Gardening resources and tips, etc.

[Wic Profile]

If it was here it could be squirrels, but where you are, might it be mice?

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Interesting idea, but there’s so much other food for them
Lit looks more like something eating the leaves off the stems like cateroppillars

[PatsyMFagan Profile]

Has anybody else heard of a plant company called Candide ? I have started to get online adverts and I have to admit their range seems very good ... for instance, a couple of blue hosta that I have never heard of (I already have 'Love Pat' )

I may be tempted ....

[Suffs Profile]

Never heard of it Patsy ... there seem to be new online plant suppliers springing up all over the place at the moment ... some appear to be selling poor quality discounted stuff that nurseries etc have had trouble shifting because of transport difficulties ... others appear to be very good indeed.

Why not post a thread on GW asking if anyone's used them? ... folk often do that and it's a good idea to check other's experiences before parting with your money

[PatsyMFagan Profile]

yes, I think I should ..thanks

[herbidacious Profile]

i usually check out companies I don't know no trustpilot. Not infallible but worth a try.

Is anyone a dahlia expert? I have some worrying yellow spots on all my (potted) dahlia plants.

[Suffs Profile]

Patsy ... it looks as if Candide is a marketing platform for smaller companies to sell garden stuff on ... a bit like Eb@y, That Big River, Etsy etc ... however unlike the big platforms it seems that you have to pay the seller individually, so presumably that's who your contract is with, so I don't know what protection you have, if any. And it looks very pricey too ... can't find anything about delivery charges ... I expect they come up if I actually put stuff in my trolley ............

[PatsyMFagan Profile]

thanks Suffs, I did as you suggested and posted on the GW board and got similar responses, so have decided not to bother .... I have received a J.Parker's catalogue in the post and my preliminary shopping (wish) list is almost £100 !!!

[Suffs Profile]

Umm … J Parkers don’t have the best reputation on GW for plants … great for bulbs and some mixed reports for bedding plant plugs, but also some awful experiences re plants. There’s a couple of threads recounting poor plants received and shocking customer service from some companies … Thompson & Morgan often disappoint … but there are also reports of companies who send out good quality plants and engage quickly if there’s a problem. I’ll have a look for them …

This is an old thread https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discus ... od-guys/p1 …as you’ll see pretty mixed re Parker’s.

[herbidacious Profile]

I am the queen of online plant ordering so...

I have had some very bad plants from J Parkers. I'd only use them for bulbs.

T&M mixed bag, but generally ok.

Sarah Raven generally good but they had some really bad customer service glitches last December. Hopefully over that now.

Suttons usually good for veg plants at least. Excellent customer service if you phone.
Hayloft seem quite good but pricey unless you can club together with someone else (most of their plants are sold in multiples.)

D.T Brown I will never buy plants from them again. Ditto Marshalls. But both fine for seeds. Awful plants, bad customer service. (D.T. Brown experience from 2019. Marshalls from last year. I might give the latter another chance at some point, I suppose, but why bother...)

YouGarden - now I avoided like the plague but I'd give a cautious ok to them. Plants have all been healthy. However they have high delivery charges, which often make the plants as expensive as elsewhere.

gardening express - do not touch with a barge pole or even something longer. Rotten plants (on one occasion - Marshalls - literally), appalling customer service (albeit based on two years ago.)

For edibles: Hetty's Herbs and Norfolk Herbs are quite good too. Rocket Gardens is ok.

Customer service is key in all this as of course plants will sometimes get damaged in transit, but if they are happy and willing to replace then that's ok. (Although disappointing if they have run out.)

The BBC Gardener's World magazine always has 10% off codes for most of these companies but you might find similar online.

[PatsyMFagan Profile]

Thanks Suffs and Herbi ... advice willingly accepted

[Badger's Mate Profile]

A lot of the well-known seed companies are within the same groups.

I've heard that there's a connection between Mr Fothergill, Marshall's, Johnson's, Unwin's & DT Brown. It's not easy to confirm but there are clearly geographical and marketing similarities. T&M seems to have acquired Suttons/Dobies/Organic catalogue

http://www.insightdiy.co.uk/news/thomps ... s/9178.htm

[herbidacious Profile]

Ah that's interesting. Suttons recently changed their web site and I have been unable to access my account - and all the orders - for months. I was wondering if customer service was slightly less cheery than it used to be. Certainly harder to get through but not impossible.

I knew Marshalls and Unwin’s were the same, but not the rest.

