Hello all,
I ordered some vegetable plants for late gap fillers from a new independent company, Vegetable Plants Direct, who are based in Cornwall. I would like to be able to give them a big cheer, but I'm afraid that I won't be using them again.
I ordered 3 lots of plants - french beans, lobjoits green cos and rhubarb chard. The beans were fine, but I got little gems instead of the cos (bit of a difference in size!) and the rhubarb chard had barely germinated and were only just showing their first set of true leaves, and certainly weren't the garden-ready plants I had been expecting as gap fillers. This came after I ordered in late June for July delivery (payment was taken immediately) and had to chase for deliver in August. The order arrived with an apology for the delay and a voucher for 10% off my next order, but I won't be using it.
I understand that it's often a struggle setting up a new business, but having paid up front for fairly expensive plants that arrive as seedlings or substitutes, I just feel they could have done better. I did send an email with feedback, but have heard nothing.
Hey ho, I shall stick with the larger firms from now on.
Vivien
Vegetable Plants
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alan refail
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Vivien
Given the dates you mention it rather sounds as though they didn't sow till you ordered.
Having looked at their website and seen the prices, I would suggest that this is something you should give a miss in future. For a fraction of the price you could sow your own seed in June/July and have the plants ready when you want them. If you have too many to fill gaps, you haven't wasted much if sowing yourself.
Sown in June/July lettuce, French beans and chard will germinate very quickly.
Personally I would never order plants, not even from the big companies.
Alan
Given the dates you mention it rather sounds as though they didn't sow till you ordered.
Having looked at their website and seen the prices, I would suggest that this is something you should give a miss in future. For a fraction of the price you could sow your own seed in June/July and have the plants ready when you want them. If you have too many to fill gaps, you haven't wasted much if sowing yourself.
Sown in June/July lettuce, French beans and chard will germinate very quickly.
Personally I would never order plants, not even from the big companies.
Alan
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vivienz
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Hi Alan,
Yes, I came to the same conclusion. I have ordered plants from other companies when I've either been too busy to sow & grow on myself or know that I will be and have been quite pleased with them, but I was very disappointed this time.
Vivien
Yes, I came to the same conclusion. I have ordered plants from other companies when I've either been too busy to sow & grow on myself or know that I will be and have been quite pleased with them, but I was very disappointed this time.
Vivien
Alan,
Because you are retired and home based you can easily tend any seeds that you sow but there are people who have an entirely different lifestyle to you who simply are too busy to grow from seed but like to grow their own produce.
They buy young plants which they can manage to plant and tend where seedlings would otherwise perish simply for lack of the required attention.
Everybody can sow seeds but not everybody is there to tend to the demands of very young seedlings.
I am so sorry that Vivien has had a bad experience and it is good that she has given us all a good and
timely warning but not all plant companies should be tarred with the same brush because of this bad experience.
JB.
Because you are retired and home based you can easily tend any seeds that you sow but there are people who have an entirely different lifestyle to you who simply are too busy to grow from seed but like to grow their own produce.
They buy young plants which they can manage to plant and tend where seedlings would otherwise perish simply for lack of the required attention.
Everybody can sow seeds but not everybody is there to tend to the demands of very young seedlings.
I am so sorry that Vivien has had a bad experience and it is good that she has given us all a good and
timely warning but not all plant companies should be tarred with the same brush because of this bad experience.
JB.
Johnboy
I have to say i agree totally with your comments. I work full time and am currently putting an extension on my house so my 'spare' time is very limited. Therefore for the first time i have found it necessary to order some brassicas and other plants from a mail order company simply due to the fact of not getting round to sowing them myself. They should arrive in the next day or so and i am interested to see what the quality is like. I'll let you all know when they arrive.
I have to say i agree totally with your comments. I work full time and am currently putting an extension on my house so my 'spare' time is very limited. Therefore for the first time i have found it necessary to order some brassicas and other plants from a mail order company simply due to the fact of not getting round to sowing them myself. They should arrive in the next day or so and i am interested to see what the quality is like. I'll let you all know when they arrive.
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PLUMPUDDING
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I don't usually buy plants, but it is useful if you've had a disaster with something not germinating or being eaten by slugs.
I had some lovely healthy mixed brassicas from Marshalls a few years ago, and also the mixed cauliflowers from T&M were excellent. The caulis were green, purple, orange, white and claret and it was interesting to compare the flavour and textures of the different kinds. Also some were more hardy than others, I seem to recall the orange ones had a very soft texture and the ones I hadn't eaten were killed by the first keen frost, but the others were quite resiliant, and being different varieties they weren't all ready at the same time.
