Buying plants online

[Pob13]

Have ordered some plants from gardeningexpress.co.uk. I have just been looking at reviews and they are all awful - poor quality, cant get refunds etc.
I havent spent loads so it wont be the end of the world, but does anyone have experience of them? Shall I lose hope now

I haven’t used them so no help there really.

I have used Crocus and they were fabulous. Not plug plants though,

I have bought of gardeningexpress and the plants were fine.
A bit small but grew on quite happily in my greenhouse.
What have you bought?
If they are plug plants they won’t be ready to plant out until May and are intended for growing on in a greenhouse. A lot of online retailers and even garden centres start selling plug plants about now and loads of people buy them thinking they will survive outside now. Of course they don’t and they have to buy again. I think it is a bit of a con to catch people who don’t realy know gardening and just want a few basic plants.

Clematis, apparantly in 9cm pots, so hopefully not plugs!
Only time will tell i suppose. Hopefully they will come in the next day or two.

I had a rather large delivery from them just 2 weeks ago, all plants were large ones so I can't speak for the little ones but actually I thought the quality of them was great. The only thing that annoys me is that half the 'special offers' are out of stock!

Try mailordertrees.co.uk. They do shrubs and fruit bushes too. Great reviews on Trustpilot.

+1 for mailordertrees.co.uk. I think they are quite expensive but you get what you pay for! Brought loads from JParkers over the years because they are so cheap and enticing you with free gifts all the time, but inevitability every order has had something wrong with it! Some of their plants are still going strong though so not all bad!

Was just looking at Sarah raven, any experience of buying from there?

Sarah Raven = ££££ although it’s always nice stuff.

I've used them too, have been pleasantly surprised by the size and healthiness of the plants I've received.

cantspell2 I feel like a bit of a dunce now as I’ve bought lots of plug plants and planted them out (mainly petunias and fuschias). Is there anything I can do to avoid them dying? I assume they won’t have liked the snow...

If they are still alive get them out of the ground and into a greenhouse on a window sil if you don’t have one but you will probably lose the lot as the frost will have frozen the inside if the plant which breaks down the cell structure.

Oh well- I’ll know for next year and I’ll try and rescue them. This is why mumsnet is so good.