I have at last reached official grumpy old bat status. i was sent an
email by the daily telegraph today about lavenders on special offer and
it read
"Dear Mrs Tweedy,

The wet weather may have you thinking otherwise, but we are
actually in the full throws of summer and now is the perfect
time to make the most of your garden."


I was tempted for at least a minute to email them back pointing out the
correct spelling of "throes"!!

Apart from which they have three lavenders

Lavender Blue Ice A cool, crisp paler bloom, giving a frosty looking
blue flower.

Lavender Melissa Lilac Large, lilac flower spikes gracefully sit above
silvery, slender foliage.

Lavender Hidcote An RHS Award of Garden Merit winner, this plant
features narrow, grey green leaves, compact growth and the deepest
blue-purple blooms.

And they expect you to buy two of each for a bargain price.
Is it me and my obsessive propagation but why would I ever want to buy
two of a plant that i could easily get 15 from by the end of September?



Janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

Janet Tweedy wrote:

I have at last reached official grumpy old bat status. i was sent an
email by the daily telegraph today about lavenders on special offer and
it read
"Dear Mrs Tweedy,
The wet weather may have you thinking otherwise, but we are
actually in the full throws of summer and now is the perfect
time to make the most of your garden."

I was tempted for at least a minute to email them back pointing out the
correct spelling of "throes"!!

Apart from which they have three lavenders

Lavender Blue Ice A cool, crisp paler bloom, giving a frosty looking
blue flower.

Lavender Melissa Lilac Large, lilac flower spikes gracefully sit above
silvery, slender foliage.

Lavender Hidcote An RHS Award of Garden Merit winner, this plant
features narrow, grey green leaves, compact growth and the deepest
blue-purple blooms.

And they expect you to buy two of each for a bargain price.
Is it me and my obsessive propagation but why would I ever want to buy
two of a plant that i could easily get 15 from by the end of September?


So that you could have 30 of each by September?

--
AnneJ

It is a bit of a mystery to me why they ask so much for lavender plants when they are exceptionally easy to grow either from seed or from cutting.

On Tue, 8 Jul 2008 12:14:30 +0100, Janet Tweedy
wrote:

I have at last reached official grumpy old bat status. i was sent an
email by the daily telegraph today about lavenders on special offer and
it read
"Dear Mrs Tweedy,

The wet weather may have you thinking otherwise, but we are
actually in the full throws of summer and now is the perfect
time to make the most of your garden."


I was tempted for at least a minute to email them back pointing out the
correct spelling of "throes"!!

Vocabulary is not what it was.
Recently I have heard two words on radio reports which sounded wrong;
1. "a pool of smoke" (relating to a reported fire) should be "pall"
2. from a weather forecast, "it doesn't order well for the tennis
tomorrow." (augur?)

They don't teach it like it orta be tort.

Pam in Bristol

On 9/7/08 15:54, in article ,
"echinosum" wrote:

Janet Tweedy;802660 Wrote:
And they expect you to buy two of each for a bargain price.
Is it me and my obsessive propagation but why would I ever want to buy

two of a plant that i could easily get 15 from by the end of
September?

It is a bit of a mystery to me why they ask so much for lavender plants
when they are exceptionally easy to grow either from seed or from
cutting.

Okay, here we go, from the horse's mouth. Didn't know I was married to a
horse, eh? ;-)
Ray takes a cutting and puts it into a plug. His time has to be worth at
least £30 per hour, if he charged for it.
The cutting is nurtured in the prop. house and all plants there are checked
over daily, as are all plants as the staff move around the nursery. When the
houses are watered every day, Ray or Matthew or one of the staff have their
eyes open constantly for sick plants or plants that need chucking out or
just potted on.
Your lavender gets transplanted into a 7cm pot, then it gets potted on into
a 1 litre pot and then, usually, here, a 2l pot. All this has taken staff
time which = wages, compost and pots. I asked him about this tonight as a
result of your post. He said that if he took cuttings now, he reckoned it
would be a year before they were at a size he would be happy to sell them.
You *can* buy them smaller with a less mature root system but you gets what
you pays for.
We charge £3.50 for a 2 l pot. Given the work and materials involved, is
that extortionate?

