Gardening Direct responds instantly to Which? Gardening concerns…

…carrot and beetroot plug plants withdrawn from sale

NEWS RELEASE

Gardening Direct has reacted instantly to recent concerns by Which? Gardening that novice gardeners are being ‘ripped-off’ by buying plug plants of some vegetable varieties such as carrots, that can be easily grown from seed.

Says Gardening Direct Marketing Manager Mark Sherwood “The Which? Gardening article highlighted our ‘Autumn King’ carrot package as an expensive option for novice gardeners at £6.99 plus postage for 10 plug plants.. Whilst we believe that our premium quality plug plants normally represent outstanding value for money, we do not wish to mislead gardeners in any way nor be perceived as being poor value for money.”

“For this reason, we have withdrawn our Carrot plug plants from the market along with our Beetroot plug plant varieties with immediate effect. We will continue to review our vegetable plug plant range to ensure that we offer gardeners of every level of expertise great plants at a highly competitive price”.

Grace Duffy (Which? Account Manager External Relations) has advised Gardening Direct that their gardening editor is delighted with the news and that they will run a story in the next edition of Which? Gardening highlighting the company’s prompt reaction to their concerns.

Gardening Direct already offers a large collection of vegetable seeds, including the ‘Autumn King’ Carrot variety at only £1.99 for 750 seeds.

The company also supplies detailed growing advice on all their plug plant, seeds and bulbs on their website www.gardeningdirect.co.uk

Gardening Direct is one of the UK’s largest suppliers of plug plants, seeds, bulbs and accessories to the consumer market via mail order and online sales.

They are specialists in growing premium quality plug plants (in three sizes) in their nursery in Jersey which are then dispatched to customers at the optimum time for planting, direct from grower to gardener.

Although renowned for their large collection of annual bedding plants, they also offer a wide (and rapidly growing) range of fruit and vegetables.

The company is large and expanding, with over 300,000 active customers, producing over 131 million plug plants per year.

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