Gardening Express Reviews

Name: Gardening Express
Address: Gardening Express, Chelmsford, Essex
Rating: 1.16

1.2 Rating 1,803 Reviews

3 %

of reviewers recommend Gardening Express

Company Reviews

Questions

Metrics

1.2

Based on 1,803 reviews

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Courier
Average Delivery Time	Over A Month
On-time Delivery	Greater than 16%
Accurate And Undamaged Orders	Greater than 30%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Email, Live Chat, Telephone
Queries Resolved In	Over A Week
Customer Service	1.1 out of 5
Returns & Refunds
Refunds Process	Difficult
Returns Process	Could Be Better

Phone:

08448 044 253

Location:

Gardening Express, Chelmsford
Essex
CM1 4UA

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Gardening Express 1 star review on 7th December 2025

Anonymous

Gardening Express 1 star review on 2nd September 2025

Varese

Gardening Express 1 star review on 24th July 2025

Anonymous

Gardening Express 1 star review on 27th June 2025

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636

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Filter: Rated 1 None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“No delivery yet , order placed 2 weeks ago. No contact number and they don't respond to emails. I was actually advised NOT to email them. Horrendous!”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 years ago

“I ordered and received 3 Sunningdale Silver Pampas Grass - Cortaderia selloana Large Specimen Plant. All 3 rotted in the ground. Every care was taken with them, they just rotted. I suspect they were dead when delivered, not dormant like they were sold as. No refund or replacement offered. 5 year guarantee only applies to a few select (if any) plants and you have to keep the label and return them as they came, who is going to keep the packaging and return a mush of rotted plant, especially after 5 years! What a joke. So you have to determine if your "dormant" plant is still alive within 14 days of delivery else your are out luck returning anything.”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 years ago

“Placed an order value around £130…half the plants arrived….3 had no leaves on despite being evergreen! Made contact with their robot on line help desk….not interested Never received the balance of the order….just gave up as too stressful So for £130 all I had of any worthy were two Viburunum plants which I could have bought for around £20 each This I have since found out is an internet only set up company that works on the basic fact that no one actually does anything about this Should be closed down ….its an absolute disgrace as i am a pensioner on limited income”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 years ago

“Customer Service dreadful....only a chatline is available. Gardening Express offer no guarantee and only accept returns within 2 weeks of delivery. This is unreasonable since it takes more than 2 weeks to establish whether a plant is healthy or whether it will fail. I spent just short of £90 for supposedly mature plants, they were not!! No replacement or credit offered so use a different supplier!”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 years ago

“Awful customer service Ordered a Tricolour set of 3 clematis and the 3 plants that arrived were 2 purple and 1 white. The picture showed an array of different colours so I was very dissapointed. The online chat customer service bot was adamant that the 2 shades of purple were very contrasty and that the offer was for 3 different varieties. She refused to accept that tricolour meant 3 colours. Was told to send them back at my expense and they would consider a refund. The postage and packaging would cost more than the plants. Dreadful and arrogant customer service. Date of experience: 24 February 2023”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 years ago

“ABSOLUTE SCAM COMPANY. Do not use. Terrible service and no phone line. Took weeks for them to get back to me and then they said it was too late and would not provide a refund even though I contacted them within 2 days of delivery. Plants were not as described and were dead upon arrival. I have lost a considerable amount of money. Customer service is horrendous. Cheap shoddy plants arrived which were no more than a few pence but they charged £40.00. ABSOLUTE SCAM.”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 years ago

“This is a large pampas grass (advertised as a large plant) A fully hardy evergreen plant This is what £30 get you 5 dead butcherd stems 6 inch tall The customer service is appauling there is no phone number no email just one of those stupid live chat things that only operates a couple of hours a day when you do manage to leave a message on it it takes then 24hours plus to reply and they brush you off waited 12 months for this filled in an inform me when in stock request but never got any notification that it was back in stock only found out when i checked the site I suppose this is wht they mean by the statement we Gaurentee you will be happy with our plants”

Gardening Express 1 star review on 24th December 2022

Helpful Report

Posted 2 years ago

“Ordered (and paid for) a 7/8 ft Christmas tree. Received a 5ft one. Customer service not interested.”

Gardening Express 1 star review on 9th December 2022

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Bought 3 plants for a gift to a friend, they were so poor i was too embarrassed to give them. waste of money”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“NO star!!! Completely SCAM website, ordered last Sept an expensive Acer shirasawanum 'Aureum' - Golden leaf Full Moon Japanese Maple and they sent me a tiny plant, looked nothing like what i had ordered. I waited for a year to see if it grew to the plant I ordered as per their website and realised that it was just a cheap acer plant that they sent me with an incorrect label and turned out to be nothing like the one I had ordered. Please do NOT buy from this website. Complete CROOKS!!!! There is NO customer service and no way to contact them, i.e no number, no email, no Chat line. On their website it says contact Messaging service or online chat but they do not exist.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Anemone Hybrida Bressingham Glow Japanese Anemone SKU P22155 £14.99 and Anemone hupehensis Splendens Windflower SKU P22183 £14.97 delivered 23 August 2022 I expected these to be delivered in a similar condition to the Anemone hupehensis 'Red Riding Hood' Japanese Anemone Windflower, that is, 'in-season, strong, healthy, full of buds, flowers and shoots'. They weren't. They aren't. These are short, stubby scrawny, almost lifeless plants with wilting foliage, no flowers, no buds, highly unlikely to have any flowers at all this year 2022! 'Autumn', Gardening Expresses' Quick Messaging System agent advised me 'This is a young specimen and will thrive once settled'. If I wanted two 'young specimen' I'd have ordered two 'young specimen' and they wouldn't have cost me £29.96 but more like £4.99 each! It is already mid-Summer heading into late-Summer with Autumn 'just around the corner'. I've not spent £29.96 for Gardening Express to deliver me two 'young specimen' in 3-litre pots for me to grow myself, I've spent £29.96 to have premium quality 3-litre 'in-season' plants delivered full of buds and flowers! Furthermore, the Plant Passport shows A ANEMONE, B BE-2.085.018.364 C week 13/16 2021! And Gardening Express expects us to pay 'return postage'? Unbelievable!”

