Hayloft Plants

Hayloft Plants, online nursery specialising in perennials and bulbs

Hayloft Plants is a UK nursery that sells garden plants through its online shop, with direct delivery to the customer's home. The company presents itself as a specialist in perennials and bulbs, and backs its sales with a satisfaction guarantee it calls the No Quibble Guarantee. According to its own website, the firm has been posting plants since 1994.

Plant and bulb catalogue

The range is organised into several product families. The shop distinguishes between perennials and biennials, bedding plants, bulbs, tubers and corms, fruit, vegetables and herbs, climbing plants and shrubs. Within perennials, the catalogue highlights genera such as penstemon, salvia, delphinium, diascia, hellebores, roses, echinacea, erigeron, dahlia and alstroemeria, the latter presented as one of its specialities.

In bulbs, the offer includes daffodils, allium, tulips, fritillaria, lilies, bluebells, snowdrops, iris and crocosmia, among others. The corms and tubers section includes crocus, dahlia and ranunculus. Autumn bedding plants are also offered, such as pansies, violas, cyclamen, polyanthus, primulas, wallflowers and dianthus.

Selection criteria by use and season

The site allows plants to be filtered according to their use in the garden and their flowering season. The use categories include cutting garden plants, drought-tolerant plants, rockery plants, plants for pollinators, plants for shade, evergreen plants and container plants. By season, the catalogue is divided into spring, summer, autumn and winter flowering, both in perennials and bulbs.

The shop also groups selected collections, such as mixed daffodil and tulip collections, and a Mix & Match section that allows alstroemeria pots to be combined. The material reviewed mentions promotions such as the combination of three alstroemeria pots for £28, the offer of three products for £30 in perennial collections and the buy two get one free promotion on certain bulb collections.

Complementary gardening products

In addition to plants and bulbs, Hayloft Plants sells auxiliary items for garden care. The catalogue includes growing media and fertilisers, such as compost, manure, fertiliser, plant feed, mycorrhizal fungi and houseplant feed. It also offers lawn products, such as fertiliser and seed, and growing equipment covering frost protection, garden decoration, pest control, potting on and gardening tools.

The offer is completed with plant supports, pots and baskets — outdoor, indoor and hanging — as well as garden wildlife items, such as wildlife habitats and bird tables and feeders.

Editorial content and customer resources

The site maintains a section of guides and blogs with topics on garden design, gardening tips and tricks, monthly gardening job guides and recipes made with produce from the garden. It also publishes plant growing guides and a selection of featured blogs. Customer service resources include the possibility of requesting a catalogue, subscribing to email updates and checking order tracking.

The company has an affiliate programme and a section of updates from its nursery, with sections about the company itself, its team and its environmental credentials.

Guarantee, shipping and customer service

Hayloft Plants bases its online sales proposition on the satisfaction guarantee it calls the No Quibble Guarantee, presented as a response to the distrust that buying plants at a distance can generate. The site states that shipping is free in the UK on orders over £75 and that there is a customer care service with its own hours, separate from the shop's general hours.

Specialisation in alstroemeria and seasonal campaigns

Alstroemeria appears repeatedly as one of the nursery's featured specialities, with its own section and specific promotions. The catalogue also gives prominence to seasonal campaigns, such as advance booking of peonies, autumn planting of daffodil bulbs and the selection of winter- and spring-flowering varieties, including the Pansy Frizzle Sizzle Mix.