Ordering from Sarah Raven- just unlucky?

[ZeroPlastic]

I've had such trouble buying things from Sarah Raven- it always seems the luck of the draw whether the thing will actually turn up or be cancelled. Most recent order I took great care only to buy things listed as in stock. Half my order wasn't dispatched for over a week. The other half has still not been sent weeks after I placed the order.

Thinking of giving up completely which is a shame as I love Sarah herself and the ideas on the website. Have I been unlucky or are they like this with everyone?

@SarahAndQuack , re Farmer Gracy, I have ordered from them based on recommendations from mumsnet. Ordered bulbs last year and this year, was happy with service, price, choice and will continue to use them. They have many offers and discounts throughout the seasons.

Farmer Gracy are great, I've never had a dud from them.

Sarah Raven definitely so-so - plants I ordered this year have arrived in terrible condition (not enough packaging?) and my mum ordered a lot of tulips which were completely the wrong colour (orange and red instead of pale pink - not what she wanted at all).

Crocus - generally ok, and happy to replace if something has gone wrong. I placed a big order in January when there was a sale and half the plants died before I could get them in the ground in spring. They did replace them all, but they were clearly the dregs being sold off.

I much prefer to buy in person so I can check the plant over and buy the best specimen they have available.

Is part of the problem that plants are just not very suited to online ordering??

Bramshott, you are right. If you order anything online, you don't get to choose which plant to pick, and if you are not at home to receive the parcel, they'll go back to the depot, and when you collect them, or have them redelivered, they'll probably have perished, especially in hot weather

Sarah Raven has been notoriously awful to order from for years. Am a big gardener and have tried ordering from her website on and off over the years, thinking maybe my early experiences were one offs.

Never again.

And the quality of the plants is no better than elsewhere.

It is all very clever marketing. So I take the ideas and source the actual plants elsewhere.

I don't think so. I've ordered from more specialist places (Hayloft and Twelve Nunns recently) and those plants arrived in perfect condition.

Re Farmer Gracy - I had a dahlia tuber that didn’t grow last year and they sent me a replacement with no quibbles. Really happy to recommend them.

Never ordered any plants from Sarah Raven, although I did order my sweet pea seeds from there this year. They’re all doing fine.

Thanks - good to know!

Hmmm half my Sarah Raven sweet pea
seeds didn’t sprout this year.

Great marketing, shit customer service and quality is iffy ime. Try Farmer Gracy instead.

Oh, and Wilko's is excellent - 100% success with their seeds last year and a fraction of the cost .

Wilko is great. Pretty much everything I've got from there has been fine.

I’m waiting for a load of sweet pea plugs that were meant to turn up at the start of April. Haven’t heard back from them when asking about their arrival…

It's bloody difficult to time plants to be exactly ready, especially when it's been so cold.

I work in a greenhouse with 20k+ plants right now. It's been extremely slow to get much happening the past few weeks, especially decent root growth to allow packing and sending

@Harrysmummy246 of course, you can’t magic something big enough to send! Annoyed by the lack of any sort of communication!

I order about 1500 tulips from Parkers every year and have done for twenty years. I have never had poor service, mouldy bulbs or any failures. I would not order herbaceous plants or shrubs from there because those I would buy from a specialist nursery. I'm in the trade and all the professionals I know (lots) flip through the Sarah Raven catalogue for ideas then order bulbs from Parkers. Farmer Gracy is excellent too.

Plants have been sold by mail order for 100 years or more. Plant nurseries practically invented mail order selling.

I don't buy from her any longer . I've tried three times and each time I was promised delivery only to chase and chase to be told the item is out of stock and don't know if we can get more .
I also think she is over priced .

What do you do with so many tulips? I bet it looks beautiful.

I have a six acre garden that is open to the public. The acre near the house is quite formal with big Cretan pots round a pool. They take a lot of tulips and there are other big pots in other parts of the garden too. Then there is a parterre in front of the house with a chequerboard pattern and that's planted in single colour blocks with four different tulips. It's all planned the previous autumn. Leftovers go into formal borders - Darwins into cottage beds and lily-flowered and parrots into big herbaceous borders. I still never have enough though. I love tulips.

@Bideshi Oh how lovely, you lucky thing! Are you on Instagram or anything?

That sounds fabulous! I’d love to see photos if you’re happy to share some.

Reviving this thread as I've been having trouble with Sarah Raven orders.

Ordered some plants from them last year, which I was planning to share with someone. They arrived okay but were a bit weedy looking. Despite me and the other woman having around 100 years experience between us, the plants failed. I complained and was told replacements would be sent out. The replacement arrived but the wrong plants had been sent out. Complained again and was told new plants would be sent. Got a dispatch notification that they'd been sent out on the 8th, but nothing has turned up. Complained again, this morning, but no response so far and they're generally very quick to respond.

Anyone else having issues?

I've never ordered but I find other companies are fine. My parker's daffodils weren't great this year but my Wilko tulips were glorious. I got them in a sale a while before the shops closed. I miss Wilko.

I just received an order which was wrong.. most expensive plants missing! And they are really small pots.. won't be ordering from them again