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Best places to buy seeds and plants online
Buying plants and seeds online is a great way to fill your garden with all kinds of flowers and vegetables.
Buying plants and seeds online is not only convenient but you’ll often find varieties that aren’t available at garden centres and you can shop from companies that specialise in a particular kind of plant.
With so many more people now shopping by mail order for their plants and seeds, Which? Gardening magazine wanted to find out how the most-used suppliers compare.
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Plug plants
Plug plants are young plants that have been raised by the grower from seed or cuttings. They need to be potted up using a Best Buy compost for raising young plants as soon as they arrive with you and put in a light place to allow them to grow larger before being planted in a border or container.
Try our Recommended wildflower suppliers
Best plug plant supplier
Which? members can log in now to see the full results. If you’re not a member, join Which? to get instant access.
| Company | Customer score | Our findings | Contact |
| 85% | This nursery sells bedding and vegetable plug plants along with a selection of perennials. It also stocks a range of pots and planters, watering cans and gardening accessories. Of those who shopped here, 85% rated the website good or excellent for ease of use, while 81% gave the same rating to the quality of plants. The company allows customers to choose the dispatch date of their chosen plants, which allows you to plan delivery. |
Plug plant suppliers on test
Which? members can log in now to see the full results. If you’re not a member, join Which? to get instant access.
| Company | Sample size | Ease of using website | Range | Delivery | Packaging | Customer service | Plant quality | Value for money | Customer score |
| Brookside Nursery | |||||||||
| Crocus | |||||||||
| DT Brown | |||||||||
| Gardening Direct | |||||||||
| Hayloft Plants | |||||||||
| J Parkers | |||||||||
| Marshalls Seeds |
Companies are ranked by customer score, based on a combination of survey respondents’ overall satisfaction with the supplier and likelihood to recommend. The top suppliers are highlighted in red. Star ratings indicate how satisfied customers are with aspects of the service. We need at least 30 responses to rate each aspect. n/a = not enough responses received.
Seeds
Raising plants from seed brings a real sense of accomplishment and it's exciting to look out for the baby seedlings emerging. Hardy plants can be sown outdoors, but otherwise sow indoors using a Best Buy compost for sowing seeds. Once the seedlings are larger enough, they can moved ('pricked out') into individual pots or module trays, filled with a Best Buy compost for raising young plants.
Best seed suppliers
Which? members can log in now to see the full results. If you’re not a member, join Which? to get instant access.
| Company | Customer score | Our findings | Contact |
| 86% | With five stars for range available and value for money, this company topped our chart for seed suppliers for a second year and 99% of their customers would recommend them. The website stocks an appealing range of fruit, flowers and vegetables seeds. The alphabetical listing on the website made it easy to use too; 88% of those who bought seeds rated it very easy or extremely easy. | ||
| 83% | If you like to choose your seeds from UK-sourced nurseries with a strong ethical background then it’s well-worth checking out this supplier. They produce and sells a great selection of unusual and heirloom, open-pollinated vegetable seeds, along with a range of flower seeds and tubers. Its website is full of information about growing the veg but also how to save your own seeds. | ||
| 82% | Getting five stars across the board, except for delivery, this company offers a great range of seeds ranging from well-known vegetables and flowers to rare, exotic tree species, tropical climbers and carnivorous plants – matching their advertising line - ‘Grow something new from seed’. The wonderfully illustrated website has plenty of filters to make it easy to find whatever you’re looking for and 92% of those who had bought seeds from here would recommend using them. |
Seed suppliers on test
Which? members can log in now and view the full results. If you're not a member, join Which? to get instant access.
| Company | Sample size | Ease of using website | Range | Delivery | Packaging | Customer service | Seed quality | Value for money | Customer score |
| Chiltern Seeds | |||||||||
| Dobies of Devons | |||||||||
| DT Brown | |||||||||
| Kings Seeds | |||||||||
| Marshalls | |||||||||
| Mr Fothergill's | |||||||||
| Real Seeds |
Companies are ranked by customer score, based on a combination of survey respondents’ overall satisfaction with the supplier and likelihood to recommend. The top suppliers are highlighted in red. Star ratings indicate how satisfied customers are with aspects of the service. We need at least 30 responses to rate each aspect. n/a = not enough responses received.
