British Mainland (excluding Scottish Highlands) - Delivery charges and Free Delivery Minimum Order Values as per the table on the main page.

Scottish Highlands - possible delivery surcharge dependant on quantity and type of plants ordered - call us on 01257 263873 for advice. But be assured we will contact you should a surcharge be applicable before fully processing your order.

Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, Isle of Wight, Scottish Islands, Channel Islands and Ireland - we can deliver to these areas but in most cases there will be a delivery charge due to the non-mainland location. Please note that in certain circumstances there may not be an additional delivery cost for these areas, depending on the quantity and type of plants ordered, and of course there's a VAT saving for Channel Island customers which often offsets any additional cost of delivery.

We do deliver regularly to all these areas and are experienced in managing delivery costs. Call us on 01257 263873 for delivery costs to these areas.

Other locations: it may be possible to deliver to other areas not aforementioned - please contact us on 01257 263873 for a bespoke quotation.

Orders requiring pallet delivery, which are bulk orders and/or orders for some tall hedging plants still qualify for free delivery but we operate a minimum order value of £240 inc VAT due to the increased size and weight of the shipment. Please look out for the pallet delivery icon on the plant product listings on the main species page.

You can select any plants of any species in order to get your order up to £240 inc VAT, or if you really don't want to order that many plants, you can make a very reasonable contribution towards the delivery cost or collect from our dispatch centre in Lancashire. Please phone us to discuss the options if the plants you want don't have a min of £240 order value and you do not want to order sufficient plants to qualify for free delivery.

The vast majority of our orders are sent "free delivery" using Parcel Force's 24 hour service or our local pallet company who are part of an international network, again on their 24 hour (or sometimes 48 hour) service. We have tested lots of carriers in the past and whilst these carriers are not infallible, we have found their service to be extremely good and they are also excellent at sorting out the occasional hiccup.

For extra tall plants of 2.25m and over - see our 'Extra Tall Plants - Delivery and Minimum Order' section.

Deliveries requiring Tall Boxes are usually bare roots of 120cm and taller, which are of a size to require a large box, but unlike pots of this size, bare roots are lightweight so do not require a pallet. Products requiring delivery via Tall Box have a box icon indicating this on the product listing found on the main species page.

For these boxes, we have a minimum order value of £120 incl VAT in order to qualify for free delivery, otherwise it's just £18. This is due to the packaging size and specifics logistics requirement to ship these boxes.

On very tall plants (over 2.25m) which cannot be transported on standard pallet lorries, we have to use a dedicated haulage lorry. The benefit of this is that normally only your plants will be on the lorry but there's a high cost so in some cases we have to impose a minimum order quantity in order to be able to afford to give you free delivery.

On the other hand, we can fit an enormous number of plants into a lorry so if you need a lot, the cost per plant is very inexpensive so we can give free delivery and still give a discount off the price of the plants. Alternatively, if the delivery address is in the North West we can use our own lorry for delivery and that's more economical - or maybe you could collect. We are happy to work through the delivery options with you to try to give you what you need at the best possible price.

Please be aware that the dedicated haulage lorries are large articulated lorries, therefore it is essential that delivery access is available for this size and type of vehicle at the delivery address. If a vehicle of this size cannot access your property, please call the team on 01257 263873 to discuss bespoke options for delivery.

Bare root plants

Delivery arrangements for bare root (when in season between November and March/ April) vary depending on the height of plant and complexity of order (number of species). It takes us a couple of weeks in early November to despatch all the pre-orders that have been placed by customers between July and late October. After that, we try to turn orders round quickly but inevitably that gets harder as the order volume peaks in March and April - if you can order before March, that's really helpful to us and you're more likely to get your delivery quickly.

Some customers "pick and mix" small quantities (less than 10 of any species) of various species of bare root plants. We're quite happy for customers to do this but when we're busy we can only pick these orders when we've got slightly quieter days so we ask customers taking advantage of the pick and mix service to be patient and allow us a couple of weeks for delivery.

* Please do note the minimum order value criteria for free delivery for tall bare roots in the section 'Deliveries Requiring Tall Boxes'.

Cell grown plants

These are kept in stock at all times and are normally dispatched within 2 - 5 days of the order being processed - if in very unusual circumstances, we cannot dispatch your order within 7 days, we will notify you. This has only happened a couple of times in thousands of orders!

Pot grown plants

We keep quantities of most sizes in pot grown plants available at all times at our dispatch centre ready for dispatch within a couple of days of the orders being received. 95% of our orders are dispatched within a few days of the order being received. Occasionally (it's actually very occasionally) we do not have immediate stock to hand in our dispatch centre in which case delivery will be within 7 days to allow us time to bring plants from our nurseries to our dispatch centre. If in very unusual circumstances delivery is going to be longer than 7 days, we would contact you to inform you of the delay and to agree a delivery date with you. If you wish to cancel your order at this stage, you may of course do so, and your debit/credit card would be reimbursed with no deductions.

Root ball plants

Root ball plants are lifted from the fields to order so please order in good time before you actually need the plants. We will liaise with you to agree a delivery date. The benefit of this approach (rather than lifting the plants and holding them - out of the soil - on the nursery) is that the plants are really fresh and that gives them a better success rate. We lift plants twice a week in the busy season so there's never a long wait for them.

The majority of pot grown plants, cell grown/P9s and bare root orders are dispatched in boxes using Parcel Force and they deliver with no signature required. Please leave us instructions in the Delivery section of the checkout for where they should be left - but please be reasonable - we can't expect carriers to leave them "in the shed at the bottom of the garden".

We use pallet delivery (for orders of large quantities or tall plants and due to the weight of the plants, all root balls) and although we do not require a signature for delivery, sometimes people prefer to be at home to oversee the receiving of a large or heavy shipment. This is sometimes advisable as pallets are fairly difficult to manoeuvre so the driver may need to be shown where the pallet can be safely left (and if it's a gravel drive you may need to unpack the pallet at the gate). If you cannot be there to receive the delivery, please provide specific instructions as to where the delivery should ideally be left, taking into account it will need to be accessible for the lorry, with plenty of space for the driver to easily unload and deposit the delivery. We can then pass on your instructions to the pallet company and authorise them to leave the plants without your signature or being there to receive them. This can all be discussed when we liaise with you to agree a convenient date for delivery.

We can arrange delivery dates to suit you and we do not charge for this service and whilst we do our level best to meet requested delivery dates, please do not arrange for gardeners or contractors to be waiting for the plants in case they do not arrive until late afternoon or there is an unforeseen eventuality that could cause a delay in delivery like a road accident (rare but it happens!). We probably met 99% of specific delivery dates last year, but just to be clear, we will not pay any compensation if we do not meet a specific delivery date due to circumstances beyond our control.


UNSURE ABOUT YOUR DELIVERY? PHONE US FOR SPECIFIC DELIVERY DETAILS ON YOUR ORDER

If that was all too confusing, please ring us on 01257 263873 and tell us what you'd like to order and when you'd like it to be delivered - and we'll tell you if it's possible and how we'll do it.

OR IF YOU HAVE ALREADY ORDERED...

If you have already ordered and would like information on when your order will reach you, you can call our service team on 01257 447522 or email helpdesk@hedgesdirect.co.uk