Gardening Express 1 star review on 23rd August 2022

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Just tried to implement the 5 years guarantee. Photos dont suffice although I have sent some. I have to dig up the plant and return it at my expense and pay postage on replacement plant and arrange the transport....totally impractical to package up a hydrangea. Be easier to dig it up and return it to Essex in person”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Inexperieced staff who attempt to fob you off when goods arrive "damaged"or "unsatisfactory " Submit photos of the bashed and squashed box the plants arrived Complete refusal to replace let alone refund. Use the full extent of the law sec 9,10 and 11 Consumer Rights Act 2015 and use " 'Chargeback' for breach of contract Don't mess around with these cowboys a k a Chris Bonnett and Co. Mr Bonnett ' C E O ' You can't even communicate via email The message you get is an automated reply to be directed to the dorks employed on the chat web. Exercise extreme caution with Gardening Express,take your money and refuse to help when things go wrong.”

Gardening Express 1 star review on 13th August 2022

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“They make extravagant promises about a five-year guarantee/a refund/replacement if you aren't happy - but definitely buyer beware! Before issuing you with a refund - even in the event of an unsatisfactory/damaged item - they will expect you to post the plant back to them (at your own expense - a cost which they then won't refund the value of), which is of course ludicrous and not something any other online plant company demand. Even if you provide pictures of the dead/dying plant they still make you return the plant before issuing a refund! I've received some items from them which are in an OK condition, but one hibiscus just arrived dead, two daphne died within two weeks of arriving and an enormous (expensive!) cherry tree looks like it will be lucky to survive another month. I'm an experienced gardener and their patronising tone when I tried to reach out really took the biscuit. No attempt to make good or apologise, just condescension and bluntness. Also worth pointing out there is no phone number or email address to contact them on in the event of any customer service complaints. Just an unreliable instant messenger service with very limited 'open hours'. And to top it off, everything comes triple-wrapped in plastic bags and parcel tape! Seriously? When every other online plant company I've shopped with is making such massive strides away from single-use plastic! So you might be lucky and get the odd good quality plant or two, but bear in mind that if you don't you'll be left massively out of pocket. Back to Crocus.com for me - twice the price, but ten times the customer service!”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Beware, this company will only interact via a robot chat system.. should have thought this through..when they have no customer service dept…. On receipt, plants was woefully inadequate for the cost(£60), nothing like the ‘specimen’ photo and unbelievably pathetic in quality and size. Sarah, this Company’s customer service remote chat, has been most unhelpful.. you cannot actually speak to this company , person to person, that actually says it all. After a lengthy… remote online message service, over a very lengthy time, I was eventually told return at your cost , Goodbye… I informed Tia (Manager) I felt that the customer service somewhat lacked and I had no alternative than to post a negative review. The response was that basically no one read reviews anyway as it was always a negative posting! PLEASE , go elsewhere, I feel scammed on an image in relation to what I ACTUALLY received. I would so welcome a conversation with someone at this company.”

Gardening Express 1 star review on 5th August 2022

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“PLEASE PLEASE DONT USE THEY SHOULD BE REPORTED TO TRADING STANDARDS AND PUT OUT OF BUSINESS ORDERED A LARGE 5FT PALM BEAUTIFUL LUSH GREEN LEAVES THIS IS WHAT I RECIVED.”

Gardening Express 1 star review on 3rd August 2022

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“solutely terrible - rip off merchant! Absolutely terrible. Purchased 3 small trumpet flower plants for over £27 in total last September. Three small twigs with a couple of leaves on each plant were sent in oversized pots! I rang to query the size & quality of plants but was assured they will soon grow and flourish. Kept them indoors over winter and brought them out in May this year. Despite taking every possible care, the plants never grew any leaves and have now completely dried out and dead! Complained to the Gardening Express customer services but was simply told that these plants had no guarantee! Find their response from this cowboy outfit to be totally unacceptable. Stay well away from this rip-off supplier.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Don't buy trees Gardening Express - purchased 5 trees from you and now there all dead? Items Ordered Product Name SKU Price Qty Subtotal Thuja occidentalis 'Smaragd' - 150-180cm Specimen or Hedging Conifers K20723 £49.99 Ordered: 5 Shipped via Courier : 5 £249.95 and they refused to do anything about it. Stay away”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Ordered 50 dahlia tubers. When they arrived they were all single blind tubers broken off from the parent plant. These had no eyes or shoots. Complained as these blind tubers will not grow. Was told that this is normal and how they sell them and to plant them. I have grown dahlias for years and know these will not grow or produce shoots/plants. Either the company does not know the slightest about plants or are just selling rubbish, or both. I contacted them and they refuse to refund unless I post the rubbish back to them at my cost. Be warned avoid this company!!!”

Gardening Express 1 star review on 15th July 2022

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“AWFUL COMPANY!! AVOID!! Poor quality plants. Not as advertised, size stated describes pot and not plant! Customer service absolutely useless. Have to pay your own postage to send dead plants back (although they won’t accept they are dead!) It says it all that they’ve got so many bad reviews. I wish I’d read them before buying. Don’t be conned like I was😤”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

Gardening Express is rated 1.2 based on 1,803 reviews