Earlier in the year I called into a 'Pound Shop' and saw a packet of 5 Allium Christophii for sale.
I had a look and the bulbs looked a bit small for christophii so I was in two minds as to whether to buy them or not, even at a a pound.
In the end I did and planted all five in an eight inch pot to see what would happen and I was pleasantly surprised, as you can see here:
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd27/tgalmanac/Allium/Allium%20christophe_zpsz1pgtgnt.jpg) (http://s222.photobucket.com/user/tgalmanac/media/Allium/Allium%20christophe_zpsz1pgtgnt.jpg.html)
Needless to say these will get some better treatment next year.
Strangely enough I bought some Red Baron onions as well and they seem to be coming along nicely as well.
So are the T&M's Sutton's, DTB's of this world potentially pricing themselves out of the market?.....With results like this it is easy to think that they are!
Pound shop plants can be good, but they're often dead, at least at the local one. It's a case of grabbing them the moment they appear on the shelves.
They are lovely aren't they :happy7:
The big boys prices do seem to be going up quite a bit, I was looking at some onion sets and garlic last week. I think if you are able to shop around you will be much better off. I tend to buy things from the big online companies when they have a special offer that I want or if they are offering free postage or money off voucher, but even then they can be on the pricy side.
I too buy from the pound shops and most have grown superbly but when buying look for signs of life /growth if appropriate for planting date some times they have started to grow too early as been kept been too warm