Whatever plant you're looking for, be it a perennial, shrub, tree, bulb, veg, herb or house plant, it's just a click away. While there's no substitute for a choosing a plant in person, more and more of us are choosing to buy plants online. It's especially useful if you don't have a car, don't have access to a decent nursery nearby, or are hunting down a specific or rare variety.
Some online garden centres have their origins in mail order companies, some of which have been existence for decades. Others are newcomers that came into existence with the advent of the internet, and date from the late Noughties and early 2000s. Since the pandemic, many bricks-and-mortar nurseries now also offer plants online.
Some online garden centres offer a large range of plants; others specialise in certain types, such as roses, house plants, bulbs or perennials.
Looking for seeds? Here's where to buy seeds online
Looking for bulbs? Here's where to buy bulbs online
Looking for cut flowers? See our cut flower subscription reviews
Jump ahead to:
- Good all-rounders
- Specialist nurseries
- Houseplant sellers
- What to consider when buying plants online
Best places to buy plants online in 2024
Good all-rounders
Crocus
Founded in 2000, Crocus is the biggest gardening website in the UK. It offers around 5,000 plants - and until 2024, grew plants for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. It is a one-stop shop for gardeners, also offering indoor plants, gardening tools, accessories and garden furniture. We particularly like the excellent plant descriptions and its seasonal ‘Inspiration’ page.
We like: wide range, excellent plant descriptions
Dobies
Dobies was established back in 1894 and now delivers its seeds, bedding, bulbs, fruit bushes, and trees across the UK. It’s one of the best online garden centres and runs with a distinctly no-nonsense, no-frills ethos. If you head to the site’s ‘Plots, Tips and Advice’ page, you’ll find it full of useful blog posts on growing and caring for a wide variety of plants.
We like: good range, useful advice
Gardener's Dream
Established in 2011 and based on the outskirts of Glasgow, Gardeners Dream has become one of the leading online gardening retailers in the UK. It offers seeds, bulbs and perennials plus trees, shrubs and hedges, fruit plants and trees. It also offers indoor plants, from the most common to the weird and wonderful. Free UK delivery is offered on all orders.
We like: wide range, free delivery
Gardening Direct
Gardening Direct is an online seller with nurseries that span seven acres of greenhouses on Jersey. It sells a wide variety of outdoor plants, including bedding plants, but also a range of indoor varieties such as orchids, yuccas and potted roses. Free delivery is offered on orders over £50.
We like: good for bedding plants
You might call Gardening Express founder Chris Bonnett the Jeff Bezos of online garden centres. Back in the Nineties, when still a teenager, he had already cultivated a passion for gardening and saw the huge potential in internet retail. Fast forward a few decades and the site boasts a comprehensive plant catalogue with everything from climbers and vines to exotic and tropical plants. There's a five-year guarantee on hardy plants.
We like: the five-year guarantee on hardy plants
Marshalls
Founded 75 years ago, Marshalls set out to supply vegetable seeds and plants including seed potatoes, onion sets, fruit plants and trees, and it's still an excellent port of call for grow-your-own gardeners. In recent years, the company has expanded its range of ornamental flowers, shrubs and trees, along with tools and compost.
We like: excellent for growing your own
Primrose
Primrose is strictly more of a general garden store stocking a sweeping range of tools, equipment and furniture. But it also has an entire vertical on its site given over to plants and trees.
We like: good source of tools, equipment and furniture
Sarah Raven
Sarah Raven's eponymous brand was first established in 1999, and started with a seed list. The company has grown steadily over the years and now offers a carefully curated range of seeds, seedlings, plants, and gardening and floristry kit. Sarah trials most of what the company sells in her Sussex garden, Perch Hill, and sells only the varieties that not only look great or taste wonderful, or are make excellent cut flowers. The gardening kit that Sarah offers, such as the hori hori knife, must be useful, well crafted, and long lasting.
