Topic: Garden Centres

[cleo]

I must first declare a vested interest.

I was in my local one a couple of days ago(yes I do visit them)-and their tomato prices were just unbelievable-99p for MM etc is bad enough but they now offer `Heritage` varieties at £1.49!! ::)

Oh well no doubt the owners are rich but I prefer to offer the customer plants at sensible prices and make enough to break even, as what I take funds my passion to try new varieties

I ask 60p btw ;)

[manicscousers]

bet they aren't as well-looked after as yours, either  :)
we went to b&q yesterday for diy stuff, just had a nosey at their veggie plants  :o
half of them are dead and people are buying the un-dead ones, do they think they'll survive ?

[thifasmom]

homebase had loads of cherry tom plants and chili plants dripping with unripe fruit last weekend ::) i didn't even look at the price, just walked on by :D.

[Tee Gee]

I ask 60p btw

I agree with you about GC prices. OK they have overheads etc but I know how much it costs me to produce a tomato plant an their prices are sometimes rediculous added to which the plants are not always in prime condition.

For years I have sold mine for 45p each or 5 for £2 but this year I have upped my price to 50p each and even at this price I feel guilty of over charging.

I hold on to the plants until planting out time so that it is just a case of planting out i.e. no hardening off etc to do!

I did consider 60p each but that meant a 33% hike on my prices and I didn't think I could justify this.

I know that my costs have gone up e.g. compost is up a third and electricity has nearly doubled this year but I am quite happy at 50p.

I only grow for a chosen few i.e. those who ask me before February so that I can grow to order rather on speculation.

Plus in the past I have had a few defaulters (non-payers) You will all know the type; I haven't brought any money down to the allotments so I'll pay you the next time I see you..............I am still waiting for a few >:(

[betula]

I was at Blooms yesterday.They have started to have a large variety of veg :).They did look healthy but were expensive.

[pippy]

Our local Sainsurys had veg plants in the foyer this week so I had a quick look.  They were asking £2.99 for a tray of 12 French beans, £1.39 for a Moneymaker Tom and (this one had be aghast) £1.3 for a courgette plant !  Glad I grow all mine from seed and give away my spares to friends!

Daren't even look in the local Garden centre ...... :o

[cleo]

£1.39 for a Moneymaker Tom

That makes sense-a silly price for a silly tomato ;)

[skyblu]

homebase had loads of cherry tom plants and chili plants dripping with unripe fruit last weekend ::) i didn't even look at the price, just walked on by :D.

I did...£6.99!  :o

[elhuerto]

I was at the local market this morning, couldn't resist it even though I said I'd grow everything from seed this year but 12 lettuces,  6 peppers  and 6 aubergines for €3.10 I thought was pretty good.

[Kea]

80p each or 3 for £2 at our bi weekly market.

[Pesky Wabbit]

£1 a plant is expensive, but if you only want 1 or 2 plants its cheaper than buying a packet of seed + the smallest bag of compost you can find + the pots to sow them in + all the effort.

Not everyone wants a ploytunnel full and some people dont know how to sow seeds - they just watch the instant garden/makeover programs and believe everything comes fully grown.

The garden centres do it year after year, so people must buy them !

[littlebabybird]

at i think it was focus diy a couple of weeks ago there were childrens pots
little 3 inch coloured pots with 3 carrot seedlings in them for £1.99
had to laugh

lbb

[Tee Gee]

£1 a plant is expensive, but if you only want 1 or 2 plants its cheaper than buying a packet of seed + the smallest bag of compost you can find + the pots to sow them in + all the effort.

Good point!

Never looked at it in that light!

[reddyreddy]

however... if you get your allotment late in the season and haven't time to grow everything from seed it is nice to be able to buy a few things to keep your sprits up as you dig! We had our village carnival last week and some stalls were charging £2.99 for a sweet pea, I'll be more organised next year and sow a few extra, at that price I have about a hundred pounds worth in my garden and plot!!

[1066]

£1 a plant is expensive, but if you only want 1 or 2 plants its cheaper than buying a packet of seed + the smallest bag of compost you can find + the pots to sow them in + all the effort.

Good point!

Never looked at it in that light!

I've bought them for that exact reason in the past, and got good results so happy with my purchases. The problems I found was I couldn't get interesting varieties and you had to be pretty picky where you bought them and what condition the plants were in. I think its sometimes the old "cash rich time poor" scenario
1066

[saddad]

There's always allotment plant sales....   ::)

[elvis2003]

we were in B and Q today,they were selling some right shabby cabbage plants etc for 1.50 x 3

[manicscousers]

We had our village carnival last week and some stalls were charging £2.99 for a sweet pea, I'll be more organised next year and sow a few extra, at that price I have about a hundred pounds worth in my garden and plot!!

good grief, we were selling a black buckit-full for 3.00

[Eristic]

£1 a plant is expensive, but if you only want 1 or 2 plants its cheaper than buying a packet of seed + the smallest bag of compost you can find + the pots to sow them in + all the effort.

But for 25p you can buy a nice tomato, scrape out about 100 seeds then eat the tomato.