Plants and bulbs
Buying from a nursery rather than a garden centre can allow you buy varieties that are harder to find and get advice from a specialist grower. Some nurseries offer a variety of plants and others specialise in one type, such as roses.
Best plant suppliers
| Company | Customer score | Our findings | Contact |
| 85% | The world famous plant breeder has been a featured supplier in our Better Plants by Post survey for several years. With five stars for customer service, quality of plants and delivery, almost everyone would recommend it. With a huge selection, the website is easy to navigate and allows you to search by type, colour, fragrance and garden situation. | ||
| 84% | This nursery sells a selection of bedding plants, perennials and garden sundries. Of those who shopped here, 84% rated the customer service very good or excellent, while 80% gave the same rating to quality of plants. The website is organised clearly and with a colour option so you can select varieties to complement your planting scheme. This nursery allows customers to choose the dispatch date of their chosen plants, which allows you to plan for their delivery. | ||
| 83% | This bulb supplier has won 69 RHS Chelsea Flower Show gold medals and pride themselves on providing the best quality bulbs. It has consistently scored highly in our surveys and it’s topped the list of bulbs suppliers this year. Its good customer satisfaction score is reflected in the nine out of ten members who would recommend it and shop here again. Customer service, packaging and range available all received five stars in our survey. | ||
| 82% | This bulb specialist is based in the famous Keukenhof bulb fields in the Netherlands. They stock a very large range of bulbs arranged clearly by autumn and spring planting and 77% of those who bought bulbs there rated the website easy to use. They have a UK based customer service desk and though there were not enough responses for a star rating, 86% of those who had a complaint or query rated the service good or excellent. | ||
| 79% | Specialist suppliers have generally fared well in our surveys and this year is no exception. This nursery is a specialist but you can also buy an intriguing selection of more unusual varieties from its website, which 83% found easy to use. It scored highly for the quality of the plants it supplied, with almost eight in ten finding the quality of plants very good or excellent. | ||
| 78% | The English face of a famous Dutch bulb-growing family, this bulb supplier stocks a tempting range of spring and autumn planted bulbs and a smaller selection of bare root perennials. Though they’re a relatively new supplier they received a great endorsement from those who have purchased bulbs there, with a five star rating for customer service, range and quality of plants. They are environmentally conscious too, using recyclable and recycled materials for their packaging whenever they are able. | ||
| 77% | This nursery holds National Collections so offers a large range of these particular plants including intriguing varieties not offered elsewhere. Unfortunately, this supplier didn’t receive sufficient responses for star ratings in some of the categories in our survey, but it makes it into the top bracket by virtue of its customer satisfaction and recommendation score and a brilliant five stars for quality of plants. |
Plant and bulb suppliers on test
| Company | Sample size | Customer score | Ease of using the website | Range | Delivery | Packaging | Customer service | Plant quality | Value for money |
| Ashridge Trees | |||||||||
| Bloms Bulbs | |||||||||
| Brookside Nursery | |||||||||
| Claire Austin | |||||||||
| Crocus | |||||||||
| David Austin | |||||||||
| Farmer Gracy |
Companies are ranked by customer score, based on a combination of survey respondents’ overall satisfaction with the supplier and likelihood to recommend. Star ratings indicate how satisfied customers are with aspects of the service. We need at least 30 responses to rate each aspect. n/a = not enough responses received.
How we test
Which? Gardening magazine asked over 5,000 Which? members about their experiences of ordering plug plants, seeds, plants and bulbs over the previous 12 months. We asked which suppliers they used, along with questions about aspects of the service. We used these answers to create a customer score for each supplier.
We had to receive a minimum of 30 responses for a supplier to give it ratings and a customer score. In some cases, a star rating may be missing from the table because some people selected ‘don’t know or n/a’ for that rating. The brand is still included in the table as it had enough responses for the customer-score questions about satisfaction and recommendation.