The Whole 9cm’s
As many of you know I’m an advocate for selling my plants young. As soon as they fill the boots of a 9cm pot, they’re grown up enough to go out in the world and do their thing. Many practiced gardeners will already know the value of buying plants in “liners”, as we call them in the trade. Not only does it mean you can purchase an amazing plant at a fraction of the price of one in a 2 ltr pot (what is typically presented in a garden centre), but the glory is a 9cm sized plant will be in a 2ltr pot easily, in most cases within a few months!
Not only this, but a plant planted out as a 9cm is much more inclined to settle into its space willingly than something that has been kept on the nursery and mollycoddled to death for months on end. Little lads are ready to hit the ground running, legs in, back straight, no fucking about, off we go!
The other reason I like selling my plants small is space! Having a smaller nursery limited on holding area means that if I need to start keeping stuff bigger than 1ltr, things start filling up very rapidly! Of course, as the season goes on it’s inevitable that some stock will need to be potted up, but again, I try to hold them at 1ltr if I can and shift them before that.
Sustainability also comes into play here, not only does buying a 9cm - 1ltr plant mean less compost is used, but also, less water is needed to keep nursery stock alive in these increasingly dry spells. It’s a win win win really! Like many things that have been taken over by the corporate beast of “growth”, gradually common-sense horticultural knowledge and habits have been replaced by quick-fix, instant reward, increased profit margin, shiny shiny! Most people have been sold to believe that everything must be in flower or full leaf, big plants are going to be good plants and seem to be completely terrified at the idea of buying anything that isn’t instantly recognisable as “normal”.
That’s why us small nurseries are worth taking a punt on. More people I think will become aware of the reality of things if more of us are out there offering these options and explaining how it all works. Think of plant in liners as young teenagers ready to rinse the living daylights out of life, full of spirit, vigour and drive and start thinking of massive leafy, flowery plants in 2-3ltr (and bigger) pots as 3o or 40- somethings that are already just about sick of this shit.
