Buying plants, shrubs and flowers online.

[jagarner]

Does anyone know a good mail order company which supplies plants etc.

Garden centres seem to be very very expensive and was wondering if this was a better approach?

Jenny

[gucciman]

hi jenny

some garden centres are expensive but not all, wyevales and notcutts are very expensive but if you look around for some of the smaller independant centres they can be much better.

its also worth trying b and q, homebase etc as they seem a lot cheaper. you can also pick plants up at car boot sales, markets, road-side vendors etc

another approach is to buy a plant from a garden centre and then split it into clumps so that you get several plants from the one.

buying mail order is very hit and miss, in my experience the plants that are delivered are always tiny.

[Plocket]

I always thought that buying online was a bit hit and miss, until someone recommended Crocus to me. Their plants are excellent quality but their delivery isn't cheap. www.crocus.co.uk

[lizwizz]

Other ways of getting cheap plants are to swap with friends and neighbours and visit gardens in the Open Garden scheme which invariably have plants on sale. You can buy an Open Gardens book in most bookshops (its known as the yellow book) or you can get a free booklet for your county only at tourist information centres.

[edw]

Have to agree - Crocus are excellent - for quality and diversity you'll find no better. They also give great suggestions about what else to use where. I also use Thompson and Morgan, but mainly for seeds theough they're also doing plants now.