Lovely place, smiling staff, selling all the essentials, and all reasonably priced. Wish I found it sooner.

This feels like the kind of business that too often has been squeezed out in London. Unique, independent, established and actually embedded in the community. Plants are always of excellent quality (which sometime you pay for), and are arranged in an way that is intuitive to navigate by type or planting aspect as appropriate. The staff are knowledgeable, accommodating and have always been a pleasure to interact with in my experience, that of my family and our small dog who has received the most enthusiastic welcome. I cannot recommend a visit highly enough read more

This is a lovely sunken garden centre right in Crystal Palace. There is ample parking at the Sainsbury's, where it sits, and one of the best stocked small garden centres I've ever seen. It's also a short walk to all sorts of lovely cafes, restaurants, and shops. There is room to pull up the car and load up your purchases easily. The selection of shade, climbing, perennial, landscape, fruit, and other plants is brilliant. It's small but that's because it's all killer no filler. Nothing is a space waster. The indoor area is not to be missed, with a solid range of indoor plants, pots, potting media, as well as tools and supplies, sprinklers, rakes, etc. There are also landscaping materials like grit, bark, compost, etc., making this competitive with a massive garden centre but in London and just the good stuff. I also highly recommend going just to enjoy the pretty landscaping. The water feature, the terraced gardens, the shade and pergolas. Really beautiful. Why a 3 star review? The service is shocking. Shocking. I don't say that lightly. Snide, flippant, superior. Throwaway comments as you walk past, total disinterest in helping, treating people looking at things with a heavy dose of suspicion as if we're all thieves. I don't know how they think this is ok. It's not normal. It's still worth visiting, and hey maybe it'll be a good day! It is truly an excellent garden centre. But they need to keep the crusty staff away from customers. read more

Very rude staff. I have mobility issues and asked if I could use their loo. The man was very hostile and rude. Will not go again after that. A little compassion please. None of them were wearing masks either read more

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. read more

The Secret Garden - Nurseries & Gardening Near Me - London, XGL

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. read more

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. read more

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. read more

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! read more

Secret Garden has a great selection of flowers and plants and gardening equipment. The centre is, however, let down by the abysmal customer service. The staff were more interested in continuing the conversation they were having. The cashier barely acknowledged my presence at the counter and chatted with her colleague throughout the transaction. read more

This is a real gem of a place. Extremely knowledgable and helpful staff. The advice given freely and willingly about how to populate my new pond with plants was excellent and cost effective. One plant died on me, took a photo and instant and free replacement. Had some problems with my bay tree and they identified the problem and offered solutions that did not require any purchase. Best garden centre I have ever had to deal with. Salim read more

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! read more

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. http://www.thesecretgarden.ie read more

I was about to start writing this when I noticed an earlier reviewer has used the exact words I was about to type: "this is one of my favourite places in London for plants". In fact I might go as far as to say it's one of my favourite places for shopping or browsing in London full stop. Always has a gorgeous selection of shrubs, perennials, seasonal, indoor plants and garden accessories and a gorgeous unique layout. Love it. read more

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