Not caring an Iota?

There was an item on the Today programme this week about bloggers promoting products without making it clear that they had a commercial tie-up. I’d like to make it quite clear that I’m getting no backhanders from Squires (Long Ditton) or Crossey’s (Hinchley Wood) who are both marvellous.

But I live in hope.

In fact people ask me the reverse. If you’re a ‘blogger’ it seems that you have the power to wield searing criticism and exert pressure on organisations that step out of line. There’s very little need in gardening. Everyone is so nice.

I e.mail Chris at Avon Bulbs and he sends me a return e.mail, flowing rich with advice normally before the sun sets (and he’s got a business to run). I return my loppers to Squires at Long Ditton on the 365th day of the guarantee and get a new set, no questions asked. I tell Buckingham Nurseries that the peach tree they sent me has a shockingly small root ball and they send me another. I point out to Parkers that the fritillary bulbs they sent already had mould on them when they arrived (and only three out 50 came up in the Spring), and they send me some more.

It’s hard to live up to the moniker Grumpy Gardener when you have that kind of customer service

Except now I have found a supplier too busy to care, or too inattentive to answer questions sent to their website. Iota Pots. I have twelve beautiful, expensive, slate containers bought over the last five or six years, when I was a little more flash with the cash. Some were bought from Squires and some were bought from RHS Wisley. As you can see from the accompanying photos, they have unique rust patterns that flow across the face of the pots.

When we were living in Hinchley Wood their sheer weight saved a pair of them. Some blokes in a pick-up truck, ran up to the front of the house and hoiked out the two magnificent standard box balls (£120 each) I had bought for each of them.

The slate pots are a hefty weight when loaded with compost and the simpler option for my drive-by horticulturalists was just to yank the plant out and run.

So from then on the Iota Pots received the less-tempting oleander. And I put some old storage heater bricks in the bottom to add to the load, should there be a return visit. The bulk of the collection of pots were safe at the back of the house.

But last Winter, one of the pyramidal Iota Pots lost a side. It simply flopped down thanks to the jointing material at the corners giving way. When I took the plants out, all of the joints gave way and it looked like a collapsed geometric flower with four rhomboid petals.

Now I’d had the containers a few years so I could hardly take them back and complain. However they are too beautiful – and at £60-70 too expensive – to just let go. So I emailed Iota Pots a cheery little e.mail asking what I should do to mend them. What adhesive should I use to stick them back together?

Did I get a bit, mite, speck, scrap, shred, ounce, scintilla, atom, jot, particle, fraction, morsel, or iota of a response? No. Recently, I emailed them again asking what I could do to mend them?

Nothing.

I still love the pots – and one failure out of twelve is a pretty good average for containers that weigh as much as they do. But when you’ve invested over £800 in a brand you might expect some kind of response...