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Tried & Tested: Plant shopping
Nursery, garden centre, DIY store or internet? Nick Bailey shops around to see which is best for buying plants
Reproduced from the April 07 issue of Gardeners' World magazine. August 07 issue on sale now. Subscribe now by direct debit and save 25 per cent.
We've all got our favourite places to go plant shopping. Some of us browse glossy brochures, while others prefer poking around nurseries or making a swift trip to the DIY store. But where do you go to get the best value and the best quality rolled into one?
To find out, we put to the test the five main methods of plant shopping. We bought the same five plants from a garden centre, a nursery, the internet, a DIY store and a market to see how they compared. We paid full rice, and no one knew who we were or that the plants they sold us were being tested.
We looked at the plants' condition at purchase and again four months on. We assessed their rate of establishment and how well they bloomed. The shopping experience itself was another major consideration, and most important in a test for best value was the overall cost. Taking all these factors together, we gave each set an overall score out of 10.
Planting took place under identical conditions in June, and we chose late summer-flowering varieties to give them time to bulk up and bloom. By September, we had some surprising results?
Our test plants
- Caryopteris x clandonensis 'Worcester Gold'
- Gaillardia x grandiflora 'Kobold'
- Geum 'Mrs J Bradshaw'
- Lavatera x clementii 'Barnsley'
- Rosa 'Grandpa Dickson'
Test conditions
Each plot was prepared with 60 litres of compost before planting and each received 18 litres of water per week during the summer of 2006. An initial feed of fish, blood and bone was applied after planting and a dose of Miracle-Gro was given every month from June until September. Pesticides were used only if plants came under attack: we didn't use preventative chemicals.
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