Comments regarding Gurney's Seed & Nursery

I ordered live plants from this company in January. We live in upstate New York - a safe planting time is generally around May, sometimes a bit earlier if it's a warm spring. I just received an email that the Blueberry plant from this order is being shipped TODAY! March 3rd! Seriously? Customer service told me that the timing for this being in the winter had been determined by Gurney's "Master Gardeners". He suggested that I keep the plant in the garage. I protested that not only do we not have a garage, but we should not be put in a position to try to salvage a bad decision.

The customer service rep did make a note that a replacement plant will be shipped to me if I call them in mid-April. I am hoping that this works.

Can I just say that I love Gurney's? My grandpa got me onto ordering from them years ago, and I keep going back. Their pricing is very fair for the quality, healthy plants you receive. When one of my cherries from them died last year, I received a swift response from Customer Service and they replaced it without question. The replacement is currently potted in my greenhouse and growing like there's no tomorrow.

Everything I have ever ordered from them has done well, with the exception of the one cherry as mentioned above. Every nursery gets a few duds, no matter how good they are. Gurney's makes it right when there's a problem. I will definitely shop with them again!

I just placed an order today and I received the best customer service ever! I have been ordering from Gurney's for years and never really had any major problems. If ever there was an issue with their plants I would either get a refund or a replacement. I ordered a Sundance apple tree 5 years ago and it never bloomed or flowered so I called today, talked to a service rep and he had a record of my order and gave me a full credit!! Of course I applied that to today's order. But seriously, who gives a credit after 5 years?! I have been mail ordering plants for over 20 years and this is a first. Thanks Gurney's!!

Got an e-mail advertising 40 strawberry plants for $20. when I checked out the total came to $59. Typical bate and switch company will never do business with these type of company's .They will always have an excuse why this or that happened ,at the end of the day I and nobodey cares fix your problems and fire those responsible for costing you money and customers

The first time I ordered one of Gurney's coupon deals it was for a bean support tower and a fabric strawberry tub, with a $25 off on $50 order coupon code. I gave them my PO box address as the billing address for the credit card, and my house address as the shipping address. Both addresses were shown on the confirmation email, labeled as billing and shipping. The bean tower arrived on my doorstep, with both the street address and PO Box number on the package. The strawberry tub was waiting at the post office, also with both addresses on the box. It was small and light enough that I could carry it home, so I took it home from there although it seemed peculiar that they would ship it that way. Next order, with a $100 off $200 order coupon, and many more items, the
confirmation again showed the shipping address as the house, and the billing address as the PO Box. The only item that arrived at the house was a pea fence. I came home from the post office yesterday and discovered one of their "item too large for box" notices among the mail, and since I didn't have anything else I was expecting and could not reach the PO by phone, I called Gurney's customer service - and sure enough, the phone rep with the heavy Indian accent that I could barely understand, informed me that they shipped my stuff via something called (I think) FedEx Smart-post which delivers to the local post office and you have to go pick it up there. I told him that this is not acceptable, I am not going to carry this shipment home from there when I ordered it to be delivered to my doorstep. There was never, by the way, any indication on the website, in the catalog or in any communication from them that the destination of my shipment was elsewhere than where I told them to send it. He kept insisting I had to go to the PO until I said I'll send it all back and cancel the order, then he put me on hold for quite a while, finally came back and said the items would be re-shipped to my house, and then there were a lot of clicking noises on the line interspersed with silences, and finally he came back on and repeated that my items would be shipped to my street address which he repeated several times, and said I would have to send back the items that were at the PO. No charge to me, he said - damn right, they'd better not charge me for fixing their screwup. I was on the phone at least 20 minutes over that, and now I've called the PO (10 minutes at least on that call) and they are sending that package back. So I want to know - who thought this bizarre shipping practice was a good idea? It really isn't rocket science to ship orders - your customer tells you where they want it sent and you send it there - not to someplace else where they have to go and get it. And you show on the confirmation where you are really sending it. Duh!!! Having read some of the other customers' stories, I am going to be checking my credit card statements very carefully too. I may order from this company again - providing I get my shipment at my house, and all the items are as advertised, including the live plants they were apparently planning to send to the post office too!! How stupid is that??? And providing there are no bogus charges on my card, and I don't have to go through this much hassle to get delivery on the next order. Or maybe not. I suspect not.

