Delivery Information
Ordering Plants
Orders may be placed on this website, by telephone, or by email. Website order payments are processed via Stripe, our secure online payment processor. Telephone payments are processed via Worldpay. We can provide bank details if you'd prefer to order by email, and you may be pleased to hear that we still accept cheques, should you wish to post your order. Please note that for telephone, email and postal orders, we can only operate on a first come, first served basis with regard to availability, as it is harder to monitor stock levels in relation to these order methods.
With regard to plant orders, for the first half of the year, we operate on a pre-order basis. For more information regarding when to expect your order, please see the 'order delivery' section below. Please take this information into account when trying to time your delivery.
What to expect
The vast majority of our plants are grown in 1.4 or 2 litre pots, which we have found are the perfect size for mail order. As we are aiming to be as green as possible, we remove and re-use all our plant pots, and the root balls are wrapped and packed in with compostable materials to protect them during transit. We use double-wall boxes and the outside of the boxes are labelled to say they contain live plants, as well as being labelled ‘Fragile’ and with ‘This way up’ stickers, to ensure they are handled with care. All our plants are sent with name labels that you can stick into the ground next to the plant.
For a large part of the season, we do cut our plants hard back before sending them out. This actually benefits the plant by reducing the stress on it and it means that soon after being planted, it will reward you with brand new, fresh foliage and, provided you are planting early enough in the season and depending on the species or variety, a new flush of flowers. By cutting the plants back it also allows us to get more in a box, thus reducing carriage costs and unnecessary packaging, plus it avoids any long stems getting damaged or broken either in transit or when they are removed from the box.
Potential changes to your order
If for some reason a plant you have ordered is not available in that size, we will send you the smaller size and you will be refunded the difference. The smallest size we dispatch is a 9cm pot which is fine to be planted straight out into your garden. Sometimes we may also send a larger 2 litre pot, however you will not be charged any extra for this.
If a plant you have ordered has become unavailable for some reason, we will provide the closest substitute available (where possible), if you agree to this at the checkout stage. We offer you multiple options regarding provision of substitutes at the checkout stage. If we cannot find a substitute remotely similar to what you have ordered, we will try to contact you or issue a refund on that particular item after dispatch.
With regard to orders for bare rooted plants, if we are unable to provide a plant you have ordered as a bare root, we will send you the 9cm potted equivalent instead (where possible), which we will deem to be the same value. As we offer free delivery on bare roots due to their weight, if we then send you 9cm plants instead, this costs us more in postage, so we deem the negligible cost difference to be zero. If neither bare root nor 9cm are available, you will be refunded for the item.
Order delivery
As a general guide, orders for pot-grown plants placed in January, February and March will be dispatched throughout May and the first half of June. Orders placed in April, May, June and July will be dispatched throughout the second half of June and July; thereafter, orders will normally be dispatched within 7 days of your order, unless stated otherwise on this website. We will of course always dispatch as soon as possible, however please note that the weather does dictate dispatch times earlier on in the year. We strongly advise ordering in the first quarter of the year to avoid long waits and any disappointment regarding availability.
Our bare-root Geraniums are available to order from January the 1st to February the 28th every year. We dispatch these from mid-February through to late March on a first come, first served basis. Bare-rooted plants are sent second class by royal mail whilst dormant, wrapped and packed with plenty of padding to keep the correct moisture level and ensure they are protected during transit.
Please note that we try to avoid giving specific dates for when deliveries will arrive. As we are dealing with growing plants, mother nature, and orders of such varying quantities, it is next to impossible to do this during the busiest part of the season. We therefore kindly ask that you let us know if you will be away or unable to take delivery of your order at any point when it may be likely to arrive. Your patience is greatly appreciated.
All pot-grown plant orders are sent by next day delivery once they are ready. If you have ordered online you will receive an email from us the day before their arrival to say they have been dispatched. If you provide an email address at the point of order, you will also receive an email from our courier company which will provide tracking details for the delivery of your order.
By placing your order, you are accepting responsibility to take delivery of that order. Please let us know of any specific delivery instructions, e.g. ‘leave in porch if out’, at the checkout stage, however please note that we cannot accept any responsibility for parcels left in safe places or with neighbours. It is our responsibility however, to ensure the parcel reaches you in good condition under U.K. distance selling regulations, so if there are any issues with your order or you have not received it within 48 hours of dispatch, we ask that you contact us within 14 days so that we can rectify any problems.
Delivery charges - (plants only)
Orders over £125 - Free
Mainland UK - £12.00
Isle of Wight - £14.95
Scottish Islands - £19.95
Sadly we can no longer send plants to Eire, Northern Ireland, The Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or the EU since Brexit. We hope that at some point, common sense will prevail and the free movement of goods will be reinstated.
Ordering non-plant products
Orders for non-plant products which are ordered with plants will usually be sent together with your plants. This would mean for example that a non-plant product ordered with pot-grown plants in January would arrive with your plant order in May.
If you would like to order non-plant products as well as plants and would like your non-plant purchases to arrive sooner, please place two separate orders.
All orders for non-plant products will be dispatched within within 2 working days and sent by next day delivery, unless otherwise stated. Please see individual product descriptions for full details.
Our charges for delivery of non-plant products vary, depending on the size and weight of the product, as well as where in the UK you may be located.