The Vernon Geranium Nursery

Dear Anonymous, I have read your review and I am sorry to hear what has happened with your order this year. I would appreciate it very much if you would email me on mrgeranium@aol.com in order for me to resolve this with you, as clearly something has gone very wrong and I am very keen to sort this out. Please be assured that definite steps have been taken to overcome the problems that have happened this spring and I do apologise for the errors with your order. I would very much like to investigate this further and come to an agreeable solution with you. I hope to hear from you further.
kind regards, Liz

(3.0/5)

Hugely disappointed and angry. This year my order from Vernon Geranium Nursery took many weeks to arrive all the way from Guernsey and in dreadful condition. Recently the forty plants have started to flower after much TLC, but instead of the 'Decora Imperial Red' geraniums that last year had looked so stunning and dramatic tumbling over the balcony of my guest house all summer, this year, though my order was for the same plants, these have a very pale pinkish white flower and bear no resemblance to the Decora variety that I ordered. My telephone call to complain was eventually answered by a miserable disinterested gentleman who was not in any way sincerely apologetic, but agreed to refund my order though not the p&p. Having since read all of the disgruntled reviews I now understand why he did not sound as though he enjoyed his job! What a shame that an established family firm with a good reputation has so quickly changed after being taken over.

(1.0/5)

Since my earlier post I have since had a handful of complaints to me and have resolved these directly. I welcome all communication to me to resolve any matters – please feel free to email me on mrgeranium@aol.com. I have been running The Vernon Geranium Nursery with my family for twenty years, my parents having started the nursery in the 1970’s. Last summer it became clear that the family wanted to go in differing directions, not least that in their late seventies it was the right time for my parents to finally retire. I wanted to continue the nursery into the future and I approached Thompson and Morgan to help me and they have supported me in keeping the nursery going, it would have been a great shame for the specialist collection that my family started to come to an end and for these wonderful plants to no longer be available - as has happened with so many specialist nurseries and if we don't keep specialist collections going we will all end up with only the wholesalers limited range of plants available in the UK.

I will stress that we have not amalgamated into one – Vernon’s is still being run separately by me and the collection of plants are being specially grown in a greenhouse in the UK under my direction. Some areas have been taken off my hands on a day to day basis, such as the customer care and posting side but I am still very much involved with this – it would have been impossible for me to manage the entire operation on a solo basis. It is clear from the comments here that there have been some serious problems with some orders this spring, particularly quality and customer service, and I welcome contact so that I can resolve these matters on a one to one basis. Please be assured that the intention is for this unique collection to continue in the same way it always has, rare geraniums of high quality being available via mail order. I fully accept that, highlighted here, there are problems which I will investigate fully as I certainly haven’t ever had comments like this in the past and I don’t want this situation to continue in the future. I have had to give a star rating to post this so I have gone with a three star as clearly there are things where 'could do better' is appropriate. With kind regards, Liz Sims, The Vernon Geranium Nursery.

(3.0/5)

I agree totally with every comment made by other disgruntled customers. Whilst I appreciate the need for changes at Vernons due to retirement, I disagree with the statement by Liz Sims that plants are grown and sent out in the UK. This year all our plants came from Guernsey and some were of poor quality. When i complained to the CALL CENTRE! I discovered that the business had been taken over by T &M. The call centre operative didn't know his arm from his elbow and although replacement plants were sent together with outstanding overdue other plants, customer service has been appalling. However, the most upsetting part of this is that all the plants sent this year are inferior in quality. We ordered surfinias again, which were wonderful last year and smelt lovely, however this year, the new plants do not look like surfinias and have no smell. So I welcome your comments Ms Sims and will not be ording any more plants.

(1.0/5)

They are absolutely an appalling disgrace when it comes to customer service. I can't comment on their plants because they have not arrived.

As they never answer emails or the phone I did some internet research and found the direct contact information of the registered owner of the website. Also while digging around I found another of his websites to avoid. www.vanmeuwen.com. The same photos and contents as www.geraniumsuk.com. This guy is a scam artist who only wants to line his pockets with YOUR money. We should all complain to the Trading Standards and not stand for his scams.

(1.0/5)