Posted on February 29, 2016, updated March 2, 2016
This is my first order and so far I am very pleased with it. The plants were well packed, very moist and arrived in a timely manner. Size wise the berries were all stocky and are definetly a good producing age-the stock for the Anne raspberry is four times the size of the one I bought at a local nursery and was only a couple dollars more! The trees are small but I got two for one price(the hardy mulberry) so I was happy with it. Everything arrived dormant but after one soaking the next day everything popped out with buds. So far I'm happy with my order. I will keep updating as the grow.

I have ordered from Gurneys and their sister companies for decades.

I learned a lot about what they are good at and what they are not good at. I bought many fruit trees over the years and many grew up to be a completely different tree than what I ordered. For instance, I ordered two Bing Cherry trees 10 years ago. They are now about 6 foot tall and produce very dark pie (sour) cherries. I like them even better than the Carmine jewels even though I have no idea what kind they are. They are not North Star or Montmorency.

I have 6 Carmines that I am happy with although they don't produce more than about a quart after 6 years. I ordered the best Pixie Crunch trees and it took them 1.5 years to arrive. Gurneys kept running out of them. I can understand once but not twice when my order was in a year before. Four trees arrived and only 3 were apple trees. One was some type of red twig bush.

Anyway, the seeds are always good and this year when the strawberries all died they replaced them right away and they produced fantastic.
So, I have learned to buy the seeds and berries from them but not the trees. Out of about 60 trees in the last 30 years about half are still alive and about 15 were not the trees I ordered.

I also don't like the size of the trees they send. The very expensive Pixie Crunch trees were only about a foot tall. I ordered a similar tree (Candy Crunch) from a competitor this year and it was 4' tall, less than half the price and is already taller than the Pixie crunches that have been in for 3 or 4 years.

I will continue to buy from them. Their customer service is top notch.

I ordered in a moment of insanity or weakness thinking it would stop the barrage of coupons and promotions to every point of contact I mistakenly provided (email, facebook, home address, etc.) but, silly me. It made no difference. It seems they double their prices so that you're forced to use the coupons they bombard you with. I imagine they shake hands at the end of the fiscal year thinking their tactics were effective (and, well, they were).

I have had mostly successes with the product. The few losses I had were with the vines. Mostly grapes and hops. I can't for the life of me get the hops to grow, but maybe it's the variety (nugget) and not the company's stock. Had the same issue at Miller Nursery out of NY (before they closed) and I believe they also had the nugget cultivar.

I wont be ordering from them again. I was a repeat customer. I ordered 3 pkgs seeds. Kale, peas and brussel sprouts. All three shipped the same day and time. Kale and peas arrived in the shipping window i was given by the company. No sign of the brussel sprouts. I called twice. What an adventure that was! They have their customer service sourced out to somewhere in the middle east. Dont we have competent american workers who can do this? Or is it cheaper to do it from india? My guess is the latter. The reps have very minimal english skills with very heavy accents. You have to repeat yourself A LOT. First time i called i was told the shipping window is 7 to 10 business days. Nowhere on the website does it say this. NOWHERE. i wait until 12 business days pass i call the middle east again. After repeating myself over and over again i was told "sorry the shipping time is 14 business days". It doesnt matter now. My planting window for this item has closed. I planted something else in that space to maximize my veggie production. This company used to be wonderful. My mother ordered from them every year. I wont be ordering from them anymore. Did some research and they are owned by monsanto now. No thanks. I dont need gmo and monsanto in my garden. I will pay more and get heirloom seeds from american companies next year. Baker creek, seeds of change and many other wonderful american companies out there.

Great customer service and great communication. The fruit trees are a little bit smaller than I would like for the price, and while a couple I ordered didn't emerge from dormancy, they acted quickly to replace them. I love their guarantee and packaging. Other things I have purchased from them have been fabulous, all plants and flowers have thrived.

Fabulous place to order from.

