Buckingham Garden Centre, Bucks

	Click the picture to enlarge it.
	An impressive entrance to this garden centre. This garden centre majored on plants, the range was extensive with several speciality areas.

This is a totally independent GardenAction review of the Buckingham Garden Centre in Bucks.

The official name for this garden centre is Buckingham Nurseries and Garden Centre. This reflects the fact that they concentrate fully on the plants aspect rather than the accessories side of the business. It will satisfy many of your non-plant garden needs but it will certainly exceed your expectations in the plants department.

PLANTS

The first feature you see in the outdoor plant area is the "Potting Shed". It houses a large range of hanging basket and potted plants.

Buckingham's will also take an existing hanging basket or pot and refill it to your design. The staff are there to plant them up exactly to your requirements.

There is a huge range of plants for sale and the signs make it easy to find specific plants. Near the entrance to the plant area you are directed to general areas, then further signs help you to locate your plants. Excellent.

The whole area is tidy and clean with wide aisles. The overall layout is one of the most pleasant we have seen to date.

The picture on the left shows just some of the fruit trees on offer, the range was superb. But this applies to many other plants as well.

Conifers, lavender, grasses, clematis, herbaceous plants, hedging and acers to name but a few. Take our word for it, you will need to go a long way to find such a comprehensive range of plants.

There was a manned help centre with leaflets and other helpful information. Attracting the attention and help of staff was never a problem.

We were unable to see any guarantee offered on hardy plants which was disappointing. Buckingham's have a comprehensive mail order service and the guarantee offered in their literature was only 3 days. Very poor for a garden centre of this size.

PRICES
The price of plants was slightly above average maybe because of the huge range available. The price of accessories was definitely below average. See the typical shopping basket below.

Rose, 3 litre pot	�6.95 upwards
Common shrub (e.g. potentilla)	�6.99
Clematis	�7.95
Potted fruit tree (various rootstocks)	�24.97
Growmore, branded, 2.5kg	�2.49
Growmore, branded, 1kg	�0.99
Miracle Gro, soluble plant food, 1kg	n/a
Evergreen Complete Lawn, 100sq m	�7.49

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