Although I like the odd trip to a garden centre during the winter months I can't stand cold damp weather. So it would be wonderful if I could stay in the warm showroom, where the hothouse plants are, and the exterior part of the garden centre could revolve, after the fashion of the lands at the top of the Faraway Tree. I could just press my face against the glass and smile at the plants I liked as they passed. One of the staff would be on hand to load the required flora into a trolley and over to my car boot.
-- maggie, Nov 22 2001

any where near Cornwall? http://www.edenproject.com/
maggie, I think you would like this; come to think of it so would I [po, Nov 22 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

for Peter http://www.edenproject.com/3558.htm
in case you get lost in Cornwall [po, Nov 22 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

for Peter http://news.bbc.co....v_greece/seaman.stm
I tried to link to Miss England to make you salivate but got this: it will do nicely for me [po, Nov 22 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

If it's *that* cold, do they really keep the plants outside?
-- phoenix, Nov 22 2001


funnily enough, phoenix, cold weather is not a new thing. Plants can (believe me, it amazes me too!) actually survive through the winter.

In a more developed HBers garden centre, maggie, perhaps we could all go around in warm bubbles (I'm thinking of those big rollcages in that 'Gladiators' game show on TV a few years ago) which keep our delicate bodies in perfect heat equilibrium while the plants get all cold. It is of course necessary to have these at home too, so that when you go out into the garden to plant them, you don't get all cold and sniffly-nosed. Perhaps we could all do our gardening in bikinis even in winter. Personally, I have never done any gardening wearing a bikini, but then again the most gardening I have ever done was chopping some chives off the herb bench for a dish involving mashed potatoes in 1988.
I read somewhere that there is a new invention, approaching my atmospherically balanced bubble concept but not quite, which enables people to go out into the cold weather. It had a strange name, let me think, ah yes. Coat.
-- lewisgirl, Nov 23 2001


But most plants won't do too well if you plant them outdoors in winter, and at that time of year many are either dead or keeping quiet. Could the garden centre not just move their reduced range nearer the building, and you could look out the windo. Or why not just watch gardening programs on TV?
-- pottedstu, Nov 23 2001


trunk, bliss
-- po, Nov 23 2001


[Peter Sealy] see link - knocks yours into a cocked hat I do believe. Peter do yourself a favour and try the humid tropics biome on the site!
-- po, Nov 23 2001


you win, (acknowledges seniority gracefully).
-- po, Nov 23 2001


(Shirking back from the sting of that sharp tongue!)
-- phoenix, Nov 24 2001


<aside>If anyone's wondering whether the Eden Project is really worth visiting, let me say that it definitely is (despite the unaccountable lack of Dallas Cowboys (or even LA Lakers) cheerleaders).</aside>
-- angel, Nov 26 2001



random, halfbakery