I ordered and paid for a variety of plants in January. I asked for a ship date in early June since I live at 8000' in Colorado, and it's not uncommon to get frosts until mid June. So now, in mid-May, Gurney's just emailed to say that almost all of my order is out of stock! None of the other nurseries I have ordered from in past years, and this year, have pulled this on me. I'm particularly disappointed because a couple of the things I ordered, and was counting on planting, are now out of stock at all the other vendors I've checked. What a waste of time, and how frustrating! I cancelled the entire order now, since paying the shipping cost for just two plants makes no sense.

I have purchased from Gurney's for years. Two years ago, I ordered grafted tomatoes and they didn't show up until middle of June and were dead. I called Gurney's and the credited me for the tomatoes. A year ago, I ordered again. Go figure, they back ordered my tomatoes and when I called to complain, the magically managed to find my tomatoes and sent them in time for me to plant. This year, guess what? They back ordered my $40.00 tomatoes and when I called, they said that all they could do, would be to give me a $9.99 credit. Never again, will I buy from Gurney's. Never.

I ordered a blackberry, raspberry, 25 strawberries, spinach seeds, and 2 native plum trees for about $40 including shipping. I was hoping it wasn't too good to be true and it wasn't! My trees were 2 ft sticks as anticipated. It's been a month and both are covered with leaves. I planted spinach seeds 3 weeks ago and they are ready to be picked! My strawberries, raspberry, and blackberry arrived separately about 3 weeks ago. They were bareroot and looked as expected. My raspberry is covered in leaves. My strawberries have grown tremendously. They have been flowering like crazy, but I'm pinching them off to help them establish roots. Some must have slipped by me because strawberries started grow. My blackberry hasn't shown any signs of life so Gurney's gave me a credit for the price I paid. I ordered another one plus another raspberry, some lavender, and tons of seed. I don't need some flourishing plant delivered to my door for it to have transplant shock. Bareroot is good by me and the prices can't be beat when coupons are available.

I have been a Gurney's customer for years and have had great experience and even when I had a negative experience with a product they have been easy to deal with as far as customer service.
To start with I hate reviews that say that they received a stick because generally they are describing what is best practice for bare root plants an unfeathered or feathered whip with a good root system. Often these individuals expect a lowes sized trees which we all know are often rootbound.
In my experience Gurney's is more expensive but if you visit their site they will send you a coupon for half off next visit on 100 back on 200 dollars. I just load up my cart and make as many purchases as I need to hit the coupon price. I have received everything I orderd and when they do miss the product they will ship it without complaint.
I also have had some trees die on me even years later and they honor their gurantee for life and ask no question and merely ship off the tree or plant to me which is a reason I keep coming back. A tree dying two years later is not the company's fault but they still support their product.
I have, however, had two issues when ordering a magnolia tree I did indeed get a stick, a single unbranched 20 inch tall green whip wit a minimal amount of rooting. I also ordered an apricot mix that came impossibly small because they were out of stock so they sent me two small ones which was not ideal. They did replace it the following year with a full sized one when both tiny ones died.
To give some credibility to my account I have 41 different fruit trees and most of them are from Gurney's. They do have a limited selection but most of what they do offer is good product. I also order Dill's Atlantic Giant from them every year and seed order seems just as good as live plant order.

Posted on June 16, 2014, updated April 12, 2015
I've placed 2 orders with this company. The first one was simply for some seeds. I had no problems receiving this order.

After the first order I was emailed a $50 for $25 coupon with this site. I went on and picked out some plants. Upon opening the site, they had a clearance sale. Naturally I go and shop the clearance section. When I go to the checkout and enter my coupon code, all the prices change (mostly back to full price). I called the company and was informed that the clearance section was a "coupon". Okay..... I ended up changing my order and using the first coupon anyway.

I ordered:

2 blackberries - no complants. Good looking bareroot plants.
6 pack lily grab bag - I hadn't planned on planting them at that moment but most of them were already growing and breaking out of their packaging. So in the ground they went.
1 olive "tree" - Olive "twig" is more like it. The main part of the plant is 3" tall with a 6" branch. I'd be really upset if I paid full price for that twig, as it is I'm going to wait and hope it becomes a tree. If it dies I'll replace it with one from StarkBros.

