Buying Plants

[Floralnomad]

We are finally nearing the end of our garden revamp so I will be buying plants soon , for things like medium sized pampas grass, cordylines , grasses is it more cost effective to buy from nursery’s or are there good online sites . I want to get a few things that have instant impact as I literally have no plants at the moment so am open to suggestions

I always visit my local B and Q....prices are quite good but i always look out for the reduced trays at 30p etc...they always come back after some water and shade.

I would look at local nurseries which is where you will get good advice as well as good plants. Having said that i have also bought online from crocus and sarah raven and david austin for roses.

I’d love roses but I can’t risk it with my dozy dog unless I can find some nice ones without thorns .

I was going to say B and Q. They’re 1/2 the price of garden centres. And they have great offers.

I’d actually not thought about B&Q aside from for bedding plants , will def have a look - my husband will be thrilled he loves the place .

I've got some bargains at lidl before, or even tesco and they do as well as plants I've had from garden centres, sometimes better.

If you want instant impact then you’ll pay a lot for it as bigger plants cost more. If you can cope with waiting a year or more, buy smaller plants which will establish quickly (and quite possibly grow to the same height by then) and cost you much less.

Having said that, you can get some real bargains at B&Q, and Morrisons do lots of 9cm pot shrubs and climbers for £2-3. I planted a border this time last year from scratch using predominantly small perennials (plug plants and 9cm pots) and some were 3ft tall by the end of the summer. I bought from the Secret Gardening Club, Shire Plants, Brookside Nursery, plus Beth Chatto and Ballyrobert Gardens for slightly larger plants.

Garden centres can also vary tremendously in their prices for the same plant. I’ve seen plants that are routinely double the price of nearby competitors in one local centre - but they do have nice cake so I still go there 😀

I found the crocus website really helpful and have just ordered some quick growing clemetis. They had an excellent selection of quick growing plants to give swift coverage.

Also agree with B&Q and lidl.

I've had some very good and reasonably priced plants from Gardening Express.

I bought a few statement plants - some reasonably sized trees and perennials. I split the perennials - if you get a decent sized pot from a nursery you can often split into 3 and they'll grow away.

I also grew some from seed - grasses etc. But you have to have patience.

So I sowed some quick perennials like verbena bonaseiris in order to give instant (ish) height and impact.

And I filled the gaps with annual flower seeds - which looked fantastic!

Morrisons is brilliant and I also have had great results with everything I have ordered from Tortworth Plants online. They come in shredded paper and cardboard rather than plastic mouldings too. Crocus and Sarah Raven deliver super slowly with so much packaging!

Our b&q’s plants are very good but they don’t have anything out of the ordinary. I also like to pick up dry bits from the nearly rotten counter (12 strawberry plants for £2 a few weeks ago and with water & repotting they’re thriving).

My last 2 orders from Sarah Raven have come in large boxes but are plastic-free with some cleverly folded boxing going on internally.

We have some really good garden centres locally, one reasonably priced and 2 not reasonably priced but very specialist. You can sometimes get grasses for cheap this time of year as they’re looking a bit meh still in their pots.

Crocus have 30% off grasses this weekend.

Sarah Raven has 40% off a few grasses this weekend.

Thanks I will look at both of those today , B&Q also have 30% off this weekend with their card so I’m going to go there and see what they’ve got .

Just come back from my local nursery. Always visit the discount section because they sell plants in flower and when they go out of flower they get discounted. There are some cracking deals on hellebores at the moment that if planted will have a good growing season before a beautiful flowering next year.

just back from Asda.....large trays of bedding plants....3 for £5....shelves almost cleared so bought 3 petunia and 3 lobelia....really good deal !!...a lot cheaper than b and q etc for those types of plants....most of my perenial ...seedlings are a bit slow this year...

I try and support a local garden centre. I avoid big, established plants as they are expensive but everything else has always been good quality.
I can't agree with the support for Morrisons I've had quite a few things fail from them. I bought a lot of roses from David Austin and they are doing very well although they do get plagued with aphids. This year I have bought a rose from Peter Beal so time will tell. I bought a rhodedendrum from B&M last year and am pleased to report it is in full bloom, unlike the azaelia from PJ Parker which despite my best efforts appears dead.

Agree with the discount section. I went to one yesterday and missed out on 2 crab apple trees at least 2.5m and a red robin shrub that looked a bit raggedy but that new leaves were coming through. All for £35. There was another lady who scooped them all right in front of me while I was musing how id get them home. I did buy a red robin which was fairly big for £25.

I try and support a local garden centre. I avoid big, established plants as they are expensive but everything else has always been good quality. one of ours is doing 9cm pot perennials for £2.50 at the moment. They always do this time of year but you need to be quick!

If you plant something like lavender, mint, or salvia (something smelly) by your roses it deters the greenfly. It’s not 100% but it’s massively reduced my rose-sucking bug population.

Thanks for the tip SockFluffin I gave lavender so will try that.
My oesteospurmum that I bought last year from said garden centre are stating to flower so us the little bush I bought for about £2.50. Damn I feel a trip coming on. They also have a very nice cafe which sells excellent scones 😀😀😀😀😀