I was going to say that Patrick Studio and and gurugarden are one and the same, but I just checked their website and it is indeed gone.

They would normally suspend their plant sales during the winter, so maybe that is what has happened with their seeds too, but it kind of looks like they let their domain name lapse - that might mean they are not in business. Hopefully I'm wrong.

BP

I was looking as well, and hoping that their site is just down because it's being updated. I'm sure i heard somewhere that it would just be called "Patrick Studio" now, so maybe that's why the GuruGarden name is gone.

I also tried to find a way to email Marilena but her page doesn't have an email link. I did have her address at one time... Maybe someone else has it and can find out what's going on.

If you go to Dave's garden website aka Gardenwatchdog you can search from there for her info .. I am going to send an email from there to see whats up ..

Laura

It appears that they are gone. The website name has been taken over by some other interest. I've emailed Marilena on one of the addresses I had for her, so we will see if we get a reply. I know they were reducing the mail order side of things last year, but it will be a real shame if we lose them. Not enough people ordered their exotic seed last year.........we Canadians (not all....but many) tend to be a cautious lot, so not everyone is up for growing bananas or palms or gunnera, etc........even thought many of these plants make great 6 month annuals........however, I hope that Marilena knows how much we have appreciated her great company in the past.........

I did find an address for her last night (pays not to clean out your old emails!). However i got something back from the postmaster today saying that "Delivery to the following recipients has been delayed". Whatever does that mean?

It means it couldn't go through. The mailbox may be full, or the address may no longer be in use, or the account with the ISP is no longer active... You'll probably get a bounce with more information on the exact reason why it didn't go through, but it can take a few days to bounce.

Sounds like they're out of business right now. Unfortunately it takes more than a few fanatical gardeners to keep a company in business - I imagine running a plant business is more expensive than most :-(

BP

Hi Everybody,

I just checked my Dave's Garden email and found that you are all looking for me and for Patrick Studio! I then decided to go onto Gardenweb and found this thread and wanted to address everyone's questions. We are definitely not out of business. Patrick Studio has been around since 1975 - it's by no means a new company and we hope to be around for years to come.

We allowed the website "Guru Garden" to lapse because we are no longer offering retail sales of any kind. It was a decision that I had been considering for the last couple of years and that's why the website isn't operating. I had been meaning to contact our past customers to inform them of this change but somehow, you all beat me to it!

You can all believe that it was a difficult decision to make. I really enjoyed dealing with most of our customers and developed an affinity with some because after all, I'm a gardener too. I was especially passionate about the seed end of the business since it's always been my main interest; the plants I am most fond of and appreciate most are those that I grew from seed. Unfortunately, you can't be everything to everyone and we had to make financial decisions that would allow our company to continue to grow and prosper.

We've dealt with commercial businesses located in Montreal for over 30 years and in 2001 we expanded on the internet via 'The Guru Garden'. As time progressed and because of our exposure in the Southern Ontario market through Canada Blooms and other shows we attended, we started to acquire a number of wholesale contracts with garden centers in Toronto and eventually in Montreal that were interested in offering the rare and unusual plants that we grow.

One of the reasons that gardeners have difficulty finding unique plants in garden centers is that there are only a handful of commercial growers that are truly interested in offering unique plants. This is our main field of expertise and where we want to invest and expand. There are garden centers located in Quebec, Ontario, and the Maritimes that sell our plants. They are also available through mail order companies.

In any case, once things subside in mid November, I hope to post again on Gardenweb on a more regular basis.

Marilena (aka MaryV_Montreal)

It's good to hear that you haven't gone out of business. I guess you have to follow the market, even if it does mean changing your focus. At least you still get to grow plants and do what you love!

Are you able to post lists of Montreal and Toronto area stores (and the other areas too) that carry your plants? Will you sell seeds through them or is it strictly plants for now?

BP

Unfortunately, Patrick Studios will be strictly a wholesale busines available to Ontario and Quebec businesses only. We may be able, in some parts of the country, to obtain their products through retailers, as soon as this list becomes available to us.

But. as has been pointed out.......not enough people are willing to try new things. Marilena had a decidely exotic seed list, and many gardeners are scared off because they figure that these "tropical" plants will not grow in Canada. Little do they realize that the majority of the "annuals" they are accustomed to buying, such as petunias and nasturtiums are tropical or subtropical in origin. Heck, even things like corn and tomatoes have more southerly origins! The fact is that many of the so-called tropicals grow very fast and last much longer than a lot of the plants customarily grown in the Canadian garden. Here it is mid-October, and I still have enormous castor bean plants, sweet potato vines and cannas, heliotrope, persian shield and papyrus. In late August when many of my neighbours' lobelia, alyssum, etc are fried and at the end of their bloom, my stuff is thriving and I get an extra couple of months out of my garden! We need to be more adventurous....try new stuff........there is so much out there, and people like Marilena were willing to provide us with it. The internet provides all the answers to questions like germination and cultural requirements of plants......we just have to embark on the adventure!

Yes - we will have our garden center customers posted on our new website once it's complete. We only sell plants. The seed business is really more geared to retail and alot of the seeds we offered aren't really appropriate for garden centers to sell since many are short-lived or require refrigeration. If you want a good seed company, I would try Chilterns in the UK. We've been growing their seed for years and they offer an enormous variety of seeds from tropicals to hardy trees. The garden centers we sell to are primarily in Southern Ontario and in Southern Quebec. We do sell our plants to a couple of garden centers in NS, NB, and Newfoundland.

Thanks Marilena for your explanation. I, too, was curious about the 'Garden Guru'/'Patrick Studio' status. You all did a wonderful catalogue and opened the doors for experimentaion in unusual seeds & plants. Thanks for the referral to Chiltern's.
Sharon

Well, I'm glad I checked back to this thread. Thanks Marilena for posting and letting us know what's happening. I have some seeds harvested from the plants I grew from your stock last year, (as I'm sure many more here at G'web do), so the Patrick seeds will just carry on as nature intended ..Good luck with the commercial venture!