[Grubbypaws]

In March I ordered some plug plants from Thompson and Morgan. The first 12 PSBs were sent out by Royal Mail on 4th April but because of the slow post they didnt arrive until after Easter. All were dead. I eventually managed to contact T&M and they sent out a further 12 which were sent out by post over the next bank holiday. These had actually started to rot! The customer service phone line is no longer working and emails are not being answered.

I fully understand that these are difficult times and the speed of the post is outside of their control. However I had also ordered some dwarf french beans. These were eventually despatched on the 5th June. They arrived on the 6th via a courier but despite a very short transit time they were in a terrible state. All leggy and half dead.

I have given up on trying to get a reply from them. I was trying to be understanding but I will not be ordering live plants from them again.

[mumofstig]

It IS a very difficult year for plug plant delivery, but regarding T&M, I'm sorry to say that many of us have come to the same conclusion over the last few years.
There are a good few posts on here with the same complaint you're making, should you have time for a forum search

[AnneB]

I succumbed to the marketing and ordered some plug plant perennial flowers from T&M that arrived last week - 6 each of Verbena, Leucanthemum, foxglove, aquilegia, echincea and doronicum.   Pleased to report that they all arrived in very healthy condition and there were significantly more than 6 of everything apart from the foxgloves.
Perhaps I have been lucky.  Never bought vegetable plugs from them though.

[al78]

I'd be very wary of buying anything highly perishable and fragile at the moment. The postal system at the moment is way slower than normal. I ordered some plastic greenhouse glazing in April, and a month had gone by before I was told the order had to be cancelled because they couldn't get the plastic, apparently due to huge demand for PPE.

[Kleftiwallah]

Sadly my beloved has found the same thing from the same grower.  We live and learn.

Cheers,  Tony.

[Blackpool rocket]

As others have said, royal fail is a disaster at the moment. The last thing I posted took 2 weeks to arrive, all of 25 miles away.
I have had a few deliveries from T&M they have all been woefully late. No veg, just plants for pots. The ones that arrived dead have either been replaced or refunded.
I had notification on Thursday that my replacement giant fuchsias had been dispatched, bad choice of word, however...they haven't arrived yet...day 6 and counting.
I would have thought with all the complaints T&M must be getting, they would have sorted out a contract with a courier.
I haven't had any problems with courier deliveries, indeed something I ordered on a 2-3 day delivery time arrived 4 hours after I ordered it!

[Kenilworth]

Had similar problems with Suttons, still haven't received my cucumber or aubergine plants that were supposedly dispatched on the 4th of April...…..The plants that did arrive from other orders were in a very poor state even though they had very short shipping times, most times just a day or two. Suttons have had their phone lines shut since before April and I have emailed but no reply.

What got me with Suttons, yes they were getting a lot of traffic on their website which meant it was very slow and unresponsive, they did the right thing by limiting the amount of people that could access the website by a queuing system,  by speeding up the website this meant more people were able to make more orders, this is great of course if you can cope, unfortunately it became very obvious they couldn't, they as good as admitted this by stating that all orders would be delayed by weeks. In many ways it just felt like a money grabbing exercise for orders they knew they couldn't honour.

What I saw from a lot of "responsible" companies was the willingness to recognise what their capabilities were and not only restrict access to their website but also restricted the number of orders they took.

Needless to say I still haven't been able to make contact regarding refunds on non show orders and I certainly wont be using them again.

Ironically the one order I placed with T&M turned up in good time and condition.

[Longshanks]

Aren't/weren't Van Meuwen the same company as T&M?  They were bad pre-Covid and seemed to have stopped advertising and I loved their full page ads in the paper. I ordered loads from T&M in January and it all arrived in good time as promised. All the brassicas were fine, so too the fuchsia and petunia etc, but some of my grasses died.  I try to grow from seed as much as possible, but recent non-germination of T&M beans can be blamed on a 2009 packet!!

[Grubbypaws]

Has any one got a supplier that they can recommend for plug plants?

[Christine]

If you have  garden centre or small nursery close by that might be the way to go as there's no P&P with these even if you can't quite get exactly what you want.

[AlaninCarlisle]

Has any one got a supplier that they can recommend for plug plants?

Yes, Jersey. Stuff ordered post-Covid all arrived in good condition. Used them for several years and never disappointed yet

[Grubbypaws]

I have found a recommendation for Delfland nurseries

 https://www.organicplants.co.uk/

Has any one got any experience with them? The site looks good as does the range of plants on offer.

[mrsbean]

Thanks for all the replies to Grubbypaws question. I will no longer consider placing a plug plant order with any company at the moment

[Hampshire Hog]

Given my poor experience with plug plants this year I would recommend spending the money for plug plants on a good heated propagator. Fortunately I had gone for a belt and braces technique sowing some (very old) tomato seeds in a small window sill propagator as well as ordering plugs. My propagator sown plants now have green tomatoes on them outside on my patio. As mentioned in a previous post I ended up cancelling the plugs due to delivery delay.