daft
Also, I wonder how many garden centres are busy ordering in alpines because of an upsurge in interest following last week's programme?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
i liked this line "This, says Burks, has encouraged people who otherwise would have been out there planting with a pickaxe to stay indoors."
I'm sure Monty's interest in Alpines will get twisted too for a few column inches, they are generally available in the cheaper pots...
Maybe Alpines are a way forward since they can handle cold well and still bring forth the beauty we want in our gardens.
I don't think this is a Monty bashing thread although i think there has been others which seem to be suffering from greenhouse envy.
Mr Burke seems to have contempt for the intelligence of British gardeners, now that really does seem damaging to the garden centres, maybe he should be fired.
To be honest I think its more of a call to arms, for gardeners that its time to get cracking with the garden, from last thursday on I think GC sales will have gone from a trickle to a flood. Monty has just been used as an excuse to get a gardening story on main stream news. Seems to have been a successful ploy.
I disagree MD has for a long time dismissed garden centres as beneath him. He is the face of gardening but rarely acknowledges that many people need to buy stuff for their garden, not all of us have room for 3 compost bins and 3 heated greehouses and a potting shed.
i don't think that its monty don fault, he has his opinion like all of us, but Gardner's world this week you saw him potting on young plants, telling us to protect them and im sure i saw labels on them from the garden centre, or was it a dream. I don't think garden centres are beneath him, he just isn't very commercially inspired, if he can grow it he will, make it he will , just gardening which he is loved and admired for ..
Posts
"talking down the season".......... Round here you couldn't have got to the garden centre even if you'd wanted to, and if you'd bought plants you couldn't have set them in the frozen soil. I haven't seen any skips full of jettisoned plants, nor any discounted plants. Our local garden centres are well managed and have obviously made sensible decisions about ordering from wholesalers. I suspect that undue influence from some of the big names has led to this story. And the newspapers are well-known for making a fuss. £50m is about one small pot-plant each. What is the annual turnover of the garden centre industry?
I don't know the figures, but I have it on very good authority that our local (National) GC had their highest takings ever last Thursday - obviously because we'd been promised a good weekend's weather - gardeners aren't daft
Also, I wonder how many garden centres are busy ordering in alpines because of an upsurge in interest following last week's programme?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
My comment is based on that people comment and then ask others not to
I am ambivalent to MD but enjoy the discussion or is that not allowed?
Discussion - good
Personal attack - bad
Bossing people about - irritating but nothing to get steamed up about
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/apr/12/garden-centres-monty-don
i liked this line "This, says Burks, has encouraged people who otherwise would have been out there planting with a pickaxe to stay indoors."
I'm sure Monty's interest in Alpines will get twisted too for a few column inches, they are generally available in the cheaper pots...
Maybe Alpines are a way forward since they can handle cold well and still bring forth the beauty we want in our gardens.
I don't think this is a Monty bashing thread although i think there has been others which seem to be suffering from greenhouse envy.
Mr Burke seems to have contempt for the intelligence of British gardeners, now that really does seem damaging to the garden centres, maybe he should be fired.
To be honest I think its more of a call to arms, for gardeners that its time to get cracking with the garden, from last thursday on I think GC sales will have gone from a trickle to a flood. Monty has just been used as an excuse to get a gardening story on main stream news. Seems to have been a successful ploy.
If they've got any sense they'll have promotions on alpines and alpine troughs - this season's must haves
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Loved Monty's Radio 4 interview. I came on this thread to see if anyone else had heard it. I almost cheered in the car on the way home!
It would be at about 5.45 on the Today show on Radio 4 from Friday if anyone wants to listen again
i don't think that its monty don fault, he has his opinion like all of us, but Gardner's world this week you saw him potting on young plants, telling us to protect them and im sure i saw labels on them from the garden centre, or was it a dream. I don't think garden centres are beneath him, he just isn't very commercially inspired, if he can grow it he will, make it he will , just gardening which he is loved and admired for ..