Cook's Carnivorous Plants

Posted on November 11, 2009, updated April 8, 2021 Cheap plants but very very small. I ordered from 3 different Carnivorous Plant nurseries at the same time and Cooks took the longest to arrive and had the smallest plants.

I order a lot of CPs and my experience with Cooks was nowhere in comparison to other companies I have ordered from whether it was directly from companies out of state in WA, TX, FL, CA or even through eBay. I am aware if their challenges to staffing but my first experience was not good since the fulfillment and communication was disappointing. My order shipment was delayed a full ship cycle (from Tuesday to the following Tuesday) even though I ordered it Friday prior to the weekend cut off which falls on Saturday evening. I was told there was a family emergency. I accepted this and suggested they post this on their website next time that fulfillment will be delayed. Also they have a problem with their site where after placing an order, it does not note that the order was "PAID" and that it is still in an "PAY" status after payment is received. They know it is a problem so they apparently have to reset that paid notice manually which they later did. I accepted the issues as legitimate 1x issues and waited the extra delay and received my order. I did get an apology and explanation from Kim and I was appreciative of that, at least. Decided to give them one last try and put the 1st time order hiccups behind, so I placed an order on a Saturday (day time, not evening); prior to their cutoff time as noted. I did not hear from them nor did I see my order posted on my account section. I sent them a number of messages and was waiting to see my order post during the week. Tuesday ship day had passed and no response or any order update and it was still listing in the login order status as "PAY". I gave them a final notice late week that if they are not shipping my order to cancel the order only if they are not charging a restock fee and this was a last chance in my opinion. On Sunday, I get a message from Paypal saying they refunded my payment..thankful for that, but not a peep from them about my order during this episode nor any apology for that matter. I will no longer do business with Cook's and have been so better served from all the other companies including Sarracenia NW (Oregon) who are friendly and have excellent product, fulfillment, and communication. I wanted to buy local and since I live so close to Cook's, I thought it would be a slam dunk to order from them but unfortunately, that was not the case in either experience.

I LOVE Cooks Carnivores. I have ordered from them many times over the past couple of years and I am quite addicted. They have a great selection of Venus flytrap and pitcher plant cultivars (both nepenthes and Sarracenia). I am obsessed with collecting them all, and I haven't found any online plant retailers with better prices. What you will receive is usually a small starter plant, either potted or unpotted. All of my plants have arrived healthy and safely packaged. When you place an order with them, and pay by credit/debit card, it does usually take several days for the charges to show up on your account. I like to pay with PayPal so the money comes out of my account right away and I don't forget to leave enough money in my account to cover the purchase. The order usually takes a little longer to ship out than other retailers, but they make up for it with their great value and selection. I would highly recommend Cooks Carnivores to everyone and I will definetly keep ordering from them in the future.

I have ordered from Cook's Carnivores via their website twice and via ebay four times. Every time I have ordered plants from them I have been happy with the price, plants received, shipping speed, and communication Their ebay store has pictures of specific plants being sold while their website has representation pictures. I prefer their ebay store over their website as I like to see exactly what I am buying when buying a specific cross. The website is good if you are looking for younger plants of a particular species or cross and their prices are fair, reflecting the size or age of the plants being sold.

I have ordered from Cooks many times over the years and many orders have been very unsatisfactory. The latest order I received was just one of the worst. With the plants just so small and roots almost non-exhistent. Poorly packaged plants submerged somewhere in the pot they were shipped in. I had to sift through the soil to find the tiny peat covered plants. The plants that were offered were "potted" but really this just seems to mean is that they were removed from their community growing pot and put into a smaller pot once ordered. The plants literally just fall out of the pot, plus there is no moss or roots to hold the soil, like when you order plants from other nurseries. And this just makes the shipping so much more expensive and wasteful than it should be! The peat mix is fluffy and just spills everywhere once you unpack the plants. Never again...

I placed an order, and it took a week to get a response e-mail. When I did get an e-mail, it was from Cook's stating my debit card had been denied (as I had been on a shopping spree leaving my card with less than enough to cover my order with them.) I immediately moved money to cover the cost of my order into the account, and responding to their e-mail within 15 minutes to please run the transaction through again (knowing that it would now NOT be declined.) I never received a response. I waited several days, and submitted an online request (on their website) to have the transaction run again. Radio silence. I never heard back from them. I have finally taken my business elsewhere and requested that Cooks cancel my order all together. My NEW order with another company was billed (successfully) immediately upon ordering. I won't use Cook's again due to their nearly non-existent support.

I ordered 10 sarracenia seedlings from Cook's. 8 were small seedlings and the other two were larger seedlings. They arrived quickly and in great shape. I might ordered some others from them at a later date.

