Shopping for Garden Plants

Buying garden plants by mail order is nothing new! Many plant nurseries have published mail order catalogues for decades long before the internet was around. Now many plant nurseries publish their full catalogue on their own website, often with pictures of many of the garden plants.

Below you will find details of how the Garden Marketplace selects our "six top choices" for websites selling each category of "garden plants", some points to check when buying your garden plants and, a complete A-Z category listing for garden plants.

Six of the Best Websites in each Category

Many hundreds of websites for plant nurseries, garden centres, and seed companies have been reviewed in order to select what we consider to be the best six websites for each category of garden plants. We will continue to review these on a regular basis to ensure that the sites listed are those we consider to be the best available.

In order to qualify for consideration websites need to

have a UK address
deliver to gardeners living in most parts of the UK
have a detailed listing of garden plants online (not a PDF download)
have a site which is maintained (not obviously out of date)
have a site which is not under construction

Plant nursery websites which qualify on the above grounds are then assessed for

professionalism
credibility
ordering and payment facilities
information

These are clearly subjective judgements but we hope that you will agree we are listing the best available sites. However if you think you know of sites that should be included then please let us know.

Many of the plant nurseries listed are small businesses and do not necessary have all the online facilities you would expect from larger concerns. The ordering and payment facilities have been included in the site descriptions.

Points To Check When Buying Garden Plants Online

Minimum Order Value

Some plant nurseries have a minimum order value; without this many nurseries would find mail order uneconomic as small orders for garden plants can be very time consuming for little revenue.

Delivery Charge

Delivery charges vary enormously. This is partly due to variations in the size of the garden plants, and the ease by which they can be packed and transported. Some nurseries have a minimum delivery charge for the same reasons as outlined above for minimum order value.

Plant Size

Most nurseries make clear what size of garden plants you can expect to receive. Many of them sell plants in various sizes. If you are not sure then you should ask. These may well be smaller than you generally find in garden centres, as they cost less to send you. These garden plants are often also much cheaper than those in your local garden centre. Providing you can look after them then this can be a very economical way to buy your garden plants.