Perrywood Garden Centre in Colchester

We went here today for a look around the shop and lunch. We left without lunch because the prices were, in our opinion, way too high and certainly out of our price range. We also found this to be the case in the shop too.

Great place to explore plants and have a good meal

£4.50 for a sausage roll! Daylight robbery.

Fantastic displays and plants for indoor and outdoor green enthusiasts... helpful friendly staff, large parking ...only 1 slight drawback , reasonably expensive throughout...

Best garden centre in Essex with a large busy cafe attached. Worth a visit.

What a great garden centre, it's huge. The plant variety and quality it's exceptional. The prices are responsible too. It also have a lovely café / restaurant with good cakes and hot food. Staff are chirpy and helpful which is a massive bonus. I would definitely recommend a visit!

Great choice of merchandise. Not cheap. Best to visit during sales

They might have won awards for their garden / plants but the toilets were disgusting such a let down

Met some friends for lunch today. Food was lovely but service was awful! Ordered separately in pairs as we had 3 young children who couldn’t be left unattended at the table. We were ushered up and told if we wanted to all eat at the same time we had to order quickly. Order came out , one incorrect item (correct item but wrong filling). Member of staff stood awkwardly at the table, rolled her eyes and said “can I see your receipt” and then proceeded to read the tickets back at me again to which I had to then reply again, this is not what I ordered. Short time later the correct dish was brought to the table and put down and she walked off. No sorry or apology that there had been an error, just a very bad attitude. Shame really, as it’s lovely, but when you don’t employ staff that care about their customers it puts a dampener on things!

Pretty ok for a garden centre , good size car park. It could do with better signage around the store to indicate where things are as it is quite a large place . There is a large pet section for domestic pets and birds. The Christmas section was quite limited but this was because we visited after Xmas and the sales were on with huge discounts against ornaments and trees. It has a cafe attached to the garden centre however we did not visit. The staff were pretty friendly but were a little timid/shy so maybe we ended up speaking to somebody quite new on the till

One particular member of staff was VERY rude!

Had a lovely breakfast. Highly recommend!

We visited recently to see the Christmas display. 2024 definitely wasn't as good as the previous year

Great place to shop all your Christmas decorations needs they have everything

Huge car park, spaces for wide vehicles and extra long vehicles. Cafe .. superb food and cleanliness, menu given while queuing to save time ordering.. toilets .. really clean Shop.. fantastic range of gifts and plants.. Faultless!!

There's a reason this place often features in 'best garden centre' awards. The most lovely place! Well worth a visit. The hard work of the staff is evident, especially at Christmas! The displays are something else!

Such a beautiful place to visit at Christmas! Things can get a little pricey - especially when there are so many things you want to buy! If you want to eat here, prepare for a very long queue.

I loved it this place. it was such a wonderful creation of gardening.

The Christmas tree they sold is constantly dropping needles and has extremely weak flimsy branches you can hardly hang anything on. Very frustrating.

Very unhappy with service at cafe today! But one particular lady who served me I brought my Grandson in for a festive hot chocolate with his friend. My Grandson has a mild milk intolerance so obviously avoid dairy I was then informed the hot chocolate powder had milk in, we decided that he could have one but requested this be made weaker to minimise the amount of dairy he would be consuming. The response and attitude was one of her being inconvenienced! After purchasing three other non dairy cakes and a regular cake to take home out costing a total of £28 I would have expected a better service. Her attitude and whispering to other staff members witnessed as I was waiting for my drinks to arrive. Has left me feeling aggrieved which will be followed up with speaking with the manager Obviously we will not be returning

It's a very nice place to visit especially during the festive season 🌲

This place is amazing, especially for their xmas. Displays.

Very well stocked but expensive

Lovely Xmas themes, loads too see, only disappointment was the queue for the restaurant, but that's a good sign.

Great Garden centre, A1 cake and good wheelchair access. To the customer though! Tidy your detritus away..

Loads of quality keenly priced stock with particularly desirable Christmas lovelies. 100% GO AEE

I love this garden centre, especially at Christmas time. The staff that put the displays together are very talented! The attention to detail is outstanding. There is a huge selection of homeware gifts, festive food gifts, toys, oh...and plants! Lots of indoor and outdoor plants! The main restaurant caters for gluten free diets (the breakfast is lovely), and the outside cafe is ideal for a hot chocolate to warm you up as you peruse the plant areas. The garden centre is wonderful any time of the year, but magical at Christmas time!

