The rain arrived at half past one, just as I was going in to lunch, so I settled down for the afternoon with my bulb catalogues. Or rather, at least in the first instance, the Peter Nyssen website. I read about this bulb wholesaler years ago in Christopher Lloyd's books, and dismissed the idea that it also sold to the retail public as too difficult, at least if you had an ordinary private garden and modest means, rather than Great Dixter. With the rise of internet shopping I had a look a couple of years ago, placed an order, was happy with the resulting crop of flowers, and have used it since. This autumn as well as planting up the tulip and hyacinth pots to go in front of the house, I want more Fritillaria meleagris and Crocus tomassinianus to naturalise in the back garden. The daffodils need topping up, and I'd like to extend the range of alliums. I could do with more miniature tulips and other small bulbs to go in the gravel. In fact, it is a bad bulbous case of eyes bigger than tummy, and a large part of working out the order is pruning the initial list of Nice To Have down to a more sensible number of bulbs that I can afford to buy and will have time to plant.
There was a sad article recently by Mary Keen in the Telegraph, imploring us to use specialist growers or lose them. Her first example is Avon Bulbs, who find nobody places bulb orders at Chelsea any more, and just about cover their costs at the show by selling seeds. She queries how long, in the days of online shopping, Avon will go on staging their beautiful displays. I saw Avon's display, and it was indeed lovely, as it always is. The trouble is, their bulbs are so much more expensive than if I buy them from Peter Nyssen. 25 bulbs of the elegant orange lily flowered tulip 'Ballerina' from Nyssen cost £3.75, versus £5.00 for 10 from Avon. Do I really want a wonderful Chelsea stand that much, or would I rather be able to afford three times the display in my own garden? This comparison is only fair if both firms are selling bulbs of the same size and quality, not if one is selling big fat healthy stock that's true to name, while the other sends you small and diseased bulbs, some of which turn out to be the wrong thing anyway when they flower, but so far with Peter Nyssen I've been pleased with what I've received. There's been the odd undersized or mouldy bulb, but no more than with any other supplier.
Bulbs seem a natural for online shopping, as they package so easily for mail order, compared to shrubs and herbaceous plants, with their weighty rootballs, and the ever-present problem of how to package them so that the top growth doesn't get smashed, if somebody in the delivery chain decides that the words LIVE PLANTS THIS WAY UP are just too hard to read, or don't apply to them. Against that, the advantage to purveyors of rare plants of selling mail order is that their potential market expands to the whole of the UK, or even Europe if they can cope with the transport issues. That makes it much more likely they will sell their whole crop or stock of whatever it is before it begins to deteriorate. Most plants don't really like being in pots for any length of time. You can do your best to look after them, watering, feeding, pruning and tidying, but most of the time it's a holding operation at best (which cost you money). When I've raised plants myself, from seeds or cuttings, and planted some out into the garden but not used all of them, I'm always struck by how quickly the ones out in the open ground generally look larger, lustier and more full of life than the ones still stuck in pots. As to why this is, take your pick from the plant not liking a restricted root run, or not liking having hot roots during the day, or a big contrast between day and night root temperatures, or sitting too wet, or too dry, or not getting as much air to its roots as it would like. I don't exactly know, but you can see that most things are mightily relieved to be planted out. A business model that lets the grower meet up as quickly as possible with the seven people in the country who want a Thingummyjig whatyercallit, instead of only those potential customers who live within driving distance of their nursery, is a good business model.
Chill winds are certainly blowing around the plant retailing sector, and sometimes I feel moderately worried, though not so worried as I should be if I had a mortgage instead of some savings, and children instead of cats. However, I don't think the rise of internet shopping is to blame. In Mary Keen's article I was rather more struck by the comment from the owner of Marchants, that as well as the rain and the drought he saw a disinclination to garden that he couldn't quite pin down. Now that is worrying.
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