Who'd Want a Job as a "White Van Man?"

Yes, I find the pictures quite deceiving ... and that is a straggly specimen for the money. Be interesting to see what happens.

 

It's only just a thought but wouldn't it be better to buy this kind of plant from a specialist nursery?
I've not looked but if you are buying on the internet I tend to think you need to buy this kind of thing from a grower.
Failing that have a day out and look round at what is available in a 50 mile radius

 

Thanks for that.
Increasingly, nurseries are developing their own web-sites, "modernise or die," so I've had a good look round at well over a dozen.
If you're looking for something specific, driving around in the hope of finding anything is likely to be a fruitless exercise. No offence, but I'm not in to driving around looking for anything, at 23mpg.
My first look for anything is e-Bay, even if I don't buy it that way, it's an excellent "guide price."
A lot of suppliers are now using it as well as their own websites. One click and a click on PayPal, with free postage, can't be beaten.... if it's what you want.
The problem is of course, some suppliers, don't even have the stock, they farm it out to other suppliers. Then it can be a case of "send them this." The number of buyers who actually complain is small.

Of course you can't expect always to have a "what you see on the website is what you get." But some take liberties. I think YouGarden are one of those. Describing the size of the naffin' pot in which it comes and how tall it will grow, is no indication of the size of what they'll send you.

In contrast, one of a number of other suppliers I found are completely honest, with a realistic photo of what you will be buying. Foxfield Garden Centre offer this at £19.50.

Palmatum Taylor

Thompson & Morgan come into a bit of stick over the photos they use to represent their stock. But I've always been happy with them.

Here's an example. They offered these red tree azaleas at twenty quid each in 2016, we bought two.

These are they in the same year, looking exactly like those we saw on their website.




Two years on, promoted to bigger ceramic pots and no longer needing to be staked, they represent really good value for money.




I think I'm left with two choices, give up, or go for a more established plant which can be available at much higher prices. Unfortunately, none are available at the moment.

Rant over.

 

Well maybe its me, but I really dont like buying online unless I have to, lets face it, if you, (the seller), have a load of rubbish to get shot of the best place is mail order.
Most that I see show really fantastic pictures that are totally unrealistic.

I often have a look round locally, just window shopping, and only buying if something different catches my eye, so I guess we all have different ways of looking at things.

 

I buy a lot online as I don't drive and have a way too convenient mailroom in the office where portable sized deliveries can be delivered, and for anything big I can work from home to be in.

After some grave disappointments I have learnt to avoid anything that has "4You" in the name. YouGarden- varietes and anything with "cheap" or "budget" are also blacklisted. And any Chinese sellers. However, a lot of good nurseries are on Amazon, PerfectPlants is a treasure grove if you are looking for something specific and are willing to pay for it.

Ebay is great, or rather, can be great. My best buy was 10 rooted shoots of the exact hardy Geranium I wanted, for a fiver. The lady just dug them up from her garden, wrapped well, and posted.

But the best offline nursery ever is my local Morrisons, I should get a commission for recommending them so much They have just now several varieties of Acer Palmatums, all named and looking stronger than what you got DHR... a fiver each. Sure, their plants are small, but they are healthy, well looked after and sold in season. Ferns, succulents, alpines and other interesting things arrive when they are ready, to complement their basic perennials, shrubs and climbers selection. Plus you can buy a bottle of wine, cheese and fresh bread to go nicely with your new plants.

 

I've found with such places, it's OK if you shop on the day the stuff comes in. In some they don't get looked after very well.

That's how I got this B&Q fifty quid acer palmatum about a decade ago. It was "a suitable case for treatment." It was on the delivery unit.
I wouldn't have given what they had left "garden room," when I was there the following week.



The best plants go straight away, so I guess many must have the same idea. It's the same with Wilko's and Aldi. The latter amaze me. An employee told me when I pointed out some plants that were obviously drying out, "We are not allowed to water them....'elf n' safety."

 

I have bought smallish potted plants on Ebay with no problems. Never risked anything as large as a tree online. I have bought several clematis from Taylors and have been over the moon with the choice and quality 10/10.

 

I always check the seller's feed-back % including comments from purchasers and volume of past sales.

Last year I bought my Tyros leccy piano on E-bay, at a discount, though it was being sold by a musical instrument chain and included a 2 year guarantee.

My eBay purchases are quite diverse. This year, printing ink, printer paaper, vacuum cleaner bags, roofinf felt, Pinflair glue, new headphones for my leccy piano, Wet & Forget.etc. "Free postage" is a great incentive Having stuff delivered to your door, beats getting the car out, finding somewhere to park and traipsing around the shops....

I've learned that our local Wyevale, which was reported to be being sold for housing development as have a few local nurseries in the past, now isn't. Maybe they were refused planning permission. It's been bought by Dobbies and will change over on 2nd of September.

 

I too buy from E-Bay and Amazon because of these reasons but have to make sure they will deliver to a PO Box as we live in the country and couriers are useless here! I have had large items such as upright vacuum cleaners delivered by Amazon to the PO but has to be a supplier that says Fulfilled by Amazon.

 

I dont buy many plants online but the ones I have, I have been very happy with. The only exceptions so far have been plug plants but I'm sure that it was my lack of know how that killed them off.

G.

 

A positive response from YouGarden.

They've refunded my money including the postage.

I suspect that it's a case of, "you can't get the help these days."

The plant was sent out in a tall box just the stick to prevent it sliding backwards and forwards as it rattled around in a carrier's van for several days.

Shame about that.

The experience won't deter me from buying anything from them in the future.

 

Well I certainly wouldn't buy anything from them again.
First of all it should have been properly packed.

And secondly, why do sellers alway think its just ok to refund the money, you ordered a plant because you wanted it, they supplied something substandard and to just get you your money back is an insult.

They have wasted your time, and effort in getting the refund, and you still have no plant.
Diabolical service as far as I'm concerned.

I've bought stuff on E bay that has been basically not as ordered, and all you get is a refund, out of order, give them bad feedback I say, because they are doing it all the time.

I assume in your case you get to keep the plant?

 

I've had 2 Yodel deliveries arrive before tracking has shown it's even out for delivery.

Same thing happened with UPS last week.

And shortly after signing for it, all the delivery tracking for the previous 12 hours suddenly appears (backdated).

Get that negative feedback in quick, as you can't leave any if refunded for being supplied with rubbish, then getting a refund through ebay for mis-description, even then I think your feedback can disappear after receiving the refund, whereupon the seller will re-list with same description and pronounce the item is re-available due to a 'time waster'. And the cheeky seller even tried to get me to pay the return postage until ebay made them send me a tracked pre-paid label.

 

I'm just being pragmatic.

In the circumstances, I wasn't going to get anything more than a full refund. I do get to keep the plant, it may survive, but at that size even if it does, it will be "lost" anywhere in our garden.

I have since ordered a A/P Shirazz (a similar acer) from Larch Cottage Nurseries, they have a big selection of all sorts of plants. Not that many photos of acers as it's a new website and they said they haven't got round to getting them all done..

https://larchcottage.co.uk/

I asked them to e-mail me a photo of it, which they did, within a couple of hours.