I have just received a few more pelargoniums from Fibrex. Currently sitting in the sink in the utility room as I think it’s too hot outside. Have also ordered from D’Arcy and Everest as they have a sale on. God knows where I’m going to put them if it stays this hot.
I too splurged - with very mixed results. Nothing arrived until really late, May I think! Most of it has grown and is clearly alive although will clearly not flower until next year (Lily of the Valley) - the Monarda was a disaster. PS - I have loads of Persicaria red dragon. Happy to send you some roots in the winter if you like.
In my case it was only 3 that failed out of about 20? And I got them on sale. But I think I’ll be seeking my supplier differently this year - UK based, wrapped in paper, sent at the right time of year I think would be more likely to succeed.
Totally agree on the price of plants, though our local Herb Nursery at Thistleton is very reasonable.
I invested in several bare root perennials in May, they arrived as dead sticks in powder dry compost and sadly only a third actually grew. I've learned my lesson and won't do that again!
This is me! I bought a load of bare roots and they've either been devoured, disappeared or never properly got going..and these were meant to be tough plants. It's been an expensive disaster
I knew who the seller was long before you said, they're alright. Mostly their stuff lives.
Bare root is just on the cusp of getting trendy I think, I see it more and more at shows with all sorts of fancy wrapping.
The national daylily collection have been selling their plants bare root for ages and the plants are not like Parker/dutchbulbs. They are strong and healthy and beautiful.
Bare root clearly has problems though - and identifying wrong plants is one of them. However, the length of time before they were plantable probably saved me planting more out, which I would then have had problems keeping alive in the heat and drought.
I've frequently bought bare root in season when identification is not a problem.
I agree it has problems but pot culture has problems yet we're so used to those we don't see them. Anything new to us is problematic, I'm reminded of how people frequently complain that peat-free is a bugger to re-wet if you let it bake whilst conveniently forgetting that peat has the exact same issue but we're all acclimatised to that one.
I'd say many of those problems are avoided by buying strong plants from a good nursery and Parkers isn't really the latter and has never sold me the former.
J. Parkers seem OK on bulbs, less so on herbaceous perennials. So I gathered from talking to other gardeners. Sadly, this realisation only dawned on me after ordering and planting quite a lot of herbaceous perennials. They didn't do terribly well.
All mail order nurseries I deal with seem to have put up prices 1.5-2x since 2019. I suppose they have to earn a living and other costs have risen faster than inflation. Nevertheless, I can find many common herbaceous perennials at £4 in one litre pots at the local garden centre/nursery yet a medium-sized mail order firm wants about £11.50.
Day lilies, especially the orange 'Kwanzo', seem pretty 'bomb-proof.' Many plants don't. Crocosmia, for instance, easily seem to dry out and become unviable. Is that why bareroot works for day lilies even outside the 'dormant season' but not for some other plants?
FYI the truth isn't libellous and indeed the law was changed in 2013 to safeguard free speech somewhat and protect innocent people from getting into trouble and being threatened. So it seems reasonable to name a business and give a reasonable acount of what they did, whether it was good or bad.
Economies of scale. Many garden centres are buying from the same mega-nurseries.
I used to have contracts with some of them and you can get lost driving your car around their sites. I'd be surprised if the UK garden centres were supplied by more than 5 of these plant factories. At their scale everything can be made cheaper per unit, not least of which is transport. Shipping a box of plants to you is very expensive per plant, owning your own fleet of HGVs and distributing nationwide for you to collect from your nearest centre is far less.
I'm not judging you for using garden centres by the way, we get what we get the way we get it. But I think it would astonish you to learn the mark-up that's put on those plants. When I got out of horticulture-at-scale in 2011 a £4 perennial was giving the garden centre comfortably over 300% profit. It's not much less now.
Generally small nurseries aren't seeing so much return on what you buy.
Yes, Parkers are definitely in the OK bracket as bulb suppliers, below Nyssen and well below Avon. But above De Jaeger and leagues ahead of Mrs. Raven.
Thanks. I can’t remember when I last visited a garden centre, or, actually, a nursery. I imagine they are suffering badly in this weather. It’s about obtaining the plant you want and can use, not the ones that happen to be being sold.
I’ve had the munching critters as well. Dastardly things. They even chomped on horseradish leaves and pots of parsley and coriander I left overnight in the shade. Really not sure what to do now. Green summerhouse is too hot, as is the garden. Put them in the shade and they disappear, except for the salvias. Are they unpalatable?
I have just received a few more pelargoniums from Fibrex. Currently sitting in the sink in the utility room as I think it’s too hot outside. Have also ordered from D’Arcy and Everest as they have a sale on. God knows where I’m going to put them if it stays this hot.
Sales are Very Dangerous!
That sale was just too tempting wasn't it?
Still - very dangerous!
Oh yes indeed! I'm poorer than I was before it.
I did manage to stick within the limits of the number of plants given. Am hoping things will cool down a little.
But it could all get impossible again and where is the rain??
Well there is rain predicted for next weekend and at least temperatures have dropped a bit so It’s better for sleeping at night.
