Comments regarding Rockwood Gardens

I sent my order into Rockwood Gardens around the end of April, in hopes that I would receive something by the end of May. I did not of course, so I decided to check the internet to see if there was a website, and this is the site that I found. Of course after reading all the FAQ's, I panicked and called the number that the previous people had left. It only rang a few times, when a female answered, so I politely asked about my order and if there was any idea when the order would be shipped to my area. She informed me that they weren't due to come out till the first week of June, and I said "so, what your saying is, next week?" She replied. Yes. So, I waited two and a half weeks and received my flowers. The plants arrived healthy, a few were back ordered, and I received them later that same week. So, now it is the first week in July and all the plants seemed to have taken well, except for a couple but they do suggest it takes a few seasons. However, I have decided, it is not worth the worry and the fact that I have to depend on when I receive the plants, in order for me to begin my planting. I will go to nurseries around the area instead. Even though the plants were in good heath, and the price seemed right, it's still just not worth it. I'll shop elsewhere thanks.

Like everyone else, I have been deluged with junk mail and winning prize forms and every other mail-order company's catalogues until the paper is almost unbearable! I started out pretty optimistic about it all, way back in January and February, even into March. Then I received confirmation notices saying I was short by $11.00, and assumed I had miscalculated the S&H, so I sent more money. By mid-May, I expected to receive notification of delivery, but that never happened. I was still hopeful two weeks ago: after all, in Calgary planting time is generally the Victoria Day long weekend. I planned to plant everything during my week of vacation May 24-30. By May 20, still no delivery notification, so I tried them by phone. I have the Call Again feature on my phone, and since the number was busy, I kept trying. I'm still trying to get through.My vegetable garden is in, my perennial bed dug out, I'm all ready to plant, the Victoria Day weekend has come and gone, and I still have no perennials! I've been told at least 5 times that I am a "Preferred Customer" (at least that's what all their catalogues and order forms stated). So if I'm such a valued customer, where are the perennials I ordered!!! I wonder how the "un-preferred customers" are treated?

I have been attempting to get a simple reply from Rockwood Gardens regarding an order I placed with them in 96 and 97. I had placed alarge order for shrubs and ground cover among other things, and when the order eventually arrived it was short by a very large amount. 75% of the shrubbery was missing and 75% of the ground cover. The other order was of such poor quality that practically the entire order neededreplacement, about 105 plants of an order for about 130 plants. Rockwood never even acknowledged my letters requesting a refund orreplacement. I have reached that point where Rockwood appears to like to have their clients so frustrated and disgusted, that they would as soon write off the thing for the sake of my own sanity.I find it surprising that such a company is still in business in the waning days of the 20th century. Yet Canada seems to have adopted theAmerican model of doing business - let the buyer beware!! Surely, all of these media that place their advertisements must be also answerable for the promotion of a company that has such a legendary history of dissatisfied customers. Pity!

I sent my order to Rockwood Gardens on March 25, 1999 and they cashed the cheque on March 31st. It's April 9th and I just found this site andsuddenly panicked thinking I've probably been taken also so I called. I was only on hold for about 2 minutes, which was a pleasant surprise but I quickly became annoyed when talking to the customer service rep. I asked for the status of my order and she said they weren't due to ship to my area yet. She then looked up my order and told me that it didn't matter anyway because some of my items were on backorder. When I asked which ones she told me the Rose of Sharon and the 3 In 1 Butterfly Bushes. That's a joke since the only other thing I ordered was a blueberry plant for the patio. I asked her where the plants were coming from and she said she had no idea. I was under the impression that Rockwood Gardens was a greenhouse and they manufactured everything right there. Instead, I found out that they order from 'all over' (wherever that is) and the plants get shipped to their warehouse where they sit until they get shipped to customers. No wonder most things are dead by the time they get to us! I was then told not to expect my shipment before the end of May. I told her my concerns, that I had discovered this website and had read pages and pages of complaints against the company. She rudely pointed out that anything not received would be fully refunded. I guess you live and learn.

