Buying bedding plants online
 

I have in the past used Jersey plants direct. Would any of you suggest a
better supplier as I am about to place an order.

Mike

Buying bedding plants online
 

On Sat, 14 May 2011 12:24:53 +0100, "MuddyMike"
wrote:

I have in the past used Jersey plants direct. Would any of you suggest a
better supplier as I am about to place an order.

Mike

I've used JP for years without problems but this year I've had 3
"quality control" type problem deliveries out of 12 and have found
that their usual speedy customer service people have slowed down a
lot. I'll probably be going elsewhere next year myself.

Otherwise I regularly use Dobies, Thomson and Morgan and Hayloft and
have never had any problems or quality issues with them apart from the
odd damage in transit which is always sorted quickly.

In the past I've used Fothergills and Parkers but for bedding have had
very mixed results so I avoid the former completely and stick to just
bulbs from Parkers.

Garden Bargains (gardenbargains.com) sell some decent stuff usually
very cheaply but delivery is a nightmare - you never know when stuff
will arrive and customer service isn't if you get my drift.

Jake

Buying bedding plants online
 

"Jake" Nospam@invalid wrote in message
...
On Sat, 14 May 2011 12:24:53 +0100, "MuddyMike"
wrote:

I have in the past used Jersey plants direct. Would any of you suggest a
better supplier as I am about to place an order.

Mike

I've used JP for years without problems but this year I've had 3
"quality control" type problem deliveries out of 12 and have found
that their usual speedy customer service people have slowed down a
lot. I'll probably be going elsewhere next year myself.

Otherwise I regularly use Dobies, Thomson and Morgan and Hayloft and
have never had any problems or quality issues with them apart from the
odd damage in transit which is always sorted quickly.

In the past I've used Fothergills and Parkers but for bedding have had
very mixed results so I avoid the former completely and stick to just
bulbs from Parkers.

Garden Bargains (gardenbargains.com) sell some decent stuff usually
very cheaply but delivery is a nightmare - you never know when stuff
will arrive and customer service isn't if you get my drift.

Jake

We always avoid all the risk of being sent 'second best and what we can't
get rid of to our personal customers', by being a personal customer
ourselves, visiting our local garden centres/nurseries seeing the quality
and choosing our own :-))

and in one case, keeps/helps local employment :-))


Mike


--

....................................
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
....................................

Buying bedding plants online
 

On 14/05/2011 12:24, MuddyMike wrote:
I have in the past used Jersey plants direct. Would any of you suggest a
better supplier as I am about to place an order.

Mike


Gardening Direct. Only had one problem of poor plants in the last 5
years (two orders per year) an that was dealt with promptly. If you
oredr 100+20 miniplugs (around £10) there are usually enough extra
plants to make sure you have at least 120

malcolm

Buying bedding plants online
 

Sacha:

On 2011-05-14 12:39:14 +0100, Jake Nospam@invalid said:

On Sat, 14 May 2011 12:24:53 +0100, "MuddyMike"
wrote:

I have in the past used Jersey plants direct. Would any of you suggest
a better supplier as I am about to place an order.

Mike

I've used JP for years without problems but this year I've had 3
"quality control" type problem deliveries out of 12 and have found that
their usual speedy customer service people have slowed down a lot. I'll
probably be going elsewhere next year myself.

Otherwise I regularly use Dobies, Thomson and Morgan and Hayloft and
have never had any problems or quality issues with them apart from the
odd damage in transit which is always sorted quickly.

In the past I've used Fothergills and Parkers but for bedding have had
very mixed results so I avoid the former completely and stick to just
bulbs from Parkers.

Garden Bargains (gardenbargains.com) sell some decent stuff usually
very cheaply but delivery is a nightmare - you never know when stuff
will arrive and customer service isn't if you get my drift.

Jake

There seem to be masses of 'deals' in the papers today, so you could
look there. I can't vouch for them because obviously, we don't buy
them! We buy bedding plants in as plugs and pot them on into 9cm or
10cm pots, so it's certainly worth checking the size of the pots. What
sounds like a huge bargain might turn out not to be if you get much
smaller plants than you expect.

Hi
What is the advantage of potting them on? I normally buy plugs & plant
them straight out into the ground, is that a mistake?

Kate xx

Buying bedding plants online
 

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2011-05-15 16:23:10 +0100, Jake Nospam@invalid said:

On Sun, 15 May 2011 15:41:16 +0100, Sacha wrote:

On 2011-05-15 15:27:46 +0100, Kate said:

pruned a bit

Hi
What is the advantage of potting them on? I normally buy plugs & plant
them straight out into the ground, is that a mistake?

Kate xx

I think it depends on the size of the plugs, their root growth and the
weather. Some will simply be too small and 'feeble' to fend for
themselves, especially if we have a cold snap or very heavy downpours
of rain. For that reason, some people shop around a bit to see who
sends out the best developed root-systems. In the past, before I
married a nurseryman, I've bought plugs and done just as you say but
with very mixed results. We find that potting them on into 9cm pots
gives them time to grow a strong root system before they're put into
the ground or into containers.

I'm not fastidious about the old "9cm pot" idea. Largely because I
don't have enough space. There are some plants that need the space but
I get excellent results with many varieties using cell trays. These
days I get trays that are half-seed-tray size and have either 9 or 12
cells in them. Impatiens and petunias, for example, seem to like the
space of a 9 cell tray whilst bedding begonias come on better in 12
cell trays than in larger cells. FWIW, I've found these half-seed-tray
size cell things better than the usual full size trays you find in
garden centres, if only because the individual half trays can be
turned round so the plants in the middle get more light.

We sell some of those things in cells as well, Jake and Lobelia goes out
in trays or rows of cells from a tray but as we're dealing in many
thousands of plants to be sold to thousands of people over several weeks,
they can't possibly be left in cells all that time. That's why some of
the companies advertising plugs now are saying they're having a 'sale', I
should think!

Thank you Sascha for confirming what I have been saying "Getting rid of what
the personal buyer has not bought"

Mike


--

....................................
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
....................................














The hot weather will have brought a lot of
things on more quickly than usual. Things like Bacopa and Bidens,
Lysimachia nummularia, Isotoma, Verbenas, Scaveola - sprawly things -
would just be a horrible mess. Bigger and more beefy plants like Petunias,
Million Bells, that sort of thing go into 10cm pots and develop a nice
hearty root system.

I grow everything in coir as I find that (reliably) results in a far
stronger growth of both roots and plant above ground. Here, around mid
May (next week - hooray) is the time to start planting up the
containers with what will be well-developed plants.

I've done half a dozen containers today. It's always fun choosing just
what to use where. I've got to finish them tomorrow and in the meantime,
hope for a bit of rain, too.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon

Buying bedding plants online
 

Thanks for all the input folks. I have looked at the alternatives suggested
but have spent my 50 quid with Jersey plants direct, as they seem to offer
what I want at what I can afford.
Now waiting to see if the couriers do there bit.

Mike

Buying bedding plants online
 

On Mon, 16 May 2011 22:38:41 +0100, "MuddyMike"
wrote:

Thanks for all the input folks. I have looked at the alternatives suggested
but have spent my 50 quid with Jersey plants direct, as they seem to offer
what I want at what I can afford.
Now waiting to see if the couriers do there bit.

Mike


Please let us know how you get on. I'd be particularly interested
given my not-so-good experience this year after several years of good
quality from them.

Jake