Japanese maple pricing in Europe

My wife and I just returned home after the last month in the Netherlands. It was a family visit as my wife is from the southern province of Limburg ( Wessem).
Wandering thru several garden shops I could not believe the price of Japanese maples, at least three times the cost of the same size / year / variety back home in BC.
Is there a shortage of inventory? less growers? Maybe some forum members in Europe will chime in.

In contrast food costs are almost half of what we pay here in BC!

Also spent 8 days in Portugal and we did a lot of hiking and wandering thru several cities and I could not find one single japanese maple in a garden. I had my camera on hand to take photo's, but no luck.

Good to be home again with a nice rain falling this morning. We set a drought record of 106 days I believe of no rain since July.

 

Hi Otto, glad you both had a lovely trip. But no maples in Portugal ,now that's not good!!!
Re pricing, over here in the UK prices are going up it seems as you blink. Food, power, clothing, petrol etc etc. So maples are going to go the same way. But if people stop buying trees to concentrate on essentials to live, then I can see a lot of nurseries going under. Of course there will be the avid collector who will buy, but not in the large quantities to keep nurseries afloat.
Difficult times everywhere in Europe it seems and not just the UK.
106 days without rain, how is your garden coping ?? The drought put paid to a lot of my trees this year, I hope you haven't suffered the same and am glad you returned home to some welcome rain.

 

Fortunately in our area we have a clay base under the approx 30" of good top soil. So the dry weather did not really harm the trees much at all. Regular watering of all the container grown trees was essential of course. We had friends staying at our home with chores to do with the main focus of watering all the plants daily!

 

Friends who stay have to earn their keep Lol.

 

The weather is probably more suitable for maples in BC than in Portugal !

As for the prices, I have no point of comparison, but yes, they are more expensive in France now than a couple of years ago.

Here are links to nurseries offering maples, are the prices so different from where you live ?

Close to where I live :
Érables décoratifs et colorés telle une floraison!
Same area, a bit more expensive :
Erables japonais de Maillot-Erable - La boutique MAILLOT-ERABLE

Acer - Érable - Achat en ligne sur Le Jardin du Pic Vert
"The" online specialist :
Erables japonais de Maillot-Erable - La boutique MAILLOT-ERABLE

 

Yes, by the time you get as far south as Lisbon, it requires some care to grow JMs. Not impossible of course.

@Otto Bjornson , what kind of prices did you see? I used to buy 2 year grafts from Holland for 10€, basic 2 or 3 liter size. I haven't done so in a few years so I guess it's a little more now. 3 liter plants, which vary in age, are about 20€ from Esveld or any of the major producers. These are equivalent to 1 gallon, more or less. 7-10 liter runs about 50-60€, these usually have a decent caliber and fully healed graft, 150/180 cm in height.

With a few exceptions, I find France very expensive (esp. Pic Vert, though I've had both good quality and good service when the quality was poor, from them). I just rec'd 10 4 liter maples from La Feuillade, usually 25/per. They're certified biodynamic, which is expensive for the nursery, and of course we have 20% VAT here as well.

When people talk about maple prices in the UK, I'm amazed at how expensive it is.

Sounds like a nice visit!

 

We went to two fairly large nurseries and both had quite nice selection of maples, all in pots. Two gallon pot prices were $79 - $99 Euro's for many of the more common varieties.
Larger pots, upwards of 7 - 10 gallon were in the $200 - $300 Euro price range and again very common varieties.
The trees were nice and well cared for, pruned nicely too.
The prices just seemed so high since we last were actively shopping in nurseries back home. Maybe I am just out of touch with current values.

 

The prices here in the US have gone up. 1g for 35 and up. A few years ago I could get them for $20/25. I always look at the site across the water and wish we had those prices now. Not the ones you saw @Otto Bjornson, lol. There is a nursery here in RI that sell their maples for crazy prices like Otto mentioned.

 

A lot of the garden centres I see in the UK nowadays are essentially money printing enterprises with zero interest in horticulture or botany. Or, dare I say, plants. I can't know if the situation is the same in mainland Europe, but the underlying economic systems are similar. They sell very over-priced tat like garden ornaments and garden furniture in the warmer months of the year and Christmas themed crap in the winter. The actual plants are almost like a secondary operation to the formerly peripheral crap dump of the latest oil industry by-products, and the enticing cafe with the nice view over the pond and the overpriced lattes and semi-stale cake portions.

Everything has to have a huge markup to support the operation so no wonder the Japanese maples are overpriced!

The prices I see from actual nurseries that graft their own plants seem more reasonable generally, but this section of the market is not what you see when shopping in mainstream garden centres.

 

Couldn't agree more M. The smaller independent nurseries still offer maples at a very good price. But with the current state of the economy, how long will this be.

 

Yes, I think you've described the French "Garden Center" to a tee, except we don't have cafes here, probably because the licensing requirements don't permit it to be done easily. Generally the quality of the plants is shocking, to go along with the high prices. I will say that at one of them, "Point Vert" they double as an ag coop, so things like animal feed, coop products, seed potatoes etc are still very reasonable. Just don't buy a JM: it will have come from a big Spanish production, be barely hardy, and cost 3 times what it's worth.

