Plant and tree suppliers – the best places to buy fabulous plants for your garden

So you’ve got big ideas for your garden. You’ve got some plans and have decided on some favourite plants for your outdoor space. What you need to do now is to spend the money you’ve got on the best possible quality plants.

Whether that’s trees or seeds, or anything in between, I’ve made a list of the best and most trusted plant suppliers that I’ve used over the years. 

All of the following recommendations are made after gardening my own small gardens for three decades. None of them are affiliates or sponsored—just me paying with my hard earned cash for the best plants I can afford. 

You may have an excellent garden centre or plant nursery near where you live. If so, lucky you. And so much the better if they’re independent. These are the places where you’re most likely to get the best advice. Please consider supporting them because there are fewer and fewer around.

Garden centres owned by a big chain can be tricky, especially if you’re new to gardening. Special offer displays can be very tempting, but you don’t always know if those plants will suit your garden or your needs, particularly if you’re keen on low maintenance, easy care gardening.

Roses – best suppliers for your garden

Roses are one of the plants I recommend most often for small gardens. They’re very tough, low maintenance and often flower for weeks through the summer. If you choose a repeat flowering variety, they can still be flowering in November. You can grow them in large containers (45cm across) or in the ground. Even climbing roses grow well in big pots.

• Bunker’s Hill Nursery – great range of excellent value, often superb old varieties of roses, especially during bare root season (November-March)

• Peter Beales – huge range of any kind of rose you can imagine – a legend in his area

• David Austin – spectacular scented roses – bewitching fragrance descriptions – a bit pricey

Trees and shrubs – best suppliers for your garden

Even if you have a very small garden, it’s possible to find trees and shrubs which will fit in the space you have. Lots of the ones I recommend have gorgeous flowers as well as stunning foliage. They’ll provide structure for your garden, shelter for wildlife and a wonderful backdrop for softer, smaller plants. 

You can find evergreen trees and shrubs for year round colour, and deciduous ones which offer fiery flamed foliage in the autumn as their leaves prepare to fall.

• Ashridge Nurseries – fantastic all round nursery – great service – reasonably priced, especially in bare root season (November-March)

• Woodland Trust – the BEST place for buying trees cheaply – wide range of native species can be planted in containers or in the ground – worth buying in packs of 4, as 1 tree is £11 or 4 for £17 (March 2023) – if you don’t have space for 4, maybe give some to a friend or donate to a local school – check the eventual heights to make sure you have space, if in doubt, plant in a container to restrict root growth

• Crocus – great all round online garden centre – informative web pages – a bit pricey

Perennials (plants which die back in winter, but re-emerge in spring) – best suppliers for your garden

Perennials are what I recommend instead of seasonal bedding plants. A perennial plant will produce masses of foliage in spring, with spectacular flowers following later. It fades in the autumn, but it does not die. It just hibernates safely underground until next spring. 

The huge advantage of planting perennials rather than seasonal bedding plants is you leave them in the ground (or in their pots). Seasonal bedding plants only last for one season. And then you dig them up and throw them away. 

But if you plant perennials, particularly hardy perennials, you plant them and leave them to it. They just get bigger and better every year. Which would you prefer?

• Claire Austin – superb choice of perennials – excellent quality – well priced

• Long Acre Plants – specialists for shady gardens – well priced

• Sarah Raven – lovely, chatty website – great range of carefully selected plants – a bit pricey

Fruit trees and shrubs – best suppliers for your garden

If you only try growing one kind of fruit, I urge you to give strawberries a go. Fat, luscious, fragrant berries will be yours by the handful with very little effort. 

Fruit trees can easily be grown in big containers (45cm across) for years, offering you scented blossoms, blissfully happy bees and increasing crops of flavoursome fruit. No worries about pesticides or food miles here. Cherries, apples and pears are some of the easiest to grow.

• Pomona Fruits – true specialists for fruiting trees, hedges and plants – reasonably priced 

• Ashridge Nurseries – as above – great all round nursery 

Seeds—best suppliers for your garden

Some seeds are easier to grow than others, and I do recommend thoroughly reading the packet instructions before you spend your money. Most salad leaves (as in the photo) are very easy going, even if you’re a complete beginner. Edible flowers, such as nasturtiums, borage and calendula bring joyful colour to your windowsills and plates. 

• Chiltern Seeds – wonderful family owned specialists – great website – loads of interesting choices – excellent quality

• Roger Parsons Sweet Peas – a legend in the sweet pea world – excellent quality – very cheap

• Vital Seeds – organic seeds from Devon – lots of interesting heritage varieties 

• Sutton’s – well known brand found in many garden centres and homeware shops – great range – reliable quality

Bulbs—best suppliers for your garden

Gardening teaches us patience and deferred gratification. Planting fragile-seeming, papery bulbs on a soggy October afternoon, it takes a leap of faith to believe that these will magically transform into glorious flowers to light up a dreary spring day. 

But they do. Which is why they’re incredibly worthwhile planting, even if you only have a very small garden. 

If you use the filters on bulb growers’ websites, you can even have a succession of bulbs starting with snowdrops in January going right through spring until the roses start in May. How life-enhancing would that be? No more staring at grey paving slabs for you.

• Peter Nyssen – huge range of bulbs for autumn and spring planting – great quality – very well priced

• Avon Bulbs – specialists – very informative web pages – excellent quality

These plant and tree suppliers are the best places for you to buy fabulous plants as you start to create your very own tiny garden. Choosing excellent quality plants will give you a terrific boost at the beginning of your gardening adventure. 

Wondering which plants to start with if you’re a beginner gardener? Why not have a look at this post.