Disappearing Nurseries

[Roma]

Thanks, Diane.  Have now added it to my Favourites.

[Lesley Cox]

There really is no money to be made in specialist nurseries. Too much hard work  for too little return.

All of us who've ever had a little nursery know that Fred, but we do it for love rather than for money. Most such nursery people I know have other work of some kind. The urge to proagate is not unlike the animal urge to mate at the right season, something you just have to do. In my opinion, and in my own case, it's a matter of maintaining mental health more than making a living.

[Maggi Young]

Would it be a good idea to report links that no longer work?  I notice that The Codonopsis Website now advertises a Villa to rent in Cyprus.  Most frustrating when I wanted information on Codonopsis.

The Codonopsis website is here:
http://www.kneebone.freeserve.co.uk/
I think the other address has been highjacked.

I've deleted the broken link and made a new one. I see the site seems to have been updated last in 2006.... but perhaps not much has happened in Codonopsis since then?!

[Lesley Cox]

I'll ask Louise and Peter Salmond if their Hokonui Alpines nursery can be added. They do a very good seedlist nowadays including NZ natives and some very rare other stuff. And they're the only specialist nursery for alpines left in NZ, but even when there were several, theirs was best for plant quality, service and general all round specialist knowledge and friendliness.

[Maggi Young]

Nurseries you know give good service, value , quality plants, Neil,that sort of thing.

I haven't added some names to the list in the past because they haven't had websites, which is a bit of a downer for someone searching on the web..... but full postal adresses  etc of those that don't have websites are acceptable.

Gerry Webster : Maggi - a notable omission is:

BURIED TREASURE
Rannveig Wallis, LlwynIfan, Porthyrhyd, Carmarthen, UK. SA32 8BP.

No website & no email but still worth listing.

I was mistaken, the system relies on a url to work properly so it will not be possible to list those places without a website.  Now that I think about it, that's why there is no link already to the likes of Aberconwy.

[Maggi Young]

I'll ask Louise and Peter Salmond if their Hokonui Alpines nursery can be added. They do a very good seedlist nowadays including NZ natives and some very rare other stuff. And they're the only specialist nursery for alpines left, in NZ but even when there were several, this was best for plant quality, service and general all round specialist knowledge and friendliness.

 I think you'll find it's already there, Lesley.... I added it myself some time ago after discussion with Louise and updated it earlier this year.

[Lesley Cox]

Tim, I like your pictures very much. Your current nursery looks extremely like mine, except yours doesn't have the long grass that I have yet to deal with. Tons of other stuff to do as well. You even have the right kind of dog!

[Maggi Young]

There really is no money to be made in specialist nurseries. Too much hard work  for too little return.

All of us who've ever had a little nursery know that Fred, but we do it for love rather than for money. Most such nursery people I know have other work of some kind. The urge to proagate is not unlike the animal urge to mate at the right season, something you just have to do. In my opinion, and in my own case, it's a matter of maintaining mental health more than making a living.

For those of you who don't know.... Fred and his wife Monika ran Tough Alpine Nursery  (Tough is a place, pronounced tooch.... with the Scots "ch" not the English!) their plants were fantastic, the took after the place name.... being very tough indeed, having grown at some 700m in a horribly cold spot in the Aberdeenshire..... they produced a large and very interesting range of plants and worked like trojans, but it wasn't enough to support their family and Fred had to return to IT stuff and close the nursery. Very sad for those of us who were so impressed with their plants and sad for the trun out of their very hard work.  It just wasn't possible to sustain the business with the vagaries of the wholesale market and the whims of the garden centres.... and passing trade at 700m in Aberdeenshire is not great!
So, in this part of the world we know only too well how tough it is to run a nursery.  

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Maggi. I looked in the seeds part and didn't see it.

[Maggi Young]

Could that Link be set to click through to this forum list?

 I expect so... if we ask Fred Admin VERY nicely!

Fred's got one there already!  http://www.srgc.org.uk/links/content.php?offs=24

[Martin Baxendale]

Could that Link be set to click through to this forum list?

 I expect so... if we ask Fred Admin VERY nicely!

Fred's got one there already!  http://www.srgc.org.uk/links/content.php?offs=24

I didn't get that far. I stopped when the nurseries stopped, and this link is on later pages with other stuff.

[Martin Baxendale]

Although I now see there are a few more nurseries scattered through the later pages. The links section of the main website must have grown in an ad hoc manner over the years, hence its slightly jumbled structure.

[Tim Ingram]

Lesley - thanks; the dog is one of the most fun bits about our garden, he is on the same mental level as I am! (so we get on very well!). I agree with you very much about working with and propagating plants having a strong positive role in what I regard as a very overactive world. For this reason I disagree about the comment that there is no money to be made by small specialist nurseries; there has been in the past; for some there is now; and it is important that the same is true in the future. As I have argued elsewhere, this is where specialist, and thoughtful, societies like the AGS and SRGC are also so important and carry so much expertise that can be passed on to younger gardeners. Idealistic maybe, but I think also realistic.

[David Nicholson]

Ian Christie's Web Site seems to have vanished??

[Maggi Young]

The Christie's Website has been down for some time as Ian and Ann move towards retirement.
Ian may develop an new site in the future.... we'll let you know if that happens 


  ****   http://www.ianchristiealpines.com/