It's a lovely place with great facilities and the restaurant is fab. However, I think it's a bit pricey.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5 Stars I recently visited Perrywood Garden Centre in Essex with my family to pick up a 🎄 Christmas tree, but we ended up decorating our entire house with the Christmas spirit! ✨ The botanical selection is absolutely amazing. As a fruit lover, I was thrilled to find a great variety of fruit plants and trees. 🍓🍎🍇 Can't wait to come back in early spring! The kids had a blast playing the piano 🎹, adding a lovely musical touch to our visit. The staff were incredibly helpful and joyful 😊, making our experience even more enjoyable. My family owns a garden centre back in Croatia, and we found so much inspiration here. Definitely lots of things to learn and take back home from this beautiful natural heaven. 🌿🌺 Highly recommend Perrywood Garden Centre for anyone looking to immerse themselves in nature and embrace the festive spirit. We'll definitely be returning! 🌟

Great offering, very nicely done. Pity about the cafe.

I visited Perry woods restaurant for a special occasion on November 13th 2024 for lunch. I ordered fish and chips along with a cafe latte. It is the worst meal I have ever had in my life. The cafe latte was warm milk with no coffee in it. I returned to the checkout and the lady put a shot of coffee in it which turned it from drinkable hot milk into sour hot milk that was undrinkable and the food was just as awful. The chips were hard and the battered fish was one of those "pretend" battered fish efforts where it isn't a fish fillet but instead, some fish pieces formed into a block and fillet shaped batter is then placed over the fish block. To cut a long story short it was awful and I didn't eat that either. Do yourselves a favour and avoid at all costs! You could have a superior meal at the marks & Spencer cafe for 2/3 of the price. Response to owner below: point 1. "We do follow professional training when serving our hot drinks, but we are always happy to amend to personal preferences." My reply: The person doing the coffee didnt put any coffee in it! The reason the coffee was sour is because it is under extracted. Point 2. Our fish is fresh whole fillets of haddock, sourced daily and locally from Mersea, this is battered in our beer batter, once again fresh and battered to order. My reply: Every person who was unfortunate enough to have your fish and chips had a piece of battered fish that was identical in size and shape to mine and each other. In regards to the batter it was, for want of a better word, putrid.

Range of winter plants in now they also have a large selection of Xmas decorations trees etc one of the largest in Essex I think.

Well worth a visit. Their Christmas displays are superb.

Thank you, Perrywoods, for our Amazing Christmas Wreath ❤️ Absolutely Beautiful

First visit to Perrywood, the Christmas displays are amazing and bring out the child in you

loved it staff happy and helpful

Superb garden centre lots of different items on offer a lovely Christmas display fabulous cafe and plenty of friendly staff and the carpark is huge I Highly recommend it 😀

3 items priced incorrectly. 6-99 but the actual price was 29-99 . The manger was rude and said I don’t need to honour anything even though we just spent 200 quid . This manager needs training on customer etiquette.

Only went to look at the Christmas things and the displays are better than ever. There could have been more model village choices but that would be the only criticism.

Just had breakfast very disappointing Everything was over cooked

Great family run garden centre, really helpful and lovely staff, and the Christmas Shop is absolutely brilliant

Christmas displays are magical, this garden centre is a day out and a good one

We had a lovely lunch here and look around, amazing Christmas displays and range

Thankyou so much, your beautiful Christmas displays brought so much pleasure to my elderly Mum today

Lovely garden centre. Really inviting, loads of items and fairly good prices

It is a beautiful place to go especially yhis time of the year with all the Christmas displays etc - it really puts you in the Christmas mood! One downfall though I hasten to add everything in general seems very expensive compared to the prices I have seen for the same things elsewhere. It is a shame really as they do themselves no favours, surely it would be better to have reasonable prices and get rid of stock tban having a lot left on their hands?

Brilliant garden centre and shop. Very well laid out, plenty of stock, healthy plants.

