Sandy's Garden ... The Roamin' Dutch Danish Trolleys of Larbert

My attention was caught by the several labels, or parts of torn-off labels, which were stuck to the trolleys on which the plants were displayed.

It took less than a minute for me to become intrigued by the variety of these labels and I spent a very enjoyable time reading my way around all the trolleys in the collection.

One label read simply, ‘Bransford’, ‘Pannebakker & Zn’ was the message on another, a third said, mysteriously, ‘RAIN’ and a fourth, ‘Waterdrinker Aalsmeer’.

‘Aldi’, ‘Camden’, ‘Klondyke’ and ‘Dobbies’ were clearly visible, as were many more in addition to the multitude of labels which had been more successfully part-removed and whose former message was no longer discernible.

What was obvious was these plant trolleys are more mobile than I had ever thought – and I am not referring to the castors on which they are mounted. No, these trolleys clearly move around northern Europe and are no strangers to North Sea crossings.

The trolleys are commonly referred to as ‘Danish trolleys’ or ‘Dutch trolleys’, but I have been unable to ascertain why.

My confusion was increased by finding ‘Dutch Danish Trolley Shelves’ for sale on the internet, which also reveals that, just like everything else nowadays, a dutch danish trolley may well have been made in China, with companies making danish trolleys, mainly sent to south China, north China area, major foreign sent to Europe, South America, Canada, Australia and so on more than 20 countries.

But back to the labels. Bransford Garden Plants Ltd operates from a nine-hectare site in Worcestershire, producing over 1.7million plants per year for garden centres across the UK.

The nursery consists of 59,000m² of protected growing area with the rest of the area dedicated to outdoor beds.

Pannebakker & Zoon B.V., based in Hazerswoude, near Boskoop, specialise in the export of indoor and outdoor plants to garden centres, florists and nurseries in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Finland, France and Sweden.

Waterdrinker Aalsmeer, of 1430 BD Aalsmeer, The Netherlands, is a company whose roots lie in the market in Zaandam, a city in the shadow of Amsterdam.

This is the place where founder and namesake Jaap Waterdrinker began to trade in plants and flowers, founding a business which now operates the Waterdrinker Green Trade Center, the largest green trade centre in Europe with no less than 25,000 m² of plants, flowers and accessories.

Aldi is well, Aldi, in the same way as we are all familiar with Klondyke and Dobbies, though we may not all be familiar with Camden - Camden Garden Centre, 2 Barker Drive, St Pancras Way, London NW1 0JW.

I remain puzzled by RAIN which, in this context, surely cannot be the acronym for a tool used in mindfulness practice by avid yogi, Recognising, Allowing, Investigating and Non-applying.

But I should mention the label common to all the trolleys I looked at – Torwood Garden Centre. Yes, indeed, these roamin’ dutch danish trolleys certainly do get around.