I ordered two Nepenthes and a Drosera from Cook's last week. They also sent me a free Venus Flytrap seedling as part of a sale. As I was unable to get access to soil at the time, I asked that they send me the VFT seedling along with a small paper cup and some soil. Not only did Cook's make sure that the plants arrived healthily, but they also took the care to include some soil and a cup for my free VFT seedling! The care that they took really impressed me. Furthermore, one of the Nepenthes came with two plants inside one pot. Needless to say, I am very pleased with my order and will continue to do business with them.

Just received my first order from Cooks a potted seed grown nepenthe's I'm very impressed with the size as well as the health of the plant for the price. The plant is FULLY rooted and not just tossed into a pot right before shipping as I experienced with another CP nursery this Spring. Definitely will use Cooks in the future to add to my collection.

I've placed several orders with Cook's including orders for flytraps, sundews (Drosera) and picther plants (Sarracenia). I can't say that I was really unhappy with the plants I received because the prices are the lowest on the web and reflective of the size of the plants. But the plants are exceptionally small and overall not in excellent health, so I can't say I was really happy with the plants I received either. Flytraps and Drosera are especially small. Sarracenia are definitely better, so if you're going to order from Cook's, I'd suggest sticking with the Sarracenia.

Second time ordering from Cook's. Not impressed either time. Very small plants. Ordered a Pinguicula ($4.95) and a Smoke Seed Primer ($1.95). Shipped quickly (7 days) but not the healthiest looking plant. Placed in ziplock bag. Although it was flowering, had several broken leaves and almost non-existent roots. Don't seem to be concerned with presentation. Lots of dead, dried out older leaves, which should have been trimmed off. My nearly weightless $6.90 order was sent at a shipping rate of $6.30 in a giant 1lb shipping rate box. (At least there's less chance of it getting lost in the mail). Nice variety of plants but a lot are usually out of stock (which is why I only ordered one plant. Several others that I wanted were (fortunately?) out of stock. So some positives and some negatives equals a neutral. Might order from them again, but will never be a large order.

Posted on June 22, 2011, updated August 6, 2011 Posted on June 19, 2011, updated June 22, 2011 I am assigning this a neutral rating so far, since I haven't received my order yet. If the plants and shipping are as bad as the customer service, then I am not very hopeful. About six weeks ago I sent an inquiry about a plant, but got no reply. I sent another question about three weeks ago, with the same result: no response whatsoever. I decided to proceed with an order, for which I had to create an account with login. After assembling my order, attempts to use the login I created failed, so I waited till morning and phoned to place the order. Nobody answered the phone, but I was able to leave voicemail to call me back, cause I wanted to buy! Ten days has passed and nobody bothered to return my call. I was beginning to wonder if these folks were still in business! In spite of this abysmal experience I tried to order on the web site once more and with some fiddling, I was able to submit an order. It took a week to get a message stating that my order had been "approved", but no information about when it would be shipped. All I can say at this point is that the plants had better be great or I'll limit myself to buying from California Carnivores, who have great plants and superb customer service.

Plants arrived very fast. Probably faster than any other CP website I have ordered off of. Packing was perfect. Certain other websites need to use plastic cups over the plant like this one does so that their plants don't get severely damaged. Plants arrived in perfect condition!

Superb packaging, great size plants, even better prices. My order arrived yesterday and I'm really impressed. AMAZING VALUE! There's only 1 place that I'll buy cp's from anymore and that place is Cook's!

The cheapest place to get awesome plants!

very tiny plants, but healthy looking and relatively inexpensive with quick shipping.

I placed an order in mid May and received the plants about a week later - very fast shipping! I was impressed with their selection of plants in their catalog, and was quite happy with my order. The plants arrived well packaged and were larger than I expected. I was able to pick up some rather neat Saraccenia hybrids that were not available anywhere else. All the plants have already adapted well to growing in upstate New York. I highly recommend Cook's Carnivorous Plants!

I have bought a few plants from Cook's and I am very pleased with them! The plants are healthy and VERY well priced and they arrive in timely manner. I heartliy recommend Cook's to anyone who wishes to buy plants through the mail!

Excellent mail order source. I have ordered many times, have never once recieved plants that weren't healthy, and they occasionally send freebies. Answers emails quickly, and is always helpful with questions. I highly recommend Cooks plants.

Very nice selection of carnivorous plants and seeds. I have ordered both plants and seeds from Cook's Carnivorous Plants. I have been very happy with the plants and seeds purchased. Cook's has one of the best selections of carnivorous plants on the net.

Great place to buy CPs. I have bought many plants from Dean everything has been wonderful/healthy. Prices are unbeatable and the website is well organized and easy to use.

I have bought several plants from Cook's and have been very happy with them. They are always nice healthy plants. Dean has given me alot of advice and has helped me alot with my carnivorous bog. Infac tif not for him, I don't think I would have ever gotten started. Buy with confidence !!!!!!! I am working on another order right now!

I've bought a number of carnivorous plants from Dean over the past year or so. All of his plants have been large healthy ones, putting out good strong growth the first year. He has an excellent variety of CPs (carnivorous plants), including some of the more unusual ones. All of my transactions with him have been very friendly and very positive.