garden centre prices

My favourite is Morrisons.

i agree, thats why i go to carboot sales and buy from ordinary people who have done there own from their own plants, very cheap to,, also morrisons have good plants and wilko, i hate being ripped off to islander, people are so into gardens now and the garden centres know that, and make a great profit, not good ps. the fuchsia is doing well :o))

i own a small nursery in Pembrokeshire Wales. if i could get £7.50 for a lupin i could retire...lol

but on the side of the grower the price of compost, pots and especialy plant feeds have rocketed. we all like to buy perfect plants which ends up in a lot not so perfect plants having to be thrown away. we are only a small producer and when travelling to shows it cost a fourtune in diesel show rents and public liability insurance.

having said that i have walked around certain stores (wyevale) astounded at the prices. it amazes me how much they sell them for as i know how much they pay the growers....

Exactly, No wonder we here in Canada now R buying from places like Costco & Home Depot ( I hated to do that) but, as I no longer are prepared to pay those amounts of money I buy from the BIG Box stores.. I use to do all my own annuals for my pots, but no longer have my greenhouse, so off to market I had to go. To get 10 hanging baskets & 7 flats of annuals for 10 large patio pots cost $600 from the Nurseries. Cosco.....$300 so where do U think I went???
I do understand the problem, but 7.00 pounds for a Lupin some where there is a problem. I still buy from the small nurseries Sandra, because I know u guys really take care of your plants. Keep it going girl.

Gower fuchsias have good prices and because I live close I can pick the plants up.Also very friendly as is Sandra who has very good prices too!

I was thinking the self same thing when I went to the garden centre last week. I always used to think my local one was cheap and had always used them, but this year, for some reason, the price of plants has shot up.

As you mention, a lot of them are just plain old basic plants, nothing special at all. I for one, will be taking more cuttings this year which is something I didn't usually bother about as the plants were so cheap.

Having pretty much started a garden from scratch recently and a very, very small one at that (mostly concrete) I have already spent hundreds of pounds. Even the price of the pots I bought nearly floored me. I went to buy a few regular sized terracottas expecting to pay about £40 and it cost me £90!!! I nearly died of shock, lol. No plants were bought that day, I can tell you.

It also depends on the garden centre....Not all garden centres grow their own plants but get them from a supplier. So that also means extra cost to the retailer......it costs a fortune in shipping. The suppliers even make the garden centers buy the wooden crates that the plants are shipped in and that is on top of the cost of shipping the plants by truck.
All that has to be passed on to the buyer unfortunatley.

It seems we all have to grow more from seeds or from cuttings. I am still gobsmacked at the amount of red pelargonium plants I have from cuttings taken from the original six, which cost 1.50€ each two years ago. I now have enough plants to fill eight window troughs, six tubs, and put one on each step of my outside stairs - that's around 40 plants from a cost of 9€! And I haven't finished yet! There's this years' cuttings to take all through the season and, meantime, I'm trying three of the original six in the ground to see how they get on in their dotage, Lets all give the big nurseries the go-by and head for cheaper places - they'll soon realise gardeners have more sense than money!

The unrealistic cost problem is with the larger garden centres like Dobies with their high profit margins. I agree that they have a lot of costs to pass on; did you know that the printed label in the pot costs between 10 and 70 pence depending on how big and colourful it is!
The smaller specialist nurseries are a different matter. Their plants can represent three or more years work by the owner and are usually his only source of income.
We generaly propogate our own plants or buy from the specialist nurseries or members stands at shows.

i understand the overheads but why dont they have a no frills pollicy,, no fancy labels and packaging, that would be a start,,but what do i know lol

Much better to use the RHS Plant Finder - online or book - and support independant nurseries in your area - they mostly go for no fancy labels and packaging, have far more unusual plants - and know what they are selling, being able to give far more and better advise on planting and care. They are nearly all in business because they love what they do.

