Janet Baraclough wrote:
If anyone is heading to B and Q's garden section , could you please
let me know what they're charging for their smallest-pot-size camellias
this spring? They don't have plant prices on their website.

Janet (Isle of Arran)

give your local B&Q a call ? Numbers are on the web via the store finder.

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

Janet Baraclough wrote:
If anyone is heading to B and Q's garden section , could you please
let me know what they're charging for their smallest-pot-size camellias
this spring? They don't have plant prices on their website.

Janet (Isle of Arran)

give your local B&Q a call ? Numbers are on the web via the store finder.

I have the number thanks, but have you ever tried asking a B and Q
garden dept staff anything face to face? I hate to think what it's like
trying to get a sensible answer over the phone :-)

Janet

Yes, but you might get someone in the office who's in front of a computer with
the price list......... :~))
Jenny

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

Janet Baraclough wrote:
If anyone is heading to B and Q's garden section , could you please
let me know what they're charging for their smallest-pot-size camellias
this spring? They don't have plant prices on their website.

Janet (Isle of Arran)

give your local B&Q a call ? Numbers are on the web via the store finder.

I have the number thanks, but have you ever tried asking a B and Q
garden dept staff anything face to face? I hate to think what it's like
trying to get a sensible answer over the phone :-)

Janet


it sounds like calling one of the box stores over here, (Lowes or Home
Depot) only if you called MY old Lowes in the garden center, and asked for
"Marilyn the Madgardener" (if I didn't run and pick up the outside phone)
I'd have not only looked up the price but probably told you how to get a 10%
discount! but camelia's didn't come last year because of the disease it was
carrying that was a concern for sudden oak death in the Pacific Northwest.
And a variegated one by the name of General Coletti, Rupert????? yer a cruel
man to mention it! Cruel I say! but today..........

ahhhhh today, I came home and discovered on my computer chair, that son had
placed a box from Bluestone Perennials that had arrived UPS and
inside........ahhhhhhh inside was mine and my garden buddy's Leptodermis
Oblonga, each one a good specimen of about seven or eight inches in good
black soil, good solid roots and tiny emerging leaves. Also inside the box
were two very healthy Hydrangea "Lemon Wave" that promise green, cream,
white and lime and so variegated, and big leafed, the flowers won't be
missed. And a Kolkwitzia "Pink Cloud" I got for a woman who runs Stanley's
Nursery in Knoxville, she didn't have one, and she's been kind to me, it
will be a good starter plant for her. It's the same size as mine was I got
from them a few years ago and it's awesome now. Give it three years and
she'll be taking cuttings from hers to share with others.

but a variegated Camellia? sigh...............I'll just have to remember
the full grown one I saw up in Suffolk, Virginia g

spring ramble will come soon........
madgardener up on the Springy ridge, back in fairy holler, overlooking
English Mountain with Douglas Lake almost risen to the tops of the red clay
banks now at it's feet, in Eastern Tennessee

I have the number thanks, but have you ever tried asking a B and Q
garden dept staff anything face to face? I hate to think what it's like
trying to get a sensible answer over the phone :-)

Janet

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

Janet Baraclough wrote:
If anyone is heading to B and Q's garden section , could you please
let me know what they're charging for their smallest-pot-size
camellias
this spring? They don't have plant prices on their website.

Janet (Isle of Arran)

give your local B&Q a call ? Numbers are on the web via the store
finder.

I have the number thanks, but have you ever tried asking a B and Q
garden dept staff anything face to face? I hate to think what it's like
trying to get a sensible answer over the phone :-)

Janet

It isn't just the price Janet, you should be able to confirm they
actually have any in stock and weren't sent an extra cage of
rhododendrons by mistake - or the cage didn't fall off the back
of the delivery lorry - or they're sold out. Or have only one or
two left with branches missing etc.

However you should be able to find out what you want...eventually.

With many of these places, there may be a long wait before anyone
answers the phone at all. Although this doesn't cost you money -
only patience. It doesn't pay them to have people sitting around,
although that might depend on what time of day you phoned.

After explaining what you want - price and availability information
there may be a wait until they get a response from someone sitting
in front of a terminal. From what you tell them over the phone
they should immediately be able to tell you the price and how
many they have in stock. You may need to spell out the name carefully
or they may have it wrong themselves however. They read the bar-codes
off the cages into hand-helds when the stuff is delivered and bar-codes
off the pots when it goes through the till.
They can tell you this information at the information desk, without
you as a customer knowing the product code, and so they should be able to
tell you over the phone as well. This is from looking over people's
shoulders, not inside industry knowledge.
Once you've got the information you want it doesn't hurt to ask the
name of the person you're talking to. Once you've phoned any of these
places and got an answer, this gives you leverage if you turn up and
the information turns out to be wrong. Much more leverage than if you
walked in off the street. If you have a name even better. "I phoned
today and spoke to Mary and she said you had 200 in stock. I've just
travelled 50 miles and your computer at the inquiry desk says there
are 100, but there are none in the store. I want to speak to the
manager please. What are you going to do for me please. This is totally
unacceptable." These placed often sell Gift Vouchers etc. which
might be offered in lieu if you're insistent enough.



michael adams

....

