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My Trip to Allwoods by Brian Yates

My wife Susan driving, I was like a child at Christmas, all excited and full of expectations as we turned off the A23 and onto the A273. “Stop fidgeting”, she retorted. I just could not contain myself as I willed her on towards our destination.
There it was, as bold as brass. The sign announcing that we were here. Allwoods.

I had spent a fortune in the past on silver sand, perlite and the best potting compost that money could buy. Mixing them together and using only clay pots for final potting. But here at one of the holiest churches of the Carnation I saw carnations languishing in plastic pots and living quite happily in just multi purpose compost, housed in plastic tunnels. I had spent an entire years gardening budget on buying a glasshouse especially for my carnations in the hope that I would be up there with the commercial growers.
One tunnel at the far end of the site housed carnations that were being grown for their cut flower business, and could see staff busy cutting blooms ready to send to customers. This side of the business is thriving and I myself have used it of late to send my wife some blooms for our wedding anniversary and of course for our mums on mothers day. So can heartily recommend it.
In the tunnels used for display and resell to customers I was disappointed to find that only about a quarter was devoted to Pinks and Carnations, the rest being used to display and sell Geraniums, Fuchsias, Verbena and the like.

Another couple of tunnels were devoted to packing and sending off customers orders and would have loved to had the opportunity to go inside for a look, but the foreboding sign telling me that from here on was only staff admittance brought me swiftly to a halt.

What was my overall impression of Allwoods? Its a fine business and I was able to have a chat with David (the owner) about what his aims were for the future. I laboured the point of him selling so many geraniums, but his reply was that Vernons the married company were considering selling carnations on its website as well as its renown geraniums. Of course I took the opportunity of bending his ear about giving over more space to the display of carnations. All in all its a business geared to servicing the postal customer more so than the casual visitor. But their plants are quality and that’s what counts.
Not all was lost though. I made my purchases and as I was paying my bill, I was told that the carnations that I had bought would need to be kept under glass and free from wet conditions. It was then that I flashed him my BNCS badge that I had pinned to my jacket just prior to arriving at the site and immediately got 15% off the cost of my purchases. So that’s a bonus worth remembering, Thanks David.