On 18/04/2015 21:54, alan_m wrote:
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.

I have to disagree, I find Royal mail First class, but it does to a
small amount depend on your postman, here we have a great one, problem
is he is retiring and we have yet to find out how good his replacement
will be.
I have had a couple of things ordered on Ebay that have been sent by
carrier that could easily have gone in the post, they have taken on
average 5 days to get to me where as I get over 90 % of 2nd class mail
within 3 days, a lot of it in 2.
When I was doing mail order Dahlia plants I found that Royal mail was by
far the best, I had to claim for loss/damage just 3 times in 4 years.
I used City Link for a time but after taking an order to their depot and
having it then put in the back of a van not in use, and when found 10
days later they delivered a load of slime and said it wasn't their fault.
I got settlement 3 days before we were due to go to court.
I remember in the days of British Rail Red Star delivery having 5 boxes
of young Chrysanth plants sent from Littlehampton, I box got to Cardiff,
2 to Swansea and 2 to Haverford West, took 3 days to get them all
delivered to me in Swansea.
I have also had a box of young plants clearly marked "This way up"
delivered upside down.
A firm is only as good as it's staff.
I also had a delivery fail to be delivered and when I chased the
delivery firm up they said "We saw Nursery on the address and as it's
half term we thought there would be nobody there".
David @ a dry side of Swansea Bay