buying plants from online

koiboy

Whats the best company to buy flower and vegetable plants from i have bought them before and ended up with a load of rubbish that cost me a fortune so this time i want to try if any of the big seed companies Marshall's T&M DT Brown Sutton's Dobbies are any better

arbrighton

Well who have you bought from before?

What sort of plants do you want?

Davesnave

The trick is to buy from a nursery, not some middle men who just buy-in from elsewhere and take a cut. They will have a real address and possibly allow local collection, even if you won't use that.

A few of them may be linked to garden centres, but size of company isn't a guarantee of quality. Obviously, firms like Hilliers will do their best sustain their reputation, but they are not especially cheap.

There are specialist nurseries. For example, I have bought dahlias from places that only deal in those and one or two other species, rather than offer a wide range. Similarly, tree nurseries which come into their own in a couple of months, will maybe only do a small range of other plants, like shrubs.

The RHS Plant Finder is a good source for real nurseries and you can quiz it on-line for free.

I've purchased on-line from about a dozen different places and I've never received duff plants. None of them has been from the household names you mention, and in fact I'd personally avoid one or two of those!

Farway

I have to agree with Dave, I know this is MSE, but sometimes price is linked to quality, you do often get what you pay for, a sad but true fact

holgate79

I stay away from Jparkers unless the price means I'm still happy if 60% fail.

I find that the plants from Thompson and Morgan are really small plugs - often little more than seed leaves - you really need a greenhouse to grow them on. But on the plus side everyone I know gets a double order from them as their order system seems to be a joke.

Lead the good life are hit and miss - sale prices are worth considering but again about 50% fail - their customer service is awful.

Never used suttons....have bought from specialist growers too (3 fat pigs - laurel hedging) and had about 10% fail/ arrive damaged.

My best place to buy from at moment is aldi/ lidl or a garden centre - - you can chose the best plant of the bunch this way

Hope that helps?

Seakay

Have you looked on ebay? Some great small sellers on there:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?item=161417918389&_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=vegetable+plugs&LH_PrefLoc=1

Sunny_Saver

Thompson & Morgan has an offer on at the moment 72 bedding plants for 1.99 plus postage of 4.95.

I've purchased Fuschias and another flowering plant off them on a special offer. The fuschias are fine, the others not, never really flowered. I can't remember what I bought and since they didn't flower I can't tell you.

I also recently bought some perennials and phlox off them via Daily Mail. The former weren't in the best of shape and there were hassles with the phlox too. However, the guy in customer services was really helpful and couldn't have been more apologetic and resolved the issue.

I also bought some plants off J Parker. The azaleas were fine, they swapped some ground cover plants without asking, some ground covers weren't great, so ended up with a refund. However, I got a free buddleja and that's doing really well.

Suttons, see this thread, the lavender batch had to be replaced. The geraniums were awful and they would not replace https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4951209

I got some buddleja from Hayloft and these are fine too https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4979205

Please note, I'm a first-time gardener, so maybe part of it's me?

I bought bulbs from 99p store and poundland, the gladioli were fine, freesias not. I've bought spring bulbs from Lidl too, so fingers crossed.