Last weekend we were all invited to Colin's Sister's home for a birthday party for baby G, her 1 year old Granddaughter, daughter of my nephew and his wife. During the afternoon Sister in Law handed me an envelope with a card from LAST Christmas from nephew. She had come across it somewhere in her large old farmhouse!
When I got home I discovered it wasn't just a card but a voucher to spend too. What a lovely belated surprise.
I googled to see where I could use it - lot's of restaurants that we don't have locally and some big chain stores that I never go in. Instead I headed out to the Dobbies Garden Centre in Woodbridge, 40 minutes from home.
Many years ago, before Dobbies took over, it was a proper Garden Centre - now they sell all sorts of stuff and even more random things at Christmas.
I wonder if the reindeer is there to frighten the children from touching the decorations!
Pot Grown Christmas trees are in stock..............
My gift card wasn't used on plants or garden stuff or even Christmas decorations as there is nothing I needed so it got used to buy some of THIS years food presents for relatives! Handy. Although I did get a pack of 6 luxury mince pies to pop in my freezer for the festive season. Once upon a time I used to make my own mincemeat and then two dozen or more mince pies - but tastes change and mine went off them a few years ago. Six is plenty.
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Even so, still lovely to walk through and look, but like you I'd look for plants.
ReplyDeleteMy once a year visit - Used to be more often when we went down the A12 to Ipswich!
DeleteWe have two garden centres just along the road from us, one is an independent family-owned "real" garden centre, with the plants taking centre stage (and of very good quality, the owner and his son both really knows their business), and the other is a Dobbies, with, like yours, the plants as very much an afterthought. It even has a mini branch of Waitrose inside, along with indoor aquaria, books, kiddies and adult clothing, every imaginable kind of Christmas tat, and the inevitable coffee shop.
ReplyDeleteWhen we first moved to this area, the local post office manager always had a small selection of bedding and other plants alongside the more usual post office fare. When the lease came up on the nearby garden centre, at that time in a very run down state, he took the opportunity to quit the post office and take on the garden centre. Since then he and his wife, who is the houseplant expert, have really built a plant heaven, and have been frequent winners of garden centre of the year awards.
Goodness, a Waitrose inside a Dobbies is unusual!
DeleteWell done to the couple winning that award.
My sister has booked a Dobbies Festive Afternoon Tea for us both. For that price I'm hoping it will be something special.
ReplyDeleteThe picture on the ad looks like a nice choice of all sorts - have a lovely time
DeleteWe sometimes used to visit a gorgeous independent garden centre which specialised in just a few types of plants, but there was a lot of choice and the plants were so well cared for and cheap. The last time we visited it the owners had retired and it had been taken over by a large chain and we had difficulty finding any plants. We now go somewhere else that is family owned. Hopefully it will stay that way. Don't get me wrong, there is definitely a place for the Dobbies of this world, but I hope the big boys don't end up driving all the small nurseries out of business.
ReplyDeleteEven my nearest garden centre - privately owned for ever - has all sorts of random things now
DeleteI remember Woodbridge garden centre when it was a proper plant place too. What a depressing load of expensive, mainly non-recyclable tat. It seems to get worse every year. It's hard to see how we are ever going to make progress on sorting out the planet when we are producing and buying more and more rubbish.
ReplyDeleteI've also slightly gone off of mince pies. Once upon a time a tub of 48 would have been welcome as a present. Not any more. I'm also a lot more fussy about pastry and find that most of the standard supermarket fare is too mushy and full of stuff I don't want to eat. Our local farm shop makes their own which are lovely. However they are £5.00 for 6, so it's a good job I don't eat them in the quantities I did when I was much younger.
Those green "things" are just so weird. I wonder who buys them
DeleteWe probably need a new word for these 'garden' centres which are now indoor shopping emporiums (emporia?) with a gardening section somewhere buried amongst everything else...
ReplyDeleteEven my nearest privately owned garden centre has lots of other 'stuff' and a cafe but Car boot sales are my favourite place for buying plants
DeleteThe only proper garden centre near us has just closed down as it didn’t do all the fancy stuff or have a restaurant. Dobbie’s also bought a very successful centre near us many years ago and that’s when it became a place that had everything but plants. Well, it had some plants but they weren’t looked after well. Happy weekend! Catriona
ReplyDeleteThere are certainly a lot of odd things for sale at Dobbies!
DeleteMy local garden centre is Burford Garden Company. Possibly the most expensive in the UK. It is fun to walk around sometimes and have a look. They always have birdsong and classical music playing. Also lovely smells. I never buy anything though.
ReplyDeleteI looked the up and they have some lovely things but you are right - so very very expensive
DeleteI'm not a fan of Dobbies, our local centre are not good at caring for the plants.
ReplyDeleteLike the supermarkets that don't water things there must be so much waste
DeleteWe get our members’ monthly “free” hot drinks, and cakes for our birthdays, and 10% off at our local garden centre, a pleasant afternoon out all for £12 a year. The displays of plants are lovely, but rather pricey, I look through the sales areas.
ReplyDeleteThere is a good plant nursery nearby.
I make these instead of fiddly mince pies. https://www.lavenderandlovage.com/2021/11/mincemeat-almond-squares.html
If I had a dobbies nearer the membership would be worthwhile but it's too far away really
DeleteOur Dobbies is like that too. Every year I am tempted by something silly.
ReplyDeleteI definitely wasn't tempted by any of those very weird 'things'
DeleteWhat a nice surprise!
ReplyDeleteI'm always shocked by the price of Christmas trees. They look and smell beautiful, but they're in the house for such a short period, and drop their needles like a snowstorm, so we have an artificial tree.
The gift card was a handy surprise , they must have wondered why I hadn't thanked them for it 11 months ago!
DeleteI was so engrossed reading and enjoying the above comments that I forgot what I was going to say 😂
ReplyDeleteThose Xmas dinasaurs - hideous!
Alison in Devon x
I wonder who will buy all those weird Christmas 'things'. Not Me!
DeleteThose Christmas dinosaurs seem to be in every garden centre that I've been to!! We have Barton Grange garden centre just up the road from us, people travel from all over the country to see their Christmas displays and goodies, and even they have lots of the dinosaurs and green gonky things on the shelves. They do have a massive plant section, both indoors and outdoors, so now that they have just sold out from being a family owned business to a multi-conglomerate I do hope that stays the same.
ReplyDeleteThey have massive displays of those ridiculously overpriced little houses and fairground rides, lovely to look at, but way out of budget. Oh, and there were potted Christmas trees in Sainsbury's this morning!
Hope no one I know has bought those weird dinosaurs - It would be difficult for me not to be rude about them!
DeleteA nice surprise and very useful at this time of year. I've never had a miince pie and have no idea what it tastes like.
ReplyDeleteMy SiL has a HUGE Christmas village that fills her entire living room and they have a bay window and encourage people peek in to enjoy it! They have done it for years and years and years but still find things to add each year.
That looks delightful and such a lovely surprise. xx
ReplyDelete