HTA President Alan Down visits Scottish members

HTA President Alan Down took a tour of some of the HTA members in Scotland last week. This trip followed recent visits to members in Cornwall, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire.

Alan's Scottish trip was organised by HTA Board member Simon Fraser of Ben Reid and Co.

Visiting a mix of retailers, growers and distributors Alan was extremely impressed by the very high standards north of the border!

Starting with Pentland Plants co-owner Caroline Spray showed him the garden centre and, with her father David, they toured the glasshouses which are currently full of superb Poinsettia plants. The glasshouses are heated with bio mass boilers and kiln dried logs are currently a significant and popular sales line.

A quick look at Klondyke’s Garden Centre at Morton Hall rounded off the first day.

On Tuesday Alan and Simon visited Craigmarloch Nurseries at Kilsyth hosted by directors Grant MacFarlane and Kenny Wilson. Craigmarloch are growers, retailers and distributors. Principle customers include landscapers, garden centres and local authorities. A full range of hardy plants are stocked both home grown and imported. On a new site a recently completed 6 acre glasshouse has automatic environment controls and gantry irrigation. Italian Urbinati transplanting and seeding machines are used to produce bedding plants.

A quick visit to one of Caulder’s nine garden centres before meeting owner Colin Barry in his converted cotton mill HQ gave the HTA President a feel for this distinctive chain of medium sized centres.

Torwood Garden Centre was next stop with both owners John and Jamie taking time out to discuss current issues. Torwood is located within an old walled garden.

Next stop was to the HQ of Klondyke and Strikes Garden Centres where MD David Yardley gave a quick tour of the head office before taking Alan to a local store. Once again the high standard of merchandising, product range and facilities is truly impressive.

At the end of a very full day Alan and Simon were joined by HTA Chairman James Barnes, Former President and Hopetoun Garden centre owner Dougal Philip, HTA Council representative for Scotland Helen MacDonald and Regional Business Manager Neil Cummings for a working supper.

Before flying back south James Barnes took Alan to see former HTA President Stan Green at Growforth. Stan is a great and very active HTA member representing grower and retailer’s interests at the very highest level.

But there’s always time for one more quick visit! This was to see Helen MacDonald’s new houseplant shop in Juniper Green. The shop is in an old bank and located in a wealthy part of town. It will be interesting to see how this develops.