Gardening Express

They offer a 5 year guarantee on their plants, which sounds good - doesn't it?

But when you try to speak to them because your plants *arrive* sickly, they ignore your emails, messages etc. and have no phone number to contact them.

And even if you don't have any problems, the despatch process is a bit iffy - you order, pay for, and wait...and wait... and wait, and all the time their website just says "processing", with no indication of when or if it's ever going to get despatched.

This is a shady company - avoid them.

I ordered plants totalling £80 on 7 April. I have not received them and it is now over a month ago that I ordered them. I have only had one email which confirmed my purchase and that the money had been taken from my account. I have sent numerous emails with no replies. I noticed today there is another e mail address supplied for customer services but still no reply and to be honest I don't now expect any. This is a terrible service and also wish I had read the reviews before ordering.

Money taken immediately but order never arrives on hold for over an hour on the phone before admitting defeat and hanging up, tickets raised are ignored for weeks, I can't comment on the quality of the goods as I still don't have them, avoid this company at all costs they really are the pits

They promised: "Just to let you know we have it safe in hand and it has been passed to our nursery team. They will carefully select the best plants available for you.".

The photo shows what I received - see the almost leafless plant on the left.

Their response "... our Nursery Manager I would like to assure you, your plants are as we would expect them to be. Please be assured these will continue to grow and thrive so please ensure that you follow the care instructions provided."

In a garden centre, you get to choose your own plant.

I recently purchased about a dozen perennials for my garden. They took about two weeks to arrive, but when they did eventually arrive, most of them were dead and the remainder in very poor condition. You cannot contact them by phone, so I emailed immediately advising them that I would like a refund. They didn't reply, so I re sent the email a few days later. That too was completely ignored. I feel so disappointed and angry as I spent a lot of money on the plants. I had to go to my local garden centre, but by that time they had very little left. The plants that I did buy however were strong and healthy. This company should be closed down. It's appalling that they can only be contacted by email, but perhaps it is deliberate, so that they can get away with sending dead plants to customers with no come back. I am considering reporting them to The office of fair trading.

Approach this outfit with the upmost caution. I eventually received a box of dead plants. My bank was so concerned that they have put a stop on my card and I now await the replacement. They just ignore you and their guarantee is worthless. I shall be contacting trading standards.

Will never use Gardening Express for my plants shopping in the future. First experience was awful. I made two orders worth about 185 pounds plants. They sent the frail plants which were dying. Late delivery, poor customer service, not accepted to send the replacement of some plants which were in extremely poor condition. I would rather go to local garden centre and buy much cheaper and fresher plants. Very disappointed with Gardening Express.

Plants 5th May & delivered late despite request for update. On arrival today (18th May) found boxes on the doorstep, boxes crushed nearly in half and surprise, surprise when I opened the boxes the plants were crushed too. Having read numerous reviews I do not intend to contact the company but simply get my money back via my credit card. Definitely will NOT recommend them or order again.

I bought a Magnolia Stellata in December. It had no buds but I decided perhaps it was dormant, although it seemed a little late not to be budding as it is such an early spring flowering tree. However, as of March 03 there has been no sign of life and it now appears it was dead, rather than dormant, when it arrived. I will not risk buying from this site again. I now wait to see how responsive their customer service is.

Order lost. Didn't respond to emails. Delivery said 3-5 days but plants not even sent to courier until day 10. Had to repeatedly email and chase. No plants and no compensation. Was eventually offered a refund. You can't do business like this!

Extremely late delivery, so late I emailed to say where is my order we are on holiday in 10 days! No response, and surprise surprise delivered when we were away! Replied a few days after this suggesting a neighbour sorts them out!

Be aware that this site will let you order goods that are not actually available and has poor communication with customers. I chased after 2 weeks with no updates and was told my order was on its way; at 4 weeks only half of the order was delivered with a scrawled note that the rest was 'to follow'. 6 weeks after ordering - with no further communication - i am asking for a refund.
The small print advises that 'it may take longer out of season' to fulfil orders, but by the looks of it it's going to keep my order for six months until spring now'!

If your purchase arrives damaged, your only way of contacting them is via chat bot, i have now waited over 3 hours with still no response on 2 occasions.
No email contact, no telephone contact number, only this chat bot.
Claiming money back via credit card, absolute scam of a company avoid avoid avoid

Paid for 2 plants via the Living Social Deal- received nothing! Stating initially that they had been let down by their suppliers, then they claimed that my order was packed but didn't meet their 'high quality standards', then when I received nothing after 5 weeks of waiting they are now stating that they cannot locate my order so they wont be sending the plans NOR refund the money! I'm furious that they can take money and send nothing. Utter con merchants

I have ordered £400 worth of plants and they all died within weeks or months. All of them. Avoid this company at any cost, their plants are forced to grow quicker and will not resist long. Customer service is terrible and you will not get your money back. Disgusting.

I have tried to contact Gardening Express customer service about the shocking state of my order. They won't answer the phone, they don't respond to emails, website requests or direct messages on social media. Shocking beyond belief.

Spent quite a bit of money here and never again! Long delivery times and worst plants I have ever seen. Sent the dead ones back and didn't even get a refund. They have two companies one is a garden center and they do supply good plants otherwise they wouldn't sell and the other is a mail order that supplies a load of rubbish... so be aware! Buy from somewhere more reputable is my advise.

I ordered 3 Eucalyptus Gum I plants. They had silver leaves on the pictures. I ordered 3 for a border. Two were silver and one was a different shaped leaf and was green. I asked to return for an exchange but 14 days on there is no reply. Steer clear of this company. They are cowboys.

Promised to dispatch with 5 working days. Took 13 working days and several messages before they dispatched. Once my plants arrived I carefully opened the battered box to find they were taped together tightly with no other protection. The fern I ordered had no leaves and was pretty much DOA. Bedding plants were on their last legs. They were battered and droopy. I planted and watered immediately. Over a week later and they've all pretty much died. Can't say much about the bulbs I received. I'll have to wait and see. All in all a bad experience and an absolute pain to try and contact anyone about my issues. I'll be avoiding this company from now on.

Ordered twice from this company but several years apart.
Zero customer service both times; Both orders were for, what they were selling as; established shrubs.
Both orders arrived in a very poor state and it was clear that they the plants hadn't been looked after whilst they were maturing. Not only were they poorly but they had hardly any leaves in them (both bought in season) and looked like someone had dumped twigs in a pot and added a bit of soil. The packaging was below standard - pots were in carrier bags and then put in boxes which were too big for the plant so there was movement and therefore damage in transit resulting in snapped twigs.

Not impressed

I ordered 8 plants from Gardening Express. After 4+ weeks nothing' had arrived. They are very difficult to get hold of, the only form of contact they currently offer is by post! No phone number, no email address, no contact form! Who doesn't have a contact form on their website these days... unless they really don't want to be contacacted - which begs the question - why? I wrote to them and requested a refund but no reply or refund. Finally, after 7 weeks, my plants finally arrived. Of the 8 plants I ordered, 6 were dead!

Do not under any circumstances buy from Gardening Express. They falsely advertised olive trees and arrived as young plants rather than fully grown trees. There is no one to speak to in customer service and they took several days to respond. There was no apology and I now need to spend a fortune returning them.

Spent £200 in this shop, got delivered dry yellow and damaged plants, not even mentioning the size was way smaller than advertised. Asked for a return and e-mailed back and forth for over a month, they kept saying that the plants are 'as expected'. Never got a refund.
Will never buy from them again. Avoid!