LONDON -- A conversation at the Chelsea Flower Show with Chris Ireland-Jones of Avon Bulbs left me thinking about how much the nursery trade is changing. We take so many things about it for granted, but perhaps we are seeing the end of an era. Ireland-Jones says that at Chelsea now they take no orders for bulbs, although the money they make from selling seed just covers their expenses for the show. Now that everyone shops online, for how much longer will it be worth their while to create those beautiful displays?
After Chelsea, I started to wonder about some of my favourite nurseries who put on a more permanent show for their customers. The gardens made by our leading specialist nurseries are, or used to be, destinations for people like me. The chance to talk to a knowledgeable professional and to see how they grow the plants they sell provides a free horticultural education. But if no one visits them, will they close?
Michael Loftus of Woottens in Suffolk admits that this has been a spectacularly bad year and that opening the nursery (Woottens of Wenhaston) will only continue to be viable if 25 percent of their income comes from real, rather than virtual, shoppers. Last year, 55 percent of their trade was from people who came to Woottens for a good look at what is on offer and for long chats with the dedicated staff who run it. If this figure continues to fall as drastically as it has this spring, the chance to see what you are buying at the best East Anglian nursery may no longer exist.
Loftus has a background in retail. He thinks that business is always changing and that you have to keep up. When he started, plants were seed-raised, now he spends hours on his website and he operates a very efficient mail-order service.
Half his business comes from designers, but he thinks that the general public needs to be aware that specialist growers, like specialist food shops, need sustained support to keep them alive. Garden centers are the supermarkets of the horticultural world. If you want better plants you need to find better places to shop.
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