So many of the garden centres today give so much space to coffee shops, birthday cards, books, soft toys, pet food (and if you’re really lucky the animals themselves!) that they have little space ... or it appears time to sell any of the things you’d expect to find – seeds, plants, shrubs, trees, compost but to name a few.

I’m all for a nice day out and adding a coffee shop is all well and good – I like to have a sit down and a huge slab of chocolate cake to take away the pain of parting with so much money on plants I often could have grown from seed – but some garden centres have now gone so far down the line of selling other things that it’s hard to find any plants at all!

However, I did try to take advantage of this trend towards less gardening products and more gifts by going to a specific garden centre which I knew stocked a massive range of expensive children’s gifts – definite christening gift fodder. But, on arrival I found that the range had been reduced – had they introduced more plants? Extended their range of seeds? Oh no, too sensible ... they’d simply replaced the children’s toys with Easter trinkets ... fine if I needed an egg shaped glass but no good for my needs.

So I’m now searching the World Wide Web for a suitable gift ...
And my question to you is are there any good garden centres left where you can buy healthy plants or get the seeds you need for your vegetable plot? Or do you prefer to buy your gifts at garden centres and your plants from supermarkets?