AARRGGHHH!!! I wish I had found this site prior to sending my order to Rockwood. I just mailed it a week ago as a present for my parents. Ithought I was doing something really nice for them and now it may end up being a depressing nightmare. I sent them a cheque for over a $100 and I am sure that will be cashed no problem!! I do appreciate that I was able to get a phone number from your site. I have been trying to find that. I was wondering if anyone had ever contacted the Better Business Bureau about Rockwood Gardens. I think I'll start by calling Rockwood themselves, now, and see what they have to say and see how they treat me. I'll keep you updated. Talk about closing the barn door after the cows have gotten out! Thanks for providing this site! {update] Since the email I sent you last night, I have contacted the BBB in Rockwood Garden's area and they provided me with the name of the person in charge of Rockwood Gardens and their fax number. If anyone wants the BBB report, contact the BBB - Mid-Western Ontario, 354 Charles Street East, Kitchener, Ontario N2G 4L5, phone: (519) 579-3080 fax: (519) 570-0072. Their business hours are 10-3. They will email the report to you. And they are really quick at responding. I sent my fax around midnight and received a reply from them at 9am!!

I went on a long drive last spring to go buy seeds, bulbs and plants from Rockwood Gardens in Rockwood Ontario. My Dad went there many times over the years rather than ordering by mail. They have closed their doors to the public and are exclusively mail order now. I wonder why? why won't they deal in person anymore? I don't trust mail order companies. No one at Rockwood Gardens would even answer the door, just a slot to put your mail order into. No thanks Rockwood.

My wife has been ordering plants from Rockwood Gardens for many years. In that time she has had mostly success with their product. On occasion some plants have not been up to par, but that can be expected when using the mail system for delivery as opposed to direct purchase from a local gardens. As to the sweepstakes...well today she won $2000 from their last sweepstakes promotion and it is legitimate. I thought I would pass on our side of the story to let others know of her good fortune and the fact that she is a satisfied customer.

I have learned (after wasting many postage stamps) not to order anything, or enter anything in this company again. Thankfully, I learned this before I spent too much money! I have been receiving mailings from Rockwood Gardens for about 5 years now. I am glad I stumbled onto this website, as I have suspected it is a company of very ill repute, and after reading all of the comments, I now know it is fact. I have probably filled several garbage cans over the years with their junk mail. Have entered most of their Sweepstakes and Finalist entries - never won a dime, even though they said I did! I have never ordered anything from them until this year, when I ordered 10 lily bulbs. To my surprise, I actually got them, and on time too! They were a good size and seem healthy, but won't know for sure till next summer. I will not ever be ordering again though, and as far as their junk mail is concerned, I'll just keep filling trash cans. I am an avid gardener, so I'll keep the catalogues, but only to look at for ideas on plants I will buy elsewhere!I have a friend who has just ordered a lot of spring flowering bulbs from Rockwood this fall. He said they confirmed that his order was received, and the stuff would be sent at the proper planting time. Hasn't heard from them since. It is October 22nd, and planting time here is late September or early October. I suspect he has been "had"! Some friendly advice would be to NEVER order live plants from a mail-order company; perhaps only dry dormant bulbs, and then only from reputable companies for which other people have given you good references. Never order from Rockwood Gardens…don't be fooled by all the pretty pictures in those mail-order catalogues!

I placed an order in January for what I thought would be spring items; credit card payment was taken in February. Come May, I was a little anxious so I called, only to be informed that the order was in the shipping area and no way to cancel. Well I finally received my order the end of June. Needless to say the cannas and others were very late coming up and flowering. On top of this the cannas (two different varieties, not yellow) all turned out to be yellow. I will never order from this company again.

I placed an order with Rockwood Gardens in early August. I have yet to receive anything from Rockwood Gardens. I phoned and was told they were still waiting for a couple of items - they did not know how long it would take. I have ordered from Rockwood Gardens before and only half came up. Their seed packages are tremendous and grew overwhelmingly - I won these! Junk mail is horrendous and unless I get my order within the next 2 weeks I will never order from them again. But really there are enough nurseries and garden centres around that you really don't need to shop by mail-order except for seeds maybe.