"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "michael adams" contains these words:


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

Janet Baraclough wrote:
If anyone is heading to B and Q's garden section , could you
please
let me know what they're charging for their smallest-pot-size
camellias
this spring? They don't have plant prices on their website.

Janet (Isle of Arran)

give your local B&Q a call ? Numbers are on the web via the store
finder.

I have the number thanks, but have you ever tried asking a B and Q
garden dept staff anything face to face? I hate to think what it's
like
trying to get a sensible answer over the phone :-)

Janet

It isn't just the price Janet, you should be able to confirm they
actually have any in stock(snip)
However you should be able to find out what you want...eventually.

With many of these places, there may be a long wait before anyone
answers the phone at all. Although this doesn't cost you money -
only patience.

Well, in the interest of science, I felt obliged to try it out.

First, it does cost money, as none of the W. Scotland branches has a
freephone number.

machine announcement "Thankyou for calling B and Q Kilmarnock. If
you want X, press button 1(fourchoices) "
Machine "We are now trying to connect you to a memeber of staff. "
Tinkly music
Machine "We are now connecting you to a member of staff"
Tinkly music
Real person "Hello, I'm Keith, how can I help you?Yes, will connect
you to our gardening department"
Tinkly music
Keith "Sorry, nobody seems to be answering. If you leave your name
and number I'll ask them to call you with information about Camellias."
(I give, AND spell, name, slowly and clearly.)
"Sorry, I wasn't listening, could you repeat that"
JB gives name and number.

15 mins later, phone rings
....

Not bad. Means you can get on with other things anyway. If they
allow you to stay within earshot of a phone, at least.

It's the ones that phone back 3 hours later that are the pain.
Or never do. Or keep you holding on, listening to muzak.

....


"It's Debbie from B and Q garden dept, how may I help you? "
JB "Please can you tell me the price of your smallest-pot size
camellias?"
D "It's either 4.99 or 5.99, but they're tiny. The 24.98 size are
much bigger and better".
JB "Thankyou. Can you tell me what varieties of small ones you have
in stock?".
D. " He just said you were looking for some plants, he didn't tell me
cammellias. I'll go and look and ring you back".

3 mins later, D rings back

....

Fair enough.

I'm surprised they simply couldn't read it all off a terminal,
but there you go. Can't be right all the time, I suppose. 2-2.

....


"The smallest are 5-98. They come in two sorts pink or red
semidouble. No, they don't have names on the computer list. They are
very tiny, only 15 to 20 cms high; the big ones are much better and only
cost 24.98 and they have a name. It's "Len Measly".
Thanks and pleasant farewells on both sides.

For just another two quid , at £7.99 I can buy a larger size and
better choice of named varieties in flower(or bud), here on the island.
Camellia "Leonard Messel"

....

Ouch!

....

is available at Glendoick for only £10.40
(3 litre pot).

....

They're not necessarily competitive over all their ranges.

....


Janet.

Saved a journey anyway.

From the sounds of things there can't have been any labels
on the smaller plants, otherwise they wouldn't only have
referred to the computer list. And so you're no worse off
than you would be, if someone had reported personally.


michael adams

....

Janet Baraclough writes
:-))) I once had a member of staff at one of those places say "
The usual price is 14.99, but there's a ten percent discount and I
don't know what that is". So, helpfully, I said "It's One-fortynine".
She stared at me in absolute amazement and said "But how do you know? ".

But it isn't, it's £1.50 ;-)
--
Kay

Bought one today from a street market (Dutch import) for 8 quid, 2 ft +
tall) plenty of larger ones and named varieties for 15-25 quid. seem to be
lots around at the moment in NW UK


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

Janet Baraclough wrote:
If anyone is heading to B and Q's garden section , could you please
let me know what they're charging for their smallest-pot-size camellias
this spring? They don't have plant prices on their website.

Janet (Isle of Arran)

give your local B&Q a call ? Numbers are on the web via the store finder.

I have the number thanks, but have you ever tried asking a B and Q
garden dept staff anything face to face? I hate to think what it's like
trying to get a sensible answer over the phone :-)

Janet

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

Janet Baraclough writes
:-))) I once had a member of staff at one of those places say "
The usual price is 14.99, but there's a ten percent discount and I
don't know what that is". So, helpfully, I said "It's One-fortynine".
She stared at me in absolute amazement and said "But how do you know?
".

But it isn't, it's £1.50 ;-)

Almost but not quite...

Janet
~~~~~~~
I wouldn't bother people with percentages! Four thirds of them don't
even understand fractions!!
Best Wishes Brian.

~~~~~~~
I wouldn't bother people with percentages! Four thirds of them
don't
even understand fractions!!
Best Wishes Brian.

That's very improper of you to say that

Mike