March 6, 2015
I have been dreaming of...succulents. Yes, you heard me correctly. I have been dreaming of those cute little green fleshy leafed plants. Before I moved to London I had been obsessing over having some. I finally made this dream a reality when I visited the New Covent Garden Flower Market!
I went on a Wednesday morning around 7 am which was just enough time to get a good look around and grab the items I knew I wanted. Parking was very easy, £5 to get into the main entrance. Once you park just make your way into any of the numbered entrances and you will be in a huge warehouse type building filled with every flower, plant, and gardening accessory you can think of! Aside from plants there are also booths filled with pots, tools, crafting items and much more.
I didn’t do any bargaining, I was already too nervous just asking the burly men working the booths how much something was haha. It’s a wholesale market so prices are already really reasonable, but if you do want to buy in bulk ask for the best possible price! Bring cash to pay. It’s a lot easier, quicker, and seems like the most accepted way to pay for your items. I was also smart enough the night before I went to think of what I wanted to bring to the market the next day. It was freezing both outside and inside the building so I brought a beanie, some gloves, and most importantly a big thick plastic tote bag. Think about how you will get all your goodies home! I was so glad I had something to put my pots and plants in to carry around. I believe they also have large metal carts if you are buying a large amount of items.
The selection of plants was amazing, there were a lot that I had never seen or heard of! I knew I wanted an orchid so when I found “A Goodchild” booth I hit the jackpot! The orchids there are absolutely gorgeous and super healthy. I bought a large one stem white orchid for £15. That’s a steal! I also wanted some pots and I found a beautiful blue pot for my orchid for £8. Later on I purchased a super cute grey pot for £4 and an amazing bell jar for only £10. Last but definitely not least, I found the little succulent and cacti babies I had my eyes on. A lot of booths had similar looking plants but I finally settled on a few that I loved. I picked them out of a tray and walked up to the register. The man behind the desk looked at me and said what I thought was “You should buy a tray”. Bubbly I responded, “Oh, is it cheaper to buy a tray?” to which he gave me this look and said, “No, they are sold by the tray. You HAVE to buy a tray”. Whoops! I clinched my teeth waiting for the price of this tray of gorgeous succulents to drain my wallet, but after all that they were only £16 for 20 little plants! So there’s a little tidbit for you, if there’s something in a tray it most likely is sold per tray haha. All in all I spent around £55 pounds for all that!
One funny thing I noticed about the market was the amount of men working. It’s such a colorful, flowery, pretty place and these men working are such “manly” men! They stood there and talked about sports, smoked a cigarette, and really worked hard! I don’t know what, if anything, I expected but it was a little dash of humor that I enjoyed that morning.
I will definitely be returning soon to buy more! Get there early, by the time I was leaving which was around 8:45 am everyone was packing up for the day. I will post the link to the website below. You can find all the info on parking, location and hours on the website!
Ok I’m going to go talk to my cute little plants now. I heard it makes them happy!
http://www.newcoventgardenmarket.com/flower-guide
K xo