We like: carefully curated selection of the most beautiful and productive plants
Suttons
Founded by John Sutton in 1806, Suttons' origins were in selling vegetable seed, before expanding into other areas of horticulture. Today the company sells an extensive variety of fruit and vegetable plants online, including hard-to-find varieties, and a wide range of flowers. They also still sell a wide range of flower and vegetable seeds, plus tools from hand tools to greenhouses. The company has held a Royal warrant, supplying the Royal households with seed, since 1858.
We like: especially good for fruit and veg
Thompson & Morgan
Thompson & Morgan published its first seed catalogue in 1855 and is still going strong today - it's now the UK’s largest mail-order seed and plant company. It sells seeds, young plants, bulbs, seed potatoes, onions and garlic sets, soft fruit and fruit trees as well as gardening supplies. The brand also sells bulbs and fruit trees, The company also has its own Suffolk-based plant-breeding programme, and has come up with some award winning discoveries, including Rudbeckia hirta 'Cherry Brandy' and Buddleja 'Buzz'™.
We like: very wide range of all kinds of plants
Van Meuwen
Van Meuwen founder Aart Alders went to a prestigious horticultural college in the Netherlands in the 1960s before moving to the UK and starting a mail-order company in 1977. It earned its reputation through strict quality requirements and expert knowledge. The store even promises to refund or replace if there’s no growth after 30 days… and you’ve followed the instructions properly.
We like: 30-day growth guarantee
You Garden
You Garden believes that gardening is for everyone - and claims that you don't need a garden to shop on its website - it sells many plants that can be grown on balconies, patios and decking. The website avoids jargon and Latin names, making it less intimidating for beginners, and offers detailed care videos and instructions. Its plants are grown at its 11-acre site in Lincolnshire.
We like: jargon-free approach
Specialist nurseries
Ashwood Nurseries
Award-winning nursery with a wealth of top-quality plant choices. Hellebores and hepaticas are a speciality.
Barcham Trees
Europe’s largest tree specialist with over 200,000 trees on offer, covering a wide range of species. Such a wide selection means that you can choose exactly the right tree – style, shape, size - for your garden. There is even a 'buy the tree you see' function.
Beeches Nursery
This reliable nursery specialises in herbaceous plants - many choice and rare, some grown from wild-collected seed. It also offers ferns, grasses, roses, shrubs and trees. All plants are grown in peat-free, organic compost from renewable resources.
Bluebell Arboretum and Nursery
As one of the leading suppliers of rare woody plants in the UK, Bluebell Nursery stocks an exciting range of trees, shrubs and climbers.
Shop at Bluebell Arboretum & Nursery
Botanico
Botanico specialise in growing rare and unusual plants, so they are a great place to visit if you're looking for something on the more exotic side. They grow 70 per cent of their plants on site and deliver in recyclable packaging.
Beth Chatto
All of the plants at the Beth Chatto nursery are propagated, grown and tended on site, following the legendary founder Beth Chatto's methods. There's a wide range of around 2,000 unusual plants available, with very helpful descriptions, written from experience. Beth Chatto coined the mantra 'right plant, right place,' so you can not only search for plants alphabetically, by growing collection (eg bees, bugs and butterflies) but also by garden conditions (eg dry areas, damp areas, shade).
Bressingham Gardens
Home to the gardening dynasty that is the Bloom family, Bressingham Gardens in Norfolk has an online mail-order nursery. Along with some new selections, the nurseries offer plants that have stood the test of time through trials in the 17-acre Bressingham Gardens. Of special interest are the collections of kniphophia, crocosmia, geraniums, agapanthus, helenium and hosta.
Burncoose Nurseries
Part of the Caerhays Estate famed for its magnolias and rhododendrons, Burncoose Nurseries sells some of the most interesting shrubs, trees and ornamental plants, many of which have been bred in the gardens and propagated on to make them available for sale.
Burford Garden Company
The Burford Garden Company has everything you need for a stylish garden, from a range of perennials, shrubs and roses to garden furniture and accessories, all offered on a beautiful website. You can also visit the Oxfordshire garden centre in person.