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon

Sacha wrote:
On 9/7/08 15:54, in article ,
"echinosum" wrote:

Janet Tweedy;802660 Wrote:
And they expect you to buy two of each for a bargain price.
Is it me and my obsessive propagation but why would I ever want to buy

two of a plant that i could easily get 15 from by the end of
September?

It is a bit of a mystery to me why they ask so much for lavender plants
when they are exceptionally easy to grow either from seed or from
cutting.

Okay, here we go, from the horse's mouth. Didn't know I was married to a
horse, eh? ;-)
Ray takes a cutting and puts it into a plug. His time has to be worth at
least £30 per hour, if he charged for it.
The cutting is nurtured in the prop. house and all plants there are checked
over daily, as are all plants as the staff move around the nursery. When the
houses are watered every day, Ray or Matthew or one of the staff have their
eyes open constantly for sick plants or plants that need chucking out or
just potted on.
Your lavender gets transplanted into a 7cm pot, then it gets potted on into
a 1 litre pot and then, usually, here, a 2l pot. All this has taken staff
time which = wages, compost and pots. I asked him about this tonight as a
result of your post. He said that if he took cuttings now, he reckoned it
would be a year before they were at a size he would be happy to sell them.
You *can* buy them smaller with a less mature root system but you gets what
you pays for.
We charge £3.50 for a 2 l pot. Given the work and materials involved, is
that extortionate?

When I purchase a plant I do not pay for the labour, I consider that I
pay for the expert. After all if I could propagate I would do so. My
Mother was quite adept, and often snuck a little bit of plant hanging
over a wall. I used to tell her that if everyone did that there would be
no plant left, her reply being "Well they don't do they?"

On 10/7/08 09:06, in article , "Broadback"
wrote:
snip

When I purchase a plant I do not pay for the labour, I consider that I
pay for the expert. After all if I could propagate I would do so. My
Mother was quite adept, and often snuck a little bit of plant hanging
over a wall. I used to tell her that if everyone did that there would be
no plant left, her reply being "Well they don't do they?"

If you didn't pay for the labour one way or another, there wouldn't be any!
;-) But a lot of our customers don't take cuttings. Either they don't know
how to, can't be bothered, or don't have the facilities to raise them. What
is surprising is that a few - not many - think that running a nursery isn't
really a business that houses, clothes and feeds people, but that it's
merely an extension of their own gardening hobby! OTOH, some rather nice
people ask if they can take cuttings off a plant if they want more of it or
if they're worried it won't get through the winter. Then they look
embarrassed and say perhaps they shouldn't have asked us as that. As we
often suggest it ourselves, they are swiftly reassured. ;-)
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon

No, that is a reasonable price. It tends to be a lot more expensive around here. Which I find odd, because other things which I guess involved the same work may be rather cheaper.

On 10/7/08 13:31, in article ,
"echinosum" wrote:

'Sacha[_3_ Wrote:
;802944']We charge £3.50 for a 2 l pot. Given the work and materials
involved, is
that extortionate?
No, that is a reasonable price. It tends to be a lot more expensive
around here. Which I find odd, because other things which I guess
involved the same work may be rather cheaper.

One of our philosophies here is to keep things at a reasonable price because
we're out in the sticks and it's a good reason for people to come here. And
of course, it does help that we raise the majority of things ourselves so
not as much is spent on buying in as garden centres have to do. And the
other thing is a deliberate policy of keeping it relatively small, so there
are no mortgages on new glasshouses etc. etc. A place near here is part of
a chain and about £3 mill was spent on it a few years ago, since when
business has gone downhill ever since. ;-(

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon