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Author Topic: Disappointing news from Glendoick  (Read 3396 times)

Maggi Young

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Disappointing news from Glendoick
« on: May 20, 2017, 06:34:49 PM »
Received from Glendoick - the Cox Family are world famous in the rhododendron world - so this is a shock:

Glendoick Gardens Mail Order comes to an end



"After 63 years, Glendoick Gardens is sadly discontinuing its mail order business to all but a limited number of customers whose gardens we are designing. We will continue to grow a range of material which will include the bestselling species and hybrids.
Customers will still be able to order plants to collect from our garden centre and we may be able to help societies who wish to club together to place orders of a substantial size and deliver to one address.

For over 60 years, Glendoick have introduced new plants from the wild, bred new hybrids and sought out the best plants from the best growers to introduce into the UK.

We are incredibly grateful to all our customers over the years, many of whom have become friends and plant-hunting companions. It is amazing to see so many Glendoick plants in gardens all over the UK, Europe and further afield. We are also very grateful to our long serving staff. Happily we have managed to employ some of them in other roles at Glendoick. But sadly Jane and Chris are leaving. We wish them the best.
Why is Glendoick discontinuing Mail Order?
1. Economics. Brexit, economic downturn, bureaucracy, and plant selling prices are not keeping pace with increases in minimum wages and have therefore made specialist nurseries uneconomic. M&S,for example, are selling large rhododendron hybrids for £10. We can’t compete. I fear that specialist rhododendron growers will be a rare breed when the current nursery owners retire.

2. Climate Change and Pest and Disease threats
All gardeners are suffering from the effects of climate change, particularly in S. E. England. The last time I visited the Valley Gardens at Windsor, I could see what the future of rhododendrons in this part of the world might be. We have had no rain for months and have been watering day and night to keep things goings. Meanwhile, the number of pests and diseases increases year on year: soft scale, petal blight, ash die back and sudden oak death. And the chemicals used to control them are disappearing off the market, so we have nothing to turn to. Systhane, the best mildew control, has just gone off the market. Glyphosate (Roundup) looks like it may join the others on the list. The E.C. is sleepwalking to disaster, allowing plant imports of plants with soil from Asia, New Zealand and other countries. The latest pest to come from New Zealand is a mealy bug which eats Meconopsis roots.

3. Phytophthora ramorum
This disease is now established all over the UK, and much of Europe. It has spread around Larix plantations in the UK and is clearly an airborne disease as well as a waterborne one. This means that, like Ash Die Back, it cannot be controlled by hygiene. In common with most UK woodland gardens and nurseries, Glendoick has had small outbreaks of this disease and have satisfied the criteria which the plant health authorities demand. This has allowed us to continue to trade. But this disease cannot be eradicated and we will all need to learn to live with it and mitigate its impact. At present, all infected plants are destroyed without compensation. We don’t want to be forced to close the nursery in the future, so are taking steps to protect ourselves from this eventuality. Having taken advice, we are discontinuing open ground production and moving to container only, and are eradicating all susceptible varieties from commercial production.

3. Plant Hunting
The Nagoya Protocols, which bans plant collecting worldwide, have made plant-hunting for a nursery like ours more or less impossible. While we quite understand the reasons for this legislation, and broadly support it, the effect is likely to be counter-productive in terms of conservation, as threatened plants may become extinct, if they cannot be collected and distributed. We were lucky to have three generations of Cox plant-hunters. And we still have every intention of going looking for plants again, but perhaps not in the same way. I don’t anticipate the next generation of Coxes being able to do what we did.

We will review any orders held over from Spring 2017 and you are welcome to come and collect any plants we can supply. We won’t be sending out any more catalogues but we will have an Excel listing of stock we can send you and we will keep the website updated with the plants we are still growing.

This is a sad time for us at Glendoick and we are sorry for the disappointing news.
Thanks once again for your support of Glendoick over the years. We hope that you will continue to visit Glendoick. We will continue to stock the largest range of rhododendrons available in any UK garden centre and we are continuing to develop new hybrids.
We have just named 2 new evergreen azaleas Glendoick Candyfloss and Glendoick Ruffles and have selected a new double yellow azalea for testing. (see images below)

Kenneth Cox's monumental book Woodland Gardening will be published in May 2018.. he just needs to finish it........"

Copyright © 2017 Glendoick Gardens & Garden Centre, All rights reserved.


Mailing address is:
Glendoick Gardens & Garden Centre
Glendoick
Perth
Perth, Perthshire PH2 7NS
United Kingdom

« Last Edit: May 20, 2017, 07:19:47 PM by Maggi Young »
Margaret Young in Aberdeen, North East Scotland Zone 7 -ish!

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ashley

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Re: Disappointing news from Glendocik
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2017, 06:47:59 PM »
Sad news indeed.  I wish them well.
Ashley Allshire, Cork, Ireland

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Re: Disappointing news from Glendoick
« Reply #2 on: May 21, 2017, 09:59:14 AM »
I think the market for rhododendron species is shrinking fast as the new generation of gardeners is more interested in perennials and edibles.  Rhododendron hybrids are still reasonably popular but not at the prices Glendoick is selling them.  I know several British companies who buy young rhododendron plants (not cuttings but plants) in a 2 or 3 liter pot for € 2 in the The Netherlands and Germany and grow them on for 1 year (so they  can be advertised as 'British grown') and sell them for £ 10--£ 12. The reason why the Dutch end Germans can sell their plants so cheap (and still make a decent profit!) is because of the use of modern technics of plant growing, scale and specialization.


Whether you agree with 'climate change' or not: truth is that out the last 5 springs 4 here (The Netherlands) were dry to very dry. This is not good for growing rhododendrons. Last week we hit 30 degrees C. and the rhodododendron blooms shriveled while you look at them.  Only by watering regularly you can keep the rhododendrons going. If you tell a newby gardener (better: garden owner) that a plant needs regular watering he/she asks for a plant that is 'care free' because he/she has a busy life and no time for watering plants. If we keep having these dry springs with rhododendrons suffering people start looking for other plants that can cope better with drought.




TC

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Re: Disappointing news from Glendoick
« Reply #3 on: May 21, 2017, 09:55:16 PM »
I misread this initially and thought that they were closing down !  I admit I have never used their mail order service but prefer going to the nursery to buy the plants in person although it's a 240 mile round trip.  I suppose it's a sign of the times.  I prefer to buy a plant that has been grown by the supplier rather than something off a container lorry that has been force grown in a poly tunnel and is anything but hardy.
Tom Cameron
Ayr, West of Scotland

johnralphcarpenter

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Re: Disappointing news from Glendoick
« Reply #4 on: May 22, 2017, 11:42:39 PM »
1020 mile round trip for me - good job my wife has forbidden me from buying more rhododendrons.
Ralph Carpenter near Ashford, Kent, UK. USDA Zone 8 (9 in a good year)

Maggi Young

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Re: Disappointing news from Glendoick
« Reply #5 on: June 18, 2017, 02:05:30 PM »
The latest AGS bulletin  has the news from Glendoick as the subject of the editor's letter.

 It was, frankly, a surprise to see the editorial on specialist nurseries in the latest AGS Bulletin - I hope this means there will be a sea-change in their attitude to such things. I am very grateful for the Scottish Rock Garden Club's open attitude to assistance to such nurseries by promotion whenever possible, and their reciprocal adverts to help other societies.
Margaret Young in Aberdeen, North East Scotland Zone 7 -ish!

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Re: Disappointing news from Glendoick
« Reply #6 on: June 18, 2017, 02:38:03 PM »
Hi Maggi, struggling to understand your last post. Is it a quote from someone?

Maggi Young

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Re: Disappointing news from Glendoick
« Reply #7 on: June 18, 2017, 02:43:58 PM »
Sorry Martin -  I'll try to make it more clear .
The latest AGS bulletin has an editorial about the  news from Glendoick, in support of  specialist nurseries in trying times.

 I was  surprised to see that - and I hope that it augurs well for more AGS support for such things in future. I voiced my  gratitude for the attitude of the SRGC  to assist  such nurseries by promotion whenever possible, and by the SRGC's  reciprocal adverts to help other societies.

 Does that help?
Margaret Young in Aberdeen, North East Scotland Zone 7 -ish!

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Martinr

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Re: Disappointing news from Glendoick
« Reply #8 on: June 18, 2017, 02:46:34 PM »
Yes, now I'm just baffled

Maggi Young

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Re: Disappointing news from Glendoick
« Reply #9 on: June 18, 2017, 03:55:46 PM »
Can't think why - the AGS is not very forward in supporting nurseries - though some advances have been made in social media recently. Also the AGS ceased their free reciprocal adverts with other societies some time ago. What is baffling you?
Margaret Young in Aberdeen, North East Scotland Zone 7 -ish!

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Martinr

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Re: Disappointing news from Glendoick
« Reply #10 on: June 18, 2017, 04:05:58 PM »
Quite simply don't agree with the first bit and fail to see what the second part has to do with the difficulties which have made Glendoick take this difficult decision. But there you go...let's agree to disagree

Maggi Young

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Re: Disappointing news from Glendoick
« Reply #11 on: June 18, 2017, 04:16:00 PM »
I think that specialist organisations working with others is all part of the support that we can give to  the likes of Glendoick.
Margaret Young in Aberdeen, North East Scotland Zone 7 -ish!

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Darren

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Re: Disappointing news from Glendoick
« Reply #12 on: June 18, 2017, 05:37:46 PM »
They have a perverse recent track record of producing large feature articles on such nurseries after they cease trading (Blackthorn and Glen Chantry spring to mind). Too late to be of use to either the prospective purchaser or the nursery.

Darren Sleep. Nr Lancaster UK.

 


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