I'm flipping fuming!

[Hannahraptor]

Just went to one of our local garden centres and thought I'd see if they had any carnivorous plants. Yes they had and they were bone dry! Honestly, A garden centre should know better ! Grrrrrrr

Needless to say I had words with one if the staff for what it's worth.

[manders]

Its frustratingly common to see, and often they put them in the darkest place possible as well. I can only guess that they pay so little for them wholesale that they just dont care if half, or more, of them die.

[Guest paul y]

or put them in terracotta bowls with no holes in whatsoever and the care label often reads exactly the same as all the other "indoor" plants (im looking at you bnq)

its no surprise people buy these plants which inevitably die and then they are under the impression they are hard to grow.

id imagine its one of the major factors that growing cps hasn't gone much more mainstream

[Guest Olivermurray7373]

The worst things is when you go into botanic gardens and there dying they should know even more.

[mantrid]

If the BnQs etc informed people how to look after them properly then they wont die and the customers wont need to return the following year to buy another one. I killed more than a few when I first started keeping them as a child.

It would be just bad business sense to help people keep them alive.

[Hannahraptor]

Well I'm going back on Monday to return the other garden stuff so we'll see if they listened to me.

[Guest paul y]

they wont of listened and sit down for this as it may be a surprise, 95% of garden centre staff have absolutely no horticultural knowledge or experience and are in fact just doing a retail job and the biggest concern in their collective intelligences is "just who is going to win x factor this year"

prove this for yourself, go to your local garden centre and ask for any common plant by its latin name, you know the name ITS SUPPOOSED TO BE KNOWN BY and just count the vacant drooling looks you get in return, you do occasionally find the odd exemplary staff member who does know their stuff, they are usually stressed, elbow deep in compost, answering 4 thousand questions at once, disliked by the other staff just because "they care" and have never watched xfactor since the shite was first broadcast.

if you want plants go to the nurseries that supply the garden centres and save yourself upwards of 80% on every purchase.

the same nurseries can supply you with pots trays composts etc again saving yourself upwards of 80%

buy your tools from the stihl and Makita shops (any other make is a waste of money)

hand tools online from fiskars ( seriously good hand tools, check out the forks and spades sooo light yet sooo strong)

the only other things on sale in garden centres are made of wicker, china or porcelain and are actually ornaments that belong in a home ware shop not a garden centre.

the ethos of my business is to undermine the garden centres prices, iris germanica rajah at bnq in 2 litre pot £9.99 my price for a bigger plant in a bigger pot grown hard outside for at least 18 months £2.50 plus pp

I can do this with pretty much any garden centre plant

[Carnivine]

which garden centre was it Multimammat?

[Hannahraptor]

It was Trowell Garden Centre. I went for some small seed trays.

[Nigel H-C]

Of course the problem here is contained in the two words 'garden centre'. People who have an appreciation of real plants, and not the clonal crap these dreadful places stock, stick with proper nurseries who both care and have the knowledge, rather than some uninterested kid who wants a few hours of employment and cares just as little for the jigsaws and wicker rubbish they also stock.

 

As Paul says, these dismal outlets and their DIY orientated counterparts have and continue to do irrevocable damage to CPs in particular.

 

Nigel H-C

[Carnivine]

It was Trowell Garden Centre. I went for some small seed trays.

I know (or knew) the owner of that garden centre, and I worked there for a while as a weekend assistant just after leaving school. His name is David but the place now resembles something more like jessops with ts various different departments. We never go there now to be honest.

Edited May 7, 2014 by Carnivine

[mobile]

I'm not keen on 'Garden Centres' at all, much preferring nurseries. My local garden centre has as much, if not more, space allocated to rubbish ornaments and café as it does for plants. It is worst still at Christmas, when you will struggle to find a plant amongst all the Christmas tat. Many of them have abandoned stocking indoor (house) plants altogether in preference to this other junk. Indeed, one of the garden centres a little further away used to have a small but very diverse range of unusual indoor plants and have now simply closed off that area completely.

[Hannahraptor]

Yes it's sad that they've become outlets for tat and trinkets. Some are ok but those are few and far between.

I'm certainly well aware of the lack of knowledgable staff in garden centres and I prefer to buy my 'normal' garden plants from nurseries that sell online as they tend to have a broader choice of interesting plants.

[19Silverman93]

they wont of listened and sit down for this as it may be a surprise, 95% of garden centre staff have absolutely no horticultural knowledge or experience and are in fact just doing a retail job and the biggest concern in their collective intelligences is "just who is going to win x factor this year"

prove this for yourself, go to your local garden centre and ask for any common plant by its latin name, you know the name ITS SUPPOOSED TO BE KNOWN BY and just count the vacant drooling looks you get in return, you do occasionally find the odd exemplary staff member who does know their stuff, they are usually stressed, elbow deep in compost, answering 4 thousand questions at once, disliked by the other staff just because "they care" and have never watched xfactor since the shite was first broadcast.

if you want plants go to the nurseries that supply the garden centres and save yourself upwards of 80% on every purchase.

the same nurseries can supply you with pots trays composts etc again saving yourself upwards of 80%

buy your tools from the stihl and Makita shops (any other make is a waste of money)

hand tools online from fiskars ( seriously good hand tools, check out the forks and spades sooo light yet sooo strong)

the only other things on sale in garden centres are made of wicker, china or porcelain and are actually ornaments that belong in a home ware shop not a garden centre.

the ethos of my business is to undermine the garden centres prices, iris germanica rajah at bnq in 2 litre pot £9.99 my price for a bigger plant in a bigger pot grown hard outside for at least 18 months £2.50 plus pp

I can do this with pretty much any garden centre plant

tool wise my mam and dad always swore by spear and jackson, how do they hold up in your opinion?

