Online Buying

Hello all,

I am writing an article on buying plants online and I really want to hear everyone's thoughts and advice.

What are the best sites? How helpful do you find buying plants online. What are the major benefits or negatives?

What sort of plants do people generally find themselves buying online?

Why do you buy plants online?

Would love to hear everyones thoughts.

Thank you, Paul

 

Hi Paul, I collect hemerocallis and there are only a limited number of varieties in garden centres so I buy all my plants online, ebay's a favourite have my favourite sellers who always send great plants and also buy from Pollies Daylilies | UK Daylily Nursery | Hemerocallis | UK, she holds the national collection of spider and unusual forms and has over 1500 varieties in all, also buy from theflowerbower.co.uk, daylilies travel very well and can be posted bare root (so postage is fairly cheap) with no ill effect to the plant.
Kathy

 

I would never use them they are forced unnaturally very weak on arrival and so small, they give away "24 extra free" cos they know not many will survive.

I grow from seed or cuttings the old fashioned way.

Gardening is getting too easy, and it's attracting the lazy too.

 

If people expect to receive plants that they can plant out straight into the garden they will be disappointed, I agree.

But I'm happy to nurture and grow the plants on. I have bought 100s of Lavender plants at less than 20p each, tiny plug plants. They all survived (might have lost one or two, but less then 1% overall). I presume they are grown by tissue culture, so all the plants were uniform and I planted them out that Autumn and have now made a lovely low hedge.

We're extending it this year, so I've bought several 100 more Lavender plug plants (not arrived yet ...) but I took the opportunity to buy a number of other things. They've started arriving in dribs & drabs (no indication when, no email alert so I can be sure to be at home when they arrive, and so on) ... but the Dribs & Drabs means I don't have to pot up millions at one sitting!

I got 2 boxes of Heuchra today. Both the same, each with 4 different plants. Two lots of separate postage (I despair!). A label stuck to the plastic packaging with "From Left to Right A=xxx, B=xxx ... " which is clear enough, but on the reverse side of the packaging is embossed (A), (B) ... which is the opposite direction to the way they were actually presented. How difficult would it be to get the packaging the right way round so that it aligned with the label and the plants? :(

They sent me a Tree Peony last week. I've bought from them before and they have been a nightmare to try to keep alive. This one has been layered in sphagnum or somesuch, and had really extensive root system (although all the roots have the characteristic fractures of being disturbed), and the plant had at least 5 separate shoots and roots off the layer, so I was able to split it into 4 separate plants. That might turn out to be a bargain!

So its a bit 6-of-one and half-a-dozen-of-the-other. Caveat Emptor for sure.

 

so how do you know if there weak on arrival ??? and explain ..if someone is after a plant noone they know has how can you obtain cuttings or seeds ??? theres no such thing as lazy gardening unless you have no interest at all ,but there is minimal spend slapdash gardening make do and all that ,some of us are more adventurous after all we cant take money to the grave can we ?

 

Because my father in law buys them and I see them, he is very stubborn and wont use anything I grow which is the same as he buys in. I have tested the stems and found them to be weak.

Now lazy gardeners. many buy plug plants and stick them in and forget about them. No personal axe grinding here,

 

fair enough a stuck in his ways father in law and yes my neighbours do just that stick rubbish in dead the following week and there it stays but thats what i call no interest slapdash and make do type gardening

 

ive used premier seeds on ebay for 2 yrs,they seem good and cheaper postage (59p) even on combined seed sales,also recently bought a lavatera plant and 2 astilbes, 1 from greenwoman on there all delivered perfectly and ready to plant il continue to buy online if the plants are reasonably priced, i wish more gardeners would list there little gems on there i look frorward to searching them my astilbes are florishing nothing weak about them......but excuse the weeds behind them ,a pond is going there so i wanted to get them established asap x

 

I don't know if buying young or established plants makes for a lazy gardener. It could be that they don't have the room to raise lots of plants from seed, or they may be too busy juggling a full time job + being a parent + having a social life. It may be that they've tried and tried and just have little or no success with seeds, or it may be that they want to see fairly quick results because their garden is lacking so much that it gets them down a bit.

But back to the original question. I've bought plants online, though not many. I can't remember the company names, but one was something like 'organic gardening catalogue', and the other was something like RHS hedge nursery or something. In both cases I've been very satisfied with what I received. All the plants were very healthy and exactly as described.

