Delivery

What you need to know about your delivery:

It's Free! - on the majority of UK mainland orders over £60 (incl VAT)

For smaller orders, under £60, it costs just £12 (incl VAT)
On orders under £60 we have to charge for delivery - our standard charge is £12 (incl VAT) which doesn't cover our costs but makes a contribution towards them.

Please note however, that orders for some tall plants or deliveries by pallet are usually subject to a specified minimum order value to qualify for free delivery.

For more details on free delivery exceptions, such as area, tall plant shipping and pallet deliveries, please see the 'Further Delivery Information' section below.

*Shipping costs are calculated on the total order value in your cart, after discounts have been applied.

It's Quick - most orders are dispatched within 3-5 working days.

Next Day Delivery is available - we can offer next day delivery on most species and sizes for an additional £12 incl VAT. Call 01257 263873 to find out if your order is eligible.

It's Convenient - no need to wait in all day to sign, we don't need a signature (the odd, larger order may require a signature but will be delivered at a mutually agreeable time).

It's Tried & Tested - we use only couriers who have shown consistency in their efficiency & care.

Further Delivery Information

1. Areas

British Mainland (excluding Scottish Highlands) - FREE on orders of £60 or more (excludes pallet deliveries/tall plants - see pallet delivery and min order value information section below).

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.

Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, Isle of Wight, Scottish Islands, Channel Islands, Ireland and France - 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.

Deliveries Requiring Pallets and Minimum Order Values

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 (there is a note in the shopping cart wherever this applies) due to the increased size and weight of the shipment. Please look out for the pallet delivery icon on the plant product pages.
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.

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 is that normally only your plants will be on the lorry but there's a high cost so we have to impose a min order value of £2000 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.

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.

Non-Pallet Deliveries with Minimum Order Value

Please note that in addition to the above, we have a minimum order value on tall bare roots of £120 incl VAT. This is due to specific packaging and logistics requirements. Tall bare roots are classified as anything 120cm and above therefore please be aware of this when placing an order.

Our sales team are very experienced in all delivery options and minimum order values - in case of any query, please ask for advice on 01257 263873.

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.

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!

Bare root plants

Delivery arrangements for bare root (when in season between November and March/early 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 - 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 tall bare roots in the above section 'Non-pallet deliveries with minimum order value'.

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.

DO I NEED TO BE AT HOME TO SIGN FOR THEM?

The majority of pot grown plants, cell grown/P9s and bare root orders are dispatched in boxes using Parcel Force and do not need to be signed for. Please leave us instructions in the section on the order form 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 these generally have to be signed for but we will contact you when we are ready to dispatch to make sure someone will be able to sign for the delivery. The pallet company prefers someone to sign for them because pallets are 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 sign for the delivery, we can pass on your instructions to the pallet company and authorise them to leave the plants without your signature. 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 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.


OR 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 dispatch team on 01257 447520.