I am a keen gardener, but not everything goes right. If I buy a plant from a garden centre that dies in my garden, can I get a refund? Or can you not get a refund once it’s planted. If so, what time period should that apply to. I’m not talking about accidental damage to the plant or lack of proper care. I simply mean plants that seem to have an inherent problem.
Consumer law says that if you buy anything with an inherent problem, you are entitled to your money back or a replacement. The issue with plants is that it’s often very hard to establish why they might have died in your garden.
I have referred your query on to the Nursery and Garden Industry Association of New Zealand. They say that any good garden centre should replace, without question, a plant that’s died. Note, “replace”rather than refund, though a refund would be appropriate if they were unable to supply you with the same type of plant that was lost.
I reckon that one year would be a reasonable period for this to apply to. You should take the dead plant back with you, so they can try to establish what went wrong. They may be able to get their money back from the supplier. Even if they don’t know why the plant died, I’m sure most garden centres would rather replace your plant than have you question the quality of their product. As you point out, this does not apply to plants that died due to lack of care. Or, in my view, to plants that died due to vagaries of the weather… a prolonged drought, for example. It would be worth asking your garden centre what their policy on refunds is, next time you visit.
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