Shop at Burford Garden Company
Cotswold Garden Flowers
Offers unusual perennials from well-performing, old-fashioned plants to newly introduced specimens. The nursery aims to stock plants celebrated for colour, form and the vigour of their performance. The detailed plant descriptions are legendary and reliable.
Shop at Cotswold Garden Flowers
Calamazag Nursery
Calamazag Nursery are one of the best places to buy outdoor plants online. They grow over a thousand varieties of plant and specialise in Dianthus.
Shop now at Calamazag Plant Nursery
Claire Austin
Claire Austin is the daughter of the legendary late rose breeder, David Austin, and has followed in her father's footsteps with her own specialist plant nursery. She offers a wide range of easy to grow perennials, peonies and irises, all grown on-site. Search for plants alphabetically, by type, or by collection (eg soil type, colour scheme, growing with roses) or by garden conditions (eg dry soil, shade).
Crûg Farm Plants
Keen plant hunters Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-Jones have an intriguing collection of plants on offer, many of which are new and have not been seen in cultivation before.
David Austin Roses
Synonymous with English roses with a focus on scent, David Austin’s roses are justly famous. Roses are sent out bare root in during the dormant season or potted during the growing season.
Fibrex Nurseries
Established 64 years ago, much-loved Fibrex is now under new ownership and continues to sell beautiful and sought after pelargoniums.
Great Dixter
Once home to the renowned gardener Christopher Lloyd, the gardens of Great Dixter are world famous. The nursery is small and sells specialist plants raised in cold frames in the gardens. There is an extensive catalogue, but availability changes depending on the time of year.
Fernatix
Extensive choice of ferns and expert advice from fanatic fern growers Kerry Robinson and Steven Fletcher, who nurture most of their specimens from spores. Ferns are available for most growing conditions.
Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants
Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants is one of the UK's leading plant nurseries, founded in 1988 by Rosy Hardy (pictured). It's a family-run business stocking over 1,200 plant varieties, and a Chelsea gold-medal-winning nursery, so you know you're buying expertly grown plants when you shop from Hardy's.
Shop now from Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants
J Parker's
During the depression in 1933, Martin Parker flew to England from his small hometown in Beverwijk, Holland, to start a mail-order bulb business. He came from three generations of bulb growers and exporters in Holland, and J Parker's remains a family business to this day, selling a wide range of bulbs including crocus, daffodils, tulips and dahlias.
Kevock Garden
Award-winning alpine, bog and woodland specialists, as well as offering a good selection of spring- and summer-flowering bulbs.
Knoll Gardens
Owner Neil Lucas has become renowned for his expertise in ornamental grasses and both the nursery’s stock and detailed plant descriptoins reflect his more naturalistic approach to planting.
Long Acre Plants
If you’re after shade-loving plants, this is the place to look. You’ll find grasses, hardy ferns, hellebores and an extensive range of unusual woodland plants. The nursery employs environmentally conscious growing techniques, using collected rain water and peat-free compost, and electricity generated by wind or hydro power.
Peter Beales Roses
One of best rose specialist nurseries with an extensive range of old-fashioned, historic,
rare and contemporary roses.
Pomona Fruits
Pomona (from the Latin, pomum) is the Roman goddess of fruit trees and orchards, and Pomona Fruits are specialists in fruit growing. The website makes choosing the right fruit trees, bushes and plants for your garden easy.
Surreal Succulents
The collection of plants at Surreal Succulents includes Aeonium, Sempervivum, Echeveria, Crassula, Sedum, Aloe and Agave, as well as palms, ferns, grasses and exotic rare plants. Hybrid forms of succulents are also available along with kits for making your own terrarium.
Thorncroft Clematis
Multi-award-winning UK clematis specialist, whose range includes old favourites, new introductions, rarities, evergreen and herbaceous clematis. Each selection is based on colour, form, length of bloom and other main attributes. Other climbers are also available. The 'Clematis Selection Made Easy' section makes choosing the right clematis for your situation straightfoward.
