Buying plants on line - Page 2

hi all, only started gardening this march and that was because I bought a cheap green house (plastic covered shelving unit) and seeds from groupon. i then discovered T&M - probably by email. i ordered a 36 plug offer in may and didn't know what a plug was. this piqued my interest in gardening so ivisted the 2 nearest GC which were ok for compost. I didn't really have much budget so also looked at supermarkets and diy places. got some compost from there and was very disappointed, and that was before i started reading this forum to know what to look for.

I hunted around for cheap pots (have a small new build clay pit for a garden) but disovered growing seeds was SO addictive. bought more seeds from both online and GC. plus a couple of recommended plants, from GC. I also found the nearly dead section in a diy store and bought a few on my wish list i wouldn't have been able to afford oherwise.

99% of the plugs survived  this so called summer and most flurished. most of my seeds florished and my little hand built raised bed and grow bags provided me and the office wih tomatoes, spinach and rocket for months. very satisfying for first year.

i ordered more from T&M but only their offers. as some one elsesaid on here i shared with a friend as 72 plugs sounds a lot.

the autumn collection was very disappointing and the special offer of 72 actually was 50, mainly primrose () and a £5 voucher and an apology.

the nearly dead  have turned out fab too.

so online is cheaper but you do get to grow more yourself. and if i can grow stuff in this terrible weather, any one can. i can't believe i didn't get to sit and enjoy my garden this year, much.

joined the GC club and get points and offers. bought heated propagator, which i woulndt if not half price, so fingers crossed for next year x

Sinevegas, It sounds as if you did really well. One thing I should mention; in my experience, once you have been bitten by the gardening slug you never have time to sit and look at the garden.

artjak wrote (see)

Sinevegas, It sounds as if you did really well. One thing I should mention; in my experience, once you have been bitten by the gardening slug you never have time to sit and look at the garden.

Yes beware of the bite of the gardening slug-there is no treatment,no cure,it is fatal and you will come to a slimy end

I just can't decide what is best - growing from seed, or buying plugs. I grew quite a lot of flowers from seed this year. The biggest problem being that you get masses of the same flower! I also bought quite a bit from T&M and other online suppliers. In general I found these to be good quality although I have to say that T&M were very late with several deliveries. Almost always delivered on the last day of their window and in the case of some begonias too late and too small to be of any use. I also bought some great value plants from poundland, so it pays to keep a lookout. (I bought some tulip bulbs last week from a local hardware store at £1 for 15. OK a little late but as I haven't got the dahlias out of the bed yet it doesn't matter!)

In general I find the Garden centres vastly overpriced. Best money I spent last year garden wise was on the electrics for a large heated propagator as described on one of the how to articles. Saved me a fortune!

I am always looking online for certain plants that I want. I dont mind shopping online (I hate myself for saying that). But often you cant find certain things in the local GC and I dont have transport. 

I have to say though that I just found out that tescos vouchers can be exchanged for 3 times their amount with Thompson & Morgan. result...

Had some BAD experiences with T&M. You can buy GOOD quality plants with GOOD customer care, from CROCUS thru' Tescodirect.

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That's who I had the truely terrible plants from as well, and the customer service was worse that their plants, never again!

I was caught out once, instead of learning from that, I went and ordered more plants from them again!

And they are reluctant to reply to e-mails!

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I bought  18 verbascum form Parkers about 3 weeks ago, then had another 6 delivered on Friday, I have potted them up, and there is a concideralble difference between the last lot and this lot, they are easily twice the size, have grown on really well,  these will all make good size plants by the spring, so at 2.79 for 6 these are very good value. As are the 30 ground cover plants they had on offer at 13.00.

I can understand though why the garden centres have to charge so much for plants, it takes a lot of work to pot up and on, they have lots of overheads, but if you have time, which I have, then I like the satisfaction of bringing a plant on, rather than a ready made one.

Anybody tried jersey plants website?  Some good plants on offer here.

http://www.jerseyplantsdirect.com/

I have brought some plants off here and brought small plugs they maybe small but I grew them on and made them ready to plant out. I did use some cheap plastic drink cups but that works well and they are easy stackable at the end when plants are planted out in the garden.

I know growing plants on takes a lot more effort but some times you get more if you have the space to do that.

Looks good (but don't they all!!). To be fair to T&M when I complained (by phone) about the begonias they gave me a refund straight away and said just keep the plants. As they were too small to do anything with this didn't exactly help, but I appreciate the gesture. i just had the feeling that the seeds hadn't been sown when I ordered which is not acceptable.

The jerseyplants website has 160 4-8cm begonias for £15. No way could I grow them for that, but do I really need 160?

I love growing stuff from seed. it has taught me some patience if nothing else. so satisifing.

of the T&M orders i've made, only one was a bit poor. they were quick to reply to my email too.

i have afew seeds sprouting bt i'm looking forward to spring to get started with a bit more know how than this year. i'm glad i've kept a note of what i've tried too

I also bought the tiny plug begonias from Jerseyplants, very tiny but potted up they grew on well. I wont be buying this year though as we are so high up its very windy and kept breaking them down.

I bought the plug primroses from Parkers, they came direct from Jerseyplants.