Best companies to order plants from?

[H00laH00p2]

Reliable, good quality plants and delivery.

Do you think 9 cm pots could be left a week or so?

Another person saying avoid Gardening Express at all costs. My dc bought us a magnolia tree for an anniversary present last year from them and it turned up half-dead. Dd complained numerous times, sent photos in and was told she would get a replacement or refund and nine months on still nothing. I have emailed them to complain as well and had no reply at all.

Definitely Hayloft are the best.
Avoid Gardening Express, very poor quality and expensive.
Sarah Raven is very good quality but expensive.

@H00laH00p2

Do you think 9 cm pots could be left a week or so?

Easily. Put them somewhere sheltered and not sunny. Keep watered and away from slugs, not slug pellets. . Fine till roots start coming through bottom.

@H00laH00p2

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

If they’re in pots, you can leave them as long as you like. If they’re bare rooted, you should heel them in - make a temporary slit in the soil with a spade, drop them in, and firm the slit closed

I've been happy with my few online purchases from David Austin, Crocus and Sarah Raven. I'm a ten-minute drive from a large garden centre so I get most of my plants from there. Very therapeutic just browsing the plants, but dangerous for the wallet...

I just wanted to say please think carefully before ordering from Sarah Raven - I do not know what is going on but customer service is really poor. Have a look on trust pilot before you order - it tells a worrying story.

@Halfhardy i bought 2 sweet rocket plants in 9cm pots last month from secret gardening club. They arrived well packaged and healthy with good planting instructions. I have potted them on and they are growing happily on my windowsill waiting for warmer weather. The secret gardening club and Lavender World seem to be the same company now. Ive also ordered from them and was happy with plants and delivery and communication. Hope this helps. I wouldn't hesitate to buy from them again.

Brookside nursery are good.
Sarah Raven good, excellent quality bulbs e.g great selection of Dahlias/ spring bulbs but expensive.
Thompson and Morgan very hit and miss, had some great begonias (apricot shades) that flowered for ages but others plants arrived looking worse for wear.

For clematis I cannot recommend enough Taylor Clematis. I have bought some beautiful roses from David Austin.

watching

I always go to our locally run garden centre, because I like to pick the plants myself and see what they look like. Also, the owner is chatty and gives lots of good advice, and he'll go bust if we don't all go!

Seems like people have had mixed experiences but I've had really good plug plants-annuals, perennials and veg- through the post from Thompson and Morgan and I found their customer service excellent recently when their order tracking got itself in a muddle. I only buy when they've got a ridiculous offer on and/or they do the 'lucky dip' offers. Our local independent garden centre closed (retirement) recently and I haven't found a new favourite one for 'real life shopping' yet but I'm sure I will have by the end of the summer.

I prefer online at the moment as I'm a beginner and I like to filter things. I find garden centres a bit overwhelming at the moment.

Anyway, I ordered bulbs from Farmer Gracy recently and they were all really good quality, packaged nicely and came quickly.

Anglia Bulbs, Halls of Heddon and Crocus all very good.

Actually I forgot- I had a Dobbies card for Christmas and was perfectly happy with the things I ordered although the fruit canes came from elsewhere via Dobbies as a middle man if you are what I mean. That was more fruit canes, seed potatoes and seeds and a few dry goods so not sure what their live plants are like.

.The Secret Garden Company. Plants are well rooted and in good condition on arrival.

My plants from Claire Austin came on Saturday - 10 days from placing the order and well within the 2.5 week lead time. Excellent packaging and strong, healthy plants, so I'd definitely buy again.

We also went to three local independent garden centres over the weekend where it was impossible to resist purchasing a few more plants 😉 All were really busy which was great to see 😄

I've had good plants from Hayloft and Crocus, although they normally need potting on before planting out they survive well. Crocus you can normally find a discount voucher for. J.Parker I've had less success with, I've had plants arrive dead and generally the plants that survived just haven't done as well.

The best value, however, I've had from more specialist nurseries where you can get some really big plants for really good prices with a fixed 7 pound ish delivery charge - e.g. Bluebell Arboretum for shrubs, Thorncroft Clematis for the obvious, RV Rogers for fruit trees, the Real Seed Catalogue for vegetable seeds.

I've ordered from Sarah Raven recently. My three plants arrived separately. The first within a week and the last about 5 weeks later. No updates during the process but I had heard they can take a while. The plants were in great condition.

I also ordered from Marshall's. They have a lot of terrible reviews but they were one of the only stockists of a particular dwarf eucalyptus I wanted. The plant arrived in great condition and well packaged a week later... long before my final plant from Sarah Raven.

Thanks Eggnog and percheron for your advice about Secret Garden. I've finally placed an order.
One advantage of online shopping is that you can plan where to put plants and check their growing requirements. It's a bit easy to get carried away in a garden centre and end up with a plant that needs damp shade when you've only got dry and sunny or vice versa.
Can I echo the praise for David Austin. My bare root roses came at the end of February, well packed, still damp and healthy. They're growing well, healthy leaves and even a couple of tiny flower buds.

At the weekend My antik geraniums arrived from hayloft . Nice size healthy plants well supported with canes and packing materials.
Plants were ordered through qvc who sell for most of the big name online growers.

I've had a pair of lovely Magnolias from the RHS plant shop. Excellent condition, well packaged.

It's a bit easy to get carried away in a garden centre and end up with a plant that needs damp shade when you've only got dry and sunny or vice versa. Our local independent garden centre has a stack of reference books for people to refer to. It's good having a local garden centre - you can go on a recce, note any stunners, come back home and research them, then go back and purchase. It also helps a bit (but not much) with the problem of going in for a bag of compost and coming out with a bill of £96.50

Waitrose are good (crocus supply but waitrose service levels). Also Hayloft. Good dahlias from Sarah Raven and from Farmer Gracy (and a variety of other bulbs and bare root perennials from FG too!)

I'm very lucky that Bluebell Cottage are just up the road from me- peat and plastic free perennials, available mail order (I don't work for them but do rate their plants and ethics)

Not particularly impressed with J Parkers and won't ever order from THompson and Morgan again- very little that's actually stayed alive and been worth the time/ money/ effort.

Secret Gardening club stuff from one order, was ok. Not spectacular, but ok