[seanandde]

We ordered a few tomato plants on-line from a large supplier who come up pretty near top of page 1 on a Google search for mail order veg plants.  Just a small order, thankfully, as we wanted to try a few different varieties than those usually on offer in our local garden centre.

After waiting slightly more than a month past the promised delivery date and with no answer to our repeated emails asking where the plants were, they finally arrived today and I'm distinctly underwhelmed   The three varieties aren't labelled so I've no clue which is which.  Not the end of the world.  But we've paid a few pennies short of £11 for what turn out to be at max 3" high (at least I think they'll be about that height once I've managed to uncurl the main stem), extremely weedy/thin tiny little things that are barely more than seedlings. 

Add to that the fact, when I unpacked them, the plants simply fell out of their pot of compost - they hadn;t even been transplanted; the scant root system just plonked on top of a pot of compost   Probably won;t even bother complaining given that the company hadn't even responded to previous polite email.  You live and learn!

[arugula]

Sorry to hear you have had a bad experience seanandde, as you say you live and learn.

[GrannieAnnie]

Sorry you had such a disappointment over the plants.

Did you buy plants rather than grow from seed because there are loads of seeds in a packet of tomatoes and you wanted a bit more variety?

If you do grow from seed next time, and find a whole packet is too much, put a post on the swap shop on here!  Some of us did that a couple of years back, and we swapped different varieties.  I ended up growing 22 different kinds of tomatoes that year!

 

[Lardman]

If you do grow from seed next time, and find a whole packet is too much, put a post on the swap shop on here!  Some of us did that a couple of years back, and we swapped different varieties.  I ended up growing 22 different kinds of tomatoes that year!

Not to hi-jack the thread but another forum I frequent has a "pass the parcel" section, names are collected, and then a jiffy bag with LOADS of different varieties is passed down the list. It works really well.

A tomato pass the parcel would allow far more people just to try varieties.

[8doubles]

If you do grow from seed next time, and find a whole packet is too much, put a post on the swap shop on here!  Some of us did that a couple of years back, and we swapped different varieties.  I ended up growing 22 different kinds of tomatoes that year!

Not to hi-jack the thread but another forum I frequent has a "pass the parcel" section, names are collected, and then a jiffy bag with LOADS of different varieties is passed down the list. It works really well.

A tomato pass the parcel would allow far more people just to try varieties.

Thats a great idea.
Worth a go next year.

[Goosegirl]

What a dissapointment for you. I wonder if it is the same company that I never use now as I have had some awful quality plants from them in the past. Shame we can't divulge their name.!

[Robster]

Why can't the name be divulged?  Its a legitimate reflection of events first hand.  I don't see that its any different to Watchdog or Top Gear reviewing a product or service.  Is it a website thing??

[Nobbie]

Coming near the  top in a google search merely means that they've paid google or have a good webmaster. It says nothing about the products they sell - as you have found out.

[Robster]

I did the Google search and found three vendors.  I have used Dobies (for plugs etc) and they were OK.  Not used the others.  We're pretty open about saying the good stuff re the recent discussion of compost purchases, surely the less than good stuff is fair game too. 

[8doubles]

Complain to the company, give them a chance to send some good plants if you get no satisfaction name and shame. It will save other people from disappointment with them.

[mumofstig]

You can name names on here...........if you read the compost 2011 topic you'll see people saying what brands are good and which are bad.......and we often recommend/or not seed suppliers.
It is not a problem

[JayG]

I believe Mum is right; as long as you are only expressing your personal view about a product (as distinct from making a deliberately malicious attack on it) I don't think there's any problem posting such information on public forums. 

[Dreamer@45]

I wont touch T@M with a barge pole after repeated failed attempts in the past to get some of their products to grow. To clarify what I’m saying….. Strawberry plug plants arrived late then subsequently died over the winter after being planted in the same bed as other newly bought strawberry plants from a local garden centre which all survived and thrived.

A packet of six over priced tomato seeds from T@M died while my Latah tomatoes raised in exactly the same conditions thrived. Just my own personal experience and one of those things I suppose though I now choose to support the smaller seed suppliers.

[Tohmahtae]

I've ordered a fair few plants this year from Suttons, T&M and Marshalls and have been very disappointed with the lot - it might seem like a good deal but in my experience it's best to buy from your local garden centre.

In their defence T&M did give a full refund and were the only company who bothered to reply.

[pete1977]

don't the seed merchants all own each other and they are in turn own by larger multi nationals - or am I just being cynically pananoid ?