"Sacha" wrote in message
.uk...
On 29/11/05 0:03, in article , "Rupert"
wrote:


"Rupert" wrote in message
...

"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message k
from Sacha contains these words:

On 28/11/05 12:14, in article ,
"Janet Baraclough" wrote:

The message k
from Sacha contains these words:

Good call, IMO. It sounds a bit of a baby to be planted out just
yet. I
don't know what you paid for your plant but we sell them here at
around
£15.50 in 5l. pots. A customer came in and was incandescent with
fury and
regret because he had just bought one the same size at a garden
centre but
paid over £50 for it! If yours was proportionately as expensive as
that, it
deserves some tlc!

Holy cow. They sell for around six pounds here , for one in a pot
that's 8" across the top (I can't think pot sizes in litres). Even B
and
Q has them for around 7 pounds 50.

At Crarae garden, self-seeded gunnera manicata are virtually a
weed,
all down the burns and ditches :-)

Yes, well, it would have been a lot better if I hadn't made a vital
typo!
We sell them for £15.50 in 15 (fifteen) litre pots, not 5!! Sorry
about
that piece of carelessness. To some extent, price depends on the size
of
the crown of the plant. A 5l pot is about 9" across, Janet.

Ok :-) However, for anyone thinking of buying one; I found that a
much smaller plant (a self-seedling with two tiny leaves the size of my
palms)) rapidly over-took one bought from a GC in 5 L pot. As with so
many other plants, plant one as small as possible, it will establish
and grow away far faster than larger more expensive ones.

Janet


I believe that's because the larger more expensive plants are usually
supplied in pots that are far too small and they are potbound.
Come to think of it I have yet to buy a potted plant that does not need
repotting immediately---I suppose that's the result of everyone
demanding
what appear to be excellent plants at ridiculously cheap prices.

I meant potting on and not repotting--guess I am really showing my age


One of the reasons for that may be because when nurseries sell plants that
have just been potted on, some customers think they're being 'cheated'
because they're being charged the bigger pot's price but "this plant
doesn't
fill the pot". In fact, very often, if we have just potted on a young
plant, we charge the smaller pot price. I repeat *some* customers - most
are
too sensible to think that way. And of course, potting on thousands of
plants a year does take time, along with all the other work of a nursery
as
well as dealing with customers. As to garden centres, they don't do
potting on, in the main. They're plant supermarkets and other than
watering
the plants (in some cases!) they don't do anything to them at all. Plants
come in by the lorry load from all over the place and are out the door
next
day, if the gc can arrange things to its satisfaction!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk

Agreed. I always tend to forget the distinction betweeen a Nursery and a
garden centre.
One of the local nurseries has slowly changed into a garden centre (of the
worst type) and the acres of geenhouses that used to grow superb perennials
have been converted . If you can be bothered to wade through the vast
displays of scented candles, green wellies and farmhouse jam you can
eventually find a few green things.
I know the owner and he also finds it very sad but most profitable. In
defence he says that the business now employs more people than ever and that
he does still grow half a million winter flowering pansies each year.
I suppose it could be worse--he might start with Bussy Lizzies.