Nursery and Online Shop Review - Orchid Garden // Polish Nursery

Hello dear readers,

Today I will be doing a review, first of many as I am starting a new series.

Please also join me on Youtube if you prefer to see some plants while i talk away.

Polish nursery – Orchid garden. 

Located in central Poland, near Lódz

www.orchidgarden.co.uk

www.orchidgarden.pl

Please be aware that all nurseries I am going to be reviewing will be treated the same and I will have a basic matrix for some particular criteria.

Any additional positive and negative comments will be coming from my own personal sentiments and customer experience.

Scoring Matrix:

1-5

Plant variety : 5

Price: 5

Size and health: 5

Description vs. reality: 5*

Delivery time: 5

Returns: 4.5

Customer service: 5*

1.      Plant variety:

I have scored 5 because the website contains dozens of orchid species and hundreds of plants, actually more and I must admit after visiting the website the first time I have learned of the existence of many of them. There is a huge selection in the popular Cattleya genus, Phaleanopsis and the less known which is a wondrous sight. Furthermore they have a huge selection of my bellowed Paphiopedilum. Beyond the normal selection the Nursery offers a special order service, they do that – as far as I know – quarterly and you can go through their orchid list (and there is usually at least 20 to 30 pages of plants – some really rare). The online shop selection gets updated often and they also have a subscription option for plants that are out of stock.

2.      Price:

I scored a hefty and strong 5 because the prices for me are one of the cheapest in Europe and all of the nurseries I have contacted and ordered from. In fact I think when paying for your plants you don’t feel ripped of like you would do in many of the German or Dutch nurseries.

3.      Size and health / Description vs. Reality:

Bang on 5 points for both categories. I decided to connect these two because they are relevant to each other although they both get a 5 for each. First of all because usually when purchasing orchids you see a picture of the flower you want and yup that’s it, maybe some more pictures of the details. Then the nursery will tell you the flower is either FS (flowering size) NFS (near flowering size) or Seedling. And this is it, yup. Rubbish. I have ended up more than once that the FS size orchid was actually probably FS in possibly 12 months because it was so small and drained of health. I really hate surprises like that. Therefore I was a bit shocked when on the website I saw the “approximate” size and state of the orchid you are buying pictures. I wasn’t really sure how true that was till I got myself my first Paphiopedilum Complex hybrid, which came as a huge plant which already bloom once, had two maturing healthy growth and these growths started sending two new ones. And after 5 months it sent out two flower spikes – that’s what I call a Flowering size.

After buying some more plants from the nursery I actually think they come bigger than on the pictures, the FS are close to a specimen size! Also so far (I bought 6 orchids) I never noticed any problems with them, no spots on the leaves, no bugs, no nothing.

4.      Delivery time.

I live in the UK and getting stuff from the continent takes a bit usually, however I think that is caused by the actual laziness and general attitude of the sellers.

I have given the score of 5 because they would take my order and send it straight away, therefore if I ordered on Monday I would get my things by Thursday or sometimes Wednesday. I have no idea how they do that. Magic!!

5.      Returns.

They returns policy is very good and whenever there is a problem the owners are very prompt to reply to your emails and concerns. However I will explain why I gave 4.5, it not because I think that there is a problem in what I’m going to say now but because some people would. In case if you live in Europe or like me in UK and there by some miraculous accident something is wrong with your orchid – I had a small Paphiopedilum Pinocchio which I couldn’t pick up from the post from a week during the coldest week we had here and the plant was in a very poorly condition because the roots got bad. Not the nursery fault, not mine, but they were incredibly kind to offer a new plant; to attach for free when I make a new order. I know it’s caused by the shipping costs. First of all it doesn’t bother me at all and I’m having a special order coming through therefore I will get the replacement attached with the order – however for all of the picky and easily irritable people, please be aware of this.

6.      Customer service.

This point is a 5 with a massive star, it is because I talked with the owners and I think the Nursery has a very good and loving approach to what they do and their customers. I am not saying that because I was born in Poland and the nursery is Polish, because part of my family is German and I don’t get all crazy about German stuff.

I am a type of a person that for me experiences speak louder than anything else.

Furthermore they have the website in two languages, Polish and English, which is very nice especially for foreign people who struggle in using Google translate.

Final results:

Final score 4.92 out of 5

I highly recommend the Orchid Garden nursery, the website is really pleasant and has a lot of content, the people behind the flowers and wonderful and always ready to help, and the plants themselves will bring you joy for year.

I must admit that they fuel my unhealthy orchid addiction to the point that I’m going to have now 7 or probably 8 plants from them with another 2 coming soon.