Originally Posted by lannerman

Hi, Guy, As a boy growing up in the fifties, gardens were still very much influenced by the war years with every back garden in the land still growing veg and every front lawn surrounded by roses with a hydrangea in the corner and clumps of very traditional perennials like, solidago, pinks, cranesbill geranium, asters, chrysanthemum and dahlias etc. etc. My involvement with gardening started with me working at my local garden centre in Somerset in 1966 when I remember a far greater proportion of deciduous shrubs than are popular today ; Forsythia, Weigelia (as it was spelt then) Lilac, spirea and really shrubs which were grown for their flowers. Of course, it was these early garden centres that were responsible for introducing the general public to more unusual evergreen shrubs that up until then had only been known by a very small section of society. So slowly as we drifted towards the 70's, the average man had not only more leisure time but had the money to spend on plants and became less reliant on what was grown at home. In the late 60's everybody wanted a rockery, alpines were very popular, as were dwarf conifers especially 'Boulevard' and 'Rheingold'. By now containerisation was the norm, albeit those horrid floppy bags,but it did mean that for the first time plants were available all the year and not just in the traditional dormant period. In the 70's I moved to Cornwall and worked initially as a landscape gardener and then again for a garden centre. By now (mid 70's) slab patios were in vogue, and to go on them garden furniture (Iroko for the rich, plastic for the poor) rockeries now incorporated waterfalls and ponds, the first of the conservatories were appearing, albeit initially for the majority only lean-to alluminium greenhouses (which were totally unsuitable to sit in due to at the best condensation and at the worst leakage) Curved flowing borders by now had replaced straight lines and natural slate, especially slate crazy paving was all the rage. Lots of garden centres by now had sprung up so everybody had access to an ever increasing range of mainly evergreen shrubs, the traditional deciduous species now only selling when thay were in flower. As we moved through the eighties, the garden became 'the outdoor room' with barbeques now gracing the patio. There were still the die-hard veg growers but the 'organic' revolution was really taking hold. Television was now playing its part in driving trends (this really took off in the early nineties with programmes like ground force etc.) and the garden centres were now becoming outdoor activity centres. Car boot sales became big business and from the early nineties (to date) is where I have been selling plants. So enough waffle, not really very much about plants !
Best wishes Lannerman.