Comments regarding Plant Ranch

Darin's plants grow well but their true identity remains very much a question. I have several trees that I bought a number of years ago and they have since matured, but I'm not sure what they are. I doubt that they are what they were advertised to be. Eventually they may fruit and I will have further clues to their identity.

I purchased 4 plants, 1 male and 1 female Kiwi, 1 mock orange and mini dwarf lilac on May 20. The mock orange and lilac were DOA and the male kiwi died a couple days later. Only the femal kiwi survived. The company makes you wait until beyond the guarantee by stating the plants are dormant and need time to grow. In all fairness they did offer to replace them if I would return the plants or take pictures and pay the shipping costs to resend them. I declined as I did not want to spend more money on the risk that I would received more plants DOA.

The only reason for the neutral rating is that Plant Ranch cannot compete in quality or size of plants with some of the other merchants I have frequented.

When I shop by mail it is normally for plants not available at Home Depot or Lowes. So when I found PR on ebay and read the ratings here, I decided to place a small order.

All this said, let me be precise out of fairness. The prices are excellent. Shipping is not too bad either.

Today six plants arrived and are now been acclimated. There roots are healthy and I am sure they will grow nicely.

If you're not looking for specimin plants, give PR a shot for some basic, albeit not too common plants.

Darrin was pleasant to deal with via email and he shipped the plants exactly when he said he would. The weeping cherry was just a stick, and both the weeping cherry and the dogwood tree had masking tape with the tree type on them. The 3 dwarf mugo pines weren't more than 6" tall, which was fine--but the top 2" or so was already brown with dried up needles. I planted them, but the pines aren't doing very well, and I'm already planning what I will put there instead. It's too early to tell about the two trees--a friend told me it looked as if my young child has just stuck a stick in the ground. There are enough mail order companies out there that I do not expect to order from Plant Rach again.

I have ordered (through Ebay) from Plant Ranch twice recently. The prices are good and if things go wrong he works hard to fix the problems. I recieved prompt replies to my e-mails, I treated him with respect and he treated me with respect. I'm satisfied.

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I have no idea why you would be so negative? As from your prev. post, it seemed you were happy...All you had or need to do is call me for a complete free replacement. I am very happy to help. 800-270-8287
Darin, pres"

I have wanted to buy from this company many times because of the glowing reports here. However, he does not list scientific names (many plant descriptions don't mention cultivar names either) on any of his plants at the website, nor does he have an easy to read catalog. As a result, I really have no idea what I am actually getting for a number of plants that are offered.

For example, a buckeye is listed for sale, but it doesn't say which one nor does it give any zone information. If this is an Ohio buckeye (Aesculus glabra), then it won't work in my southeastern zone 8a. But, if it's Aesculus pavia, it will. Same thing for the serviceberry and with many of the other plants offered. The "asian jasmine" is either confederate jasmine based on the picture and description, or the picture and description are wrong. Regardless, one would have no idea what they are really buying since there are no latin names associated with the plants nor would they know whether it would grow in their area.

Instead, the website pegs out the glitzometer with all sorts of extraneous things happening that distract from getting what little information is available from the website. Even though the prices are low, there are better places to order from in my opinion.

I have never ordered from this site. The pictures are nice but there is no shopping cart and I really don't know what they have for sale. Maybe I'm not using the site correctly. We live about 75 miles from the nursery and I guess I'm going to have to drive up there in the Spring to see whats available.

I've never actually ordered anything from this site, basically because the website is hard to use. I've tried it using both a dial-up (forget ordering 'cause you'll never get it loaded) and high-speed cable (you still have to scroll FORever to find anything, it's just unorganized) and I just don't have the patience, even though I've read several good reviews of the company(from people whom I'm assuming don't work for Plant Ranch).