Take a look at Sarah Raven’s Trustpilot ratings, they are shockingly bad. The common threads are late or no delivery, damaged plants and total failure to communicate with customers. Even though a lot of negative comments have been hidden on Facebook her page is still rife with comments from disgruntled customers.
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.
I have had a very similar experience to you although a few years ago quality abd safe delivery were the norm. It seems to me a serious case of 'all fur coat...' syndrome. The marketing is second to none. Beautifully curated enticing images, a knowledgeable and engaging CEO who wrote with authority. A site aimed to create plant envy. But that is a waste of money if the product doesn't match the pictures. If you get a reputation for excellent plants with excellent delivery and comms. you dont need pages of text and fluff. Its sad
It’s almost fascinating how SR (the business) has managed to haul itself out of a reputational mire, reinvent, only to do exactly the same thing again.
I’ve been watching one of my friends on Instagram pleading to be able to get some response from customer service, copying in Sarah Raven’s own social media as well as the business. And just being ignored.
He’s the former editor of the Observer Magazine, so a lot of other people (many with clout) are seeing SR looking like a company to avoid, again.
I’d never order from them.