Dobbies Garden Centre, Ayr

	Click the picture to enlarge it.
	Built in 2004, Dobbies Garden centre at Ayr is one of their large modern garden centres. We visited them in June to see the plants, the indoor sales area and the cafe. This is what we found.

This is a totally independent GardenAction opinion of Dobbies Garden Centre in Ayr, Scotland.

DOBBIES AYR GARDEN CENTRE - THE PLANTS AREA

The outdoor plant area is half covered and half in the open. The paths are very wide but little thought has gone into making it an attractive area for customers.

The plants come with Dobbies excellent 5 year hardy plant guarantee. They certainly all looked in good condition and well-watered.

Aside from three small specialist plant groupings, there were no overhead signs to direct you to specific groups of plants.

The signs do proclaim that the shrubs are in alphabetic order but this is misleading. Some of the shrubs (e.g. hebes) are in different parts of the outdoor area. This is a pity because you could easily miss some plants entirely.

The range of plants is good but for the overall size of the garden centre, we would have expected more.
If they specialised in anything it was probably conifers (left) and rhododendrons (right).

DOBBIES AYR GARDEN CENTRE - THE PRICES

The price of our shopping basket below indicates that prices are about average for this area of the UK.

Rose, 3 litre pot	Ł6.99 upwards
Common shrub (e.g. hebe)	Ł5.99
Clematis named variety	Ł6.99 upwards
Economy spade	Ł13.99
Stainless steel fork	Ł21.99
Runner Bean seeds	Ł2.79
Multi-purpose compost 60l	Ł6.99 (westland) or 3 for Ł10 (Dobbies)
Fish, blood and bone 2.5kg	Ł5.99
Tomorite 1 litre	n/a
Miracle Gro 1 kg	Ł4.99
Large cup of coffee	Ł1.60

NOTE: Price comparisons are based on the prices we find at the time of our visit. We compare to them average prices in the same year as the date of the review.

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