1 blue berry - First it was going to ship separately then was out of stock and being refunded. The Bluecrop Blueberry is STILL available to order on their site. My 2 big issues with this is they should have an actual inventory not a "order in good faith and hope they actually have it when your order is packed" and that the plant is still listed as available on the site. Come on now.....

That's three strikes against Gurney's. One, bait and switch on prices. Two, the twig. And finally three, the out of stock but still available on their site blueberry.

The blackberries and lilies are looking good. The seeds were shipped with out problems. BUT with the three strikes, there are soooooo many sites out there that I won't be doing business with them next time.

I ordered several nut and fruit trees in January 2015. When building the order, all items showed that ordering one, I would get one free. Upon check out it offered a 20% discount with a code. I entered the code. When the first two trees arrived, there were no free units. I contacted them and was told that since I entered the code for 20%, it cancelled the free plant offer. It would have been nice if they would have stated this somewhere in the checkout system. I cancelled the remainder of the order. I do not like being deceived. They were rude and condescending when contacted. This is no way to treat a returning customer.

I am in absolute shock about my latest experience with Gurneys. First of all let me say not only am I a repeat customer of theirs, but my mother and grandmother ordered seeds from their company for 20 years. I ordered 2 seed starting kits, one was short 5 starter plug cells (there should have been 55 and there were only 50). I immediately called customer service and was shocked that it was an overseas call center, and of course I end up with a lady I can barely understand. I explained my problem to her, she pulled up my account, and starts explaining my charges to me (order total, coupon discount, sales tax, etc.) I said "yes, that is correct", and she rudely says "SO WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?" After what seemed like forever trying to break the language barrier and trying to get her to understand she says they will send me out 5 more cells ASAP. So one week later I go to Gurneys website and the estimated delivery date is ONE MONTH from now! I am ready to plant my seeds!
So I send an email to customer service (no way I'm calling India again) telling them the problem I had with Miss-can't-understand-English, and that I need my product now as it is seed planting time and one month is unacceptable to ship a product that is already pre-made sitting on a shelf somewhere. I get an email back giving me a half @$$ apology that says "if you could not understand the rep you were talking to you should have asked for someone different. However, we will go ahead and expedite your order." That was 2 days ago, I just checked my order status and it has not been expedited at all. Estimated delivery still 3 weeks away. Gurney's should not treat anybody this way, especially someone who is a third generation customer. RIDICULOUS!

I ordered 4 apple trees (2 liberty and 2 goldrush) and 1 peach tree. All arrived in great shape. I was very impressed with the root system on these bareroot trees as well as the trees. Hoping to have fruit in a few years. No doubt I will order again!!!!

I ordered a cherry tree and 3 kinds of strawberries. The cherry tree that was sent to me is absolutely the best live plant that I have ever received through the mail. Its doing well. The strawberries had very good roots and started putting out leafs within two days of being planted. All of them were very healthy plants and I could not have asked for better products.

Ordered 2 Ka-bluey blueberry plants last year in January. Small plants arrived in March, one year ago. Grew much larger in pots over summer, supplemented with the Gurney "blueberry food". No fruit yet. Fall color was pleasant light red/orange, small leaves, persisted well into early Winter. Over-wintered indoors in pots. Zone 7. Both starting to leaf out again now (still indoors). Will be planted in ground once permanent site is chosen. Review to be updated this coming Fall with regard to fruit. Ordered one dwarf Meyer lemon and one dwarf Key lime. Planted both under same conditions. The Dwarf Meyer Lemon grew well but the Key Lime died very soon after arrival. Gurney's to be contacted for replacement and review to be updated as to how it is handled.

Order elsewhere. The plants are pretty terrible and the shipping on seeds (although of good quality) is ridiculous and haphazard.

Selection is also pretty blah.

Posted on June 29, 2014, updated January 9, 2015
I placed 2 orders from them this spring with their 50% off coupon. The trees came through wonderfully. All the fruit trees have started growing except 2 of them. I contacted them about it and they said they would replace them or credit me. The nut trees haven't shown any sign of life yet. I have been told they take longer so I will see. They told me they had a forever warranty. If the nut trees fail I will post again otherwise I am pleased. I wished I had as good of luck with the other nurseries.

