Where do you buy your spring bulbs?

[redpickle]

We moved into a property last April and we had also visited in March. The garden is .25 acre, mature and well looked after but absolutely no spring flowers last year so I want to buy a lot of mixed bulbs and stock the borders and some pots. Where's the best place to buy them? Are Wilko/supermarket cheapie bags any lower quality than garden centre bulbs? Is there somewhere online that I'm not aware of? Any tips appreciated!

Always from Wilko, they are excellent value for money and have always performed well for me.

I like peternyssen

For special ones, Peter Nyssen or Famer Gracy online.

For bog standard, really good value cheap things, Aldi or Lidl. Or Wilko or Morrisons. All perfectly good, the former 2 the cheapest.

www.lidl.co.uk/c/indoor-outdoor-plants/c2434/w2 so cheap!

Wilko have 20% off garden at the moment so 8 tulip bulbs were £2.50 reduced to £2. You'd pay double that in a big chain garden centre.

If I'd not topped up there I'd be heading to Lidl next week.

Peter Nyssen... excellent quality... value for money.. great variety...brilliant service.... have used them for decades.

Sign up to the Thompson & Morgan mailing list - you'll get loads of emails, but it's worth it as every so often they reduce their bulbs right down.

Also Sarah Raven and Farmer Gracy - they're pricey at full price, but it you hold off till November they have some huge bargains...

Farmer Gracy. They are brilliant quality and lots of unusual varieties.

Always buy from Framer Gracy online! They have sales from time to time but I've never been disappointed.

Lidl bulbs have been fantastic and they usually have some interesting varieties.

Much bigger range at Peter Nyssen - and good value too. And they have plastic free packaging too.

Sarah Ravens catalogue is beautiful - fantastic for ideas - and I don't think it's quite so over priced as it used to be. Everything I've bought from there has been great - one time I bought some rooted cuttings from them and one out of 5 arrived damage and they replaced it without hesitation.

Happy shopping - I love reading bulb and seed catalogues!

I’ll second Lidl - plants bought this year were very good value and quality so expect their bulbs will be good.

Sainsburys have a bag of 30 daffs for £3.

Sarah Raven tulip bulbs this spring were expensive and disappointing as ended up not being the colour ordered.

I like gee tee. For trade quantities you can ring up end of season and they will do special custom mixes and prices.

www.gee-tee.co.uk

Both lidl and aldi over the last 2yrs haven't disappointed. From memory they were £1.79 for anything from 6 to 12 bulbs- possibly more. Variegated, frilly edged, stripey and all sorts which to be seem rather exotic. I'll try posting some pics. 😀

I also bought a bag of 50 daffodil bulbs from Asda, but cant recall the price. I think they had regular, plain daffs, dwarfs and maybe a bag of various colours.

Look out for large bags of daffs, usually works out really cheap

Ooh the bank Holiday free delivery offers have started - Farmer Gracy and Sarah Raven...

I've always had great success with the Lidl and Aldi bulbs

Thanks so much everyone! I think I will do a mix of bulk supermarket ones and some more unusual. So excited to see my borders and containers in the spring

There are some really good tips on here. Our garden seriously needs an injection of colour and Spring is my favourite season

I bought tons of bulbs last year from J Parkers and I was disappointed. Half the bluebells were the European variety rather than the English bluebells I ordered and apart from the tete a tetes the daffodils all came up different from what I expected so I think there were some mix ups.

I'm going to try and put in more daffs and do some tulip planters but not sure what else to go for.

I use Peter Nyssen because their bulbs are excellent and they do not treat their bulbs with neonicotinoids.

i asked Farmer Gracy if their bulbs were free of neonics their reply was not reassuring so I don’t use them any more

I buy from my local nursery where they do big bags - 50s and 100s - which are good value. I got 50 tulip bulbs for £8 with a staff discount, but they're only £12 without, which is good value. Just bought £30 worth of various things to share with friends - I've got literally hundreds of bulbs of different kinds.

Sarah Raven is very expensive and IMO the quality has been getting worse and worse. Peter Nyssen is good quality. But I agree, cheap and cheerful is the way to go if you need lots. You will be able to see easily if the bulbs are healthy - if they're large, solid and not marked with mould, they ought to be good.

Suttons have an offer for 160 bulbs for a tenner at the moment