@Jellyfire. Do hope your plants do well in spite of their size. Think they must have run out of mature plants to cut down! It will be interesting to see if mine flower this year.
I suspect Gardening Express (and a few other businesses) operate as a sort of 'clearing house' buying up surplus stuff from nurseries etc , advertising and selling it on.... hence the variation in quality .and packaging ... some is probably 'past it's best before date' and others have lurked too long at the back of a display, becoming either too large for too old or the general 'garden centre trade' .
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Makes sense @Dovefromabove. I think mine must have been "too old" for general trade but will have to wait and see if I was one of the lucky ones watching it's progress.
I've placed quite a few orders with them over the last couple of years and apart from a hiccup during the first lockdown they have been brilliant. Also I think my first ever order included 2 x salix flamingo which were heavily discounted but 1 of them didn't look in good condition so they replaced it without any fuss and then the one I thought was in poor condition perked up so now I have three!
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.