taken the chance on mail order

After my hideous experience at a garden centre yesterday I have taken the plunge and placed my first order for some plants online...………. Purple Phlox and Blue Flax (linum)
so Im keeping everything crossed

 

@cindy I'm not a fan of the local garden centre because it can often be crowded (which sets off my anxiety) and selection is typically very limited, so I get most of my plants by mail order. I haven't had many disappointments over the years, TBH. The one thing I will say about ordering from websites is check photos of plants on different websites and even books if you've after a specific colour to complement what you already have, they can often be misleading. Always unpack plants very carefully, receiving plants by mail order can be exciting and I occasionally forget to pay attention to that.

Would recommend this place, have only bought four plants from them but they seem transparent about whether particular plants have struggled that year or not, something I really appreciate.

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Hope you're pleased with your plants when they arrive!

Nick

 

We buy a lot of plants mail order. Some places we take a chance on quality, others are recommendations from other gardeners.

We've only had one bad experience and that may be down to my winter storage of the plant.

Facebook groups for a specific style of gardening or recommendations from here are always useful.

 

Hi Cindy,
I buy perhaps 75% of my plants via mail order and I would definitely recommend Hayloft Plants and J. Parkers.
Hayloft do a lot of the more unusual and rarer perennials, shrubs etc. They also do special collections where you can order a mix of ten ( I've just ordered a collection of different Digitalis ( Foxglove ) ) or 12 plants for £1 each .
Parkers have a selection of thousands including bulbs, perenials, trees, shrubs and annual bedding, and also with each order you get a free gift.

 

Second the J. Parker endorsement, good thing about their catalogues is that they also have a decent selection of fruit, good mix of ornamentals and edibles.

 

Excellent Cindy

Well done and enjoy your plants.

I grow Linum, blue flax, here too.......delightful colour.

I received two plants today....one at £2.99 and one at £5.....and here they are.
I can thoroughly recommend Paddocks Plants, and The Secret Garden who despatched these yesterday. Both will make substantial flowering plants next year but may even do so this summer.

I grow a large number of plants and buy only online or from local nurseries.

I think there was a thread recommending online suppliers and perhaps we should resurrect it or start another

 

Hearing a lot of complaints about Hayloft at the moment. Plants not arriving or mislabelled when they do.

 

oh dear,
I have always found Hayloft to be good. Hope they aren't going downhill,
Jenny

 

I buy quite a bit online and have rarely been disappointed. I bought a fair bit from The Secret Garden club in March and April. I also really like Ballyrobert Gardens most of their plants are £4.99. eBay has been good too.

The only ones I really avoid are those who charge £30+ postage to Northern Ireland , haven’t they heard of Royal Mail?

 

Hayloft has not been great for me either Palustris. I had agastaches sent to me that were poor quality and some died. Had refund but not great. They also supply small plugs that cost as much as much bigger plants elsewhere. They are friendly folk but need to up their game I think

Ditto Parker’s.....superb for bulbs but I no longer buy plants from them.

BellaBlue, yep, Ballyroberts is excellent. Good selection, cheap and despatched fast. Plus they always had a chewy sweet...can’t be bad ! Dorset Perennials are first class. Several good companies out there offering excellent products so do your research folks before paying out Bit more pricey but superb quality is Hillview Hardy Plants. Hardys too are very good

eBay can be excellent too

 

Think mail order is a bit of a lottery at the best of times as the folk who actually grow and send you the plants are often one of many sub suppliers of the company you pay.

One batch of plants may seem great, the next very poor, so do not be put off by one bad delivery.

Always save the paperwork and take pics of your plants when they arrive.
If ordering things like 'plug' plants do not instantly think they are bad until you have opened them up and let some shaded light get to them for a hour or so.

What's more important is how well they respond to any problems and have to say Van Meuwen were very good, but now they have been taken over not so sure what they will be like.

Hayloft, after two out of three deliveries were of very poor quality / treated plants , never used them again.

While mail order can be handy, think you should also look around for other local garden places and try and enjoy looking around them.
At many smaller nurseries you often find the folk serving are the owners and are only too happy to give you lots of good advice on how to look after their plants.

Perhaps, in the future, as you get to know folk on the forum you might be able to pair up with someone in your area who would walk with you around a garden center, sure there must be folk with similar feelings who would be glad of such understanding company, plenty of ladies in the forum, its not just men.

(oops... will the moderator ban me, are we allowed to say ladies , men, these days)