Gardeners at war! Monty hits out at supermarkets’ shoddy bouquets
MONTY Don has criticised supermarkets for selling plants that lack variety and are ‘mass produced to be as cheap as possible’.
The Gardeners’ World presenter said green-fingered shoppers should go to independent nurseries where they can ‘get the expertise’.
But his comments faced criticism from a former presenter of the BBC2 show, Peter Seabrook, who described supermarket plants as having ‘unbelievable quality’.
Don, 61, who is also the Daily Mail Weekend magazine’s gardening columnist, said of the supermarket ranges: ‘You have these vast wholesale nurseries now supplying supermarkets and actually that’s a diminution of choice. You get lots of exactly the same thing, mass produced to be as cheap as possible. And I’m a huge fan of independent nurseries and that is where you get the expertise.
‘That is where you will find people who have devoted their lives to growing something and know far more about it than I do or anyone else on television. They grow geraniums or they will grow fruit trees and they will really know about it. So, when you contact them, they can give you great assistance.’
Seabrook, 81, a Gardeners’ World presenter in the 1970s, told Horticulture Week magazine: ‘The large production nurseries growing for supermarkets are producing an unbelievable quality that 20 years ago I wouldn’t have dreamed of and all offer remarkable value to new homeowners and very keen gardeners alike.’ The veteran writer and broadcaster was honoured with a display – a suburban garden showcasing inspiring new gardening ideas – at Chelsea Flower Show this year to celebrate his lifelong contribution to horticulture.
He said geraniums on the exhibit from nursery Kado Flowers, which supplies Waitrose, were of exceptional quality.
He has previously criticised BBC bosses as ‘hell-bent on killing off their flagship TV programme’ by hiring former costume jeweller Don to present Gardeners’ World.
In his interview on Radio 4’s You and Yours programme, to be aired on Tuesday, Don also admitted that he did not like Gardeners’ World when he was younger. ‘I don’t remember ever watching it before I was in my 20s,’ he said.
‘I started to watch it because by then I was gardening a lot. It sounds disloyal but I didn’t like it. It seemed something for middleaged people. It took me a few years to appreciate Gardeners’ World.’
Don also said it is a ‘great regret’ that he is not allowed to wear a shirt and tie when presenting the programme, recalling that his father would garden in a check shirt and wool tie at weekends.
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