1. Digital & Ordering Experience

• Website Functionality: An easy ecommerce web site to use - Shopify based so has all the bells and whistles that come with that very sound platform.

• Stock & Availability: All the main Pelargonium groups are on a drop-down and the available varieties are listed first so it’s easy to avoid the out-of-stock ones. Good photos and descriptions of each variety

2. Delivery & Sustainability

• Logistics: Sadly, the default delivery is by Evri. I contacted Growing Crazy to see if there was an option and was told if I commented on the next order they would use Royal Mail. So, I did, and lo and behold the package just arrived in very good time delivered by our usual jolly postman - nice one!

• Eco-Credentials: A good effort to use planet friendly packaging. Cardboard and newspaper do the heavy lifting/protection of the plants which are in peat pots. Each plant has a biodegradable bag to keep it moist and stop the compost escaping. The plant labels were white plastic - I’m OK with that. Good clear stick-in labels.

3. Packaging & Plant Condition

• Secure Transit: A good design of mailing pack. Evri managed to crush both deliveries but the plants seem to have survived.

• Plant Condition upon Arrival: The plants arrived nicely moist and in good condition despite being crushed. The plants were of a good size compared to Fibrex and Ellwoods.

• Substitutions: No substitutes were needed

4. Potting On & Cultivation Success

• Potting Medium: 50% Peat free multi with 50% horticultural grit

• Establishment: All plants have grown away well. I left the peat pots on the plants. The plants will just about be big enough to give a decent show this year (June delivery)

Scorecard

• Website & Ordering: 10/10

• Overall Plant Range: 10/10

• Late-Season Availability: 8/10 In mid June the range was understandably limited but still easy to find enough for an order

• Delivery Speed: 8/10 Evri could have been quicker but acceptable - Royal Mail first class.

• Packaging & Sustainability: 9/10

• Initial Plant Quality: 8/10 One plant was a bit wonky and one sided but will be fine

• Establishment & Vigor: 9/10 All plants doing well

• After-Sales Support: 4/10 see above regarding delivery options

Final Verdict: I’ll give them 8/10

Would I order again? Yes, already have ordered a third batch, Growing Crazy are in my top three suppliers

This morning I saw a couple of bright little fellows playing chase on one of my scented Pellies. I was pleased that my old eyes spotted them as they looked a bit like the flower buds. As soon as they knew I was onto them they hid on the underside of a delightfully fragrant leaf, supposed to be Hazelnut ‘flavour’ but I think Dutch plant marketing had been a bit creative with that description.

I went off to grab a camera with a macro lens on it and when I got back one of the bugs had come back topside and was innocently admiring one of the Pelargonium flowers. The other bug was still hiding. The obliging bug stayed around long enough for me to get a few shots and then headed off to admire some other flowers.

A little bit of Googling revealed these to be Cinnamon bugs. There are two subspecies commonly found and mine appear to be Corizus hyoscyami nigridorsum. The all black bit at the tail end is the diagnostic feature.

I thought I had better check if these bugs are a danger to my Pellies and was comforted to find out that although they might do a minor bit of sap sucking they are nothing to worry about. So if you see them on your prize Pellies don’t panic, they are probably just admiring the flowers.

Yesterday I noticed the large, flowering plants looked a bit sad. After a bit of research I found out that the kind of heat we are having now - in a greenhouse, is excessive. It seems the Zonartics are more susceptible to the heat than the Zonals so they took a little trip this morning into a semi-shaded, well ventilated (missing panes) glass house.

I moved all of the Zonartics large and small. I suspect they may go into a Summer dormancy period so I will keep the watering fairly restricted and see how they go. The Zonals in the same structure (A Keder house) are thriving and now will have more space.

Lia Princess Charlotte is the worst affected by the heat (pic below) quite a few leaves lost and the flowering buds appear to be aborting. It is overwatering, I am very cautious about that as I know that it is all to easy to see an unhappy plant and kill it with the kindness of extra water!

I’ll watch closely to see how the Zonartics respond - for me this is part of the fun, getting to know the plants and their various needs and dislikes.

My experience with SR this year (2026) has been the same as so many other disappointed customers. Evri, her chosen courier is a disaster for deliveries, where I live, they have a sad reputation of late deliveries in a poor state - often delivered to the wrong address.

My orders from SR have always been later than the advertised likely window, however the plants were clearly very good quality when they left the Nursery. What’s more the plant/pot sizes were ideal for immediate use in the garden, unlike the teeny-weeny plants from the likes of Fibrex and Allwoods. Although SR charges serious £££’s for her plants they match the uses she proposes for them. I had three 9cm Pelargonium quercifolium delivered and they were good-to-go into a rustic old cauldron and will look the part if a few weeks time.

I am aware that Sarah Raven’s business has had a rocky few years. I believe she had to be involved in a buy back to keep a hold on the business but needed backing to do so.

