Comments regarding Joy Creek Nursery

I recently ordered plants from three nurseries. Of the three, Joy Creek was my least favorite in terms of the quality of the plants on arrival. Of the six caryopteris I ordered, three were healthy and are doing well, two arrived in what I consider standard shape and are doing merely ok, and one arrived with just two small leaves on it and it appears that one won't make it despite lots of TLC upon arrival.

Posted on June 7, 2015, updated August 20, 2015
Posted on June 3, 2015, updated June 7, 2015
Not happy. I contacted the company via email concerning a plant that I received. The Echinops "Artic Glow" arrived solid yellow and the leaves wrapped into a tight ball. After planting, the leaves wilted off. The company never responded to my inquiry. It is bad enough to send an almost dead plant, but to ignore my email is even worse.
It seems they do not intend to guarantee the plants they sell. I messaged them within 5 days of plant delivery.
Would not do business with them again.

Since the Joy Creek website states “During our peak shipping times (April through June) there may be up to a three-week delay in shipping orders.”, I submitted my order on their website 22 days before my requested shipping date. When I received no indication it had been shipped on 4/6/15, I emailed them and was told it would ship on 4/13. When that didn't happen, I emailed again and was more or less informed that folks who ordered in January were getting 4/6 shipping. After several additional email exchanges, I did get shipping on 4/14. Three day shipping charge (evidently, only option to most states from 3/2 to 10/14) was about $29 for 4 plants. You do not find out this amount until after plants have shipped, however. There is also a $4 handling charge. Once the plants arrived, they were well packed, decent size and healthy, however. Might not order from Joy Creek again due to higher shipping cost (USPS priority mail would be cheaper and about as fast; I suspect) and some difficulty getting shipping when I requested.

Joy Creek has a very impressive selection and the plant size is generous. I have purchased clematis plants on two occasions.
I do have two concerns that are weighing on my future purchase decisions:
I order from many mail order companies and Joy Creek is the only one that does not provide the shipping cost until after the plants are shipped. Why is that? Also, compared to other companies, Joy Creek's packaging seems unnecessarily heavy which, of course, increases the cost.
Second, on the two occasions that I have ordered, I have received an email confirmation of everything on my order. I order early so plants are shipped over a month later.

However, on both occasions, when the order arrived, it was incomplete. Looking at the invoice, it states that the missing plants are "not available this year". I would appreciate getting that information as soon as Joy Creek knows the plants are available after all. I might have been able to order the plant elsewhere. I count on the plants arriving as promised.

My review is a bit mixed, great product, decent price but with a few administrative failings.

I started by emailing the company about a hard to find product, they were back to me in a snap, it was exactly what I needed. Perfect! I placed an order online.

After a week of not hearing from them I made a call to find for status. They did not receive the order. Very nice service rep took my order again and told me it would be in the mail Tuesday. When Tuesday came around and I hadn't heard, I called back. They are very pleasant to talk to, she remembered me and my order and apologized that they hadn't had time to get the order out the door, it would arrive next week. It took 3 weeks from my initial order but the plants finally arrived and they look fantastic, larger than I thought they would be, healthy, packaged nicely.

I checked the invoice which showed the product plus a $4 handling fee, which I thought was cheap for shipping but when I checked my bank account there was a separate charge of $13 for shipping, which sounds about right for an overnight package. I don’t remember seeing and extra $4 in handling when I ordered online, but I’m confident it was not mentioned it during our phone calls. Never paid a handling fee when ordering plants and it really wouldn't have been an issue had it been disclosed. (full disclosure: I did not call them to “complain” about this)

Would I order from Joy Creek again? Yes, they are pleasant and have a nice product but I think it’s important to know about an extra $4 handling fee and that I may need to keep on them to get what I ordered.

I didn't mind paying $18 per Clematis so much, given the great reviews discussing the health and size of plants received but I have to be honest the shipping is a killer if you're on the east coast. 3 Clematis ran me $35.20 PLUS the handling fee of $4 -- this on a $54.00 order...mercy!! Kudos to Joy Creek for the careful packing for sure...but again...I'd have been satisfied with the plants being pruned another 1/2"-1" and put into a Lg Flat Rate USPS Priority mail box that would've run $13.95 and if that wouldn't have been in the plant's best interest then regular priority mail which for this weight and these zip codes would've run $28.59 if (as most businesses do) done online. Please note that I did verify on the UPS site, Joy Creek is not over charging. It's just, for me at least, a big hunk of $$ to pay for the shipping of 3 plants. And as mentioned by someone else you have no idea when placing the order what shipping is going to run. Sadly I'll be sticking w/vendors from Texas east and/or those using the more affordable USPS.