Gardening Express

A "5 litre", "well established" Ruby Beauty raspberry plant, turned out to be a v. poor 1 litre juvenile plant...
Customer service couldn't give a damn. No acceptance of miss-information on website. Refund would leave me out of pocket for 2 lots of expensive postage.
Worst experience of using an online nursery.
My recommendation - avoid (as I will be doing going forward)

After several weeks and requests to cancel being ignored I received an abysmal collection of plants. Worst was a grafted twig. At no time did they advertise the tree would be grafted. What its root stock is, is anyone's guess. Only 4 of the 10 hostas are alive and the shrub is half the size and twice the price of one I bought in B&Q. My money was taken within hours of me placing my order and I have waited 9 weeks for the delivery. I read a review on This is Money and noted a Gardening Express spokesperson stating ´orders could be cancelled if they hadn't been posted'... All lies. My request was ignored and any returns will be at my expense. Disgusted with the shocking customer service and the appalling state of the plants received. Support your local nurseries and steer clear of this unscrupulous company please.

My order was very poor in quality, 2acer plants and feed I watered and returned
Them the same day they were delivered, have written still not heard from them and no refund, bought thru groupon.
A fraud

Do not buy from this rip off cowboy company. Their plants are dispatched dead and dying and they don't give a damn about the customers they defraud. Run by a grubby little con merchant called Chris Bonnett. Now under investigation by Trading Standards.

I ordered and received 3 Sunningdale Silver Pampas Grass - Cortaderia selloana Large Specimen Plant. All 3 rotted in the ground. Every care was taken with them, they just rotted. I suspect they were dead when delivered, not dormant like they were sold as. No refund or replacement offered. 5 year guarantee only applies to a few select (if any) plants and you have to keep the label and return them as they came, who is going to keep the packaging and return a mush of rotted plant, especially after 5 years! What a joke. So you have to determine if your "dormant" plant is still alive within 14 days of delivery else your are out luck returning anything.

Have given one star as impossible to give zero stars! Worst company I have ever dealt with, plant arrived late and damaged. No telephone or email support, issues have to be raised via a "support ticket" - which is laughable as they aren't the slightest bit supportive and rarely reply to it! Have been trying for last two months to get refund or replacement to no avail. Avoid at ALL costs

I am very surprised the credit card companies are allowing this outfit to limp on. I have had no contact other than automated messages triggered by e mails. Their phones havent worked in all the time I have been trying to contact them. Amex have refunded my money and are looking into the company. Goes to show how an impressive website fools the many. Stay clear they shouldnt be in business that is if they still are of course.

I have spent a lot of money with Gardening Express over the past few months and whilst my first order was ok the service and quality of plants has declined since. The latest insult is that they cancelled an order without my knowledge or any explanation but have not refunded my money. You cannot speak to them but you make a "ticket" with your issue. Mine remains unanswered after three days. Have now had to go to my bank to try to get the money back. My advice would be to go elsewhere.

Appalling service.

I ordered to trees for my brothers wedding anniversary. I was delivery could be upto 15 days as they were busy. 17 days later no delivery. Generic replies via email saying they were busy and no contact phone number. I have asked for a refund, as of yet not reply. Leave them alone

Just taken delivery of a very sad, badly damaged Trachycarpus Fortunei in a box that was held together by sellotape. However the damage was clearly not just caused by the poor packing and I was disappointed that they would even consider sending a plant in this condition. If I saw it in a nursery I would have left it well alone and certainly not paid £49.99 + delivery for it.
The company did respond quickly to my complaint and offered to accept a return after I sent pictures however I didn't have a suitable box to return it in as the one they sent had fallen apart when unpacking and they knew this. I told them I would keep the plant but would ensure that future customers were aware of my experience, and won't be using them again

I ordered what i thought was a live potted xmas tree. The size stated between 3 and 4 foot. My poor little tree was not even 2.5 foot! Asked for refund as sent product not to description and told they do not have a returns collection and I have to pay and organise! Disgusting! Why should I pay for their mistake? Will carry on complaining until I get a full refund. Stay away!

I ordered 3 Banana plants and a Bird of Paradise, all arrived looking very forlorn. I contacted Gardening Express immediately and was told to take photos, they said that once the plants were put in he ground they be fine - what rubbish. The Banana plants died within 3 weeks and the Bird of Paradise died about 3 months later. An absolute waste of well earned money wasted.

