Ready made borders from Crocus

[koolforcats]

Has anyone ever bought one of these? I lack creativity so in theory these seem like a great idea but they all seem pretty pricey...

Why not start another thread, giving basic details - area to fill, sunny or shady, soil type, your preferred colours/style of planting - and MN's gardening obsessives types will give you ideas? You can then buy them from Crocus or your local nursery, which will probably be cheaper and will be supporting local industry to boot.

Thanks Lush that's a good idea. I just priced up buying the plants from other places and it was a little less expensive. I don't mind paying, just don't want to be taken for a ride! I guess it's for convenience. I would much prefer to support independent nurseries too though. Thanks again

I hadn't heard of them but it looks really interesting and if nothing else, gives a nice group of plants to choose from and plant together. I think using the list of plants but taking to a garden cetnre is a good compromise. You can see what they look like in realy life and maybe swap a few in or out depending on what else you see.

Crocus is VERY expensive.
You can always take note of their suggestions and go and buy the plants at your local plant nursery - it also gives you a chance to see if you like the plants and to throw other plants into the mix.
I always group pots of plants when I go plant shopping so see how they work together.

We did this a few years ago, bought the sunny border for a new part of our garden. It has been fantastic, the plants are all hardy and robust and have flowered every year since. They come at a good size so that even in the first season the border looked good. Going to buy the shady pack for our front garden this year.

I love the Crocus website, but got wise to their pricing policy when I bought some (admittedly very good quality) David Austin roses in their sale and later realised that their sale prices were still as high as/higher than the DA website.

I don't buy from them on principle any more as they are just silly prices.
But the website it nicely done and perhaps good if you are less confident about what you are buying etc.
But I do think its better to support your local plant nurseries where you will also get good advice if you need it and far cheaper plants.

If you do buy from Crocus, there is a 20% discount on Gardeners world website

Or you can go to their Open Days. Although they are very expensive they do have excellent choices of plant and very good quality too in my experience.

If you are lucky enough to have a local independent nursery then do go to them. Where do you live?

I'm in SE London.

Thanks all, I really appreciate your feedback. I think I'll be using crocus for my inspiration then using my local nurseries to make my purchases. One thing I've learnt is that it's possible to create a good looking border with just 3 different types of plants - I've always tended to buy one plant of this that and the other, rather than lots of one thing, which can have far more impact than what I've been doing! I did say I lacked creativity!

Good plan.
I looked at the Crocus site after being in this thread and the plants are marked up by around 50% or more from what I could tell so worth shopping locally.
And yes good idea to limit the number of plant species and bump up the numbers of each.
Let us know if you'd like any help with choosing. Try and go for plants which have more than one season of interest (ie good foliage as well as nice flowers) as this will make the border look good for longer.