Your Guarantee from Ashridge Nurseries

Your Guarantee from Ashridge Nurseries

It is our responsibility to provide you with goods that meet your consumer rights. We strive to provide the best quality products, and take care of your plants in the best possible conditions right until they are packed for delivery. Within reason, we want to guarantee to replace everything that fails to survive, easily and with the minimum of fuss. We will ask only for photos and some basic information. Some flowers and veg are only meant to last one season, so they are never covered, and some others are in the small print below. 

Please, never plant something you are unhappy about when you inspect it after delivery; let us solve the problem right there. We do not give monetary returns once a plant has been planted. If you receive an order from us, and you are not completely happy with it, please get in touch with us straight away.

We now have one replacement guarantee

Thank you for buying your plants from us. We used to have two types of guarantee, and we have simplified them into a single 1 Year Guarantee for everyone.

• As of 4th January 2022, Ashridge Trees no longer offers a 5 year extended guarantee 

Please read the terms and conditions of each to understand how they apply:

1 Year Guarantee

This applies to any plants you buy from us that can reasonably be expected to live, or be considered desirable, for more than 24 months.  

If you are not happy with your plants when you inspect them after delivery, please do not plant them. Contact us immediately (within 7 days) for a replacement or refund. Please note that plants are perishable. As such, we must be able to collect them within 7 days of delivery for the guarantee to be valid (excluding plants delivered on palettes). Any other goods can be returned unused within 30 days of delivery.

If any perennial plant or tree you buy from us dies within a year of delivery, we will replace it on a like for like basis, at the original size supplied, free of charge at the start of the next season: you will only pay for delivery.

For the guarantee to be valid, we ask that you: 

• Follow our planting and care instructions which are available on our website: www.ashridgetrees.co.uk

• Water your plants in dry weather when they are establishing. If they dry, they die, so water very thoroughly, but not daily: allow the top 2 inches of soil to dry out before you water again. In hot summer weather without rain, this means that you should water 1 to 3 times per week, depending on your site's drainage, aspect, and exposure. If there is heavy rain, that counts as watering for your plants. If there is only a light drizzle or a brief shower during hot weather, this probably won't be enough, and you still need to water.

• Remove weeds diligently, especially around plants in spirals or tree guards. We strongly recommend using a mulch mat (for trees) or mulch fabric (for hedges) in the majority of cases. For single trees or short urban hedges, you could weed by hand and use a hoe, and use real mulch to suppress their seeds in early spring. 

We do ask for clear photos of the plants in the soil, both taking in the planting area and close up. Also send a picture of the Ashridge plant label. These will help us to work out what went wrong, so we can give you further, specific advice for looking after your replacements. If you cannot take photographs, then we ask for the plant(s) and label to be returned to us at your expense.

This guarantee does not apply to the following products:

• Any plants bought at an end of season sale.
• Any plants that are delivered as plugs.
• Any plants with a life expectancy of less than 24 months (e.g. annual bedding plants and vegetables).
• Any plants given to or used by third parties*
• Any plants that are replacements.
• Any plants planted outside of mainland Britain.
• any bulbs or tubers
• Any evergreen plants (potted or root balled)
• Hedging troughs
• All potted plants (despatched from 1st April - 31st October)
  
  * If a plant is purchased as a personal gift, we need the recipient to subscribe to the Ashridge newsletter within one week of receiving their plants, so that they receive our aftercare advice.
     For the avoidance of doubt, the guarantee does not apply to plants planted for you by third parties or by you for third parties e.g landscape gardeners.

This guarantee also does not apply if there is a hosepipe ban in your area within 12 months of your purchase: that is how important watering is. 

To avoid jumping the gun with plants that can, for natural reasons, look dead for a while before they start growing away, bareroot losses should not be reported - and claims will not be entertained - before the 30th June following planting. 

Pot-grown failures should not be reported - and claims will not be entertained - earlier than 13 weeks following planting and, in any event, when the plant(s) can reasonably be expected to be in full growth.

Changes to our 5-Year Extended Guarantee

Ashridge Trees no longer offers the 5 year guarantee (from 4th January 2022).

Your plants are covered by our 1 year guarantee as above. The conditional 5 year extended guarantee will remain in place for purchases up to 4th January 2022, subject to the original terms and conditions which are explained below.

Conditional 5-Year Extended Guarantee

You must subscribe, or be subscribed, at the time of purchase - and remain subscribed to our Newsletter. You may opt out of the emails about special offers, but not the emails with the monthly newsletter, which contains our tip sheets. 

The Extended Guarantee applies to plants you buy from us that can reasonably be expected to live for at least 10 years. These plants do not include: 

• Tender or half-hardy plants
• Dahlia plants, cuttings and tubers
• Bulbs
• Lavender and short-lived herbaceous perennial shrubs
• Christmas trees
• Annuals and biennials
• Short-lived soft fruits
• any plants planted outside of mainland Britain

If you are unhappy with your plants for any reason after the first year, please let us know as soon as possible. The Extended Guarantee will be valid only if you notify us as soon as issues arise. It does not cover plants that have been dead for years. Most plants that die either fail to grow at all in the first year, or look miserable for a year and then clearly be dead by the following growing season.

We do ask for clear photos of the plants in the soil, both taking in the planting area and close up. Also send a picture of the Ashridge plant label. These will help us to work out what went wrong, so we can give you further, specific advice for looking after your replacements. If you cannot take photographs, then we ask for the plant(s) and label to be returned to us at your expense.

This guarantee does not apply to the following products:

• Any plants bought at an end of season sale.
• Any plants with a life expectancy of less than 24 months.
• Any plants that are delivered as plugs
• Any plants given to or used by third parties*
• Any plants that are replacements.
• Any plants planted outside of mainland Britain.
• Any plants that are sold potted (including trees, shrubs and flowers) and remain potted and not planted out.
• any bulbs 'in the green'

* If a plant is purchased as a personal gift, we need the recipient to subscribe to the Ashridge newsletter within one week of receiving their plants, so that they receive our aftercare advice.
   For the avoidance of doubt, the guarantee does not apply to plants planted for you by third parties or by you for third parties e.g landscape gardeners.

This guarantee also does not apply if there is a hosepipe ban in your area within 12 months of your purchase: that is how important watering is. The best plants in the world will still not survive drying out in their first growing season.