Best companies to order plants from?

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Reliable, good quality plants and delivery.

For annuals I find them all a bit hit and miss. But Thompson and Morgan not bad, Sarah Raven expensive but better customer service. Hayloft.

RHS great packaging delivery and service for perennials.

crocus is good quality but expensive.

Depends where you are obviously but after many disasters I've found local independent garden centres are the best. Seems to be a new service round here but has been great.

Agree with the above....you’ll get better healthier annuals from a local garden centre.

Perennials, a local garden centre will sell you one healthy plant that you may well be able to divide.

Seeds really aren’t hard. Start with an easy seed, warm light (not south) windowsill, seed compost (I just use normal compost but seed is better) water initially then don’t water unless light to lift up.

Crocus i find good quality and extremely well pakaged, ditto Hayloft. Not so keen on sarah raven - equally pricy but sometimes plants have been a bit small and pathetic ime

Do second the advice to try the garden centre first, though I know sometimes you set your heart on a particular variety the centre doesn't stock

Just avoid Primrose at all cost.

Why avoid Primrose? I was just about to order something from them.

I have ordered a few things from yougarden. Not had a bad plant yet but if your read some reviews they are very mixed but then with lockdown a lot of people have been ordering plants online with no idea what they are ordering. I read one review where he was moaning his plant had no lower leaves. It was a standard olive😩

Not Gardening Express! I ordered about 10 houseplants from them. Everything arrived either pot bound to the point that the pots were cracked, so overwatered that they were completely rotten and died, or just in terrible condition. I had to immediately repot a ZZ plant, cutting the rot out - still waiting to see if it’s going to make it. I’ve managed to save a few, but it’s taken six months for them to look like plants.
I contacted them through their website and sent photos - no reply.

In the past I have bought one of gardening express cheap bedding plant deals. For cheap bedding they were ok but small and needed potting on and a few weeks in the greenhouse and no where near garden ready as advertised.

You Garden have been good, both my Acers came from there plus my Stella cherry tree. All doing very well and look fabulous.

Mail Shop from Daily Mail won't use again for plants. Very disappointing quality, several dead on arrival and totally wrong colour for one lot that I ordered that I didn't realise until the flowers appeared - after I'd already planted them up in containers with co-ordinating colours.

If you're after a specific plant, it's often best to order from a nursery that has some degree of specialisation rather than a company which sells everything. The RHS gives details of plant suppliers on their plant information pages.

I ordered 3 fruit trees from Primrose and they were excellent, the Apple has flowered already.
I agree that Gardening Express should be avoided, their plants are much smaller than advertised and take ages to arrive.
Any thoughts about the Secret Gardening Club anyone? They keep sending me emails and seem reasonable, has anyone bought from them?

Since the first lockdown I've ordered a few times from local nurseries and agree this is a good idea if at all possible.

I've also had success with Crocus, David Austin and Kelway's. In fact, Kelway's said to expect a 10-14 day lead time, but I received my plants two days after placing the order 😄 Healthy plants, well packaged.

Have also recently placed my first order with Claire Austin. These have yet to be received - two and a half week lead time on those.

eBay has some very good plant sellers too - both professional nurseries (Plants to Plant was one I used during the first lockdown) and smaller scale sellers. All have come on time, if not earlier and been well packaged/healthy.....

Delighted to see this thread.

Last year almost everything I ordered from Thomson and Morgan arrived damaged or dying/dead. Won't order from them again.

Have ordered some bits from Sarah Raven which are nice but perhaps underwhelming.

My friend who works as a gardener suggested Rocket to me so I have just ordered some bits from there-fingers crossed.

Going off to look at Crocus and Hayloft!

Another vote for "not Gardening Express" - after giving me the runaround for nearly two weeks I've had to spend £40 to post back £200 worth of shit plants to them and I'm stil waiting for acknowledgement or refund.

I've had good experience with Grasslands and GardenPlantsOnline, David Austin have always been great, I've found primrose OK. Got a few new ones on order just now so will update!

Gardener's dream - plants were small but mostly have done remarkably well so seem to be quite well grown

Hortology and trianglenursery were both good for house plants

Agree with Hayloft ..good choice and healthy plants. This year i have bought from Plants Galore. Really large healthy plants. Was suprised at size for price. Great packaging too. If u live in Scotland Macplants are a good website with good sized plants at great prices. Also Burncoose nurseries. A wealth of info on that site re plants. And lastly BallyRoberts Gardens.com they only sell plants that grow well in their own gardens. So all the pics are of their own plants and not unrealistic photographers shots like in the larger companies. Great info on this site to for those of us just starting out.

Macplants are lovely (they're about 10 minutes away from us so we can do click and collect)

I'm waiting for a delivery from PlantsGalore actually so I'm hoping they're good as it's all the small evergreens for a big new frot bed (hebes and euonymus)

I have recently ordered from Beth Chatto which was not cheap but they came very carefully packaged and there were some interesting options.

Crocus again. Also Downderry Nursery are really good. Think I've only bought non-living stuff from Primrose but recall being happy with their delivery.

I've had loads of stuff from Suttons this year with no issues.

I don't know how they compare to other online plant retailers as it's the first time I've done it this way.

How soon should you plant plants you’ve ordered online? Can you leave them a couple of weeks?

And should you always plant 3 or 5 of the same plant?

It depends how the plants come - if they are in decent sized pots then being cared for at your hous eis no different to being cared for at the garden centre like that. But bare root or very small plants need to be planted.

And you don't have to plant in any number, if your harden/border is large it often looks better to do clumps rather than too many different plants. But other people do just one or loads and loads of variety.