I have ordered from this company before and never had a problem. I was going to place a seed order with their discount coupon. The total of the order was $54 and I was going to be charged $21.99 for shipping. I called the company to see if it was a mistake and they told me the shipping price is calculated off of the original merchandise price. I have ordered seeds for years and never have paid anything near $22 for shipping . They come in an envelope in the mailbox . I have ordered merchandise totaling way more then that and have never come close to paying that shipping g price. I might understand if it was plants. No longer a customer.

Posted on November 9, 2014, updated November 12, 2014
How Gurney's lost a longtime customer with TERRIBLE service and failure to ship items for almost three months:
I have been purchasing from Gurney's for many years and had mostly positive experiences. This year, they lost me. I placed an order for many different bearded iris and clematis in the very beginning of September. I did not receive anything for over a month. Then, one iris at a time would arrive by itself in an envelope about three weeks apart. In November, the majority of my items had still not shipped. When I called customer service, I was told that one of the items was not available and thus, they could not ship the others!!! This is after mailing me one iris at a time for weeks. I agreed to "drop" the so-called unavailable item so that the others could ship. Of course, they had been holding on to my money since Sept. 9 without ever contacting me. Supposedly, now all my items would ship. As I write this, on Nov. 9, several items have still not shipped and each week, the order status on their site pushes back delivery by several weeks. My phone calls to their customer service resulted in nonsensical explanations. My clematis are no where in sight, and we are expecting a hard freeze. The customer service rep told me, don't worry, they are guaranteed! What an absurd explanation. I lost the ability to purchase and plant at the right time, from a company that actually ships what it promises, instead I have only the prospect of some dead plants to request a refund for. I still do not have a complete order with several items missing, and each time I check order status, it now says shipping will be in DECEMBER. What a pathetic joke. I guess they expect me to chip a hole in the ice and plant then. Well, my days as a Gurney's customer are over, and I strongly caution you to buy elsewhere. I have neither my plants nor the money they have been holding since Sept. 9.

Ordered seeds from this company and in the first shipment they got my order wrong. I e-mailed asking for assistance & received no reply. I send the seeds back with a letter & received the correct seeds a few weeks later. I planted the seeds in the spring but found that the seed packets (though properly labelled) contained the wrong seeds. I will not be ordering from Gurneys again.

I have been a satisfied customer of Gurney's for about 15 years. I received a one day e-mail offer from them for 50% off my order. I placed the order for seeds and fruit trees and made sure I was receiving the 50% discount on the $200 plus order when I hit the confirm button. I did not print the order as I assumed they would send an e-mail confirmation. The order confirmation contained no prices or info on the discount given. I received the seeds soon after and the discount shown on the invoice was exactly 50% off the total for the seeds, $22 and change. In March I got my credit card statement showing 2 charges from Gurney's, one correct and one wrong. I immediately phoned Gurney's
about the discreptancy and was informed that my original discount was for only $25. I asked to cancel the 2nd part of the order but was informed that it was too late as it had just been shipped. They told me if I could supply the original discount coupon code they would give me my discount. I did not have it and it was not on the e-mail order confirmation. That is when I rembered that they had made that error before but that time I had the original coupon code and received the correct discount. I will never do business with them again.

I got a free top hat blueberry plant from Gurney's all I had to pay was the $5.99 shipping. Some time ago I started to get their magazines and was a little skeptical about ordering from them since I was used to the glossy magazine that Burpee's usually sends. Out of curiosity, I went to their website and subscribed to their e-mails. Like most seed companies subscribing to their e-mail list=better deals. I couldn't pass up the free blueberry plant which included no other catches, saying I had to buy a certain amount to get the plant 'free' It wasn't like that at all. My plant arrived a week later healthy and green. So I went ahead and ordered a pink lemonade blueberry on sale as well. I was surprised with the quality of the Top Hat blueberry seeing as it was 'free' and free usually means dead, so I'm expecting the quality of the pink lemonade blueberry to be of excellent quality as well. I have a small patio garden where I grow most things in pots and usually order from Burpee, this year I have taken a chance on two new seed companies, Gurney's and Territorial Seeds, both experiences have been good so I may consider ordering more from them in the future.

