Secret Gardening Club

peteS · May 2020

I've just received my first order from SGC and I have to say I'm not terribly impressed. I'd read a number of positive posts recently on the site, but my order arrived this morning and the plants were bone dry with one of them almost dead, and heavily pot bound to such a degree I'm not sure the roots will ever spread out. I've been soaking them for a couple of hours, but once plants get stressed to that level some don't ever recover.

Stevedaylilly · May 2020

Hi Pete
I am very surprised at that
I’ve brought a lot of plants from their site and rarely not been impressed with the plants I’ve received and their subsequent growth rate once planted out
Their customer services are normally quite good. I would email them a photo of the plants you’ve received and request a refund or a new order

peteS · May 2020

@Stevedaylilly I have actually tried photographing them to do that very thing, but apart from the one which seemed to be on it's last legs, it's difficult to convey the state they arrived in really, hard, compacted fine, brown roots don't show up very well on a photograph. I'll plant them out after a good soak and see how they do.

Greenbird · May 2020

Nothing but good experiences here also. What did you order, as i suspect they started to sell for other retailers at some point as their stock was depleted and the prices jumped considerably. Seems to have gone back to normal now though.

My lavender is due tomorrow I believe, so we'll see.

peteS · May 2020

Hi Greenbird, Luckily my order consisted of Lychnis coronaria and Salvia's, both drought tolerant I believe, otherwise they would've been very dead. I have some delphiniums arriving shortly, it'll be interesting to see how they arrive. But as I mentioned, this is my first order from them, so maybe I have been unlucky.

peteS · May 2020

The plants which arrived this morning, as well as being bone dry were properly pot bound (see photo). As for being dry is concerned, they have improved since soaking them in water for 3-4 hours. However I feel I might need to tease out the roots to get them moving. Is this advisable on 9cm plants as obviously it will result in some root damage.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030279/uploads/editor/kl/xlzt58696kop.jpg

Perki · May 2020

Could be a lot worse I bought a corepsis which looks like its been in a tumble drier totally sheered off so its got to grow from the base again , a penstemon raven were similar but I am putting most of the blame on the courier. I am just growing them back on the rest of the plants were fine.