Having to traipse through garden centres pushing trollies of plants

Birmingham Parks Department has won several Gold medals at Chelsea and sell a wide range of plants at their nursery in one of the city's parks. No cafe, candles or crafts!
Last year apparently the council allowed no budget for a Chelsea entry but one was there anyway. It commemorated 300 years of St Philip's Cathedral. It was surrounded by Perspex 'stained glass' panels sponsored by local families and businesses to cover the cost.

I'd love to see a Frank Spencer moment with a trolley crashing into a scented candle display then catapaulting various plants all over the organic chutney.

Sometimes the gap between displays is more than a little difficult to negotiate.

I'm with the OP on this one.

Save it for the political threads.

Oh for gods sake give your unpleasantness a rest djen

Why should they? They are there to sell you things. They have share holders to placate now.
At least at my council garden centre I do not have the problem of which till to go to. And I don't have to start a thread complaining about it.

I hardly think a council outlet for plants would have the huge choice of a really good garden cenre though, no complaints from me about the plants, we have bought gorgeous things at times, just think that wheeling a trolley of plants through every section of a shop is a bit barmy and tills could be sited differently.If Gates and Trago can do it then so can they all.
I like to do different visits for plants or goods, and never mix the two.
We have some great G centres that also have antiques outlets, and we spend a happy hour there rummaging.

Nellie I too use the internet to buy direct from the nursery and have been sent really good plants.
When we visit DD we used to like visiting Dobbies but how disappointed I was last time as they have gone over to the 'long walk' and frankly I cannot do it. We would go for a coffee or for lunch in the middle of plant browsing but it is such a long walk nowadays as they have laid it out in a one way system, it just eats up my energy so we only went once. In any case it is not a garden centre any more it is merely a retail outlet. Now if we just think about it we get that sinking feeling.

We do not have a garden center local to us so I have to make do with places like Asda, Wilko and Tesco to buy my plants.

I have just started buying plants on line from nurseries, at least that way you can buy the sort of plants you want. J Parkers have been good and the bare rooted shrubs I orded were safely packed.

The best GC near us is a huge one on the Staffs, Cheshire, Shropshire borders. It was privately owned until about 4/5 yrs ago when it was taken over by Wyedale Garden centers and since then it has turned into a rural retail outlet with all sorts of retailers taking over units there.
The actual range of plants has really deteriorated. It used to excellent for alpines but that side of the plant market has really deteriorated.

Making a business answerable to shareholders rather than its customers seem to change so many places for the worst.

A few years ago I took one of my language students for a visit to a garden centre as part of his studies. He was a very enthusiastic, intelligent young man, but on this occasion was rather put out at having to visit a garden centre - telling me that in his home country of Slovakia they also have garden centres so he didn't see the point of visiting an English one. His jaw dropped when we entered and he saw the huge array of goods on offer, alongside the restaurant and food shop. He actually enjoyed the trip so much that he went away thinking that someone should import the idea into his home country.

never heard of a Council selling plants - if they raise their own, it's a great way of rasing money and use compost from local waste- brilliant.

We will actually spend a week at Rutland Water, so will probably go and visit Geoff Hamilton's Barnsdale and buy some plants to take home from there. His son and dil and staff are very good and May is a great time to visit the inspirational gardens there- always something new.

I agree, granjura. I was wondering what the problem was. Nobody needs to go to a garden centre chain.

Our local garden centre has owls, and hawks. However, the council also has a garden centre where we can go and buy plants at the same time as taking recycling.
That's a good use of time and fuel. Perhaps people should persuade their councils to do something similar if they haven't already. Most councils have gardening departments still.

teetime- just seen your comment about Gates- and yes, I've spent much good money and time there in the past! Some of it is on an incline though- and not easy with a trolleyful of plants ;) - will probably go there and visit when over in May

not quite sure what to say- it's your choice to go to a large garden-centre where you have to ... or not, surely? I much prefer smaller garden centres which are totally dedicated to plants only, and with staff who are very knowledgeable, and where I am not tempted to spend a fortune and calories on cake ...

When my DD was little she used to call it 'the dead plant section'.

well, I didn't mean for the tills to be actually outside [though it would be easier!] Just maybe not a winding mile would be nice.
I always look at the discounted plants [ the orphan shelf] and have had many a bargain there that needed tlc.

My hubby works in a garden centre where you have to walk out through the gift shop to get to the tills. He will happily push your trolley through as long as not dealing with other customers. Unfortunately most garden centres have less staff than they used to and he is always busy They have been taken over by a large group but the plus side is they always have reduced plants and shrubs for customers to buy as they dont keep the plants once they have finished flowering but sell them off discounted even though the next year they will be stronger plants....many gardeners have benefitted from these reductions although hubby rather liked the old days when he could love and cherish them till they grew and survived went to a new home the next year! Ignore the gifts if you dont want them bag the bargains!! Indirectly as most of the plants are outside you have to go through somewhere to get to the tills and till staff would freeze sitting outside!!

We have three garden centres in close proximity to us. Two of them seem to have less and less connection with the term 'garden' every time I go in there (which is not often these days). The other one, though it does sell a certain number of garden ornaments, water features and the like, seems to have avoided going down the waxed hat, tacky gift and scented candle route. It doesn't even have a coffee shop. We like it. The best garden centre is the one in the middle of St David's (I know, a bit far to go!). A one man band, raises a lot of his own plants, very knowledgeable; looking forward to seeing him again this year if he's still there and I can persuade DH to keep a corner of the boot free!

We are spoiled for choice for garden centres around here. There are loads of 'em and they're always packed. The thing that annoys me is having to park in the overflow car park which is a long way to push your trolley load of plants because the cafe is full of people who have arrived early so they can queue up for lunch

oldie
I must say that the more robust and value for money plants we buy tend to come from Homebase!
We have a few small nuseries here, and would like to use them more, but they never seem to have the things we want.

No large garden centres near here, thankfully. B&Q about 12 miles away but small store. On holiday and we escaped the rain by going in a large centre mainly for a cuppa, but watched the mayhem with large trolleys trying to negotiate large bending bottoms sniffing candles, etc. Would never visit such a place for plants, prefer proper nurseries of which there are several here.

Once heard a top gardener at a lecture advise ' never buy plants from a company which also sells double glazing!( or gifts etc.)

I work in a nursery,we have a small selection of gifts etc as people like to browse,but mainly we have shrubs,trees,bedding,etc,mostly grown in the nursery,one exit with a few tills,we don't have a cafe but we do have a full size aeroplane,a fire engine,and yesterday we had a new addition,an original Red London double decker bus lo.

it's getting like Ikea - difficult to find the way out.

Thankfully so far the French garden centres haven't cottoned on to lifestyle sections yet.

Im wirh Annsixty! I go as much for browsing in other Areas and visiting cafe as for buying plants. Im not really a gardener either. But it makes sense to have tills in both areas.