Sick of Sarah Raven.. she has no idea..literally

[BlueAce73]

I’ve worked so hard in horticulture & agriculture.. her advice is crap

I like her catalogues and love her book A Year Full of Flowers.

I have bought some pot collections from her the last 2 years but I've never had any problems and they have all done well, but I agree they are quite expensive and I try to grow as much from seed as I can.

I also love Farmer Gracy though I read somewhere that the Dutch are still using peat in their horticultural industry, and are going to continue using it, and this does give their plants an advantage as they are stronger better nourished plants, no idea if this is true.

I have been really disappointed with seeds and bulbs bought from her this year- and with the response from the company when I complained. 55 bulbs and only 1 flower. Very poor response from seeds. Also expensive seeds where there should have been 20 in a packet - bought two packets and there were 2 seeds in one and 3 in the other. The response was they 'buy them in and they come ready packaged'. Did not offer a refund- I had to contact them again to ask and they take ages to respond. I won't buy from her again.

There's a bit in her Xmas book where she basically advises you how to literally make a forest in your house for a Xmas party. It both makes me feel lacking in ambition and inferior in some way whilst slightly hysterical at the fact someone could even consider this.

I’ve ordered a lot from Crocus and I’ve always been satisfied. I haven’t ordered from Hayloft so far, but it looks good and it’s good to hear that you find it so.

Hayloft has a lot of more unusual plants, and they have always been good quality. I've been buying from them for years, not had a problem yet.

I love her catalogue but have not had success with her products , out of three roses purchased two died and I ordered 2 Xmas baubles that just didn't arrive , weeks of delay I cancelled the order and bought elsewhere

I spent a small fortune one year on a SR 'dahlia collection' which was 6 tubers of 3 varieties. The colour combo in the catalogue was, of course, gorgeous. But 1 variety never flowered and the other two didn't flower together. I'm a pretty experienced gardener and know what I'm doing. I also know that sometimes Mother Nature has her own ideas. But I was left with the feeling I'd been suckered by lovely photographs and a high price tag as a guarantee of success and quality.
I also bought 3 varieties of sweet pea one year, again seduced by the catalogue. Two thrived, one didn't. So again, that gorgeous colour combo just didn't happen. I've since stuck to the £1 pots of 20 seedlings which my local pop up nursery sells cash only from a scruffy caravan every spring. A lottery of mixed colours but they smell gorgeous and romp away.

I have no idea about her horticultural credentials. But I think she's very good at marketing.

Ooh, thanks, that's good to know! I was nervous of customs charges.

I am interested to read others saying SR combinations of plants sold to flower together don't work - I've found that. Someone bought me her Venetian sweet pea mix, and while they were all individually lovely, they germinated weeks apart and flowered at very different times. I assume some of the seed was older than the rest.

Thank you for this thread. I clicked on it because my mum had issues a few years ago. Ordered a particular plant - absolutely due to a family name. She was sent a similar variety but NOT the family name. My mum phoned and complained - it would have been politely - my mum hates making a fuss. And nothing. So we as a family wont use SR at all. Because you expect a gardener to understand that one variety of a certain plant IS NOT THE SAME as another variety. #deafears

Exactly. It’s like her target audience is Helen Campbell-Black. I’m…..not. I had (at the time) the cash to afford her stuff, the time to faff about with home-grown flowers and gilded runner beans and the sort of good (in my opinion) taste so that the stuff in her catalogues appealed. But I’m not now, not ever likely to be, in a position to entirely redecorate my country seat for a Christmas party. I’m sure people doing that have people to do it.

I concluded all that understated posh-ness was a cunning ploy to get those of us a few rungs under the country-seat level, but with enough disposable income and inclination to faff, to aspire to her look and hope the ‘class’ that went with it rubbed off, which is possibly very slick marketing. I really liked the sort of unfussy, natural-but-not-too-crunchy-with-pops-of-colour-but-no-garish-patterns look she started out with, and continually aspired to recreate it. Her stuff has got more fussy and less appealing to me over the years, fortunately, because I have got a lot poorer and further than ever from the country seat!

