Been out with friends today - one of the places we went to was a Lavender Farm. I offered to treat us to coffee and cake. What a rip off! Three ordinary cups of coffee and three miniscule pieces of cake - guess how much?
£25 pounds! Won’t be going there again.
It’s the same in most garden centres as they too overcharge for the convince of eating at their tables. On the rare occasions we go to one a fair distance away, we always take a mini picnic with us together with the folding table & chairs 
I have this feeling that just about everywhere we go at the moment we are being ripped off. Garden centres are a notorious case in point. I bought some roses (pot ones) recently and when I went back for a couple more the same stock had increased in price from £10 each to £15. When I asked her why the saleswoman said well we have to water them. I nearly turned around and walked out, but I needed them to finish off my planting. I won’t be going there again though.
I am beginning to feel quite mean about spending money as I don’t seem to be able to go anywhere without noticing the prices are escalating. It is everything you buy and I am convinced people are taking advantage and ripping people off, Not just by 10% but 30-40 and 50% and the increases for the same items are not increasing just once they increase week on week. Last week gas and electric services said costs would be at £3,000 per household but this week it is £4,000 per household. There is only so much that the captive jo public can cope with.
Have you tried grafting your own roses onto a rootstock?
How to Graft Roses: 14 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow
I’m the same. I don’t mind paying a reasonable amount but hate feeling ripped off. Some places over here are charging £35 for an afternoon tea which is just tea, sandwiches, cakes and scones whichever way you look at it! £18 is my max for afternoon tea and that would be for a very special occasion like a good friend’s birthday.
I have looked at how to graft roses in the past LD, but I had limited stock roses and wanted a fairly quick result with something to look at next year. I am hoping to grow a 60ft long line of climbing roses up against a newly erected fence and I have specific varieties in mind. We had very old established rhododendrons which when the old fencing collapsed, we dug out (nearly broke our backs) - and the whole area is now so bare. It will take a few years to get these roses established and I don’t think I could have waited long enough for the cuttings.
This is horrific! 
I don’t know how they can justify this at all…I think everyone is at it now.
I have a garden centre very close by, convenient but horribly expensive.
And yet it’s commonplace to see people loading up flatbed trolleys with overpriced compost, shrubs etc when they could have saved a fortune elsewhere.
It’s their money I suppose.
I used to love a visit to the garden centre but no longer go. The garden furniture runs into the thousands. The cafe is a complete rip off …… all the meals are about £14 and they Hardly do any light meals or snacks. All the clothes are from companies who try to make out they are quintessentially British but look at the labels and they are made in China.
I now scour the plant sections at various supermarkets where they are discounted massively if they look a bit droopy. I nurse them back to health. Other plants I buy on the roadside.
We have mountains of well rotted horse manure so I never buy compost.
I couldn’t agree more.
All things considered a visit to the average garden centre is a rather joyless experience. I bet there are some decent ones around but certainly not in my neck of the woods.
Cuttings, seeds, shopping around and a little patience.
I suppose some people want an immediate effect and are willing to pay for it
I have noticed garden centre prices have gone up an awful lot, too.
Prices of plants, both house plants and garden plants have really shot up.
And now we are going to be forced into accepting that awful ‘Peat-free’ compost, we will soon be paying more than ever.
I think food and a coffee is over-priced in lots of places now.
Lunchtime today I called in M & S and had a toasted sarnie and a small coffee, and it was £8-something.
Ah, okay, now I understand. There are several mail order suppliers of climbers and some with discounts for 5 or more plants. Why not explore via a search engine when you are ready to set-to and start covering that new 60ft fence
Everything is going up, but take cafés for instance, they have to use gas/electricity to cook the meals and boil the water, the garden centres have to grow on the plants, and usually need to heat them until they can be hardened off, if you think it’s bad now, wait til next year…
At an office I visited last week a medium Costa’s coffee was £3.40 and a toasted tea cake & £1.75! Over £5 quid for a quick snack!
I’ll be taking my own next time.
I’ve got what I need now Long Driver and I do like to have a look at what I am buying before I commit. I bought them as “pot grown” probably not at the optimum time of year and although I am sure they have not been container grown from the start they are very well grown and healthy. Should get a reasonable show from them next year. I’ve not put them in yet as I haven’t finished preparing the ground and I am waiting until the weather cools and maybe we will get some rain.
The thing is Primus - the majority of of shrubs, roses, etc. don’t need heat. My roses must have been started in the open ground and dug up to put into pots so they could be sold at any time of year. The prices should not really have changed by very much since they were first put on display for sale. This is part of what I get annoyed about - sellers change the prices from month to month on stock they already have in and this seems to be happening at every level of retailing,
For the first time I am really dreading what next year will bring for prices in the shops. I honestly do think there is quite a lot of racketeering (sorry change that to opportunistic money grabbing) going on.
Totally agree with you, Aerolor.
And I am worried about what we’ve got to come yet, too. 
I wonder what would happen if Joe Public did actually cancel their fuel direct debits and refuse to pay - or pay only what they were paying a year or so ago. There would be a right outcry if the fuel suppliers cut everyone off. Can’t put the whole country through the debtors courts. - Up the revolution brothers. 
It would need everyone to do it though, they couldn’t care less about just a few militants.
I already cancelled my d/d a few months ago, and put it away in my bank now, instead of theirs!
Mups won’t you be charged a higher price ( kWh ,unit) b ecause you’re not doing DD anymore?