The first order I placed with Rockwood Gardens came when it was supposed to, but it was full of bugs! Aargh! I sent it back and got a complete refund with no problem. (That could have had something to do with the nasty letter I sent when I returned the plants.) After hearing a few good things and being enticed by the varieties I decided to order this year. I planted my order, and BARELY anything came up. The only things that came up were the roses. I have tried calling and I have to pay for it, "all operators are busy please wait" 3/4 of an hour later, still nothing and I have done this 3 or 4 times. I spent a good pile of money on these plants and I want them replaced, or preferably a refund. But it doesn't sound to promising after finding this web site.

I made an order to them; the bulbs and shade garden package arrived late. I thought that I had planted it wrong. Okay. I made another order in spring of 98. The plants and bulbs arrived NOT!!! That is however 2 months after the planting time!!! What good is that?? I wrote to Rockwood explaining that it was too late to plant these bulbs etc. and that I wanted my money back, plus the plants were dead that I ordered. NO RESPONSE. I wrote again twice and no RESPONSE. How can a company do this kind of business?? Please DO NOT ORDER FROM ROCKWOOD GARDENS!

Below are three letters which I have sent to Rockwood Gardens in the past six months. I thought you might want to add my comments to your web page regarding their poor service. Anne

My mother ordered plants from this company in April, it is now almost the end of July and still no plants. When she contacted them a couple of weeks ago they said that they didn't receive payment; when she checked she found that they had cashed the $70 money order a couple of days after she sent it. She sent them a copy and is still waiting for a response. If they were a legitimate, customer-oriented business they would have a web site but I guess then their customers would be able to contact them. It seems that this is what they are trying to avoid. I would suggest that anyone reading this advise all of your gardening friends to avoid being sucked in with their flashy brochures and discount prices and deal with a company who treats their customers fairly. I hope that their buds all rot.

We sent off an order in March 1998. After calling several times, we finally received our order. Of the six items [my wife] ordered, one was sold out and not available, the other five were substituted for something else altogether. I suppose I wouldn't mind if the substitutions were close, but to order a 3' shade plan and have a 15' full sun plant in it's place, is just stupid. I think that if they were to at least offer some reasonable plants, we could put up with the junk mail. I hope that we can find many more sites that copy this information too, in order to save others from becoming involved.

I ordered materials from Rockwood Gardens last fall, looking forward to re-building some flowerbeds this Spring, and have yet to see anything but junk mail. Stay away from these scam-artists.

How the heck do you get them to answer their phone? I have been trying for two weeks to get them on a telephone!

I guess the old saying "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" applies to Rockwood Gardens. Think about it. If the plants are so cheap, there must be a reason they can afford to charge less. That reason is that they use very young plants with scant packing methods. They also count on most people not bothering to try to get their money back or have their plants replaced when they don't grow. This morning (July 1) I counted the number of plants that grew versus the number I planted. Only 50% came up. I'm writing a letter to get replacements but I've learned my lesson and will not be ordering from them again.

We are having a similar problem with Rockwood Gardens: no delivery of product, cheque cashed, unable to raise them on the phone…

I've been trying to get hold of someone anyone at there office for 2 weeks. I've got a busy signal for all that time. The phone company contacts me within half hour if their phone line is not busy. It's always busy. At 2 in the afternoon when I phone their office is closed. Since last September of 1997 I've written Rockwood Gardens several times. I've ordered over $200.00 worth of plants. 95% of them died or never came up at all. I even bought a Bird of Paradise plant, and of all plants it survived. The free bulbs one gets are laughable. I truly gave all these plants a fighting chance. Other than the Bird of Paradise plant I only ordered plants that were for my zone. I not only brought in sterilized dirt I went to the greenhouses around where I live and asked people there how I should care for these plants, where to plant them, what to feed them, etc. We had a very mild winter and still nothing survived. Ironic thing is I went this spring to a greenhouse and bought basically the same plants and they are flourishing. As far as I'm concerned, Rockwood Gardens is a rip-off and guaranteeing their plants is a joke. The only thing they guarantee is you'll never get hold of them by phone to complain for a replacement or a refund.

