what a difference a day makes

All day the customers and my co-workers alike muttered to each other, as we passed in the aisles or met at the till, how cold it was, and how unlike yesterday.  I realised that my decision to swop my hideous fleece winter trousers for my equally unprepossessing  water repellent cotton summer trousers had been premature.

The boss announced that we were not going to replace any more plants that had clearly been killed by the cold weather.  I said that we ought to get on and modify our labels to say which plants were not reliably winter hardy, but he has obstinately taken against this idea, and says that there is no room on the labels for any more information, and that we ought to be giving out that sort of advice at the till.  This is not going to work, because when there is a queue of people with full trollies waiting to pay we can't start discussing the cultural needs of each plant.  There wouldn't be time.  Getting the right amount of money through the right till category is as far as it goes.  In my experience, trying to chat to customers about their plants while operating the till is a recipe for till errors.

It's a nice question, though.  If a customer buys a plant without prior knowledge of what it needs and in what circumstances it might succeed or fail, is it their duty to find out, or our duty to check whether they know and if not tell them?  Obviously if people ask for advice we do our best to help, but many don't ask.  The business model relies on a lot of customers not asking, otherwise prices would have to be significantly higher to pay for the extra staff.  The labels give a fair amount of information, but it has to admitted sometimes in terms that mean more to the experienced gardener than the novice.  The former can decode 'requires a sunny, sheltered position' as 'not all that hardy, could die in a cold winter' but the latter doesn't necessarily.  I had somebody return a couple of variegated Ugni molinae 'Flambeau' a while back, that had not even been planted in the ground but left in their 2 litre pots balanced on top of a pair of ornamental chimney pots.  The customer protested that her garden was sheltered.  However sheltered the site, Ugni are not hardy down to -12C or lower.  If you have never heard of an Ugni, maybe you should ask somebody about it or look it up before buying a couple because they look so pretty.  It's a tricky one.