Rate Your Mail Order Purchases

[Maggi Young]

You show us the other side of the coin, Maureen. It is always useful to consider the view of the other person.




 P.S. You  can always re-enter your post, by clicking on the modify button above it, to make any corrections.

[alpines]

When I was back in England, I had one particular nursery that I would have walked there and back to get the plants I wanted. Some reasonably priced, some a little more expensive than I would have liked but undoubtedly (in my humble opinion) excellent quality and great value for money, and if I was limited to having only one nursery I could buy plants from, then this would be the one.....BUT............without exception, I had to remove every scrap of soil from the plants and start from scratch otherwise they would probably have very quickly succumbed. Not diseased, not virused, not unhealthy in any way, but the compost they were growing in, although suitable for 3 inch pots, was most certainly not conducive to transplanting into the ground.
What am I trying to say here?
If I hadn't thought to look at the compost and check the root system on every occasion, I would have lost the vast majority of plants and probably ended up condemning the nursery person on this forum. I guess I'm just saying that before you slate people in public, just be aware that maybe the quality is not as bad as you think.
Being stuck in the middle of nowhere as I am, I have to rely solely on mail order for plants. So far, I haven't had any bad experiences.
In a past life I was a Quality Manager. There is an old saying in the profession that the worst quality complaint is the one you don't hear about. As Maggi says, give the nursery the opportunity to make reparation before posting for all the world to see.

[mark smyth]

Woottons of Wenhasten - not recommended.

I was there in 2008 and selected the best Pelargoniums with lots of buds and growing stems. Then plants arrived in an onion bag in a small box. A very small box considering I picked the best looking plants. What was in the onion bag was shocking. Michael Loftus would only refund half of the cost. All plants died.

[mark smyth]

helianthemums.co.uk - not recommended

The plants arrived very poorly packaged. Most plants broken. No refund offered

[mark smyth]

Karen Junker. For Daphnes not recommended.

Daphnes in their pots placed in plastic bags in a box with no packaging. All damaged. Non alive today

No refund offered

[Nick_the_grief]

Well to add some balance, I bought some Irises and other stuff off a couple of folks

Garthwaite Nurseries
Westcountry Nurseries

and I can recommend them well packed and not only did Garthwaite keep up with regular emails we actually had a "natter" about all sorts of things !

I also bought some Pleione bulbils off some chap called Koolplants it was a mixed lot and I expected about 30 ... 120 later I was sick of planting the damn things they havn't grown yet David and I've had them nearly a week  

Only joking, David was good as well and gave me some good adivise - God knows what I'll do if all 120 come up ... anyone recommend a good 2nd hand greenhouse seller

[Tony Willis]

Karen Junker. For Daphnes not recommended.

Daphnes in their pots placed in plastic bags in a box with no packaging. All damaged. Non alive today

No refund offered

I bought some American hollies from him and they were very well packed and really good plants.

I had a very bad experience with some plants from Hayloft ,which died over the winter, which I felt should have not been sent out until spring.I sent them a pleasant letter and they replaced all of them as soon as the weather was suitable,excellent and friendly service.

[Gerry Webster]

Two bulb suppliers whom I recommend unreservedly:

Pitcairn Alpines,
Pottertons.

I also recommend two smaller (semiprofessional?) bulb suppliers:
Buried Treasure (Rannveig Wallis),
Dryad Nursery (Anne Wright).

[PDJ]

I agree Pottertons are excellent!

[mark smyth]

and top marks to Janis

[Paul T]

From a Southern Hemisphere POV....... I'd definitely recommend Marcus Harvery (our very own Hillview Croconut) of Hillview Rare Plants in Tasmania.  Over the last 20 years of buying from him I have probably had maybe half a dozen plants that didn't cope well with transit (and believe me, with the amount I've bought from him, that is a very small percentage!  ), and if anything is ever a problem he will always replace them either that year or the following one when the season is right.  The same goes for the rare occasions that there has been a mixup and what grows isn't exactly the variety it was supposed to be.  Brilliant!!

[Lesley Cox]

I accept that it would be very disappointing to get plants other than those selected Mark but in the case of your Pelargoniums I would have been very worried about my own skills if I could not have saved the plants you illustrated, even though they were, in effect, just rooted cuttings. I would have planted then in either small pots or in a tray, filled with a compost with a lot of grit in it and brought them on gradually to planting out size. They look healthy and turgid, even if not the ones you selected. Surely they could have been saved.

[alpines]

Thought I would resurrect this post as I just took delivery of 18 plants from Arrowhead Alpines (Brigitta and Bob Stewart) of Michigan, 414 miles from Berea, via UPS.
I was notified that they were on their way on Monday and they arrived Wednesday.

Not a single damaged leaf, branch, rosette in sight. Perfectly packaged, healthy, moist compost.....and as good as it gets.
Kudos to Arrowhead !!!!!! Wonderful service, superb plants.

[Ezeiza]

Years ago I bought several hundreds pounds worth of hybrid daffodils from a firm that advertised in "The Garden". The bulbs looked alright and were potted by variety and placed in a separate section (we do this with all material). Just upon the emergence of the first leaf tips the horrible virus infection was evident.
I could not believe my eyes as variety after variety was showing virus symptoms. I did not want any refund but to warn them against such widespread infection but they never took the trouble to even respond. Obviously this is rather uncommon  in the UK but this things DO HAPPEN.

[Paddy Tobin]

Alan & Sherba,

I have a friend in Maryland who sends me the Arrowhead Alpine catalogue every year - just for my entertainment. to read of the lovely selection of plants they offer etc.

Great catalogue. Paddy