They somehow got hold of my name, sending me a catalogue and a chance to enter one of their interminable contests. I sent them a letter telling them they were a GRAND FINALIST for the prize of a supply of TOP QUALITY ORGANIC FERTILIZER courtesy of my large dog, Bud. All they had to do to qualify was send me another catalogue package. Presto--no more junk mail!!

I have been a regular Rockwood customer since 1992. Although I agree with other comments regarding bulb size, and inconsistent performance of certain bulbs, my overall impression about the PRODUCTS is favourable. The service sucks (my latest order arrived at the Post Office, and the box sat there for three days!), as does the hokey promo material. This year, however, is the first time that I have been disappointed with the live plants that I ordered. The "birch clump" is a joke (half of them died after planting); and two of my Poplar "sticks" were broken in half. Rockwood has promised to ship out replacements. I will probably continue to order from Rockwood, but I will certainly make sure that they honour ALL of their guarantees from now on!

I requested that the bulbs be shipped in early April for planting in a greenhouse. The plants arrived dead on June 2. We have had begonias and mosquito plants in bloom for over 4 weeks. These bulbs are the size of peanuts, local large bulbs the size of a small egg costs only one loonie (much less than the Rockwood Peanuts). As for the freebies, well if you have a magnifier, good luck. Same as last year - nothing came up. I will try and plant the bulbs and hope & pray. Never ever will I order from these people again. I am sending a letter to them for whatever good it might do. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR THROW AWAY THE JUNK MAIL AND SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SUPPLIERS.

I placed an order with this company on April 1, 1998 sending a money order along with the order form. It is now May 22nd and we have not heard anything regarding the order. Don't I feel the fool having placed a large order with this company without investigating their business practices first. So much for EVER trusting mail order again. This I am afraid is my first and LAST experience with Mail Order.

After reading other people's experiences with Rockford Gardens I can't believe they are still in business. We ordered a garden in a roll thing (seeds stuck in a mat.) [Our] $35.00 cheque was cashed but we never received anything. I sent them a letter; still haven't heard anything and this is over a year ago. Well I guess I know better now - buyer beware of Rockford Gardens.

I ordered a whole bunch of lovely pink fluffy daffodils. After waiting patiently all winter for a delightful show in the spring, to my dismay all the daffodils were plain yellow ones. I had paid a premuim price for the hybrids and I am very disappointed and will never order from them again. I too have been sent dried sticks that never did manage to breath the breath of life.

I have spent over $400 at Rockwood and have no satisfaction! I have ordered from Rockwood, (the catalogue is truly beautiful, but totally impossible to acheive with their plants) in the hopes of filling up and beautifying my 4 acre property! My husband and I enjoy gardening very much, but dealing with Rockwood has been disappointing to say the least. I purchased from them 12 sticks which they called "Wall of China" (maybe for the ants, certainly not people) and hasn't grown any taller in two years and they are "guaranteed to grow 5 feet in a year"; Black tulips are actually red; wood hyacinths are only foliage; purple cone flowers never arrived, etc. I could go on and on, but obviously you've all been there. I really want to get a total refund of the money. The principle of this type of sham being allowed to continue really ticks me off, and I want to get every penny back! Note: Don't let this discourage you from gardening, try seeding yourself, or visit a garden store. Much better quality, results and guarantee is a true guarantee. Thanks for being there!

I ordered plants this year and I'm nervous about getting them now. I'm on Vancouver Island and its gardening time. My lilies are up as area lot of other plants and still no sign of my order. How can they get away with such bad service for so many years? My mother warned me that her order was a mess a few years but I ordered anyway

Several members of my family have ordered (separately) plants from Rockwood Gardens. Two orders never arrived and the cheques were cashed immediately. Despite letters and calls asking for refunds nothing has occurred. Another order arrived and most if not all of the plants enclosed were either dead on arrival or arrived in a state not conducive to surviving being planted (i.e., plants were very unhealthy) I'm sorry to say that I cannot recommend this gardening company to anyone due to poor business practices (and shoddy customer service)!

I ordered $30 worth of house and patio plants from Rockwood at my mother's recommendation. I placed my orders in October 1997 and January 1998 respectively, figuring on the usual two to three weeks shipping times I had from competitive companies. Well folks, as you can guess, I'm still waiting for my plants, bulb season's passed, I've a raft of catalogues and prize forms from Rockwood, and three slips of paper, verifying orders. I also received another catalogue from Spring Garden, at the same town and postal code as Rockwood; same slick ads, same offer of freebies with minimum orders. [update]According to The Vancouver branch ofthe BBB, Rockwood Gardens has…folded up their act. But…they have regrouped under a new name: SPRING GARDEN.[2nd update]To date, Rockwood mailed me all the plants I ordered, and all were as I expected, nursery plants, except the Fort Laramie Strawberries, which were sent as dormant cuttings. I put them in a compartment in my fridge to keep themDormant (How does one get these to grow and thrive?), as the manual was very sketchy in its care descriptions for the fruits and veggies. Other than this, I was impressed with the shape the others came in, carefully packed, with plastic bags around the bases to slow the evaporation process -- the soil was still damp when the plants arrived. True, none of the plants resemble the advertising, but since I read the fine print, I knew it would take some years and TLC before the plants looked like that. I'm still waiting to hear fromBreck's. As for the freebies, we only planted a few peacock orchids in a pot, and they haven't come up. Since they're free, I consider it no big loss. [3rd update]Three of my five plants did wonderfully well and I had to repot 5 times in only four months. The only things that were a total loss were the Ft. Laramie strawberries. After planting and tending according to the directions, it still failed to thrive, and I've since discovered our local nursery carries the same breed in stock, so I won't be re-ordering. The blueberry is barely hanging on, but I consider that my fault, as blueberries need more than one plant to bear fruit, and we did have a very dry season. I would recommend Rockwood's house and patio plants but not without some reservations.[4th Update]It's been little over a year since the initial purchase of my plants, and the only one that made it was the blueberry, believe it or not. The banana tree was last to expire over Christmas, while a friend innocently tended it according to my instructions. I wrote the company in good faith, asking for my lifetime guarantee replacement plants, noting all the time I'd taken, how they'd seemed to flourish, then inexplicably died, and added that I didn't relish all the wasted effort. Well, you can imagine my surprise when they sent to me plants that were the size mine should've been by now (i.e., 1yr specimens)!! I may not re-order anything from this company, but I must admit they showed a lot of class by replacing my plants in such a manner.

I am another unsatisfied customer.

The plants arrived on time and seemed to be in great shape. They were fine until the following year when they died (not a problem); however, most of the bulbs in which I had ordered just plain did not come up at all. Digging in the dirt I found that most if not all the bulbs that got planted in the fall were dried up or missing in the spring. The china hedge can only be seen as a joke…a wise decision would be to not buy that plant. On the topic of sweepstakes: if there were really a chance to win in the four years that I have bought plants from them, you would think that my numbers would have come up by now, (no pun intended.) No more junk mail unless there is a cheque inside with my name on it. In closing: good service, average survival rate on plants, not so good on bulbs. If it's free or you are going to win (you won't) and if I do receive a cheque I will be more than be happy to apologize to all that I was wrong.