Lovely environment and great food

Lovely breakfast for 2.... Plenty of choice.....and lovely Christmas displays

Has everything you can possibly need for your garden

Excellent nursery for value and quality

A beautiful garden centre and the Christmas display is second to none x the coffee shop was good and the food selection including cakes was amazing x would definately go again x

Staff are always friendly and happy to help!

They have a good selection of plants, Christmas decorations, clothes and much more. The staff are friendly and helpful.

It's amazing!! The displays for Halloween and Christmas are incredible. All compliments to the designers. It was magical. So many products and ideas, well worth a visit

Great sellection of plants and gifts I bought some ferns. Christmas settings are very professionally done.

Lots of really good stuff here. It really inspired you. Could choice of plants at a reasonable price. Cafe area is good too.

Some good items here but on the pricey side compared to other garden centres

Food excellent. Prices reasonable and the shopping experience was great. Plenty to see and buy

Love it . Cant wait for christmas Display.

I had a delightful visit to this wonderful garden center. There's so much on offer to look at and purchase from indoor and outdoor plants and absolutely everything you can wish for to do with gardening. A section of houseware gifts and treats including a section for pets and outdoor birds . Amazing to see that Christmas is in the store with trees, lights and brilliant displays to admire..it's worth a visit especially with children to put the magic into Christmas. The cafe area was busy but still found a seat to enjoy a lovely oat milk latte with a scone jam and cream at a very reasonable price.I wished I had taken pictures of the tempting cakes on offer.. The staff that I spoke to were polite and helpful. They have a very large carpark. I shall be returning to this lovely garden center

Usually very good Christmas displays every year with lots of original products that you do not tend to find elsewhere. Always worth a look.

Last year was a lot better through the years but still stunning as ever and the café is beautiful I didn't go this year as the queue was big, just goes to show how good it is. Love perrywood in Tiptree and I make sure I visit every year and I will more than likely be back again soon.

First visit to Tiptree today to check out Christmas display: excellent and so much to see, Excellent cafe / Restaurant hot cold food plenty of space

Some how we always spend a small fortune in here, but it’s never begrudgingly which can only be a good sign.

An excellent Garden center. The gift shop has an amazing range of household items childrens toys, books and a variety of snacks and treats. Although the plants can be a little on the expensive side, the quality of them is superb, so worth paying a little extra. They have a very good range of furniture, pots, water features and ornaments. Their christmas display seems to get better and better each year and the choice of christmas decorations, trees and gifts are to die for. For me this is one of my absolute favourite garden centres to visit.

Went for tea and scones today. Beautiful scones..large and delicious. Would have been nice to have a separate pot of hot water to top up the tea pots.

Great place, very knowledgeable staff.

Garden centre excellent, displays excellent, cafe fair, food we had scrambled egg on toast bread hadn't been toasted and the egg tasted like wartime powdered egg very disappointed at a cost of £8 per head

Had brunch in the cafe yesterday, a sausage and bacon sandwich with a pot of tea for one. The tea was weak, even after leaving to brew, the sandwich was cold and greasy. Unfortunately with a friend who doesn't like to complain but definitely not a pleasant experience. I will not be repeating the experience

Awful company asked to get some plants from another store , the sudbury branch never bothered ringing me to say if in or not . Avoid as poor service

Outstanding garden centre, with a choice of excellent cafes.

Phenomenal selection of everything you need for your garden from bulbs, flowers, and vegetables to even having a compost drive thru! My mum was like a kid in a candy shop...her words, not mine, lol! And every member of staff we encountered was friendly, helpful and polite!

Good garden centre where you can find a host of plants and gardening equipment.

Great home section, excellent selection of good quality plants, lovely cafe (and the garden cafe in the spring/summer), helpful stuff. Also home to the best scones, constantly disappointed whenever I have a scone anywhere else now!

Now putting up displays for Halloween, looking good.

Lovely afternoon tea. Thank you

Really great Garden Centre and facilities. Large carpark with a good number of disabled spaces. The garden centre is all on the one level with plenty of room between displays to manoeuvre a wheelchair. We ate in one of the smaller cafés and this had fresh cakes and clean surroundings. A most enjoyable experience!

Love it here so much to look at.