I have a very large acreage property with five separate fruit orchards with over 150 trees,a half acre blueberry patch, and a half acre strawberry patch. On average I spend thousands of dollars a year on edible landscaping, and I purchase from a wide range of internet plant purveyors.

In the grand scheme of things, Gurney's is a good, reliable company if you understand the company's strengths and quirks. I have ordered from them for years because their customer service is easy to deal with, and their ironclad plant replacement policy is trouble free.

Fruit trees-meaning apples, pears, peaches, plums, apricots-are their overall most reliable product. The vast majority of their trees are larger than what I have been able to procure from other companies, which have higher price points.
The only times I have received relatively small fruit trees are products that are unusual varieties like Trugold peach, Flat is Wonderful peach, Sugar Pearls apricot, or Harlayne apricot.

Their apple trees and pear trees have always been large caliber and very satisfactory.

Blueberry bushes and grape vines have always been of consistently good quality in my experience. The blueberry bushes are relatively expensive for the size of the plant, but they've all arrived alive and vigorous. Ka-Bluey blueberry especially grow quickly especially if potted in Miracle Grow for the first year. Frequently they are triple or quadruple in size when I transplant to the field in the following year.

Though the one year old grape vines look small on arrival, I rarely have any of them fail to establish directly on in-ground planting. I particularly like Pink Reliance for vigor and beauty. By the next year, mine were twenty times larger than planting with minimal care and Miracle Grow fertilizer a couple times a year.

Asparagus crowns are another product that I find very gratifying from Gurney's. Their two year old crowns are the worth the added expense. I've purchased Jersey Supreme, Jersey Knight, Jersey Giant, and Purple Passion-all were enormous crowns compared to two year crowns I've purchased from other websites and at the local brick and mortar big box stores. I have a quarter acre in asparagus on my property, and the survival rate on these crowns has been excellent. I do recommend spraying the crowns with a fungicide on arrival because mildly damp crowns packed in a sealed box has a tendency to get moldy-it's a problem I've noticed from all mail order crowns I've received.

I have come to realize over years of trial and error that the following plants supplied by Gurney's are wee small.

1) Figs - I've used larger toothpicks
2) Bush cherries-Carmine Jewel comes in a 2 inch pot despite it's retail price of $35 a plant
3) Superior Chinese chestnut-drinking straw size and slow growing. (My 3 yr old trees are thigh high to me, and I'm 5'2")
4) Raspberry canes - Small compared to other places I've purchased from and a very small root system. I've found them hard to establish. Survival rate has been like 1-2 plants out of 10 purchased. I've found it true 3 years running on the Anne raspberry plants.

The sweet potato slips are expensive but have been as good as any that I've gotten from other internet sites. You'll want to open the box immediately and get the slips into water when they arrive because they ship with very little moisture retention packing.

I would advise against ordering live vegetable plants like tomatoes from Gurney's. Tomato plants really don't ship well regardless the seller, and I find tomato plants are pretty much the easiest garden plant to start from seed aside from beans and peas. Growing tomatoes from seed is pretty idiot proof, and seeds are a much better bang for the buck for vegetables in general anyway. One packet of tomato seeds can last me four years of planting-that's true for squash, eggplant, cucumber, pumpkin, and watermelon just to name a few.

The uncertainty in when an order will ship is just a fact of life with Gurney's. If you can't accept it, you need to find some place that ships like clockwork-such as Amazon.com. Gurney's sometimes has to locate the plants from its sister companies/network of suppliers before the items can ship. Multiple shipments to complete an order is just the way they function. It's normally two weeks to a month from the time I order before I receive a complete order, and sometimes items can pushed back to ship next season or get cancelled altogether. Those are the breaks when ordering plants over the internet. I've experienced cancellations and deferrals on shipment of product from 100% of the internet nursery's that I've used.

I've used Burpee's, Park Seeds, Wayside Gardens, Raintree Nursery, Burnt Ridge Nursery. Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, Grandpa's Orchard, Stark Brothers, Berries Unlimited, and I'm sure I'm forgetting to list a dozen others.