I was recently at an unusual plants fair in Swansea which is where I met Sandra~the weather was foul with heavy showers and wind in between sunny patches but half a dozen or so brave souls had turned up with great plants at great prices~I got Sambucus Nigra,a tree Paeony. a large Baptisia
Australis a pale mauve Centaurea some Auriculas at probably half the price I would have paid at Malvern where I was the previous weekend.In addition I found a nursery on Gower I did not know existed with all sorts of plants I would love to have.
I will be paying a visit there soon and I intend to go to the smaller local growers if I can instead of Wyevale.
Much better value and nicer plants~

I think another point is that we have to remember that whilst we GoY'ers either know the joys of propogating, or are after specific cultivars, or are aware of the true cost of plants (time + materials + effort + overheads etc) there are a lot of people who 'do' the garden centres as a place to visit and an occasional leisure activity.
Many of these folk are not really gardeners at all , they have often been 'fooled' by the instant gardening shows into the belief that a garden can be created in full bloom over one weekend and that it will stay that way!! And the way they see that happening is by throwing money at it - if you dont know about plants a Lupin looks pretty darn impressive!
so of course the garden centres are bound to try and cash in on that with the glitzy labels, fancy pots and tea rooms, unfortunately it inflates the prices for the rest of the gardening population - especially if there is a lack of competition (do you have lots of garden centres on Orkney?).

Personally I love the challenge of growing from cuttings and seed where I can - but I do agree that some garden centres do seem to inflate the prices rather.

~In defence of some private GC's I did love Ashwood Nurseries and their Restaurant serves beautiful food~witness you can hardly get a table to sit down but I think that was why a lot of the oldies who where there~ who could hardly stand up~ let alone garden had been taken for a trip out by their relatives who may have been there to get plants etc~it was very busy and I would recommend going there but through the week!

my mother in law recently bought 30 bedding plants from QD which recently opened near us £3.00!! is this why Garden centres are so highly priced because places like QD are knocking them out for pittance!! Im on a very tight budget (feel the squeeze) and love a bargain but thats just rediculously cheap... all seemed very healthy... we will see

x x x

wow thats a great bargain mookins, hope they do ok,,x

~I think that is the power of bulk buying which Wilkinsons Morrisons etc exploit but hey if you are on a tight budget go for it!Everyone loves a bargain.
I know Wyevale recently bought up Ayletts and Heighleygate which were two big independents and I can only hope they don't change them too much for the worse~in a recession I suppose that the independents will suffer the worst so we all need to do what we can to keep them going.

Wyevale took over an independant garden centre in Wendover a while ago - it's now exactly the same as Wyevale at Beaconsfield, Farnham Royal, Oxford, all originally inedependant. Same plants everywhere you go - and top prices on everything. Nottcutts are the same - it's like the supermarkets - squeeze all the independants out and you can charge what you like. It makes me seethe (as you can see!).

We have a very large, very expensive garden centre in my nearest town. Who supplies their shrubs? One of my fellow market traders, who grows them in his own nursery. He trades on markets and car boots himself, so if those who bought from the garden centre did but know, they would get EXACTLY the same plants at a fraction of the cost from him! But some people have a tendency to think they would be inferior bought from such places.

i agree potty.... its all about status, "what would people think if i went to carboot sale" or a market,, why ! it doesnt bother me where i get mine as long as im not ripped off and they grow into lovely plants, i know people that wont go into a charity shop just in case someone sees them lol

I am lucky enough to have a small family-run Nursery near here where they grow most of their own stock. Their prices are half what the big boys ask. The trouble is that they can't keep up with demand so they run out quickly.

I can't grow all the plants I would like to, and anyway, I often just want one or two of something. So I am caught in the trap of paying what the GCs ask! I agree that sometimes it's a rip-off.

I do appreciate the GCs that sell smaller plants that I can grow on, at reasonable prices. I wish they had a wider choice.