 

The main problem highlighted this year for On-Line Buyers seems to JPD, with their appalling Customer Service. A search on the Net will provide enough info to support the concern.
Buyers expect to receive their purchases fairly quickly. I am still waiting for Plugs - in theory for the hanging baskets that currently still have the weather-beaten Pansies from earlier.
JPD don't seem to see the problem of receiving plugs in June for May flowering plants?.
BTW, they were ordered in March - and I still have no expected shipping date!!

 

im far from lazy but buying established plants can gain some time for people esp when ur bobbin on and have a lot of ground to cover,ive seeded aster,scabious,mexican hat n love lies bleeding in my green house but im a learner this yr ive bought toms,cucumber,peppers etc from markets etc, because i wasnt settled properly in my new home and greenhouse only been up for 4 week ....... but all in all if i had a plant i could pass on a cutting to some1 who wanted it id feel blessed and if any1 would share their beauties id feel honoured to accept them xx the last vision il prob see is my fav flower some lovely photos on this site

 

So I'm lazy (and mean?) just because I don't want to start sowing and heating my greenhouse a month earlier than normal to grow some flowers for my front garden?

Taking this year's order as an example, I waited until there was a good deal on bedding plugs plants at T&M together with free P&P:

Which looked like this when they arrived:



And after a few days in my heated greenhouse, about a week in my unheated polytunnel, then into coldframes, I've now got 168 plants that now look like this and will go into 3" pots tommorow:



Looking at the cost of T&M begonia seeds, it would have cost me almost as much to buy them to sow myself. Begonia semperflorens Lotto Mixed F1 Hybrid - Half-hardy Annual Seeds - Thompson & Morgan And although 2 or 3 had lost the odd leaf, I haven't lost a single plant.

 

Hi, I bought 2 packets of 500, Petunia seeds from Premier Seeds this year too. This is a picture l took of some of them, waiting to be planted out.

Josie

 

I think you are mainly wrong, I'm afraid.

I steer clear of certain types of online buying. Companies like Parkers, who advertise an entire perennial border for a tenner or somesuch, are IMO, very poor and not good value. The plants will be mere scrags of root - though it could work in your favour if you wait for years and resplit or take cuttings and then grow on. It would be a very long haul, though. Most people would move house before they got much of a show.

I have been suspicious of offers in the Guardian and other papers who appear to be selling nice plants - but very expensive if you read the small print and find out how tiny they are.

I would certainly use a reputable mail order firm for obtaining unusual or very specific plants. The main drawback is the cost of postage. But then, you might spend as much in petrol, visiting nurseries.

I also love using Ebay for the same - you can search for exactly what you want, and it's fun to take pot luck by searching for what is near to my address. It's possible to get excellent bargains and most plant sellers give good value, in my experience. I have not received weak or forced plants from private sellers. For example, I now have a lovely named-variety Brugmansia, 14" high, happily growing away in the greehouse, for about £8. It would have taken good luck and time to find that in a garden centre, I think. (But please feel free to enlighten me!)

I wouldn't buy mass plug bedding plants - but that's not a moral reflection on those who do, I don't like seeing my hard-earned swelling the coffers of Tand M's mighty profits, that's all. I would resort to them in times of need - if my own seedlings failed, for example.

Basically, I think gardening is supposed to be about pleasure and feeling at one with one's natural environment. I get enough angst and stress about not working hard enough and tackling difficulties in other areas of my life, I don't want to face them in my garden as well!

 

I buy quite a lot of plants online and generally I've been very pleased with my purchases. Anyone who has received one of Hayloft's lovely little packages through the post will know that mail order plant sales have really moved on over the last few years. Garden centres are nice places to wander around but they don't always have exactly what I want. It's often better simply to order what I require.

It's lovely to grow your own plants from seeds or cuttings but it requires time, skill and dedication - not to mention space. Personally I'm very happy to stick in an online order and have nice little plants delivered to my door. My two favourite suppliers are:-

Hayloft Plants. This firm specialises in young plants which you then grow on. It has a great selection of perennials and often has special deals on postage.

Vernon Geranium Nursery. A specialist pelargonium nursery which is still family owned. Again, it supplies young plants rather than full sized specimens.