{"id":14086,"date":"2012-09-06T23:56:21","date_gmt":"2012-09-07T06:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=14086"},"modified":"2012-09-06T23:56:21","modified_gmt":"2012-09-07T06:56:21","slug":"tricks-of-the-garden-centre-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/tips\/tricks-of-the-garden-centre-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"Tricks of the Garden Centre Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/3819582749\/\" title=\"Chevin garden centre by brianpettinger, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2676\/3819582749_f0f1f2b8ea.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Chevin garden centre\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I have observed several tricks of the Garden Centre trade and I am sure there are many more. I am only concerned with those that damage or discourage gardeners unnecessarily. To remain in business nurseries and garden centres need to work with gardening customers not against their best interests.<\/p>\n<h3>Dubious Habits and Tricks<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Putting stock out for sale at the wrong time. This is most prevalent in spring when plants &#8216;grown soft&#8217; in a hot house environment are put out for sale and to die a premature death unless over cosseted by the buyer.<\/li>\n<li>Selling stock too late in the season for the gardener to get any value from the purchase. This often applies to exotics which have only a narrow flowering window and need an expert to get back to any form of glory.<\/li>\n<li>Dressing plants up cosmetically just to move the stock. e.g. Early pruning of diseased leaves without treating the cause.<\/li>\n<li>Selling bare root plants plonked in a pot with loose compost but no new root growth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Good Habits and Tricks<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Keeping the tops of pots weed free and able to absorb appropriate watering.<\/li>\n<li>Selling timely plants that have been hardened off. I do not want a Dutch glasshouse plant straight off the lorry if it is not going to thrive.<\/li>\n<li>Specializing and growing their own stock that the garden centre fully understands and being willing to pass on the knowledge.<\/li>\n<li>Good trained staff, sensible opening hours and a tidy display of healthy products.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Help us Learn More Tricks<\/h3>\n<p>If you have fallen foul of a trick or dubious practice let us know.<br \/>\nIf you have received excellent service let us know.<br \/>\nIf you are a garden centre or nursery and want to raise a point similarly let us know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have observed several tricks of the Garden Centre trade and I am sure there are many more. I am only concerned with those that damage or discourage gardeners unnecessarily. To remain in business nurseries and garden centres need to work with gardening customers not against their best interests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}