Does anyone buy plants from Van Meuwen?

[Dancergirl]

Are they any good?

I don't really want the plug plants you have to grow but would like something ready to go in the garden.

Where's the best place to buy?

I buy some plants too many from Sarah Raven , they are excellent quality and usually really good colours and varieties, but they are not cheap.

Hayloft plants are reliable.

I also like Bluebell Cottage, and sometimes Burncoose.

It depends what you're after. All of the above are places I use for perennials and shrubs. Small specialist suppliers can be excellent for one type of plant at a a time. Local nurseries are often surprisingly good. Aldi, Lidl etc often have offers, but you may need to nurse the plants a bit until they've grown more.

If you're after bedding plants, I think you might as well get them from the supermarkets or a local garden centre.

I have bought plants from Thompson & Morgan, not tried Van Meuwen, but I probably wouldn't just because I prefer using smaller suppliers usually.

I ordered a load of perennials from a Guardian offer - over 70 plants I think, but they haven't arrived yet.

I mainly buy from local independent nurseries now, also sometimes from supermarkets.

Guardian van Meweun offer that should have said

Bill I got that offer last year. Most of them survived, and they are nice varieties but it was hard work. Not that many survived the winter I think, mind, so I recommend not planting the year but protecting over winter and planting next.

I prefer Hayloft because they are more established plants so are less nail-biting.

I think this is the firm that sells overpriced allium bulbs at shows.

I would go for a local firm to where you are as there are so many UK nurseries these days: Hillier Burncoose Sarah Raven Claire Austin Spalding bulbs J Parker Thompson and Morgan etc Crocus are expensive.

I have bought plants from Sarah Raven, T&M, Beth Chatto gardens. I didn't like the absolutely tiny plugs from T&M, very time consuming and hardly any of them survived to full size. Beth Chatto gardens were great for perennials, came well packaged and good value. I like Sarah Raven's colour and plant choices especially for annuals but they can be quite tiny too.

I've just had a batch of lavender plants form them only 4 of 16 have survived the first 3 weeks!

I normally use local nurseries but if I want something a bit larger and a better specimen size would go to a good garden centre. I have occasionally bought mail order and have had good plants from Crocus and David Austin/Claire Austin. For normal bedding plants I would just go to a local nursery or garden centre - I tend to use the mail order nurseries if I want something unusual as often this is the only way to get them.

My perennials have arrived and they're a lovely mix but super tiny - all 70 odd plants arrived in a packet the size of magazine.

Thanks for tip to pot on and protect, will see what happens.

billstickers I once had a newly arrived from foreign parts colleague who asked me who Billstickers was and why he was to be prosecuted. Said colleague went on to become a v eminent professor.

Ha ha cool! I love the tale, also love the Ferguson's gang in the 1930s.

I have bought from van Meuwen (and many of the others listed here). The tulip bulbs etc from VM have all been excellent. However, I am now reserving judgement on VM because the cercis Forest Pansy I bought from them as a bare root is doing absolutely nothing - and I've since read advice never to buy this as a bare root - so I'm now wondering whether this supposed special promotion for loyal customers was in fact a pig in a poke. I hope to be proved wrong.

I agree that the packs of 70 teeny-weeny plants for a tenner can be very hard work.

Yes, I dont buy those plug plant offers anymore having failed spectacuarly with lavender plug plants twice

I've had a few things from VM but very few have survived. I've found my local nursery & plant centre far far better and although they are initially more expensive for the survival rate they work out better value.