On 3/12/05 10:14, in article ,
"Dave Poole" wrote:
snip
Crikey!!! E.G. - that was 5 years ago ... so was Sacha's
wedding.

Five and an 'arf now! ;-) We had hoped Tony and Mrs Taz would get down
here for a few days this summer but his life just became too incredibly
busy. It would be nice to see Mrs Taz's van lumbering into the car park
again - lost and late!!

Going back to the original, Sacha, the HTA (Horticultural Trades
Association) were putting out idiotic questionnaires like that back in
the '70's. I never filled them in because they failed to address the
nursery trade proper. I took the local rep to task about it once and
he glibly replied that the assumption was that everyone had both hardy
and non hardy plants. I think I muttered something about never having
seen rose bushes sold by garden furniture manufacturers, but didn't
pursue it. Logic does not seem to have improved over the years.

That makes me think of a visit we made to the small but choice nursery run
by Mrs Marrow of "Patty's Plum" fame. She was complaining bitterly about
everyone jumping on the selling of plants bandwagon, even, she said, her
local ironmonger. "I don't sell bloody nails, so what's he doing selling
plants" was her view.
But one recent questionnaire also asked us about the ethnic background of
our staff. Now that I do think is intrusive cheek - what on earth has that
got to do with the horticultural industry. As it is, Ray or Matthew are
obliged to fill in a form from DEFRA every year about precise quantities of
which type of what has been sold over the twelve month period. Exactly what
DEFRA does with this info, I can't imagine. Whether we sell one thousand or
two thousand or ten thousand Primulas surely cannot matter to anyone but us!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)