Ordered plants on 20 April. Told can take up to 4 weeks, has now been 7 weeks and still counting. Have used the email form 3 times, never get a response. 3rd June was told package had been dispatched to Hermes for delivery and given tracking information. To date Hermes have not received package and no indication of when I will receive my order. I cannot get a refund please, cannot get my plants, the company is either a complete shambles or is deceiving customers. Am now going to Trading Standards to see if they can help. I wish I could add photos but have no plants!
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My first and last order (order number *******) with this terrible company. I spent over £50 on an Acer tree, a Bottlebrush tree, a pair of French Lavender standards, and some bulbs. When I eventually received my order, the plants arrived well wrapped and boxed, but all are of very poor quality, and I'm not sure they will survive. I'm giving them TLC, but it's a losing battle. The bulbs were not in the box and 'to follow" was written on the delivery note. However, on my account, it states that the bulbs have been delivered! When I placed my order, the bulbs were in stock, so it would appear that their online stock system gives false information.

What a rip off this company is. They take your money and send you plants that are on their last legs. I've still not received the bulbs!

With hindsight, I should have read all the reviews before placing my order. An expensive lesson learned!

I ordered plants in March, they arrived several weeks later half dead, and subsequently died a few days later. I tried to get my problem sorted with them, but to no avail. I have since escalated the situation via Resolver (which is linked to Money Saving Expert.com). I have still had no refund or replacement plants. Do yourself a favour and stay away from this company.

Purchased a Dwarf Lilac it was in stock, 3-5 day delivery, it was delivered fifteen days later, they delivered a boomerang, what should be a beautiful dwarf lilac has a stem shaped like a boomerang. I cannot believe that anyone with any gardening experience would have packed this sad wee tree into a box and think the customer "ME" would be satisfied. Phone calls are answered but an automated voice tells you they are having phone issues and phone goes dead, to return this tree at my own expense is rubbing salt into the wound. I will report this to our local trading standards office and see what advice they can give me. After reading the reviews, something I should have done before ordering, I wonder why more people have not reported to their own local TSO.

My honest review on trust pilot has just been report by gardening express what a joke!

When I had problems with my order, I spoke to a Gardening express customer service manager on ******* ******* on several occasions. I did manage to secure a refund for 4 of my plants.

Shame that I got told to trim the 4 plants that arrived with several large slugs on, trim what? These were tiny immature plants & after the slug had, had their feast there was hardly anything left of the plants, let alone they may have laid eggs!
& I was also told to treat the iron deficient plant myself that they sent out to me.

I do not recommend Gardening Express

I bought a fairly expensive magnolia tulip tree from Gardening Express. When I received it, I soaked overnight, planted in good compost and watered regularly. No growth, no sign of buds opening.
I contacted Gardening Express who advised that the tree was dormant when received since it had been in cold store.
I waited for several weeks for the tree to come into bud as advised, but nothing happened. Contacted gardening express again but was now told the tree was dead, and I couldn't claim under the warranty as that had to be done within two receipt of the tree.
How am I expected to discern within 14 days that a bare root tree that is supposedly dormant is in fact dead? I gave the tree full TLC, planted it in good compost, checked it every day and watered regularly.
The warranty is valueless. I shall not be purchasing any more plants from Gardening Express.

I ordered 8 weeks ago and nothing has arrived, you cannot contact them in any way other than raising a ticket and then you get an automated response. Nobody has had any response from any tickets rasied. They sent a generic email saying that plants are growing in their warehouse and will be even bigger, the reviews suggest the opposite. Thankfully i paid on credit card and have logged a dispute

Received plants that were broken and damaged. Had to be thrown away. Customer service uninterested and told me that the only way I can get a refund is to package up and send the 3 giant palms back to them myself. Obviously not going to do that.

Ordered my plants at end of April and finally received them today. Wish I hadn't bothered. All pots had dry compost, the lupins are crushed and as for my 10 variegated hostas. They are a joke. I have been really ill with post Covid symptoms for the past 14 weeks and was looking to these to provide a bit of hope and colour. Worst £53 I ever spent

Ordered 2 Photinia lollipops got two twigs in a basket! Been a Landscape gardener for nearly 30 years and never been so disappointed and amazed that they actually think they can't sent these rubbish plants. And then tell you nothing wrong with them after sending photos and you have to pay for the return of them! Don't waste your time and money with this company!

Purchased 240 ilex crenata at £270 which is good value but still a big outlay. Leggy, yellowing plants with leaf drop delivered. Trying to get a refund has taken 3 hours with no resolution so far. I won't pay to return these as they will be dead and consumer credit act means I should get a refund without outlay myself. I will update when and if I get a decision on a refund. Can't understand why they have no quality control and even worse no guarantee of refund unless you pay to return goods that aren't fit for sale. So disappointed.