I have friends at Hillhouse Nursery in Devon -- where the have a very nice cafe with all homemade cakes etc -- that produce most of their plants, and are up against the "big boxes". They started an independent nursery guide, but it seems to be offline, so I'll give a link to the main nursery: Hill House Nursery, worth a visit if you're down there. Hopefully the nurseries guide will soon be up again.

 

Ah ! You shouldn't have reminded me. I ordered a 'Como' and an 'Okushimo', both great plants for the price.

Now I've put an order on 'Hagoromo nana' : very expensive, 25 + 17 shipping. But a dwarf hagoromo, I just couldn't resist...

Hey, I've resisted for months, but I couldn't miss this one : I've searched the web for "Hagoromo nana" and couldn't find any links, and since they still had some available, I stepped in.

I trust them...

 

Actions of an addict lol! Off to Westonbirt on Thursday:) bit late this year..hoping there is still a show

 

Have a nice day R, weather not too good AM but after lunch not too bad. Look forward to a few photos ??

 

Yes, please! Hoping to make a trip there next spring, maybe stop by to see your maples Rich? (If I understand, you're not too far away).

 

It’s REALLY windy here today..hoping there will be some left on the trees! So you may be getting lots of ground shots!

 

Lol. Just to mention we had a Tornado here the other day, well a couple of miles away. Did for a lot of the leaves everywhere...
CAPTURED: Tornado sweeps through zoo car park

 

Hey Emery - you’d be very welcome to drop in and have a coffee and a sandwich. I’m actually 2 hours drive away..if you pick the right route it’s a lovely drive..whether it’s worth the drive will depend upon your plans here…if you’re going to Westonbirt it would be a shame to miss Batsford..Batsford is only an hour away from Westonbirt, heading towards my place

 

Blimey!

 

I had planned on Westonbirt this year but haven't had time. My girlfriend however has the day off tomorrow as our 5 year old has a school trip there and they needed a couple of parents to volunteer to help out!

Was there still a good display on the maples when you went last week? If she says it's good tomorrow I might take a day off at the end of the week if I can for a visit!

 

Westonbirt is always worth a visit in my opinion..and only half hour or so from you! You won’t be disappointed..I should have gone 2 weeks ago to see the JM at their very very best..last week 50% of the leaves had dropped on many of them but still.. Westonbirt doesn’t need to be at its very very best..well worth giving up the time if you can get over. It’s £40 a year to be a “friend of Westonbirt” or £15 a visit..I go Spring and Autumn plus maybe one other time..tbh I’m happy supporting the cause… even if I go once or twice

 

Few examples of the goodies at my favourite sweet shop - my phone was on low batt so I didn’t take many this year but these are examples from previous autumn visits

 

(Lost track of the thread...) I thought you were much closer! But maybe we can work something out, it'd be fun to meet and see your collection. The whole thing is going to take some organization with people's schedules, and I assume we'll be staying with my sister in Brighton, so I don't know if we'll try and get an early start, or find a B&B up there. I guess late April/early May is maybe the height of Spring foliage? Here's a question: do you ever see dogs in the arboretum? Thanks for the tip about Batsford, I tend to admire British gardens without having a very clear idea of where they are.

Pics are awesome as usual!

Ah, what a great age. I guess the 5 year olds won't see everything there is to see, though, heh.

 

Id aim for 2nd or 3rd week of May personally - I went 3rd week in April and a lot had not leafed out, was a little bit disappointed..but that was more about expectation..as all of mine in pots being out. I then returned on 14 May and it was phenomenal. Here are a few snaps on 14 May…I’m sure I have posted some before so apols.

If it were me I’d travel up from Brighton to Batsford, do Batsford (3/4hours visit, it’s a hill side arboretum..just saying), stay over in moreton in marsh or stow on the wold or bourton on the water..all are lovely Cotswolds towns on a road from Batsford to westonbirt..if you didn’t stop Batsford to Westonbirt takes 1hr-1.15 ..lots of interesting antique shops in these places (but pricey!!).

Then that leaves the entire next day for Westonbirt and Tetbury, a lovely town, 10mins from Westonbirt, worth a look, more antiques and eateries. You could easily spend 5/6hours at Westonbirt Arboretum. The reason I suggest Batsford first is that it’s smaller and it gives you a full day for Westonbirt and a couple of hours in Tetbury.

This area honestly warrants spending 3 days, 2 nights imo and then you could work in Blenheim palace (amazing) and it’s gardens and my pots, albeit my collection would be a rather disappointing end to proceedings lol

 

Yes plenty, but the old arboretum is dog free, which restricts it to the remaining two thirds of Westonbirt, a good part of which they can go off the lead. They also have dog ice cream which I didn't even know was a thing! Dogs at Westonbirt Arboretum

Batsford also allows dogs, short lead at all times.

As for spring timing, much depends on how late or early the spring is that year, if you leave it too far into May you risk missing some of the most intense spring colours. IMO safest bet is around the first week of May in a "normal" year, if such a thing exists.