Dobbies Garden Centre, Southport Click the picture to enlarge it. A new build in 2008, this Dobbies garden centre at Southport follows their standard format. It's large, modern and with lots of indoor sales space for gifts and the like. This is a totally independent GardenAction opinion of Dobbies Garden Centre in Southport. Click any picture to enlarge it. DOBBIES GARDEN CENTRE, SOUTHPORT - THE PLANTS The outdoor plants area is split into two parts. There is a covered area which contains mainly tender plants and the uncovered area which contains hardier plants. The space lacks any design inspiration being a series of mainly straight, but wide paths. There was a strong wind blowing when we visited but most plants remained upright and well-secured. The plants area is large and there is a good range of shrubs, herbaceous plants and trees on offer. They were all in good condition. All hardy plants are covered by the Dobbies 5 year guarantee which is excellent. Finding your way round for specific plants is not particularly easy. There are no overhead signs to indicate where specific plant groups (e.g. climbers or roses) can be found. Bit when you do find a plants group, they are clearly marked in alphabetic order. There was an very good selection of other gardening goods outdoors. Pots, composts paving and fencing are all very well featured. There was an exceptionally large range of conservatories, probably the largest we have encountered at a garden centre. A good range of greenhouses (rather expensive though) on offer and all are well displayed. DOBBIES GARDEN CENTRE, SOUTHPORT - THE PRICES The prices were slightly above average according to our shopping basket at the time we visited. What surprised us was that the cheapest spade on offer was £19.99, twice the price of economy spades at some other garden centres we have visited recently. Admittedly, quality may play a part, but we feel that Dobbies could offer a cheaper alternative. We were also surprised that there was no 1 litre Tomorite (the larger size was available) and no standard Miracle Go or Phosphogren. Rose bush (named variety) £6.99 upwards Common shrub (e.g. hebe) £7.99 Clematis £7.99 upwards Runner Bean seeds £2.79 Multipurpose Compost 56l £3.99 or 3 for £12 Miracle Gro 1kg Not found Stainless steel fork £21.99 (Dobbies) Economy spade £19.99 (Dobbies) Tomorite 1 litre Not found Blood Fish and Bone - 3.5kg £5.99 Medium cup of coffee in cafe £1.60 NEXT PAGE ON DOBBIES, SOUTHPORT GARDEN CENTRE

Name: Laura Jane
E-mail: Private
Date posted: July 15, 2011 - 12:11 pm
Message: I really enoyed my visit to your store that I have now applyed to work in the new build in Liverpool. My interview is on Monday and I really hope I get the job, I would love to work for this company everything about it made me smile.

Name: gorman
E-mail: gorman178@btinternet.com
Date posted: July 12, 2011 - 09:24 am
Message: i have just put a messageon, but wanted to comment on the Restaurant. The food is excellent, however, the proceedures in paying for it should be reviewed. You can walk away from the food area and by-pass the Till quite easily, you expect to pay where you obtain hot beverages. Also, by the time you have your hot meal, hot drinks and pay, it can take 10 minutes ,easily. by which time food is going cold.

The New Tea Rooms are excellent.