Buying plants for the garden online

[JumpJockey]

If you're planning on looking for a specific variety of a plant, and your local nursery doesn't have it, would any MN gardeners recommend buying online? Are there any particular ones you'd recommend? I've been drooling over the crocus website, but have no idea if it's a good idea, or if you should go to another nursery further afield, or just go for a different plant.

Any experiences of online plant producers?

I can't stand garden centers. I have a small car. I always order from Crocus they are brilliant. I have some perennials ordered through them that have died but with all the wet weather I'm not that surprised. The rest have survived, and the delivery is easy enough. The plants have always been delivered healthy and in good shape. You can also see lots of details such as are they poisonous etc (I'm a childminder so that's important to me). It's worth it!

Crocus is good but very expensive. We haven't got a car so I tend to buy my plants online. I've used many different companies, almost always positive experiences.

swampster, could you remember the names of any others? I know some people specialise in eg bulbs (according to the ads in the garden mags), but I've got a new front garden to do from scratch :) so there will be a lot of different things to choose.

Suttons Seeds has a pretty good range of plants, not just seeds. For herbs I love Norfolk Herbs. Very happy with my hedging plants from Hedges Direct. Just ordered some trees and soft fruit from Keepers Nursery - recommended by a number of friends, waiting to see what turns up.

Fab - I love the handy hints in the names of those companies [hwink] Will take a look then if our local place doesn't come up trumps. Thanks :)

Look at Thompson & Morgan for young plants for growing-on. Once you're on their mailing list they will bombard you with offers, and subscribers to Gardeners' World magazine get a discount too.

The Telegraph has its own garden store - I've found it reliable. I also buy from Sarah Raven plants - she is gardening royalty, married to Vita Sackville West's grandson, but I love her plants - prices also a bit even for royalty, though.

I buy roses from Wych Cross Roses as a first choice, clematis from Thorncroft Clematis. If Wych Cross don't have a variety, my next choices are David Austin Roses or Peter Beales Roses. I also use Great Dixter and Marina Christopher, and Trehane Camellias. All with good results. I only use garden centres for herbs and fillers. Herbs only since Jekka closed, humph. :(. Op, you can spend hours happily browsing the sites, and the sales backup is usually brilliant.

I've seen the Sarah Raven pages - oooooh so pretty.... Not planning any roses right now - it's going to be sedum, aster, japanese anemone and some bulbs in the front. Will take a look at the Telegraph one too. Thanks all :)

It's an ideal time for roses, though. They are mostly dormant now, and yet the ground isn't insanely frozen. But your plant perennials sound brilliant.

Anyone else trying to sow sweet peas in autumn?

Just bought some fabulous trees & bamboos from www.mailordertrees.co.uk
They also do shrubs, climbers etc. The plants were delivered within 3 days by courier, beautifully packaged and exceeded my expectations in terms of quality & size /density for the prices I paid. Very pleased. Have also ordered several bamboos from www.jacksonsnurseries.co.uk - just hope they are as good as mailordertrees - they've got a lot to live up to! I'll let you know what they are like once the plants arrive.
Looked at scottishbamboo but they never answered the phone despite leaving messages or answered my emails so I gave them a miss despite them having something I was after.

Wow. That Mailordertrees website looks lovely. I am going to order this month's Gardeners' World freebies from Mr Fothergills, which is another good website.

Quick update - bamboos from Jacksons arrived today - on time, well packed but though the plants are absolutely fine they aren't quite as good as those from Mailordertrees.
Scottishbamboo finally rang back - had been away unexpectedly - small family firm so I might give them another chance if I want any more bamboos.

I purchased via groupon after seeing what I thought was a good deal and the plants looked lovely in the pictures.. The deal unfortunately was not a good one, so please shop around before purchasing and know that buying plants online, well especially from gardening express, is not a good option - they never looked like the pictures! I was very unhappy with the quality of the products from gardening express - I purchased a number of products and all were a joke.

They delivered in good time but the plants were half dead and like twigs when they arrived. When I contacted them I was asked to send pictures - I did and they said they were as they expected them to be - I am unsure however of their definition of quality!

I asked for a refund, but for the hassle it is worth and the additional expense to post them back it really was not cost effective for me to only get half the refund I should actually be entitled to for receiving damaged plants!

The fuchsia trees were really not acceptable as I would never have purchased them looking like this, the quality is appalling. They said I should water and feed them for the plants to flourish, but they are not as described and I should not need to do this. I, as the customer do not 'expect' them to look like this. Again it is not worth the hassle and cost to send them back to only get half the refund I am actually due as a result of receiving appallingly poor quality plants.

I will not be purchasing anything ever again from gardening express.

I urge you to do your research on this company and make your own mind up as to whether or not purchasing from them is a good idea - they really are not worth the money.

If they had faith in their product they would do free p&p on returns. Also I sadly found products after for less than half the price in my local garden centre that were absolutely beautiful - lesson learnt!