Best places to buy houseplants online
Bloom & Wild
Bloom & Wild has made its name for itself selling gorgeous bouquet arrangements and super-convenient letterbox flower subscriptions. But the brand also sells fabulous house plants. We were delighted to discover that the pots the plants are photographed in are also included in the delivery!
Bloombox Club
Bloombox Club CEO Kate Cooper is a former psychologist who would encourage her clients to surround themselves with plants as part of their therapy. The focus here is definitely on self-care with certain plants listed as air-purifying and pet-friendly too if you’re nervous about your pooch or kitty.
There are also some fabulous pots available, which can be bought in bundle deals with plants.
Boma Garden Centre
Boma Garden Centre is based in Kentish Town, north London, but ships house plants nationwide. Its collection encompasses foliage, climbing, flowering, and large indoor plants, including some sought-after and unusual types.
The Glasshouse
The Glasshouse has a great range of houseplants from small up to extra large varieties. When you shop from them you are also supporting a social enterprise that helps ex-offenders grow and nurture plants and gain horticultural training. The project is based in East Sutton Park prison for women in Kent.
Read our feature on The Glasshouse.
Harriet's Plants
Harriet's Plants is one of the best places to buy houseplants online. Founded by Harriet Thompson, the ethos of the business is around supplying peat-free, pesticide-free plants to minimise the impact of horticulture on the environment.
The Little Botanical
If you want to search through a comprehensive house plant site, take a look at The Little Botanical. You can filter your search through a long list of criteria; for example, if you want a low-maintenance, patterned plant under £40, you can tick those boxes, and the results will appear.
For sustainability reasons, orders are kept to a minimum of £20.
Shop now at The Little Botanical
Patch Plants
Here's another online house plant seller that's captured a millennial audience. Patch actually sells both indoor and outdoor plants, which are categorised by size – ‘tiny’ to ‘tall’ – and by the intended room of the house. Rather sweetly, plants are also given names like Dora, Emma and Neva.
Prickle Plants
Prickle offers a lovely selection of indoor plants, grown in its own greenhouses, plus a good selection of pots, tools and accessories - everything you need to grow an indoor jungle. Choosing the right plant for you is made very easy - you can shop by height, plant family, room, style or purpose, or choose from only pet-friendly choices. Students and key workers get a 10 per cent discount.
Root Houseplants
Root is a particularly eco-friendly online store; its plants are delivered in recycled cardboard and filled with starch-based packing peas, which can go on your compost heap. It stocks a wide range of house plants, plus stylish products like ceramic pots, scented candles and art prints.
For more online shopping inspiration, visit our Kit section. You'll find everything from our selection of the best wheelbarrows, to gardening gifts and mini greenhouses. We've also listed our favourite grow lights to help indoor plants thrive.
Waitrose Garden
Waitrose Garden offers a very wide range of house plants, and offers an array of options to help you make the right choice, from choosing plants by type (such as foliage or flowering), the room you want it for, or the amount of light available in your chosen spot.
Shop at Waitrose Garden
What to consider when buying plants online
- Don't necessarily expect instant delivery, since plants grow and mature at specific times - such as plug plants in spring. Bear in mind that many nurseries grow their plants onsite themselves (as opposed to buying them in), so restocking can mean growing more plants from scratch. Most online stores offer a ‘despatch window’, listing expected arrival times against their plants, and allow you to track your delivery.
- Some plants, such as roses, may be delivered bare-root, when they are dormant, during the winter months.
- Most nurseries offer a 'notify me' option if a plant is not in stock.
- Buy from a reputable seller who will pack your plants with care.
- Check the pot size - a plant in a 9cm pot might be smaller than you expected, whereas a plant in a 2L pot will be a decent size.
- Nurseries are increasingly switching to more eco-friendly packaging, so check what they offer.
- Some tree nurseries allow you to identify a particular tree via a webcam - a good option, as buying a tree can be a significant investment.
Looking for seeds? Here's where to buy seeds online
Looking for bulbs? Here's where to buy bulbs online
Looking for cut flowers? See our cut flower subscription reviews