Cheap bulbs!

[deedeemegadoodoo]

I want bulbs for colour and impact. This is my first year planting bulbs, so just want cheapies for now. Where do other buy cheaper bulbs? Somewhere like B&M?

I am not a gardener but I've bought bulbs from B&Q, Lidl and Aldi.
All had some hits and some misses. I think expensive is probably only worth it from proper nurseries.

Wilko had some decent ones in.... I also found my local garden centre had decent offers on so if you are near one it may be worth popping in?

Last year got some from Aldi and Lidl and most were a success. Bought more this year.

Got daffs from Tesco, 2 for £5 (bags of 30) put most of them in pots a few in the ground and everything came up.

I've bought from Aldi before and they've been a success. They currently have 20 for £3.39 and a mix of different daffodils, tulips, crocus and similar. I've bought 60 in order to do some naturalised planting in my front lawn.

My best flowers this year were leeks that I let bolt. Huge pompoms buzzing with bees.

I rate wilko for bulbs and seeds

My local wilko had no bulbs at all, I was most disappointed they'd decided not to stock them. They've got loads online but the postage is quite a bit. I got a bag of daffodil bulbs from Home Bargains for £3 I think, I counted nearly 100 in there! The cheapy home shops have all got them but you'll need to get there quickly to get the decent ones. I got some vair posh ones from Farmer gracy too as I really fancied trying to grow crocus sativus for Saffron.

Homebase

The cheap ones usually grow. Posh bulbs don't grow for me or at least the saffron didn't

Same with roses. Cheap rose from B&M is flourishing, the David Austen rose is feeble

wizened 10p a bag potatoes from wilko - bumper crop og spuds.

Morrisons

Fab - thanks all. Some great tips!

@ILoveShula

The cheap ones usually grow. Posh bulbs don't grow for me or at least the saffron didn't

Same with roses. Cheap rose from B&M is flourishing, the David Austen rose is feeble

wizened 10p a bag potatoes from wilko - bumper crop og spuds.

Not surprising that cheap are easy to grow. It’s ease of growth that drives price to a goos extent. If something is tricky to grow with lots of losses before it gets to selling size, it’s going to cost more to cover the greater costs of raising.

Yes. Generally, the stuff you get in a pound shop (e.g. winter jasmine) will be easy to grow and easy to propagate and a bugger to get rid of

Fruit trees 2 for a tenner or something will seem a bargain compared to a fruit tree from a specialist nursery, but you will be paying for the expertise in selecting the root onto which it is grafted.

A weird rule of thumb to say buy cheap and it's better quality! 😂 Not my experience at all. My David austen rose is very nice indeed.

My david austen rose is delightful but it's not flourished in the same way as the cheap ones have. The roses are so pretty but the plant is fragile. Planting some alliums by it seemed to help.

The david austen roses are few, small and pretty but the supermarket/pound shop roses are plentiful and big and a bit garish.

Generally, I like my back garden flowers pretty and tasteful, but the front garden to be more full on and bold.

There's joy in hearing a small child go 'Mummy, flower!' and hearing a woman say ''Childsname, you can't take flowers from someone's garden!'

I'll put in more tete-a-tetes.

I bought various different bulbs from Wilkos for the first time last year. They all came up in Spring, hoping they will flower just as lovely next Spring (providing the squirrels don't dig them up first!)

@Mrsjamin, it's not the quality, it's the success rate.

Expensive saffron crocus - got no crocuses
Pound shop tete a tetes - lots of jolly little flowers

Which was better value?

Just seen a good offer from Secret Gardening Club' if you are happy to shop on line.

Had a quick look @PaulGallico, what took your fancy?

Sign up to Sutton's email. I got loads of bulbs half price on one of their email offers.

Suttons customer service is truly appalling. I will never ever buy from them again after the hassle I've had from them this year. Nothing turns up when it should.

Cheap bulbs. I'd say Wilko or Aldi. Had surprisingly good results from Wilko which I wasn't expecting. I'm trialling Aldi this year.

Rather controversially I'd say find a garden centre who stock Taylors bulbs as they start at £2.99 a packet and there is loads of varieties they do. If its your first time you possibly aren't going to want to be ordering hundreds or big packets. (Plus you can go look at Christmas decorations at the same time!)

[quote IShoveLula]@Mrsjamin, it's not the quality, it's the success rate.

Expensive saffron crocus - got no crocuses
Pound shop tete a tetes - lots of jolly little flowers

Which was better value?[/quote]
Arguable, if what you were after was something to use in your cooking

The range had quite a few in the other day. Not sure why I didn't buy any!

Bulbs! Is there anything in the garden more annoying to plant but more welcome to see pop up in the spring

Much as I get frustrated with Thompson and Morgan, they often have good prices - especially if you are happy to accept their mixes of stuff. e.g. www.thompson-morgan.com/p/spring-spectacular-colour-collection/ka9221TM

It can often be worth spending £10 to join their club and get the 4 x £5 free vouchers back if you are going to order a bit of stuff.

@MereDintofPandiculation, that's why I planted the saffron. They didn't grow

At least I could look at the flowers