Thompson & Morgan Plug plants

Has anyone had any experiences with Thompson & Morgan plug plants by mail order?
I ordered 5 postiplugs (fuchsias) off them and waited eagerly for them. Today they arrived and to say I'm disappointed is a bit of an understatement. They were dried out, in a one sided plastic holder covered over with cardboard and the biggest one is shown below, just one inch tall with no signs of a growing tip or any sideshoots.
It says on the catalogue.......... Thompson & Morgan, Experts in the garden since 1855.
That really makes me laugh... NOT......

 

sounds about right with what you have told us , I have been on here a while and every year the same ... they are good at sending replacements and giving vouchers they have had a enough practice at that ....

I dont bother with them anymore and go with the smaller nurseries , for fuchsias etc

moan they will sort it for you

Spruce

 

I stopped using them a couple of years ago after several problems with quality, but I did relent this year & put in a small order, today I received 5 postiplugs of Osteospermum & they were actually very good quality, they will probably turn out to be a different variety than ordered though.

 

Snap. Bought a perennials collection a year ago. Most of the plants are still in the greenhouse as not strong enough to plant out yet.
Planted out some coreopsis late last summer when they had got to a good size, they have died over winter. Had to relent and plant out some poppies the other day (which were replacements sent) but not sure if they will survive. Had no choice- greenhouse full!
As others have said, there is better quality elsewhere. Complain and you will get replacements sent, but they may not be much better.

 

Ditto.You get vouchers.The last lot i got i never used £20 oops.Havent been back to them again.Its seeds only or clearance section at the diy sheds for me now. Costs pennies and im happy.

 

A couple of years ago I ordered some Begonia plugs (Apricot Shades) in good time. I had to wait until the middle of May before they showed up, not ideal!

 

I use specialist nurseries for most of my plants but I wanted some of the large American double fuchsias for my mums wall baskets otherwise I wouldn't have bothered.
They sent a £5 voucher but I've decided to save that until later in the year and order some bulbs with it. I won't be using them for plants again.

 

Aren't the vouchers time limited?

 

Yeah, but they're in date until 31 December this year.

 

They did that to me with some NG Bizzy Lizzy plug plants, but they were all either completely dead, half dead or in terminal decline. T&M tried to blame it on Royal Mail taking too long to deliver them, but from the dispatch advice & delivery dates that was a load of nonsense.

They sent replacements, but it appeared they were from a new order from their suppliers, and what they had in stock for immediate delivery went to new paying customers meaning the replacements arrived far too late in the season.

Complete shambles.


P.S. Even with T&M seeds you have to be careful as the put the batch number (that they ask you for when they fail) on the top of the packet that you tear off when opening it. Also when they do the like of 'buy 2 get 1 free' and the 'bought' seeds fail they'll try and only refund you 67% of the cost IYSWIM, although they'll initially try to give you a replacement packet even though it's too late to sow replacements and they'll be out of date the following year.

 

I've given up on T&M.....they're useless.

I also wouldn't use Sarah Raven/Johnsons seeds again either. I've had two different varieties with lousy germination rates. I doubt very much that it's anything to do with the way I've sown them. One is Cerinthe which I've been told should be easy.

 

The cerinthe I had from them didn't germinate either @Fern4.

 

Another give them a miss vote here, my thread from last years debacle.
http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/thompson-morgan-awaiting-delivery.65064/