I had major issues with Hayloft last year. I ordered (well over £100) and put the acceptable delivery dates. They delivered early because the warehouse hadnt read/seen the dates. The plants were sitting on my front south facing porch for several days as we were away. I phoned Hayloft - they were very loathe to refund. We finally agreed that I would see how the plants fared. Most didnt survive. I wont order again. It was their error and they failed to take responsibility.

I also love Farmer Gracy though I read somewhere that the Dutch are still using peat in their horticultural industry, and are going to continue using it, and this does give their plants an advantage as they are stronger better nourished plants, no idea if this is true.

Peat isn't banned in the UK yet. I understood it won't be banned for professional growers for years, unless something changes?

Not good at all. I think I’ll stick with Crocus and Farmer Gracy.

FYI Farmer Gracy free delivery until end of tomorrow. They seem to have a few free delivery 'offers' and I am tempted by each and every one.

I’ve had mixed results with Sarah Raven in the past and given she’s very expensive I just tend to copy the colours she uses from bulbs in home and bargains. They’ve never failed on me.

spongedog that's awful 😳

This is what John Lewis do, too. In the past I have looked for tech there - vacuums, washing machines or the like - and found that they often have a unique product. The rest of the world will have a IGB2200S but JL will have a IGB2200SQ. It's easy to be "never knowingly undersold" if you have a monopoly on the item in question.

Chiltern Seeds are another good one and have upped their game in recent years with a beautifully photographed catalogue. Some unusual stuff and a reliable growth rate.

Never ordered from SR but my mil does and she spends a fortune. The plug plants have either been really delayed or the order cancelled. The latest lot of plugs (penstemons) were on a dire state when they arrived. Not worth the money, or the ordering months in advance!
The bulbs were ok though, just nothing special, despite the price tag.

There's a bit in her Xmas book where she basically advises you how to literally make a forest in your house for a Xmas party. It both makes me feel lacking in ambition and inferior in some way whilst slightly hysterical at the fact someone could even consider this.

You know, I had exactly the same feeling when I flicked through the brochure! I think I'll cancel as it's pointless having it as I'll never order again. In fact I'm amazed how many people have had issues with SR..how does it keep going?!

I've had the best results with seeds from Wilko's this year - and a terrible service from SR (look at the Trustpilot reviews, I'm not alone).

SR's delivery was very late with mouldy bulbs when they did finally arrive.

The previous season's expensive seeds weren't reliable either, some just didn't germinate and I'm an experienced gardener.

I definitely won't order from SR again, all style over substance.

I really like Wlko too. Their bulbs have never let me down. I try to get colours as close to SR combinations as possible.

I've had the best results with seeds from Wilko's this year - and a terrible service from SR (look at the Trustpilot reviews, I'm not alone).

Wilkos are brilliant for seeds and bulbs and very reasonably priced.

Also highly recommend D.T. Brown Seeds. We had a catalogue through the door. Very old-fashioned Almanac style with brownish recycled pages. Packed with stuff and advice too. This year they included a free garden planner and they even pop a pack of free seeds in with your order. I had pak choi and they have gone mad and need transplanting ASAP!. I have ordered £20 worth of seeds this year and delivered promptly and so far all doing well.

Farmer Gracy all the way. Also like Chiltern but I get sucked into buying things that are too delicate for my current skill set (cold stratifying is beyond me) or need more reliably warm weather than we get in the rainy north west. But I'll never learn!

This has given me the push to finally unsubscribe from her emails. I have only had my own garden for the last few years and I was so excited to get started but SR and a lot of other gardening advice just leaves me feeling inferior and so I haven’t really done much.

I find it quite a difficult thing to get into as all the advice makes it sound like you must do these very specific things for each plant to grow rather than make it clearer this is the ideal for optimum growth and actually nature is pretty hardy for the most part. I should just do a bit of trial and error really.