Big garden centre, good quality - apparently excellent scones

Went there for day out it was ok expensive for lunch 2x fish and chips £41

Perrywood certainly give Scotsdale a run for their money however ultimately Scotsdales allows dogs. Scotsdales used to have dogs in trolleys but then changed to allowing them in, with no restrictions and they now have a dog friendly cafe. This ifor me is a win win and a game changer. I live in London and my elderly parents live in Essex and they love both garden centres but we go to Perrywood far less because I have two small dogs. I spend less money at Perrywood as I'm always keen to get back to my dogs who have had to be left at my parents which is a 45 minute journey for us. Plants are less expensive at Scotsdales and they have a wider variety of plants but the ambience at Perrywood is lovely and their cafe is great. Mum who's a huge gardener 'likes' the plants at Perrywood.

I didn't appreciate being attacked by a cashier when I entered the payment area to collect a pre ordered plant. It was a hot day - dogs die quickly in cars. I live alone, was on the way to somewhere with my dog - what do you expect me to do with it and what possible issue can you have with it in the till area. Stupid girl and stupid rule.

The best garden centre I’ve been to. Beautiful home / outdoor dining area, lovely pots, amazing selection of good quality plants, tasty tearoom and very friendly and helpful staff. Perfect.

Love this garden centre if you haven't been well worth a visit. One of the best in the country.

Used to be very good, however recently my collection of rare and expensive plants have got spider mites and mealie bugs…check every single plant you buy from Perrywood i guarantee every plant has spider mites or mealy bugs! Absolute joke. No one cares about plants who works here so it’s never going to be resolved. Bad infestation!

Really great selection of plants, trees, etc! Everything you could need under one roof!

Perrywood garden centre in Tiptree has a wide variety of healthy plants and their staff are all passionate and knowledgeable. I would highly recommend this garden centre.

Visited Perrywood Tiptree Cafe today with my parents. Perrywood is one of their favourite places to go for lunch. Today there was a long queue which was really slow in moving. One person on the till taking food orders and payments. Another taking hot drink orders only. The menu is good. We went for two jacket potatoes one with cheese and beans the other with tuna and cheese. I had the tuna panini which came with chips, The ‘posh pop’ drinks were really nice. We had two strawberry and rhubarb and one dandelion and burdock. This came to just over £40. My father wears hearing aids and I felt that considering the clientele the person behind the till could be better with people. She mumbled and didnt look at my father while he was trying to order. She was looking down at the till while talking. He didn’t hear what she was saying. I had to repeat it to him. Even while I was doing it didn’t seem to occur to her to look and speak clearly. I would imagine this was a part of the hold up and the long queue. We went and sat down. You get a bouncer and someone brings the food to the table. The table was really wobbly. The lovely lady who bought the food to the table fixed it. She was brilliant, explaining what she was doing and looking at my parents while she spoke. The garden centre is amazing and I can see why my parents enjoy going there. I’ll absolutely visit with them again and will try the cafe again, If I experience red long queues, only one person taking food orders& payment and the lack of empathy and kindness. considering the price I’ll probably that my parents to lunch somewhere else then visit the garden centre. The garden centre in general customer service is amazing

Really gone down hill for plants. My third visit this year now which has been highly unsuccessful. Just visited and two products I wanted they didn’t have and one is very common (Hakenochloa Macra). One member of staff being pulled around by customers so very hard to get help, I had to wait 15 mins for her to help me. Walk out and 4 staff in the home part standing chatting. Looks like that is their priority now. It’s a 35 min drive for me so use to come as a destination. Won’t bother any more as no better than other garden centres for plants any longer.

Friendly staff, fast service, and delicious food.

Was super fun, loved the cafe and walking around at what they offer 🥰

A very well stocked garden centre with good quality plants but not cheap.

Today I had a dissapointing Quiche Lorraine, it was stodgy, lukewarm and I think too much cheese I just couldn't eat it. May I suggest you do half portions for pensioners. Sorry I had to do this review.

What a fabulous place 18miles away from us but well worth it , My wife and I were in our element , it’s took to long to find this gem!!

Amazing garden centre very well stocked wonderful restaurant

Amazing garden center which also has a tea room that sells amazing top quality hot food, cakes and drinks, just worth going for the food alone

Well worth a visit large supply of plants all healthy great selection of other products helpful staff very good cafe voted 2nd best garden centre.

Always a lovely choice of plants

Excellent variety and quality of plants.