CHOOSE GARDEN CENTRES BY COUNTY BELOW
PLANTS AREA: Not the strongest feature of Buckingham Garden Centre.
See lower down this article for a more comprehensive review of the Buckingham Garden Centre plants area.
Plants Area Rating:
INTERIOR SALES AREA: Good use of the available space, reasonable prices.
See lower down this article for a more comprehensive review of the Buckingham Garden Centre interior sales area.
Interior Sales Area Rating:
CAFE: Excellent quality food, very good value for money, average decor. Highly recommended.
See lower down this article for a more comprehensive review of the Buckingham Garden Centre cafe.
Cafe Rating:
DOG FRIENDLY? Yes, well behaved dogs are more than welcome to visit the Garden Centre with their owners. All they ask is that you are a responsible owner and clear up after your dog.
Dogs can be taken into certain areas of the Gardeners’ Retreat restaurant - simply ask a member of the restaurant staff where you can take your dogs.
VALUE FOR MONEY OVERALL:
Entrance to Buckingham Garden
Centre
OPENING HOURS BUCKINGHAM GARDEN CENTRE |
||
| Open | Close | |
| Monday | 9.00am | 6.00pm |
| Tuesday | 9.00am | 6.00pm |
| Wednesday | 9.00am | 6.00pm |
| Thursday | 9.00am | 6.00pm |
| Friday | 9.00am | 6.00pm |
| Saturday | 9.00am | 6.00pm |
| Sunday | 10.00am | 4.00pm |
| ||
SIZE: A medium to large sized cafe
FOOD TYPE: Garden centre type of food with everything from coffees and cakes to main meals and breakfasts. They specialise in all day breakfasts which are served from 9am up to 3pm.
FOOD QUALITY:
We sampled one of their mini-breakfasts and were very impressed with the quality
and presentation.
The bacon was delicious, the fried egg (there is a choice of fried, poached or scrambled egg) was perfectly cooked, the sausage was meaty and tasty, the tomato (there is a choice of tomato or baked beans) was full of flavour, the toast (white or brown) was perfectly toasted. The Full English or King's Breakfast are both much larger.
The breakfast was served hot and on a warmed plate. The coffee was excellent.
It's difficult to serve even a simple breakfast perfectly in a cafe but this cafe got it 100% correct. Highly recommended.
Breakfast at Buckingham Garden Centre
DECOR:
The
decor is simple and plain but clean and functional. The cafe is in a dedicated
area and is light and airy.
OUTDOOR SEATING:
There is an outdoor seating area which is plain but clean and functional.
SERVICE:
Service is prompt and courteous. You need to decide on your table before
ordering, there is only a small queue and that takes around five minutes. Our
breakfast was served to us six or seven minutes later.
VALUE FOR MONEY:
Value for money is excellent, the breakfast which we ordered (see above) cost a
very reasonable £5.95. Even the Full English Breakfast costs only £9.95. Other
meals and snacks also look to be good value.
SIZE OF PLANTS AREA: Large
PLANT SELECTION:
We visited this garden centre in late May, a few days before the late May Bank
Holiday. This is the absolute peak time of year for garden centres and the plant
bays should be full to overflowing. This was not the case at Buckingham garden
centre.
Sparsely filled plant bays
Not only were there large gaps in some of the plant bays but some very common shrubs were completely missing. For example, we looked for a potentilla and found none at all - we eventually found where they should be, according to the signage, but the space was empty. Something is not quite right with the selection of plants and you may well be unable to find specific plants you want.
Attractive plants area
We were surprised by the significant number of acers at this garden centre, far more than you would expect for a garden centre of this size. This increased our feeling that the selection of plants available was not correctly balanced.
Large number of acers at Buckingham Garden Centre
LAYOUT:
The
layout of the plants area was interesting, no centre pieces but neither was it
just boring rows of plants. There is a covered section for more tender plants
with a ramp down to the lower plants area. Aside from this ramp, which was not
unduly steep, the area has flat, paved paths which are wide enough for easy
access.
VALUE FOR MONEY:
The
cheapest rose we could find was £12, the cheapest clematis was £16. We did note
that the cheaper roses had significant black spot and they didn't look in tip
top condition.
SIZE: Between a medium to a large sales area.
LAYOUT:
This garden centre has made good use of the space available and sell most of the
goods you would expect of a large garden centre. It's well worth a wander around
for an hour or so.
The food hall is particularly well stocked and attractive. The aisles are wide and generally level.
Food hall at Buckingham Garden Centre
VALUE FOR MONEY:
Overall
the prices of the interior sales area are slightly better than average.
ACCESS:
Good
FACILITIES: Buckingham Garden Centre operate an online shop which can be found here. One of their specialties is hedging but they also have a full range of many other garden plants. They have been operating this mail order / online business for over 70 years.
ADDRESS:
Buckingham Nurseries and Garden Centre
Tingewick Road
Buckingham
MK18 4AE
OWNER:
Family owned
TELEPHONE NUMBER:
01280 822133
EMAIL:
webenquiries@hedging.co.uk
WEBSITE:
https://www.buckinghamgardencentre.co.uk/
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