Why buy plants from an online garden centre such as dyg?

A few years ago it was a novelty to buy books, plane tickets or CDs online. It all seemed very new and just a little risky risky. Now, a few years later, it's perfectly possible to buy plants online, as well as everything else for your garden.

Anyone who 'puts themselves out there' on the internet relies on their reputation. A dissatisfied customer has no end of places to post negative feedback. So by being an online garden centre it's in our interest to provide the best plants and the best service possible. Without that we wouldn't have customers coming back or referring us to friends and family.

In a traditional garden centre, finding and choosing the right plants can be a confusing experience, and many people come away from their visit to a garden centre not quite knowing what they have bought. Of course, there are some people who know exactly what plant they want, and what type of soil they have and so on. But for every one of these there are ten people who don't. With an online garden centre such as dyg, finding the right plant for your garden is much simpler, and you can make an informed decision. This website acts as a resource for anyone wanting to know about gardening in Ireland, whether or not you choose to buy plants from it. We are the only Irish online garden centre website which sells such a broad range of plants from Irish nurseries.  We have many years of training and experience to know which plants grow best in Irish gardens.

Howbert and Mays (formerly DYG.IE) is run and managed by professional gardeners and garden designers, so we really know what grows well in Ireland. With training in the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin (Tig) and Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania (Anthea and Tig) our background is firmly in plants and knowing how to use them. We worked for two years as joint head gardeners on a private estate in West Cork, so we know all about planting near the sea, including the most exposed parts of it. Since then, we have made numerous gardens around Ireland, from small city centre gardens to developments of many acres.

And because we are are hands-on gardeners rather than people with a background in sales or marketing, everything that we sell is the stuff that we would want for ourselves: the gardening tools that we sell are the ones that we know from experience to be the best for the job - not necessarily the cheapest, but definitely the most long-lasting and easiest to use; and the same can be said for the composts, pots and other landscaping accessories.

Plants are arranged in various different ways, which makes it easier for the non-gardener to make informed choices.

1. For anyone who knows what they are looking for, they can search by typing in the common or latin name of the plants. Plants which are in our 'Special Offer' section are not included in this seach, so be sure to check out this section each time you visit the site. 
2. For anyone who wants to browse, you can scroll through lists of plants by their type: trees, shrubs, grasses, ferns etc.
3. We have ready-made planting schemes for different styles or environments, including a number of stylish perennial planting schemes based around different colours. As garden designers, planting schemes are our forte, and in making these schemes and putting them on dyg we hope that anyone with a new garden, or an area of an old garden which needs a re-vamp, can have a coherent and attractive planting scheme at a good price.
4. 'Plants for Places' is for anyone who wants to choose plants based on the conditions in their garden. Sections include 'Plants for dry shade', 'Plants for boggy or moist soil' and so on. Although every garden is unique, this section can point you in the right direction. A good plantsperson would be able to do this for you, or a garden designer who actually knew their plants (sadly, in short supply!).
5. And finally, you can use the 'Refine your search' tool on the right hand side to search for plants by colour of flower, season of interest, scent, native to Ireland and so on.

Being an online garden centre means that we don't have masses of stock sitting around waiting to be sold. We get in new plants all the time, based on the orders coming in to us. Plants come to you, via us, fresh from the nursery. And because we have personal relationships with all our growers, and sometimes even collect the plants ourselves, we can ensure that our plants - your plants - arrive in excellent condition.The plants are of the same quality, or better, than what you would find in any good garden centre. And other online plant retailers, though they might have an Irish web address, are really just Dutch nurseries who run the same business in every country in Europe. The plants are often small, are poorly acclimatised and have spent many days in transit.

Many garden centres buy in ther plants in bulk from Holland or Italy. These look great when you pick them off the shelf, and customers buy what's looking good. But compare the climates of these places with Ireland, and you'll quickly realise that Irish-grown plants are much hardier and better acclimatised to a new life in your garden than one which has been shipped in from overseas. And if that isn't enough, by buying Irish-grown plants it's good to know that this keeps yet more trucks off the road and helps a valuable native industry.

Finally, dyg does what it stands for: delivering your garden. Instead of trecking off in the car and trying to squeeze a couple of trees into the boot, we'll take care of getting it all to you. Read what a customer emailed to us:

"What attracted me was the fact that I could do plenty of research on the plants and trees (how tall/wide they will grow, when they flower, what colours, best soil etc)  before buying rather than having to take all this information in a short period of time at the garden centre.  For a ‘rookie’ like me the garden centre approach, although enjoyable, is just too difficult to get what you really want.  Also like the range of what’s on offer on the web site and of course being able to compare prices. " (J.L.,Dundalk, Co Louth)