I bought some ivies from Fibrex nursery, ivy is one of the plants in which they specialise, also begonias and a couple of other genuses, I forget which. The sturdy little plants arrived carefully packaged with minimal plastic, very reasonably priced, and the staff helpfully answered several inquiries I made by email before making my selection.
I've bought fruit trees, currants and strawberries from Brogdale, home of the National Fruit Collection, and from Ian Sturrock of North Wales. Quality, packaging, transit and customer service were faultless. I buy seeds and a few other things such as coir bricks from the Organic Gardening Catalogue, faultless again.
Unless plants are actually dead or dying on arrival, it don't see that it matters much how they look, because they're going to grow and be trained, pruned or whatever to suit the buyer. I agree the carriers can be a menace. I've never had plants damaged in transit, but other stuff I buy online sometimes arrives with smashed jars and leaking cartons. I think it's important to tell the supplier when this happens, so they know the sort of service they're paying for.
In my book, the coffee and cake is the only thing worth going to a garden centre for. The plants are commonplace and predictable, and are increasingly sidelined by merchandise that has nothing to do with gardening. I'm lucky to have a family-run nursery close by, and if I buy more than I can take home on the bus, they deliver. They have no trouble finding my house, because it used to be theirs!
Am I the only person who laments the passing of garden centres to see them replaced with coffee shops/ cafés with a few gardening bit scattered about the place?
No I do too but its probably the only way they can survive nowadays if we are all online buyers. Mind you online must help small specialist nurseries survive.
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I've bought fruit trees, currants and strawberries from Brogdale, home of the National Fruit Collection, and from Ian Sturrock of North Wales. Quality, packaging, transit and customer service were faultless. I buy seeds and a few other things such as coir bricks from the Organic Gardening Catalogue, faultless again.
Unless plants are actually dead or dying on arrival, it don't see that it matters much how they look, because they're going to grow and be trained, pruned or whatever to suit the buyer. I agree the carriers can be a menace. I've never had plants damaged in transit, but other stuff I buy online sometimes arrives with smashed jars and leaking cartons. I think it's important to tell the supplier when this happens, so they know the sort of service they're paying for.
In my book, the coffee and cake is the only thing worth going to a garden centre for. The plants are commonplace and predictable, and are increasingly sidelined by merchandise that has nothing to do with gardening. I'm lucky to have a family-run nursery close by, and if I buy more than I can take home on the bus, they deliver. They have no trouble finding my house, because it used to be theirs!