This from the interweb:

Following a decline in sales and the failure of a costly vertical expansion, the business underwent major changes just a year ago:

• Company Buy-out: Sarah Raven and a group of investors bought the business assets from administrators, saving the company’s website operations and most jobs.

• Business Downsizing: Management plans to reduce the company’s size to ensure profitability—aiming to drop revenue from its pandemic peak of £27 million to roughly £13 million

  The business is concentrating on core products (bulbs, hardware, larger plants) and dropping seedlings.

• Site Sale: The 60-acre Rookery Farm packing and growing nursery in Spalding (acquired in 2022) was put up for sale

• Leadership Shift: The restructuring resulted in CEO Alison Doherty and CFO Gavin Street leaving the company, with Stuart Hudson taking over as Managing Director.

As creative director SR seems to be doing an excellent job, perhaps it is others in the team who are not performing so well.

It could all be so different. SR has a good following despite so much going wrong and her online content is sound and inspiring. I have learned a lot from her about arranging, colour and plant combos.

Sarah ( not sure we are are first name terms ) has a formula that could be a winner. It shouldn’t be rocket science to deliver plants on time, in a decent state and be attentive to customer complaints and queries … after all other suppliers can do it.

I hope she gets her act together.

Delivery was by Royal Mail and each order came within a week to 10 days, I was happy with that. The packaging was the most planet friendly of all the suppliers. The only plastic was the plant labels which were stick in type, clear and helpful.

The rooted cuttings were in 6cm biodegradable fibre pots. Each plant was wrapped in a brown paper bag and the root balls were moist.

You can see the labels were tidily inserted into the side of each ‘pot’. The plants were laid on their sides in a very nicely designed mailing pack made from compressed cardboard fibre. A rigid lid held the plants in place and was fixed with a brown paper tape that seemed water resistant. The plants were held very firmly to the point that every fibre pot was compressed/flattened just a bit more than I would think ideal. Most roots that were into the fibre part of the pot were broken or damaged. apart from the ones at the bottom and the compost was somewhat loosened. All the plants I received were of acceptable quality, some a bit small but will establish OK but slowly.

Only in my last shipment from Fibrex did I get a substitute. I was not advised before delivery but was happy with the sub and I did not specify no subs.

I potted into my usual mix of general purpose compost that had about 40% horticultural grit added. The plants have all established, most are growing away well enough, a few are slow. I think the cutting material may have been too woody for rapid growth - but they will get there.

I score Fibrex out of ten for each factor:

Web site : 8

Plant range: 10

Availability in May: 6

Speed of delivery: 9

Packaging: 9

Plant quality: 7

Establishment after potting: 7

I cannot comment on after sales service as I have not needed contact with them since ordering.

Would I order from Fibrex again - yes but they are not top of my list.

This new addiction was prompted by picking up a few scented leaved Pellies at a local Garden Centre. The combination of strange foliage fragrance and delicate little flowers marked with tiny ‘brushstrokes’ so typical of the genus got me hooked once again.

I think the next step was seeing Sarah Raven in the corner of my computer screen extolling the virtues of Regals and Uniques so I placed an order. Her plants seemed pricey but after 20 years I expected costs to have risen. For quality plants from a reputable supplier I felt it was worth paying top dollar. I think I am not alone in shelling out too much dosh for an indulgent passion. It was a disappointment. After waiting too long for delivery I eventually had the spine chilling message from Evri ‘We’ve got your plants’. That usually means a late delivery of a box of mashed plants, well that’s my experience of Evri. That is exactly what arrived. What had been a nice plant of P. ‘Cavendish’ was upside down with all but one branch broken off. I tried to get help from SR customer care - just a bot to deal with, no fun at all.

So with the excuse of disappointment with my first order I searched Google for ‘Pelargonium’ and up popped names I remembered from almost a quarter of a century ago. Fibrex, Vernons, Wootens and Allwoods. It being a bit late in the season availability was limited so I ordered from all of the suppliers who had at least some interesting varieties. In total I placed 10 or more orders. It has been interesting seeing how each grower deals with the challenge of shipping delicate plants around the UK. They all did a better job than Sarah Raven.

While ‘googling’ I came across a new word to me. Zonartic kept cropping up and I had never heard or seen the word before. The Zonartic story grabbed my interest and I had to try a few plants. In early June the only ones available were on Ebay but at a price. I placed a small order. The plants arrived in just three days, the kind of almost instant gratification that is addictive in itself … I ordered a few more. It has been a relief to see these plants thrive in my Keder house. I’ll write at length about Zonartics later - there is plenty to share about them.

Looking ahead I will share my experiences of the different suppliers of Pelargoniums. Who came out on top? …….. of Wenhaston. Can you fill in the blank?

Here’s a Zonartic bud, I find them very beautiful, so full of promise and the essence of the genus.