The Secret Garden

The Mrs and I are (hopefully) moving soon to somewhere with a fair bit of garden space and we are getting excited!
We’ve lived Crystal Palace for some time now and have visited The Secret Garden on several occasions. Sometimes it’s just for a bit of a browse and inspiration and sometimes it’s to have a look at some of the smaller and standard items such as pots, small plants or gifts. Things that we could probably pick up most places around the triangle but want to support the local businesses.
A Visit to the Secret Garden is a long way away from visiting the likes of your Homebase or B&Q. Mostly outdoors you get guided through water features and plants are helpfully set out for different occasions, indoor, low sun, lots of sun etc. It’s a far more pleasant asestic experience.
While saying that, every time I go there I come out irritated and it all comes from when we have to interact with the staff. They are so rude. We asked once for a common item and the staff member just said ‘why do you want that’ in an abrupt and not trying to be helpful way. We explain and the staff member actually tried to argue with us. It was just a bizarre experience.
It took a while to get over that and we went back and had a similar helpful experience when asking advice about something really simple.
Perhaps they can’t be bothered with those without extensive horticultural knowledge or actually don’t want to sell anything?!
Either way I always end up leaving feeling insulted and vowing never to go back.
Do go, but ask advice unless you want to be argued with, patronised or just generally be put in a bad mood.
Do go, because it’s pretty, there’s a good selection of things and the signs (if nothing else about the place) are very helpful.

Nice place with plenty of choice in plants.
The only slight downside here is the odd attitude of one or two of the staff. No one has ever been rude, just a little sarcastic. I think that that it’s supposed to be banter, but it’s just a bit awkward.

Great selection of plants and other gardening paraphernalia.
The centre was let down, however by the poor staff service. The cashier barely acknowledged my presence and seemed more concerned the continuing her chat with her colleague. No ‘please’, ‘thank you’, ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’. A shame as otherwise this would be 5 stars!

This is one of my favourite places in London for getting plants. Despite no longer living anywhere near CP, I will often pop in here if I’m visiting relatives nearby, just to pick up a new plant or accessory for the garden.
It’s a charming, independent store (but still pretty large) run by helpful and knowledgeable people and with a much higher quality of product than Homebase or similar chains. It’s not too expensive either.
We used to come here for our Christmas trees when I was a kid and I’m told it still does a very good line in such things! Lovely place.

The name says it all. Fantastic gem of a garden centre with great staff and lovely selection of anything you might need to start a good life!

This place is as magical as it sounds, hidden terraces of lovely plants including water plants. Staff are knowledgable, friendly and helpful.

Certainly is a fantastic place. When we moved to South Norwood we found this treasure trove of a garden centre. We filled our garden with lots of lovely plants and became regulars of the wine and discount evenings.
I actually ended up working there for a summer and that started my own career in horticulture.
I left London for Ireland to buy a small garden centre and we ended up borrowing the name and so we have our own Secret Garden centre.
in Newmarket Co Cork.

This place is really a Secret Garden, tucked away behind the Phoenix Centre. There is a stairs leading down from between Sainsbury’s and The Phoenix Centre to The Secret Garden. I tend to avoid garden centres because they can be a bit pricey for something I can grow myself but believe it or not, I had to go in there to get some fertilizers. The place is huge and they really pull you in with all the colourful plants in all shapes and sizes.
The staff members seems to be easy going and it really looked like they had formed close bonds with the regulars. The Secret Garden is always green and colourful, even in the winter months. They’ve got everything you need to start or maintain your own garden and their prices are reasonable. In their little store, they’ve got starter kids to get your kids involved in planting.