Gardening Express

Absolutely appalling company that should not be allowed to trade. I accepted a delivery wait of up to 15 days as stated at time of ordering. Ended up waiting five weeks with no way of being able to contact them as all form of contact has been shut down. I tried leaving update requests on their Facebook page, but the kept deleting them rather than provide me with delivery updates.

Plants finally arrived, looking like they had been picked from a graveyard bin.
They used a box that was far too shallow, bending my plants in half to enable the box to close.

I returned the plants, recorded and signed for and have now been waiting over 30 days for a refund. This company is an absolute con. Be warned.

I ordered 2 plants. Cost of 74.00. One had eaten leaves looked like vine weevil had attacked it. The other was a poor spindly thing with yellow leaves. Dry as a bone and looks dead. Very disappointed.

I am in a bit of a dilemma with regards to this review, as I, like many other customers, didn't have a good shopping experience with Gardening Express, but the plant turned out to be good. Ok, it isn't not as bushy and wide as originally advertised, but not bad at all, appears healthy and well kept. It is a shame, as this company should definitely remove the word Express from their name, as this creates wrong expectations from the start. Also, state boldly that 3-5 days is shipping time, not delivery time. Additionally, it would be good for customers to be able to communicate with a human, as currently there is no helpline or Customer Service in place.

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.

Had genuine concerns following reading some terrible reviews on this site... after I'd placed my order of 2 Cordyline Australis.

I messaged GE and they replied swiftly reassuring me that I would receive my order in excellent condition, and they acknowledged that due to the vast amount of orders they send out each week that some customers on occasion may submit negative reviews.

I have today received my order, I opened the boxes in trepidation and was relieved to discover 2 fantastic trees in great condition.

I would urge anyone concerned to contact them & give them an opportunity to provide you with some reassurance, as I did.

Appalling, awful, disgusting, rotten, unhelpful... i could go on. What they picture online is a complete misrepresentation of what you receive (see picture) i was sent old lavender that is leggy and dead. Dead branches. Dead heads. I'm so upset. They just advised me to cut it back! I paid £3.95 x 5 = £19.97 for what i could pick up at Homebase from their sale section for a £1 each in that condition. I also ordered a Magnolia Tree and their choice of courier (which cost me £4.99) is questionable too (see picture) i'm left with 6 leaves on it after it's travel ordeal. I can only hope that someone else will read this and save themselves £44.77 and NOT shop with gardeningexpress.co.uk! AVOID!

Plants, mainly acers, arrived in appalling condition, leaves dry and brittle but the soil in the pots moist, so they must have known their condition before sending. One acer has died and the others look terrible. After several hours waiting for the chat line I was told to wait a month to see if they would recover, no negotiation at all. This afternoon I waited again but they simply went offline after half an hour. I did find an email address though, they are '*******@gardeningexpress.co.uk' and '*******@gardeningexpress.co.uk'. I'll see what happens but not hopeful. Awful business, wonder who's responsible.

I ordered fruit trees last year that was a nightmare trying to find out when they would be delivered, bearing in mind I live 10 mines from their nursery! They lied about them being sent then over 2 weeks later they turned up. They were in poor state, but I persevered and did as the instructions said. Last week I contacted them for a refund as they were all dead or should i say as i had received them! To be told im not covered by their so called 5 year guarantee but the shorter one that expired a few days before i asked for their refund and a snotty message back saying dont bother to try and contact us again about it as they wont do anything. Avoid, the majority of their reviews are horror stories like this. I have attached a picture of the sort of rubbish they are sending out

Only ordered twice from GE, first time spent over £150, half the plants /trees ordered were Ok but then found the guarantee involves returning plants at own expense for a refund. As some of my plants (hellebores) had just disintegrated this was not possible anyway. Second order placed (not realising it was same company) and was sent wrong plant along with some ropey looking bulbs. After sending two lots of photos and waiting four days asked why it took so long to resolve (had already waited a long time for the plants and just wanted to get on with planting in a scheme) was told the delay was my fault because I kept contacting them and every time I did it took away from the horticultural team to investigate. Given that only one email was extra to what they'd asked for, I thought it was incredibly unhelpful and rude! Will never order from GE again. Good companies go under, how do companies like this survive?

Will never buy from this company again. If you have a problem there is no way to contact them by phone. There is a web contact but it does not allow you to describe the problem, it simply asks you to send photos. I sent photos and they wrote back saying 'plants are fine'. I emailed by return to say 'they are not', but received no acknowledgement. We bought 6 trees from this company, they packed three trees in a box which should have have been used for two. The third pot was jammed above and between the two lower tree pots, forcing the tree trunks to lean out and weaken their attachment to their roots. We now have two trees with a lovely upright stance and four which lean quite strongly and will not stand up straight. I guess we will need to try and stake them but this should not have been needed and is far from ideal. Clearly they have a penny pinching culture which puts profit way ahead of the quality of their plants or the service they provide to their customers. They also effectively block any feedback about their service. Awful company.

Received one order that I was reasonably happy with. However I do not recommend the bare root plants as none of the plants established and were a complete wast of money. My main complaint is the terrible customer services - no telephone number and the website chat function is hopeless as no one responds for hours (waited over 3 hours and didn't get a response even then). At first they requested pictures (provided) and now three weeks later state I needed to report the issue within 14 days. I'm completely puzzled how you can tell if bare root plants will become established within 14 days.
I will NOT be using this company again and will NOT recommend.

I've bought twice from Gardening Express. I should have learnt the first time.
Order 1: korean fir and pomegranate. The fir arrived after 10 days in transit in very poor condition (it dies 6 month later) and the pomegranate never arrived at all, a refund was provided for the undelivered item. The 5 year guarantee is not seemingly valid as i still advent been refunded for the dead fir tree.

Order 2:2 x pomegranate and 1 bird of paradise. Again same problem with Hermes, plants were in transit for > 7 days and the trees arrived with dead branches at top and dropped leaves. Photos were sent immediately of damage requesting a replacement and return, 2 weeks later i was told it was "superfluous" and no replacement/refund/return would be made.

Please don't be tempted by the seemingly attractive prices. The plants seem ok, but using Hermes and taking 7-10 days to deliver boxed live plants is only going to end one way.

Delivery arrived 26 days after order... Plants had been 10 days in transit. Some plants missing... Most of them dead!
Repeatedly emailed with photos... Customer service horrendous... Very rude.
They are going to refund for dead and missing plants... I won't hold my breath!
Not express and no garden!

Ordered a pair of Tuscan Cypress trees. On unpacking one was damaged, in that the leader branch was broken. Immediately emailed Gardeningexpress with pictures, took a week for them to reply (after I chased them) to be told that there was no detrimental damage. Having stated that I was unhappy with this I was told to return them at my cost to get a refund, when all they had to do was send a replacement tree. Rest assured I will not use them again and would strongly advise against anyone else using them.