My real concern is that there should at this time be many people who are taking up gardening for the first time, and I think a lot will be put off by the high prices. I dont intend knocking the nurseries and small growers. I think they deserve to earn a decent living for the work they do, but I do think that the price of plants should reflect the work and care that goes into producing it. our local garden center does not grow any plants themselves, but the prices are sky high. They are the only garden center up here and i rather think they take advantage of thier monopoly.

They have it all wrapped up, don't they! No wonder their prices are high.

We have just come back from Tesco. At the back of the store, as far from the window as possible, was thier new selection of plants. The store was warm and there was no obvious way of watering these plants. The prices were high, for Tesco, and people were buying them. Somehow we refrained!

~half the stores who sell plants have no one to water them and they must have massive losses so they must get them dirt cheap to start with~pity the poor supplier who gets virtually nothing for their work whilst the money goes to the shareholders!~I won't shop at Tesco they treat their suppliers badly.

Some of the big box stores over here only pay their suppliers for what they actually sell......In other words, the supplier supplies, for example, 1000 plants. The box store doesn't water or look after the plants and therefore only sells 500 of them, the rest are garbage. The box store only pays the supplier for the 500 plants they sold. They supplier is out the money for the other 500.....!! How's that for a raw deal???!!

thats terrible...;-((

a friend of mine was selling to Asda but they changed their mind on price the day before a big delivery.....so she told them where to go and managed to find a local wholesaler to sell her stuff for a better price.....the big supermarkets bully the small farmers.

~you are so right Sandra ~I am glad your friend came out ahead~if no one reduced their prices everyone would be better off ~but it takes a lot to hold your nerve!
Gilli~that's daylight robbery!

thank you all for your comments, I'm glad to see I am not the only one that tinks GC prices are over the top. to be fair the smaller ones and the nurseries seem to give better value. but I think the best value in gardening plants are from car boot sales, plant swapping with friends and where practical growing from seed or cuttings. well done to your friend Sandra

ps I think its Wyeville that own our garden center

We are just back from Tesco again (sad) and the plants I refered to on Wednesday are looking really unhappy, however the prices are still the same!

at one time prices would drop when plants deteriated, my mother used to love bringing home plants she bought for pennies and nursing them back to being healthy

liddles are worth watching in spring and autumn for plants and fruit trees

last year i bought some lovely succulents in lidle. lovely little aloes and echivera. my dad bought me ten fruit trees from there a few year ago not all made it but most are looking good.

I worked one summer at a nursery that was supplying plants various garden centres. One day we were potting on hostas. Half were going into the next-size-up pot and were going to a small garden centre labled at about £4 each if memory serves. The other half (exactly the same size plants) were put into large plastic pots (about 5ltr I guess). The pots were slightly prettyfied with a bit of decoration around the rim, but that was all. We labled the hosts up at £15 each!!!!!!! They were headed for the local B&Q store. The lesson here being - look at the plant, not the pot it comes in!

Wyevale's prices are extorsionate. But it's worth having a look in winter as they often sell off plants then. I bought a lovely lot, inc bearded irises, for £1 ea from there last winter (down from about £8.00 ea) and also in spring some peaony root stocks for 45p!

I do buy (and sell) plants at carboot sales, but I do think we should be supporting out small local growers and garden centres in order to preserve the supply of the less usual plants, otherwise it will just be the usual 'popular' plants everywhere stocks.

i have a small nursery growing plants from seed and cuttings. i work with other small nurserys. we each specialize in different types of plants. we have now set up the pembrokeshire growers association. www.pembrokeshiregrowers.co.uk
if you buy from local growers (where possilble) the plants are cheaper, healthier, grown and sold to you by someone who can advise you how to look after it.

Sid
i love getting the bargin plants at our focus store. they are usualy there because of lack of water but they soon pick up when i get them home.

Hi Sandra - yes, I do head straight for the bargain plant trolley whenever I go to DIY places! I try to buy from local growers whenever possible for all the reasons you mention. Plus, you know the plants have been raised near your home and you know they've got through the winter, etc. In the centre of Hereford there are Plant Fairs sometimes - Oh, my, oh, my....kid in a sweetshop or what?!