Beware of Sarah Raven

[Cr01ssant55]

They are sending out plants that aren’t those ordered without informing customers , they’re impossible to contact and don’t reply when you do. Lots of issues online with quality too.

Im actually really shocked with what they’re getting away with. I have two sets of plants that are absolutely not what I ordered and others I’m questioning. I complained re one set weeks ago and they haven’t replied. They’re impossible to contact. Went online and found loads of disgruntled customers with really poor plants pictured.

Lots of small independent GC going/gone out of business is an issue.

Still no answer from customer service
for me. Sent more emails. I don’t care who owns it,they are clearly crooks selling false, bad quality merchandise deceitfully with zero method of contact or customer service. If it was any other company instead of a rich lady in with tv gardeners with a lovely house there would be investigations.

You do realise that the plants in garden centres were also ordered sight unseen, from the same suppliers, just a different middle man?

(I used to do the ordering and growing on of thousands of plants for a farm shop- we had to order from a catalogue, 5-6 mo in advance....)

Grown and supplied by crocus in the most part, as are Waitrose garden

@AlwaysGardening I'll check on Instagram but at least one of the flower farmers I follow offers plugs for cutting plants. Amelia's flower farm I think

Because I can't get the right variety or cultivar from the garden centre, it would cost a lot more, there is a special offer on or I want a big quantity at once.

I ordered 40 alpines this year from an online source as I made a new gravel garden. I did check at the local garden centres first but they had nothing similar in terms of choice or price and it would have been an arseache going through the tills and getting 40 plants home. The plants were really good and healthy.

I also made a pond and there was a more better selection of pond plants online- again they were healthy and good.

Sarah Raven I ordered from once and wasn't impressed though.

I always get amazing plants from Tortworth Plants but delivery is quite pricy

The best plant I've ever bought - a rose for DM birthday present- was bought online. I went to the local garden centres first and none of them had it. 🤷

Because there are some wonderful online specialist nurseries out there that sell plants you just can't buy in garden centres. Mail order is where the obsessed gardeners get their plants.
I ordered Rhodochiton atrosanguineus from SR. Plug plants. They arrived a full month after they were promised and were barely 2-leaf seedlings. I'm open to the public; I need them for a planned pot display. I won't be using her again, though she's great for ideas to rip off.

Crocus, David Austin, Chiltern Seeds and Thorncroft clematis are all fantastic. You can’t tar all online providers with the same brush.

This thread has made me very nervous as I placed an order a couple of weeks ago!

Part 1 arrived a couple of hours ago and actually was decent (3 French tarragon plants) . Now waiting on 2 dahlias which apparently have been dispatched. Fingers crossed. I promised a tarragon to a friend and was very worried about what I might be handing over but it does look pretty respectable thank goodness.

Thorn croft buy in from New Leaf and I'm not sure they even grow them on much.....

Well whatever they do the quality is great and so is the customer service. Huge amount of variety too.

Yes, I've used them this year although there was one specific request for a client they didn't have that I had to get from.....SR

And were fine

I wanted a particular tulip bulb. Nowhere local had any (it's not a common one) and all the online suppliers were out of stock, apart from Sarah Raven. The prices were a lot higher than anywhere else but I was prepared to pay because it was for a gift.

I got a lovely pot locally and when the bulbs eventually arrived I planted nine out of the ten (one was rotten) and did all the right things to hopefully get the best outcome. They grew, the greenery was filling the pot just in the time for the big day and my friend was delighted, with the one flower that eventually resulted 🙄

We don't have any decent garden centres where I live in Somerset. They are very run of the mill and expensive with mostly boring, old fashioned plants. I have to order online but only from specialist nurseries.

And, as an ex-garden centre employee, small chain, chances of getting someone who knows anything about plants at a garden centre???? 🤷🤷🤷

I ordered a border collection in April for mid May delivery but the date kept being extended. I emailed twice and got no reply. I tried ringing but they’ve closed their contact centre. I messaged again yesterday requesting the order be cancelled and to be fair they responded the same day and issued refund. There’s no way I could have planted a summer flowering border in late July. Very disappointed. I can understand the weather may have proved difficult for them but more communication would have been better

Try leaving a TrustPilot review as companies seem to respond very quickly to these if negative.

I made the mistake of buying from Sarah Raven website once and never again - I look at it for inspiration on colours/plants and then buy from local nurseries or other online company's who I've had great plants from

I can't really be arsed with any online ordering any more. Never looks the same. Tried buying some shorts and the sizing so absolutely bizarre. Went into shops and got what I wanted. I never know what plants I want because I'm an utterly shit gardener so I just browse the garden centre and mostly eat too much cream tea (maybe explains the issues with shorts

Agree. We’re in south London - the good ones are miles away, the local ones are tiny, and sell overpriced bedding plants, house plants and cut flowers, and not much else. Fine if you want a garden full of violas and marigolds, not so fine if you want perennials or shrubs (or just have a tonne of snails in your garden and want to buy specific things they don’t eat).

DM lives in Sussex and she has loads more choice! I wouldn’t order online if I lived near her. Her local garden centre even does garden furniture and summerhouses, it is enormous.

I notice in her statement re the company being restructured( I guess to avoid going into administration )none of her aims going forward seem to be customer satisfaction or paying money owed to customers who were knowingly sent different items to what they ordered and poor quality merchandise.

They seem quite arrogant and maybe a little ignorant as regards what gardeners in the real world prioritise. Expensive trinkets and style over substance, quality and honesty isn’t what customers look for in online gardening providers.

I had this when I bought the Deborah James Bowel Babe rose from another big garden nursery company ...it was not that rose sent at all...I dont think it was an error

I tried this, when part of my order still hadn't arrived months after it was due, and after I had chased them multiple times and never got a response. They responded very quickly (publicly on the TrustPilot page) to my bad review, and I received an email via TrustPilot to ask for more information so that they could rectify the issue, and then for ages STILL nothing happened. Eventually after multiple messages via their website asking for a refund (they've basically shut down their phone lines) I noticed a refund appear in my account, they didn't even send me a message to apologise and confirm they'd refunded me. I'm assuming they're rapidly unravelling as a company, its a shame, I would always swoon over their catalogue when it arrived.