 

Yes it's sad that they've become outlets for tat and trinkets. Some are ok but those are few and far between.

I'm certainly well aware of the lack of knowledgable staff in garden centres and I prefer to buy my 'normal' garden plants from nurseries that sell online as they tend to have a broader choice of interesting plants.

yeah, I live nearish to matlock and there are a couple over that way, one is a blue diamond chain one where I rescued a couple of N. x ventrata from certain death. theres one further along called scotland and they're ok, they have a couple of people there who are really good to ask questions of. my dad's plum tree caught something and he couldn't tell if it was silver leaf or canker. problem all solved now

[Guest paul y]

spear and Jackson are good solid dependable tools, you cant go wrong with them, wilkinsons sword made some of the best sharp steel about, fiskars sit right up there for quality and price, because I landscape I tend to destroy tools through use, my top priorities are, sharp as a razor, strong as an ox and light as possible,

on the nursery front im going to put up an advert in sales and wants for garden plants from my stock and suppliers. I can beat anyones price

hard grown perennial plants in 2 litre pots for £1.75 to £2.50.

my stock list exceeds dr d g hessayon "garden flowering plants" book.

[mantrid]

You cant really blame the garden centres  for the tat and trinkets they sell in preference to plants. They know their customers and sell what the customers want. Most of the general public cant tell a plant from a pot ofpiss

[mobile]

True mantrid. Just a shame that so many of the ones that used to have a good selection of houseplants seem to have moved away from stocking them, or closed down. There used to be a cracking nursery in my town, but unfortunately the owner took ill health and couldn't find a buyer. The land got converted to residential. I guess it's a tough business for the small independent to be in.

[Adelae]

In Au bunnings will get in 3 batched of Dionaea, Nepenthes Black knight/ventricosa/gentle and a few sarra hybrids (also the odd D.capensis), I went there a few weeks back to buy some spag and they had just got a new batch of dionaea and neps in, $4 au for a 14cm nep or $6 for a 8-10cm venus (so very cheap).

I went back 1 week later and they where all dead, bone dry, the neps where in full sun all day with the cacti and the dionaea where shaded and with the phalp orchids.

I have spoken to the "head Gardiner" who is in charge of Orchids, carns and cacti (thats his sole job) and he did'nt listen, he also said thats good kid (he is in his 50's-60's i'd say) I was polite, "Hi, was told that your in charge of the carns, I noticed they are all abit sickly, you might want to move the venus flytraps to a more lit area and put the neps with the orchids instead, the sarra's also like much brighter conditions", "thats good kid" and walked off.

 

Two local nurseries here however where very differnt, one actually called me a couple years back and asked if I could give her a heads up on what carns to sell in the area and if I could come in and explain how to look after them (its a small towna nd she knows mum), the other is where I do uni, their neps where happy but their dionaea and drosera where sad (shaded and misted) so I approached the manager and suggested a change, a week later the plants where in much better conditions, many months on and they are all happy.

 

Although in reality its just a matter of time untilt he sarra and dionaea decline as they all use town water (which is fair enough for business) and we are a tropical climate.

(howver a few of my sarra are very healthy and happy going without dormancy for a few years now, dionaea shrink so I just get new ones every now and then as the fridge method kills them, oddly there is a lady here who has had some for atleast 5, maybe 6years and they look great,never gone dormant, watered by rain, repotted to a new peat/sand soil every year and in ceramic pots, but look amazing, here's the odd part, she knows very little about carns and mainly grows cacti)

[19Silverman93]

spear and Jackson are good solid dependable tools, you cant go wrong with them, wilkinsons sword made some of the best sharp steel about, fiskars sit right up there for quality and price, because I landscape I tend to destroy tools through use, my top priorities are, sharp as a razor, strong as an ox and light as possible,

on the nursery front im going to put up an advert in sales and wants for garden plants from my stock and suppliers. I can beat anyones price

hard grown perennial plants in 2 litre pots for £1.75 to £2.50.

my stock list exceeds dr d g hessayon "garden flowering plants" book.

thanks for the tip on the fiskars stuff, it's not a name I would have thought of right away really

[Hannahraptor]

I've been back to the garden centre and as suspected the cps were in an even worse state! This time I went directly to the manager and have very clear and concise feedback and instructions on the correct way to look after them. She was very apologetic and promised they'd sort it out but we'll see. The pots are now so dry that the plants are shrivelled and the soil is like dry foam to the touch.

[Hannahraptor]

I've been back to the garden centre and as suspected the cps were in an even worse state! This time I went directly to the manager and have very clear and concise feedback and instructions on the correct way to look after them. She was very apologetic and promised they'd sort it out but we'll see. The pots are now so dry that the plants are shrivelled and the soil is like dry foam to the touch.

[ian]

Hello.

I used to pop into Homebase on my way home from T***O and purchase VFT's with one black trap for £0.69p. Take them home and very often split them into 3 or 4 plants, suggested to the assistant that the plants were kept damp, responce, I'm usually on paint and wallpaper.

After 6 weeks buying my £0.69p bargains  they noticed me, and reduced vft's went up to £2.79p per dying plant. I haven't bought any since, but the ones I did buy are looking good. Also got the same result from BnQ, "I'm on bedding" (not bedding plants). Perhaps if they put

gardeners in charge of the garden department they might get a better reputation.

Ian.