Arriving at Albion Plants Ltd

Early on the morning of Saturday 19th April 2005, I drove with Mr H. to his nursery 'Albion Plants'. He is a busy man, so we set off early, battling through the heavy traffic heading to London.

Inside Albion Plants Ltd

Albion Plants takes up a whole, huge glasshouse. The company only sells to commercial places, like Garden Centres and other plant nurseries, and not to members of the public (like you and me!). Mind you, would we be likely to go in and buy thousands of plants like Mr H.'s customers in one go?

Albion Plants HQ

I caught Mr H. as he stepped out of his head-quarters to check an order. He told me afterwards that it was a quiet morning, but he was on the phone for the entire morning taking orders. I wouldn't like to be around when the day was busy!

Ready to Refill

Each weekend, Mr H. receives another load of plants from places who grow the plants for him. Luckily for me, the weekend I went to visit was the first weekend for a long time when he didn't have a delivery. I have been at his nursery when a delivery has come and, wow! I can tell you, it's busy! You can tell by the number of trolleys and shelves how many he can get in one go!

Space to Breath

Because Mr H. didn't have a delivery, his plants had a bit of space to stretch out and take a breather. Normally, this place is full to bursting and there would be no gaps like you can see now.

Labels For All

When a customer buys a tray of plants, they usually want the labels to go with the plants, so the customer (like you and me who buy them from a garden center) know exactly what they are buying. There are many thousands of labels here. Mr H. knew exactly where every single one was.

We Can't Wait

Usually, when the plants come in to the nursery, they are very young and just a few leaves. However, some plants grown from cuttings, like these Ivy-Leaf Geraniums, flower as quickly as they can. At least the buyer knews exactly what they are getting when they buy them!

Geraniums Galore!

There are many different types of Geraniums, and Mr H. sells a great number of these. The ones on the left are Ivy-Leafed Geraniums (Pelargonium peltatum); the next bottom two are variagated varieties (these have lots of different colours and are called, funnily enough, Pelargonium variagated); the top right is the 'normal' one we all know, called Pelargonium zonal.

It Ain't 'Alf Hot Mum!

Working inside a glasshouse can be very hot work! They are great for keeping the heat in. But on a hot day, it can make life difficult for the plants and the people working in them. But this glasshouse is very hi-tech. Not only does it have places in the roof that open when needed ('vents'), but it also has shading that come over and shades the plants if needed, blocking out the sunlight. You can see this at the top of the picture - it's folded up at the moment.

These Plants Will Be Perfect

Mrs P. (pictured here) comes in most days to assist Mr H. with his nursery. She is keen to make sure that the plants are at there best at all times. So one of her many jobs are to make sure that the plants are cleaned up if they need to be. I joined with Mrs P. for a while to help her get the plants to the standard Mr H. likes to sell them at. It was hard work keeping up!

Watch Out For This

As any glasshouse grower will tell you, they always have to be on the look-out for a disease called Botrytis. It is a fungus that likes to live on plants, especially if they are dripped on or always damp. All glasshouses will have some of this, and so I had a hunt to find an example to show you. If you see some, just take it out and keep the plant dry.

Clean As A Whistle

This is a result of a morning's work from Mrs P. and myself. Most of the leaves we took off from the plants were old leaves, that if we left on could lead to diseases settling on the plants, like Botrytis. It's very satisfying taking a tray of plants to be cleaned and then returning them to the floor totally spick and span.

Thank You Mr H.

Mr H. kindly said that we could have some Petunias (left) and Geraniums (right). He gave us a tray of each - 84 Petunias of the 'Surfina - Sky Blue' variety, and 42 Geraniums of the 'Zonal - Sassa' variety. We'll have a lot of work to do at at school planting these up!

Nicely Packed

Using the box that Mr S. from school gave me, I managed to pack the plants safely for carrying back to Leicester. Only a few days before, this box held the Key Stage 1 bananas eaten in their fruit circle. Although I could fit the Petunias in, the Geranium tray was a bit too big. So I packed them in on top of the Petunias and hoped for the best! Right! Back to Leicester then!