Frankly after nine months it's a little bit late to diagnose such a disparity...the ones sent are obviously not right, how come wasn't that spotted on delivery? After all the foliage was visible you weren't waiting for a flower to confirm ID. Retailers have responsibility to get the product right but also the buyer has to take some responsibility for not spotting the error sooner.
One point to consider @Stevedaylilly is that the one you have (if my ID is right 🤔) is quite tough and does not suffer as much as the smaller varieties over winter. Phormiums divide very easily and grow quite quickly so you could soon have another plant to match. It’s a good idea to divide them when they get to a size which no longer suits their location anyway as it rejuvenates the plant.
With some plants you don't know what they are for months.
I put in some crab apple trees and they didn't flower for years. When they did eventually flower they were bright pink and clearly not remotely what I had ordered. No doubt the nursery would say it's too late for a refund. They were only a couple of quid but it's the colour that bothers me. They are only out blooming for a few weeks so I have decided to let it go.
Were all the plants purchased from the Nursery the same variety ( whether Cream Delight or not ) ? Did you like them and was it simply that one of them didn't do as well as the others which made you then go to the Garden Centre to replace it ? I've only grown the P Yellow Wave - which neither photo resembles - so unable to tell which your 2 are. Just going off the photos, the one from the Garden Centre would certainly fit the Cream Delight name better than the Nursery one which also appears to have a far more upright habit ( a form of P tenax }. 2 different varieties but a positive ID is needed to back up your complaint. Maybe check out the RHS website for confirmation. As has been said, the Nursery's T&C's for refunds/replacements may not extend to 9 months so worth checking. If it doesn't, you could have a battle on your hands. However, if you like the original plants, would it be worth asking the Nursery to simply replace the one which didn't thrive rather than you "naming and shaming" on whatever SM you use ? That does sometimes have the desired effect even if outside the time limit.
@Stevedaylilly, do you know anyone who subscribes to Which? Gardening? Page 59 of the March edition answers a reader’s question about getting a refund on tulip bulbs bought in the autumn but discovering in spring they were the wrong colour.
I fear it would infringe copyright to quote verbatim the answer here but they point the way forward and cite section 11 of the Consumer Rights Act, 2015 and regulation 5 of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.
Thanks for all your comments As the nursery in question are not been at all helpful with identifying the Phormuim present in my garden and that is the frustrating I accept to a degree that I had some responsibility to check the plants were correct and the ones I ordered I’ve checked the nursery’s T&C and they say that the colour and shape of any plants delivered may differ from the advertised plant photo on their site - based on nature etc - so their covering thier proverbial backside with that inclusion I’ve used this nursery on numerous occasions for buying plants but they have just lost a valuable customer in me
I was about to say that many plants can certainly look different as they mature, and if they had been small plants when you got them , that can definitely be the case, but those must have been quite a decent size on purchase, as they wouldn't have reached the size in your photos in that space of time. I have a lot of sympathy for you because that clearly isn't Cream Delight you have - and they do sound like they're fobbing you off. Re taking responsibilty on receiving plants, I can also understand that a foliage plant can also look quite different from any photos, so it can be very easy to just assume that it's down to that if they don't exactly resemble the photos you see when purchasing. You only have to look up any shrub [in particular] on half a dozen sites and you'll get a lot of colour variation. Perhaps @BenCotto's link will help a bit.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
If you really can't or don't want to keep the ones you have and the nursery won't refund you or replace them, you might be able to sell them, on ebay or maybe advertise locally, and recoup something - they're quite expensive plants and the one in your photo looks like a good healthy specimen. Potted too, so should be easy for someone to collect. Failing that, giving them away on freecycle would be better than just binning them.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Posts
https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-rights-act-aKJYx8n5KiSl
https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/phormium/by-size
The original supplier definitely made a mistake and should put it right.
I've only grown the P Yellow Wave - which neither photo resembles - so unable to tell which your 2 are. Just going off the photos, the one from the Garden Centre would certainly fit the Cream Delight name better than the Nursery one which also appears to have a far more upright habit ( a form of P tenax }. 2 different varieties but a positive ID is needed to back up your complaint. Maybe check out the RHS website for confirmation.
As has been said, the Nursery's T&C's for refunds/replacements may not extend to 9 months so worth checking. If it doesn't, you could have a battle on your hands.
However, if you like the original plants, would it be worth asking the Nursery to simply replace the one which didn't thrive rather than you "naming and shaming" on whatever SM you use ? That does sometimes have the desired effect even if outside the time limit.
I fear it would infringe copyright to quote verbatim the answer here but they point the way forward and cite section 11 of the Consumer Rights Act, 2015 and regulation 5 of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.
As the nursery in question are not been at all helpful with identifying the Phormuim present in my garden and that is the frustrating
I accept to a degree that I had some responsibility to check the plants were correct and the ones I ordered
I’ve checked the nursery’s T&C and they say that the colour and shape of any plants delivered may differ from the advertised plant photo on their site - based on nature etc - so their covering thier proverbial backside with that inclusion
I’ve used this nursery on numerous occasions for buying plants but they have just lost a valuable customer in me
I have a lot of sympathy for you because that clearly isn't Cream Delight you have - and they do sound like they're fobbing you off.
Re taking responsibilty on receiving plants, I can also understand that a foliage plant can also look quite different from any photos, so it can be very easy to just assume that it's down to that if they don't exactly resemble the photos you see when purchasing. You only have to look up any shrub [in particular] on half a dozen sites and you'll get a lot of colour variation.
Perhaps @BenCotto's link will help a bit.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...