Comments regarding Las Pilitas Nursery

I drive by the Escondido about evry other month on my way to pick up job materials from some of the big grower operation in their area. I finally stopped in and was as unimpressed with them in person as I have been over the phone and online.

My first experience with them was a phone call. Their online availability listed a few species of plants in quantities of less than five. My experience as a former nurseryman and a (currently) landscape contractor tells me when an inventory lists 3 of something it is best to confirm that they are still there and that they are in good health (the leftovers at nurseries are often marginal at best.) So I called. The woman that answered said "check the online inventory" and hung up.

I then tried to email, and got, literally, the exact same response. The problem is I didn't ask "do you have", I asked "what condition are they in?"

Most recently, due to desperation, I again tried to contact them about a few plants that are out of stock at Moosa Creek Nursery as well as at Recon Native plants. I inquired about four species of plants, all of them listed on the availability though some were still in production. I got this two sentence reply, "We do not have the material you are looking for in stock at this time. Please check our availability on our website." No additional info about when the plants in production would be ready, no details about why the plants that are listed as available on the online inventory aren't, and none of the basic courtesies often extended by normal human beings when replying to a customer inquiry.

Thing is it took a days to get a reply, I'd already been to the nursery. There were only the four of us there, two employees and a shopper. The employees were too busy chatting to even say hello, welcome, how are you doing, what can I help you with; none of that.

There are other options for California natives in San Diego county.

I ordered a 'Ray Hartman' ceanothus from this nursery and was disappointed with the packing. I was unable to locate this plant anywhere else online, otherwise I would have purchased it elsewhere for a lower packing and shipping fee. The plant itself was healthy and the price was reasonable, but the packing was sloppy and the charge for it was excessive. This arrived as a bare-root plant and appeared to be simply thrown into a flimsy plastic bag with much of the top of the root ball exposed. The transit time from shipment to the arrival of this plant was three days and the soil was completely dried out. The charges for both packing and shipping totaled around $33, which I found to be outrageous. Because of the poor packaging of this plant and what I was charged for it, I will never order another plant from this nursery in the future.