Money saving seeds - Consumers' Association Feature

[supersprout]

Thought this might be of passing interest chaps and chapesses  ;D

Raising plants from seed saves a bunch
18 November 2005

A new study by Gardening Which? has found people can save a packet if they grow hard-to-find and unusual plants rather than buying them ready-grown.
Researchers found that taking the time to raise plants from seed was a good way of avoiding the high prices charged by some garden centres.

Of the new flowers looked at in the Gardening Which? trials, Viscaria 'Patio Mixture' was a revelation.

Costing just 69p for 500 seeds, the easy to grow annual provided a mass of brightly coloured flowers from mid-July through to the end of August.

Gardening Which? says that growing from seed also makes it easier to try something a little different, including novelty vegetables often sold at premium prices by food retailers.

They found vegetable varieties worth attempting included Cape gooseberry 'Little Lantern', a neat version of the rampant species of the interesting, novelty fruit, and pepper 'Sweet Orange Baby', a good contender for the patio.

Julia Boulton, Editor of Gardening Which?, said: 'In these days of instant gardening, turning a pinch of seeds into a mouth watering salad or a blaze of colour beautiful enough to stop passers-by in their tracks, makes growing from seed truly satisfying.'

[supersprout]

[philcooper]

This is startling news - who would have though that Raising plants from seeds is cheaper than buying plants and that you have a wider selection of varieties? ;)

No wonder I stopped my Gardening Which subscription!

[Derekthefox]

Do these people come into the same category as management consultants and telephone sanitisers ... ?

[moonbells]

Do these people come into the same category as management consultants and telephone sanitisers ... ?

Don't let them near the scrabble...

moonbells

[marshwiggle]

hey nothing wrong with scrabble moonbells  ;D

[moonbells]

Sorry, I think perhaps I ought to explain the joke... I rather like scrabble too.

Management consultants and telephone sanitisers, along with a few other "useless bl**dy lunatics" were the inhabitants of the Golgafrinchan "B" Ark at the end of the original Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy. 

And Arthur Dent found the question to Life the Universe and Everything by picking scrabble tiles out of a bag at random...

Now if THAT isn't off-topic I don't know what is...
I'll get my coat...

moonbells :)

[Derekthefox]

Thank you moonbells, but I think the apology to Sarah (and Dan) should come from me, because I started the topic, unless that is what Sarah expected by way of a retort !!!

[cleo]

I am deeply concened by this topic-my wife always tells me I could have made a fortune working in advertising.

This is either a compliment or a polite way of telling me something?

`Sowing from seed is difficult,so many choices of compost to worry about. Then there are dreadful diseases like `damping off` and plants grown from seeds can go `leggy`

Why bother? `Plants are us` can solve all these problems. We offer a wide range of plants grown from cheap seeds at prices that only a serious gardener like you would appreciate.

Think I will just spend another couple of years in the bath.

[Derekthefox]

So I should be buying these plants then ... ?  ;D

[northener]

Plants r us. Nice one Stephan.

[philcooper]

Derek,

Yes, I think you should be straight down to the garden centre to buy some summer bedding for planting out as soon as you can - that is if matron allows you out on your own  :D

Phil

[Bill Door]

Sorry folks but before we all jump on the seemingly obvious (yes we all grow cheap plants from seeds).  Just bear in mind that for every amateur Gardner that likes to get her or his hands dirty there are at least 10 that don't.

Remember the good life and the difference between the two couples.  How many Margot's does one know?  And how many with more money than sense do you know? Or how many are just not that organised or have the time!

Don't forget they also buy Gardening Which as well as Computing Which as well as the main magazine called Which?

How many times have you gone to the local Gardening centre around Easter and seen people walking out with...........yes you have got it .....trays of bedding plants!

Don't take this the wrong way around but we all have our weak spots and just need someone else to point out the obvious! ::)

As you can guess with so few posts I have also been warned to keep the thread to its original..........well thread!

Enjoy your gardening even if that means you only have the time to buy plants  8)

regards  Bill

[Rose.mary]

All I can say is,thank goodness they don't all want allotments. I am all for keeping quiet about how good it is. :-X :-X

Rosemary

[Derekthefox]

Yes I have noticed about how allotmenteering seems to be regarded as a very obscure hobby ...

[moonbells]

What I find scary is that without the people who go out every Easter (which is after all the busiest weekend for plant buying and gardening in the year!) and buy loads of stuff they then bung in, which then dies, and they have to go buy more, a lot of garden centres and nurseries would go bust.

moonbells

[carloso]

d**n i could make a good living for a fool !!
lol