I too splurged - with very mixed results. Nothing arrived until really late, May I think! Most of it has grown and is clearly alive although will clearly not flower until next year (Lily of the Valley) - the Monarda was a disaster. PS - I have loads of Persicaria red dragon. Happy to send you some roots in the winter if you like.
That’s kind re Red Dragon - but I do have one and successfully took cuttings after that disappointment. Thank you for the offer!!
Hard to work out - do the failures negate the benefit of the prices? I can’t work that out.
In my case it was only 3 that failed out of about 20? And I got them on sale. But I think I’ll be seeking my supplier differently this year - UK based, wrapped in paper, sent at the right time of year I think would be more likely to succeed.
We could do with reviews of suppliers. I got muddled about who sent what….
Totally agree on the price of plants, though our local Herb Nursery at Thistleton is very reasonable.
I invested in several bare root perennials in May, they arrived as dead sticks in powder dry compost and sadly only a third actually grew. I've learned my lesson and won't do that again!
That’s a shame!
Oh my god
This is me! I bought a load of bare roots and they've either been devoured, disappeared or never properly got going..and these were meant to be tough plants. It's been an expensive disaster
Oh, ouch. That’s bad. Should we be naming sources?
I'm tempted
Do it....
I knew who the seller was long before you said, they're alright. Mostly their stuff lives.
Bare root is just on the cusp of getting trendy I think, I see it more and more at shows with all sorts of fancy wrapping.
The national daylily collection have been selling their plants bare root for ages and the plants are not like Parker/dutchbulbs. They are strong and healthy and beautiful.
Oh, I'm replying twice. Substack is really having a time of things what with your disappearing photos too.
Bare root clearly has problems though - and identifying wrong plants is one of them. However, the length of time before they were plantable probably saved me planting more out, which I would then have had problems keeping alive in the heat and drought.
I've frequently bought bare root in season when identification is not a problem.
I agree it has problems but pot culture has problems yet we're so used to those we don't see them. Anything new to us is problematic, I'm reminded of how people frequently complain that peat-free is a bugger to re-wet if you let it bake whilst conveniently forgetting that peat has the exact same issue but we're all acclimatised to that one.
I'd say many of those problems are avoided by buying strong plants from a good nursery and Parkers isn't really the latter and has never sold me the former.
All true.
J. Parkers seem OK on bulbs, less so on herbaceous perennials. So I gathered from talking to other gardeners. Sadly, this realisation only dawned on me after ordering and planting quite a lot of herbaceous perennials. They didn't do terribly well.
All mail order nurseries I deal with seem to have put up prices 1.5-2x since 2019. I suppose they have to earn a living and other costs have risen faster than inflation. Nevertheless, I can find many common herbaceous perennials at £4 in one litre pots at the local garden centre/nursery yet a medium-sized mail order firm wants about £11.50.
Day lilies, especially the orange 'Kwanzo', seem pretty 'bomb-proof.' Many plants don't. Crocosmia, for instance, easily seem to dry out and become unviable. Is that why bareroot works for day lilies even outside the 'dormant season' but not for some other plants?
FYI the truth isn't libellous and indeed the law was changed in 2013 to safeguard free speech somewhat and protect innocent people from getting into trouble and being threatened. So it seems reasonable to name a business and give a reasonable acount of what they did, whether it was good or bad.
Economies of scale. Many garden centres are buying from the same mega-nurseries.
I used to have contracts with some of them and you can get lost driving your car around their sites. I'd be surprised if the UK garden centres were supplied by more than 5 of these plant factories. At their scale everything can be made cheaper per unit, not least of which is transport. Shipping a box of plants to you is very expensive per plant, owning your own fleet of HGVs and distributing nationwide for you to collect from your nearest centre is far less.
I'm not judging you for using garden centres by the way, we get what we get the way we get it. But I think it would astonish you to learn the mark-up that's put on those plants. When I got out of horticulture-at-scale in 2011 a £4 perennial was giving the garden centre comfortably over 300% profit. It's not much less now.
Generally small nurseries aren't seeing so much return on what you buy.
Yes, Parkers are definitely in the OK bracket as bulb suppliers, below Nyssen and well below Avon. But above De Jaeger and leagues ahead of Mrs. Raven.
Thanks. I can’t remember when I last visited a garden centre, or, actually, a nursery. I imagine they are suffering badly in this weather. It’s about obtaining the plant you want and can use, not the ones that happen to be being sold.
Thanks for all this useful information.
Btw, Shire Plants, Farmyard Nurseries - these tend to be good for retail mail order prices.
There's really very little (as far as plant establishment goes) between a square 9cm pot and a traditional 1lt.
I’ve had the munching critters as well. Dastardly things. They even chomped on horseradish leaves and pots of parsley and coriander I left overnight in the shade. Really not sure what to do now. Green summerhouse is too hot, as is the garden. Put them in the shade and they disappear, except for the salvias. Are they unpalatable?
Nightmare. They (mice in our case) definitely have preferences. Geraniums, yes, geums, no,