Garden centre or nursery?

debs64

Which do you prefer? And why? And how would you define the difference between them? 

B3

I would like to use nurseries, but I find them a bit intimidating.

Jacquimcmahon

I like both. Not much a selection around me but I did find one nurserie which I love to go to. I find they are really helpful rather than just trying to get you to buy anything as long as you are spending.

Joy*

I prefer to use a  garden centre which grows its own plants. Last year my bought online fuchsias were very poor. This year the ones grown by the garden centre which has its own nursery are beautiful. Garden Centres seem to buy in like a supermarket and are too busy selling clothes, giftware etc and turning huge areas into children's party venues to be bothered with plants. It is very frustrating to ask for plants only to be told that until the delivery arrives they have no idea of whether they will have them or not.

punkdoc

For slightly more unusual plants and for a much bigger selection, I always buy on line.
eg. Dahlia tubers, my local GC stocks 6-10 varieties, the on line seller I use has about 100.

madpenguin

I use a mix of both depending on what I am looking for/buying.
My rarer succulents come from online nurseries which specialise in them.
Other local nurseries may have more choice for perennials and shrubs and no high carriage costs to the Isle of Wight!
Supermarkets/B&Q etc can be great for bog standard stuff and cheap too.All my clematis were bought for between £1-£2.50.
It depends where I am,what I want and the quality of the plants.

Fire

I don't live near a nursery, I have no car and my two nearby garden centres have a small range. These days I do a fair bit of research as to exactly what plant will work and get that one. GCs never have it. So I order online - smaller, well regarded companies; the ones recommended on the forum like Wootens.

edhelka

I've never had a choice. As Fire, we used to have no car a nothing else than a B&Q in walking distance. Now in a new home, we have a car and we have a good garden centre reasonably close (but I still need to ask my husband to drive me there because I don't have a driving licence yet). So it's almost only online for me.

Joyce21

I have used four online nurseries for a few years. Excellent quality plants and quick delivery. What used to be a good local nursery was sold and houses built on the land.

Singing Gardener

The only nursery remotely near me has quite a small range of plants and is crazily busy all the time with queues to get in the car park. The plants they have are very good quality and reasonably priced but it's just too much effort to go there.

My local garden centre is a Wyevale which is completely useless but there is another one about 5 miles away which has as much better range. It used to be independent and had an enormous range but was taken over by Blue Diamond a couple of years ago and unfortunately has much less choice these days.

I do shop online a lot as well.

JennyJ

My real answer would be any/all outlets depending on what I want and what I see "by accident" - so specialist nurseries (either online or if I go to a show where they have a stand - there's not much around here), more general nurseries, garden centres, DIY stores, supermarkets, local market stalls.