Plants by post: can we put problems to bed?

I get far more satisfaction out of growing plants from seed. Much cheaper, you get more (usually too many) and it takes time. But it is initially surprising how many you need even to populate a small garden; disappointing just how little impact a few boxes of expensive plants from the garden centre can have. Good to give to your family, friends and neighbours. Bedding, perennials, vegetables – all easy to grow.

Some plants need to be purchased initially – fuschias, chrysanthemums, large dahlias for example. But once you have grown them, after the first year take cuttings or divide to increase the numbers at little cost.

For others you may want you’ll need to purchase – many shrubs, roses, paeonies -are expensive when bought locally in containers. Much cheaper bought bare-rooted online. I may have been lucky but Telegraph Garden (J Parkers) have always been satisfactory.

There were a lot of complaints in a previous Conversation [no link provided unfortunately] about one particular company and the disappointing condition of many of the purchases. The company dutifully responded to commenters through this website but didn’t appear to do much to learn from their customers’ feedback. They kept making the same apology over and over again but nothing seemed to get better and the complaints kept coming in. They did seem to resolve the problems by eventually replacing stock or refunding payments but it was heavy going. They are not cited in the Intro alongside other growers so either Which? hasn’t contacted them or they don’t have any improvements they wish to report.

With an excellent independent garden centre within ten minutes walk of our home we now always buy plants from there. We used to buy some on-line but became fed up with the poor quality. Plants are more expensive at the garden centre but the ability to choose the specimen you want and to choose from a number of varieties makes up for that, plus it is a more enjoyable way of spending one’s time than sitting at a computer. It is still possible to do it the old-fashioned way by mail order without leaving the comfort and privacy of your home because plant catalogues don’t seem to have evolved much over the last fifty years with their tiny crowded pictures, grainy photos, inadequate descriptions, cramped order forms, and phoney testimonials.