I’ve been a bit reluctant in the past to buy plants mail order. I like to have a good look at what I’m buying before I hand over my cash. However, recently I’ve become quite frustrated with the plants on offer at my local garden centres and I haven’t got the time to travel around the country searching out the varieties I want. So I have found myself giving mail order plants a try. I have to say I haven’t had any problems so far.
It’s actually quite nice when the postman turns up with a package saying ‘Live Plants – open immediately’. I half expect something to leap out at me when I delve into the packaging.
Blackberry 'Reuben'
So my Blackberry ‘Reuben’ arrived on Wednesday and then today I received a delivery of vegetable plug plants from Delfland Nurseries. Delfland are the leading organic commercial grower of vegetable plug plants and they also sell seeds, have a good selection of sundries and sell a selection of flower plug plants such as sweet peas. They have Soil Association approval and work hard to minimise their impact on the environment. They use peat free compost, their cardboard boxes and loose fill packing materials can be composted and a biomass boiler provides heat for their glasshouses.
Plug Plants
Between March and October they have plug plants to send out. Maybe you don’t have the space to sow seeds and grow them on before planting out or you’ve missed the opportunity to sow seeds of particular crops. Well this is where Delfland comes in. You can purchase separate varieties or choose their selection packs. They have a club root resistant selection, tried and tested tomatoes and Jill’s chilli selection amongst others. You could have a delivery every month throughout the growing season and not have to worry about starting seeds off.
I received some Japanese bunching onions, Winter Purslane, Winter Density Lettuce and some Perpetual Spinach. I haven’t grown any of them before so I looking forward to it.
Now all I need to do is get planting. Anyway I’ll keep you updated on my little plug plants, how they do and more importantly how they taste.
Thank you to Delfland Organic Plants.
Interesting, I hadn’t come across Delfland, I’ll check them out. If you want to try ornamentals I can recommend Beth Chatto’s nursery. Great selection, very reasonable prices and strong healthy plants.
Delfland get plenty of good mentions and recommendations on the gardening forums. I know a couple of people who use them regularly. xx
I must admit I have never heard of Delfland but they sound as if they know what they are doing.
Thanks for the link. I shall check this company out. I won’t mention any names, but I’ve had both successes and failures using mail order.
It’s encouraging. I’ve been wondering whether I can send a plant through the post as a present to a friend. Maybe, then, it will survive.
Esther
I try to grow all my own veggie seeds but have had the odd forgetful moment and as nothing available locally I have ordered from Delfland in the past, including some purple sprouting broccoli earlier this year. Plants and packaging have always been impressive and they are peat free too
Like you would rather see what I’m getting but not always possible.