Something Marshalls and Sarah Raven did last year which really pissed me off was 'turn off' customer services phone lines for a while. You could email them but they'd give a ten day return for replies.
I had a massive problem with Marshalls - plants turning up in a poor or dead state or not turning up at all (some tomatoes, which I'd ordered in 2019 for spring delivery, arrived in late July - 2 inches high. Far too late to be of any use.) They didn't answer emails or if they did, their reply to my reply took another 10 days. In the end I had to go through Facebook. Posting a bad but honest review on Trustpilot also got their attention.
Sarah Raven did ok by me in the end but it took a long time. It was very frustrating.
But of course both companies kept their phones lines open to accept new orders, which in the case of Marshalls, at least, they seemed unable to fulfil.
SR did send out vouchers off in the end, by way of apology for their issues.

I appreciate this was the Covid year. I didn't expect everything to go smoothly in terms of delivery, but I think these companies' responses to the situation were not good or particularly honest. Of course Gardener's World and the new, nationwide interest in gardening caused a few shortages too

[herbidacious Profile]

I forgot to say, Farmery Gracy is excellent for bulbs.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I forgot to say, Farmery Gracy is excellent for bulbs.

They are, but slight lack of details, the zantedeschia I bought I was expecting to be low wide clumps like those I had before (no dimensions given that I could see, or with them, just a photo to go on) but they are in fact tall narrow columns

And so on - there were some I didn’t appreciate needed to be planted pretty much the minute I got them, again they just assume you know

[Badger's Mate Profile]

Reflecting which of us grows the flowers and who does the cauliflowers, I buy seeds, sets & tubers but Mrs B gets some bedding plants. We support a couple of local nurseries for most of the readily available varieties but get specific plants online and of course last year bought rather more by that means. T&M were (unsurprisingly) somewhat overwhelmed in 2020 I felt. This year they've been a curate's egg.

I've long been a member of HDRA and used the Organic Gardening Catalogue but their acquisition by Dobies (and now T&M) has brought changes and I haven't ordered for a few years. I have also bought from DT Brown, they've been perfectly OK. Now I use a mixture of self saved, seed swaps, Real Seeds, Premier Seeds Direct, Simply Seeds and a number of other small companies, plus the occasional impulse buy at a show or garden centre. I will try the Seed Cooperative next season. Last year I tried some of the 99p T&M packets but found the germination rates unpredictably poor compared to my usual seeds sown under the same conditions. The frustrating thing about poor germination is the lost time. I don't mind taking a punt on an old seed packet for an early sowing, but don't want to be running late as a result of no emergence.

[herbidacious Profile]

I forgot to say, Farmery Gracy is excellent for bulbs.

They are, but slight lack of details, the zantedeschia I bought I was expecting to be low wide clumps like those I had before (no dimensions given that I could see, or with them, just a photo to go on) but they are in fact tall narrow columns

And so on - there were some I didn’t appreciate needed to be planted pretty much the minute I got them, again they just assume you know

There's usually a drop down menu with height and spread under the description drop down menu.

[herbidacious Profile]

If we are talking seeds, I have found T&M ok. Marshalls too. DT Brown also ok although hardly any of their dwarf French bean seeds came up.
Sarah Raven seeds seem fine.
Seeds of Distinction, in spite of their long list of alternative ways to get things to germinate their seeds, which makes you think it will be difficult, have been fine/good.
Suttons are ok.
I also bought sweet pea seeds from Johnson's sweet peas.
I had some Kings seeds which came up ok.
I had a lot of free veg seeds in a magazine each month - mostly T&M...
Actually the only notable failures, in the end, were the beans from DT Brown, although some flower seeds took longer than others.

That reminds me, I have some back up courgette seedlngs to pot on.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

There's usually a drop down menu with height and spread under the description drop down menu.

I’ve had another look, the description says height 30-35cm no width or spread

I have 3 - all at least 70cm tall


I flirted with Chiltern seeds because they happened to sell all the herbs and annuals I wanted, some of the herbs being quite hard to find. Pretty good, just haven’t needed enough to bother since

[herbidacious Profile]

I've used them too. Some specialist herb companies as well.

A lot of my flowers seem to be taller than I expected/believed/they have put themselves there so I had no choice in the matter ('there' being at the front of the border... in front of the few things that aren't very tall.) I two MONSTER cosmoses which are more like small bushes, plus some tiny ones. But my rudbeckias and heleniums which were so tall last year are tiddlers, relatively speaking, this year.

I have a lot to learn about flower growing full stop, but my understanding of/skill in garden design is notably lagging behind everything else! (But it seems that not everything can be accurately predicted.)

I've just purchased some things to prop them up, as everything is going horizontal in all this rain.