Ordering plants online?

[Mamabear04]

Does anyone order plants online and are they any good? I've been trying to tackle my garden which is a complete jungle but I have young children so I'm not able to just stroll leisurely round garden centres. I'm hoping to fill it with bushy flower type things like hydrangeas, fuschias, azaleas etc. I very much fancy a Japanese maple. Any other recommendations?

I've done it a few times and had mixed success. Once they took weeks longer than stated and arrived in multiple deliveries. Another time, some plants never arrived and others arrived squashed.

I'd do loads of research and go to the garden centre with a list so you can be as quick as possible. That way you can be sure the plants you are getting are good quality.

All those plants can be had from larger supermarkets at the right time of year, they will be a darn sight cheaper, you can see what you are getting, and can pick the best one from those available.

I have had excellent plants from the RHS plants site, good quality and beautiful flowers. Some of the cheaper sites much more variable and supermarkets some were diseased though were cheaper and some were fine. RHS allows you to select by planting month, soil type etc which helps and I tend to go for ones it says last well.

I tend to pay extra for the named day delivery otherwise it can take a while though if not in a rush that's fine.

I live fairly remote so on line ordering is the only real option.

RHS is excellent.

I've also had great trees from Paramount trees.

Thompson and Morgan has 90% of the time been fine for me and when it isn't they are fine about refunding.

Sarah Raven - good but expensive.

Marshalls are good too.

I'm rather amazed that some plants I bought from Amazon were really lovely strong healthy plants. Well packaged too. Is there anything they don't sell?!

They had Japanese maples and hydrangeas in Lidl last time I went!

Online is hit and miss to be honest.

I order loads online - much better than garden centers in my opinion. It's often cheaper and you can get plants out of season (sometimes).

My top recommendation is Let's Go Planting. They have a huge range and the plants were all superb and really well packaged. The only exception was when they sent me a much smaller plant than advertised. I complained and they refunded me (letting me keep the smaller plant!). Really impressed. RHS and paramount are also good.

On the other side of the scale, avoid J Parkers at all costs! They are cheaper but the quality is really poor. I was horrified when I received my order from them. Some of the plants were dead on delivery, others damaged in transit. It was like they just shoved them all in a box without any regard for the plants actually making it through alive. I eventually got a refund but it took some time and lots of chasing. Awful.

I've just bought a beautiful and very healthy hydrangea from Sainsburys this week. Noticed Asda had three different types of Acer for a fiver each last week. Tesco had gorgeous magnolias in April. I bought a wisteria and different clematis from Aldi before now. Try your different supermarkets first although they only stock them when in season for that particular plant. Makes it more exciting to do a food shop to see what goodies they have lined up outside 😂

I use ebay for most of my plants and always had good purchases bar one seller who is apparently something "big" on fb. God knows why as she was horrid after I requested a refund for dead plants.
Crocus are incredibly slow so I never use them now.
Primrose are good.

I’ve had some great plants from eBay shops.
Quite often they are included in the % off home events. I’ve had a couple of large beds to fill & went for 10 ferns for a shady bed for £30. All are enormous a year later and doing well.

I always buy online as if you live in London like me and don't drive, it's really the only option for decent plants.
I don't think it's more expensive except for the delivery charge. I do pay more than I should on delivery charges because an advantage of ordering online is that you can be really fussy! I can spend ages researching and choosing the exact plant I want, and then I might end up buying from two different sites rather than one to get the three different plants I've set my heart on.
A way of keeping the costs down is to go for plug plants. I got some lovely healthy salvia plugs recently off eBay, they were offering so many different types I wanted to get them all. There are proper nurseries selling on there as well as random individuals, and I think it's reasonably easy to sort one from the other. It's a way of supporting small businesses rather than just the big name gardening firms.

I have ordered quite a few plants off eBay and Amazon. All have been fine. Lidl have some good plants too, shrubby things as well as bedding plants.

I like to buy plants online - the garden centre generally doesn't ever have the plant I am looking for, and given we have a shady, slug infested garden on clay soil, I don't want to waste my money on something that will not survive the year! I like a browse at the garden centre, and do sometimes pick things up, but when I am planning a new border/big changes I find online is much better to be able to get what you are wanting.

Most plants I have bought online have been great - from Thomson and Morgan, Crocus, Long Acre Plants and others. The only bad experiences I've had were with Hayloft (tiny plants in large pots, plus an awkwardly shaped shrub) and garden express (very cheap, but pot bound).

I also buy from Thompson and Morgan, Sarah Raven and Crocus. I've had a few duds over the years but they have always been replaced immediately. eBay are also worth trying. I've also had compost from eBay, in fact waiting for a delivery now. Saves lugging it in and out of the car.

Firstly, you need your soil type and aspect,NSEW save you wasting money. I have a lot of Japanese maples. They are Japanese woodland shrubs, like semi shade. Happy to supply photos. My back garden is NE facing, and I have lost them to both wind and sunburn, they hate both. Hydrangea,clue in the name,lots of water,semi shade. Fuchsias hardy where I live in the SE most sheltered corner,10 minutes ago from the sea. I buy a lot of plants, shrubs from Aldi and Lidl. Online, Thompson and Morgan hot and miss,used to buy posti plugs, don't bother anymore, have to pot on twice then leave to harden off,false economy, and I have 4 greenhouses. When I have had bad deliveries, found they weren't interested. Gardening Express,You Garden avoid. Parkers ok. Crocus ok. Use nursery not garden centres, cheaper and more experienced.