Introduction to The British Gardener's website

Stewed Hydrangea anyone?

Do you remember hearing of a lawsuit from some parents of a child suing a manufacturer of a stroller for not labeling that the infant must be removed before folding the stroller?   Its sad but true that we need the manufacturer to point out in writing, what is obvious to any normal person, that an infant in the chair will prevent the stroller from folding up and of course may injury the said infant.

This was brought home today when a nice customer brought back an ailing  Hydrangea that she had just purchase the day before.  The tops had turned brown and flopped over and it had a strong odor of stewed cabbage.  Pathogens or watering couldn't of turned this Hydrangea into such a state with in 24 hours so what was the cause?  Well, it turned out that she had left this once upon a time, beautiful plant in the back of the car without a thought of how hot it was going to become (late June, 96 degrees outside).  Needless to say it boiled on the back seat hence that stewed cabbage smell.  Of course, not willing to own her mistake she brought it back to get a refund!


Do we really need to spell out the obvious like removing the infant before you fold the stroller or have I just woken from a coma without realising it, to find that everyone has gone a little funny.  Maybe we need to rewrite our planting brochure to start with:

1. Do not keep plants in hot cars, they will die!
2. Remove container from roots at planting or they will die!
3. Green side up or they will die!
4. Yes, you do need to water it and take care of it or they will die!
5. Plastic plants are available should you fail with steps 1 thou 4, they won't die! 


Its like the banker robber in Germany suing the bank after the teller realized he was hard of hearing and triggering the alarm.  The lawsuit was for exploiting his disability! There's no winning sometimes.