Thursday 14 October 2010

Buying plants in japan

Some days before I left for Mexico I went to the garden center to see if I could get some new strawberries, because mines didn't make it at the end. I really like going there, I get to see a lot of beautiful plants and also learn how gardening is in japan.

My garden 0093 September 18, 2010

Yokohama Sakata no tane garden center


I got to sneak a little more photos from the main building. I admire very much Japanese aesthetics. I think is great how they display and arrange every element to fit with the others, and how they take a lot of attention to detail.

This time I got some photos of the wall displays for seeds, I like how the wall looks covered from side to side with little envelopes. Also another thing I always appreciate in the garden center is that they have a lot of flyers around with tips on how to grow the most common plants.

My garden 0091 September 18, 2010

A full wall of flower seeds


My garden 0092 September 18, 2010

Vegetable seeds


Other thing that I like is that the staff is very friendly and helpful. One time I was looking for some specific flower (Botón de oro/Tithonia), but I didn’t know the name in Japanese or English, so four very patient ladies stayed with me for around 20 minutes and tried to find out what I was talking about , we even tried with a drawing, at the end they look the Spanish name online and translate, and look for pictures there. That is not the only time, something similar happened when I was trying to ask about ladybugs, although it didn’t took that long, we figure it out with some drawing.

I had similar experiences in other places I have tried to get plants here in japan. I think is great how they treat customers, they are always nice to me. I think Japanese are very friendly and easy to approach.

My garden 0090 September 18, 2010

another peek at Yokohama Sakata no tane garden center


At the end I did bought some plants. I got some strawberries and a new geranium, all of what I will talk in a new post.

Oh, one more thing, here in japan every time you get some plants they wrap them up with paper and some soft foam plastic taking a lot of care not to hurt the flowers. This is new to me, because in Mexico I am used to just get the plants bare or with just a tray and have to struggle to avoid damaging them. They even would make a reinforced handle in case what you got is to heavy or hard to carry around.

My garden 0094 September 18, 2010

My loot, strawberries and a geranium


How are the buying plants experience in your countries?

11 comments:

  1. Good luck with your strawberries.

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  2. Samata is one of the famous seed suppliers in Japan and I think you are right to go to the Sakata's center to find what you want.

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  3. Oh come on, we want to see your plants ;)

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  4. It sounds like you get really good customer service in Japan. I prefer to go to the small nurseries rather than the larger garden centres here as they usually give better service and they usually have better quality plants too.

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  5. I'd come out of there having bought far far too much!

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  6. That was really interesting. I agree that they certainly take more care in the packaging of the plants than we do in Canada = 0.

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  7. OMG those are awesome pictures! I love the shelves of seeds... I would have spent a lot of $ there! Wow. Very cool post.

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  8. I would go crazy if I were in a garden store like that. Everything is just so tempting! Over here you are on your own once you purchase a plant. No careful packaging, just thank you and have a good day. We always bring plastic bags just in case we need to protect the car from dirt falling out of the pots.

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  9. It is interesting to see how plants and seeds are sold in another country. Here in Canada plants and seeds are sold in a number of places including the grocery store. The best place to get them however is a nursery.
    I enjoyed seeing some of your garden in Mexico. How neat to have a lemon tree older than you are. I love the hummingbird picture.

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  10. Thank you all!
    I always have to control myself from buying like crazy, but it helps to have the budget of a student. I still spend a lot every time though.

    Also, Hope this batch of strawberries works well. I am having some problems already.

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  11. Hi, thank you very much for you posts. I am currently living in Tokyo and searching for a good and not too expensive place to buy plants for my balcony. Do you maybe have an advice for my? Best, Anna

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