On 17/04/2015 19:54, FrankB wrote:

Quite honestly, buying plug plants by mail order is risky as it doesn't take
much to kill very small plants. And if they are already half dead before
they've even been packaged you stand little chance of success. It may cost a
bit more to buy plants at your local nursery or garden centre, but then you
see what you are buying and my local nursery is generally very good value
and sells quality plants (eg 1 Blue Skies Delphinium £1.89 - grown in 1
litre pot)



All garden centres around my way only sell plants that have been forced
to bloom for sale to people who wouldn't know what to do with a plant
that needs some time to grow before getting to their best. Having
overly mature plants is not always ideal for planting into something
like a vertical planting tube with relatively small holes.

Plug plants are a good idea but not if the supplier sends out plants
with virtually no root system, no top growth or sends them on days when
the package is likely to be in the postal system for 5 days.

And then you have some of the well known mail order companies implying
that the shopping TV channel QVC has the pick of the quality plants -
presumably leaving all the left-over c**p for the mugs who buy from
their catalogues or from the web.

Recently I ordered a dozen (non-perishable) items from Ebay, all sent by
second class post and all of the size that could fit into a small jiffy
bag that could go through my letter box. All sellers sent a confirmation
within a day saying that they had been posted. The quickest delivery
was the next day - the longest delivery was 14 days later. I even had a
card saying one package was too large and on collecting it I found 3
items that had the postman bothered removing the elastic band around all
three each could have easily gone through the letter box. Royal Mail is
a very poor for perishable goods and too many of these mail order
companies use this service.

--
mailto: news {at} admac {dot] myzen {dot} co {dot} uk