I ordered for the first time last fall (1996) from Rockwood Gardens. I mailed my order in late August and the charge was put through on my credit card for September billing. On October 17, 1996 I telephoned to customer service, which was difficult because they do not publish their phone number on any of the literature that they bombard us with, to cancel my order as there was already snow on the ground and the flowerbeds were partially frozen. Customer service advised me that the shipping label was already printed and there was no way to halt the order. I asked if they could possibly hold off on sending the order until spring and they advised me that it was an automated process and could not be stopped either electronically or manually. I was quite concerned because I was leaving for 2 weeks. I received the order for over 150 bulbs and perennials the night before I was to leave. Thankfully, my husband managed to plant all of the perennials because by the time that I returned from my trip the ground was covered by about 5 inches of snow. I left the planting of the bulbs until spring.I gave the plants a chance and waited until mid July before taking a headcount of the survival rate. The survival rate was not good at all. Out of 151, I had 15 bulbs survive and 1 perennial. At this point I mailed a complaint letter to Rockwood to advise them that I wanted a full replacement order. About 2 weeks later I received in the mail a standard form reply letter for my complaint. It was very obvious that they did not read my original letter at all. The letter stated that they would send out a replacement order that will be "shipped at the proper planting time for your area." Which brings us to now. I called to Rockwood Gardens on Friday, October 17, 1997 and inquired as to where my order was. I spoke to customer service again and they advised that the label had been printed, but it had not been sent yet. I asked if there was any way to rush it and she said no, (the same song and dance as last year.) The only thing that she could offer was that they have a lifetime guarantee for full replacement, which it seems that I will be using every year for the rest of my life. So, I have mailed another letter requesting not only a full replacement of my original order, but also a full refund and a reply to my letters.

I've ordered several times from Rockwood Gardens; granted, sometimes in shipping stuff won't survive, I just wrote them and received a refund. Big deal, like all plants are hardy enough to survive being tossed around in boxes in our postal system.

I am sorry to say that my first mail order experience was a disaster. I bought two 50 ft. flowering fences for a friend's birthday (only one shrub lived) as well as several lilies, and 3 roses. Only one rose has lived, Only 6 of the 30 lilies I ordered lived and their free bulbs were laughable. The Gladiolus bulbs were about the size of an anemone root! They have no email; will not return a fax; no 1-800#; and when I call on my nickel at 3 pm their time, they have a recording saying that I should call between 8 am and 4:30 pm! Where the devil are they? I want my money's worth!

I received an order of houseplants from Rockwood. I was very happy with the quality that they were. They have done a lot to improve. And they are all growing like weeds.

This year was the first year that I ordered anything from Rockwood Gardens and I have to say that everything came in good shape. All the plants were in little pots and were still damp. Most had new leaves starting. The only thing that I found annoying was the tiny bulbs that they sent as a bonus for buying a large quantity. Also the promotional mail for sweepstakes was excessive. I received two copies of everything. If they would have but more effort into larger bulbs for their bonus gifts and less effort into paperwork, I think more people would be happier. I know I would have been.

After searching the net for information in Rockwood Gardens I was disappointed to see others comments about it. I ordered plants from there in early March. My cheque was cashed on March 14, 1997 so I have been expecting to get my plants any day. I called them today (April 11, 1997) to see if my order has been sent and to my dismay it hasn't. I spoke to someone in customer service and she did have my address and order on their computer but told my nothing has been sent out yet. I asked if there was someone I could speak to as to why it hasn't been sent out yet and I was told there wasn't! I couldn't believe there wasn't someone I could talk to! It's been almost a month now since my cheque has been cashed and I was hoping to get my bulbs in the ground soon. I was told that I should receive something by the end of May. Why is it taking so long...I'm only in British Columbia and the flowers are starting to come up here now. I'm disappointed so far and after reading some of the comments from other gardeners I'm wondering if I should have ordered from them all. I guess I should have ordered my bulbs in December to get them by now!

I have been buying from them for over 10 years and my yard is covered with their plants and shrubs. I must admit that a few have died over the years, but most are doing well. I have a snowball bush I bought 10 years ago. It is now over 8 ft. and the flowers are huge in the spring. I also have shrubs and perennials which are all doing fine. I will admit they do send a lot of junk mail, I have never won anything except seed from them but I still think they are pretty good. I have never had problems getting refunds for plants that didn't grow or died. Service was prompt and efficient. I will continue buying from them.