I suppose that if you get good plants they don't work out too expensive as it saves buying individual packets of seeds for each variety.
I had some lovely healthy mixed brassicas from Marshalls a few years ago, and also the mixed cauliflowers from T&M were excellent. The caulis were green, purple, orange, white and claret and it was interesting to compare the flavour and textures of the different kinds. Also some were more hardy than others, I seem to recall the orange ones had a very soft texture and the ones I hadn't eaten were killed by the first keen frost, but the others were quite resiliant, and being different varieties they weren't all ready at the same time.
I suppose that if you get good plants they don't work out too expensive as it saves buying individual packets of seeds for each variety.
Hi Plumpudding,
In the last few years of my working life I produced vegetable plants for the mail order market.
I introduced a Pick 'n' Mix system and although the minimum order was 10 plants you could have 5 varieties x 2. This was for people who wanted to try out different varieties of things to see what grows well on their soil and whether they actually liked what they had grown. This was many years before the large companies moved in to try and capture the market.
Plants, especially vegetable plants, are very big business nowadays. I started contract growing for my family who have two rather large farms and mail order was one way of getting rid of the surplus plants having dispatched many out to the retail trade. I ended up working anything up to 19 hours a day to keep up with orders and then disaster struck I went and had a heart attack and that totally buggered it all up.
Hand on heart I never ever had a complaint about my plants and in all those years the Post Office were paramount in their delivery service and had only but a few going astray from many thousand postings.
I think that it may be a little different nowadays.
My vegetable list carried 120 different items with 40 different lettuces. I do not see very many varieties on the modern plant lists.
JB.
In the last few years of my working life I produced vegetable plants for the mail order market.
I introduced a Pick 'n' Mix system and although the minimum order was 10 plants you could have 5 varieties x 2. This was for people who wanted to try out different varieties of things to see what grows well on their soil and whether they actually liked what they had grown. This was many years before the large companies moved in to try and capture the market.
Plants, especially vegetable plants, are very big business nowadays. I started contract growing for my family who have two rather large farms and mail order was one way of getting rid of the surplus plants having dispatched many out to the retail trade. I ended up working anything up to 19 hours a day to keep up with orders and then disaster struck I went and had a heart attack and that totally buggered it all up.
Hand on heart I never ever had a complaint about my plants and in all those years the Post Office were paramount in their delivery service and had only but a few going astray from many thousand postings.
I think that it may be a little different nowadays.
My vegetable list carried 120 different items with 40 different lettuces. I do not see very many varieties on the modern plant lists.
JB.
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Primrose
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I've only ordered vegetables by mail order when a germination has failed or illness prevented me from sowing at the correct time and these orders were from Big Names. On all occasions they arrived far later than I had expected and I was generally disappointed. But I suspect it's a very difficult market to be in and think it's far better to sow your own if at all possible and to be in control of your timetable.
Hi Primrose,
I expect that on a forum of vegetable growers the amount of people would be as you explain that only buy in extreme situations but there are literally thousands of people who grow lettuces or tomatoes and the likes who have never ever sown a seed in their lives. You wouldn't imagine that salad onions would sell in modules of guaranteed five per module (and generally seven or more resulted) but in 1995 I sold the sowings from 10kg of seed and could have sold even more had I realised and sown more a bit earlier. Almost the same with beetroot,sweetcorn,
Leeks, main crop onions and so many brassicas in so many varieties. I also sold shrubs,ornamental trees, grasses and perennials.
JB.
I expect that on a forum of vegetable growers the amount of people would be as you explain that only buy in extreme situations but there are literally thousands of people who grow lettuces or tomatoes and the likes who have never ever sown a seed in their lives. You wouldn't imagine that salad onions would sell in modules of guaranteed five per module (and generally seven or more resulted) but in 1995 I sold the sowings from 10kg of seed and could have sold even more had I realised and sown more a bit earlier. Almost the same with beetroot,sweetcorn,
Leeks, main crop onions and so many brassicas in so many varieties. I also sold shrubs,ornamental trees, grasses and perennials.
JB.
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Shallot Man
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The last time I ordered vegetable plants from a well known seed co: they turned up a beautiful yellow colour, contacted the co: to be told curtly that they would be OK. The surplus I was to embarrassed to pass on, so I dumped them.
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Colin Miles
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Last year, because my Claret Sprouting Broccoli failed, I ordered a batch of 50 - 5 varieties x 10 - Claret, Late White Sprouting, Excel, Spring Hero and Mayflower - from Suttons. They arrived in good condition and I potted them on before planting out, which probably helped considerably. All except Spring Hero - which tried to be a Autumn/Winter Hero - did extremely well.