My favorite thing about Gurney's are-as I mentioned-their hassle free replacement of dead plants regardless of whatever ignorance, idiocy, or neglect a customer inflicted on the hapless plant.

My second favorite thing about Gurney's is that they send links for deep discounts on all their products if you subscribe to their e-mail advertisements. That $35 Carmine Jewel bush cherry was mine for $15. Yes, it's still tiny, but the great thing about bush cherries is that they grow extremely fast and are very forgiving of stupidity we humans inflict on them. I've had Hansen's and Nanking bush cherries go from six inches tall to over five feet tall in 2 years.

Posted on April 10, 2009, updated May 29, 2014
I will admit, I was a bit apprehensive about ordering from here, based on all the negative reviews. But Gurney's/Henry Field's was the only place around that I could find a Carmine Jewel bush cherry, so I took a chance and used the "Save $25 off $50" coupon.

I ordered the bush cherry, a grape vine, and a "buy 25, get 25 free" everbearing strawberry special. The bush cherry, while small (about 12" high), was very healthy, and packed well to avoid breakage. The strawberries are just breaking dormancy and the grapevine - while great-sized at about 3 ft tall, appears to still be dormant.

I received an email confirming my order when placed, and an email when the items shipped. I could go to their website and check the status whenever I wanted, and if an item has shipped, they also provided a tracking confirmation number.

I was expecting to be disappointed and took comfort in the fact that if something went wrong, I could at least dispute the charge on my credit card bill. I am pleased with this order though, so pleased that I placed another order for some more fruiting plants - including a peach tree. I'm hoping to get lucky the second time around and will update this review when I receive those items.

One thing to note on the 2nd order I placed - the blueberries went from having a delivery estimate of next week, to mid-May, and then back to next week. Although either dates are fine with me, I obviously would prefer them sooner than later, so am keeping my fingers crossed.

I ordered some tomato plants and tomato food in April, they sent the plants, almost dead, lost 4 of them. The tomato food never arrived and Gurney's has changed the delivery date today for the 3rd time for July. I am not sure what good the fertilizer is when half the growing season is over but I guess they ship it when they have some even if they have promised to get it out 3 times now.

Even better, I called about 3 weeks ago to order some pepper and tomato cages, I asked if they had them on hand and how soon they would shoip, the rep stated they are on hand and will shoip within 48 hours of your order. Well, the pepper cages did ship but no tomato cages, called today, now on BO till July. I guess I should have explained to them I wanted them for this years growing season.

The tomato plants took 6 days to ship from Michigan to Mn. They were in very poor shapr when recieved. 5 of the 9 will live and the others died. I did not bother to contact them in regards to a refund as that would be a larger pain that it woiuld be worth.

I ordered some giant radishes from them and they were also BOerd, now it shows will ship at the end of June, third time they have changed that delivery date to a later date.

NEVER again will I order anything from them, they lie about the shipping dates and lie if they have the product on hand.

I would not believe one word they tell you as you have no idea if it is the truth or not.

Very sad when a company has a customer service dept like they do even when they say they have world class CS, boy is that a stretch unless they have the worst CS in the world.

Gurney's does offer some quality product if you can get it and then get it even close to no time.

This was the first and last time we will ever be ordering from Gurney's. Our order was to be shipped on 5/02/2014 and still today 5/26/2014, we have not received the order. When the order status has been checked the shipping date has changed on a daily basis. The flowering bushes that we order have definitely passed the time of our being able to enjoy them this year...that is, if we even receive them this year to plant. Buyer BEWARE!

I can remember that my dad ordered from Gurney's many years ago. So, I decided to order heirloom tomato plants and some other vegetable plants for our garden.

I placed my order on April 4th. They emailed that the plants would be sent at the proper planting time. Well, it is now May 14th and we are near St. Louis, MO. We are well past planting time for many plants.

Part of the order arrived today. I cannot tell you how disappointed we were when we opened the boxes. The plants had been in transit for easily a week and the stress had taken their toll. They looked as if they were not even watered prior to packaging. The plants were wilted, yellowed and looked so bad that I immediately emailed Gurney about it.

I requested a full refund - not replacement plants. They were also about 6 inches high - they were not even nice specimens.

I have given a 'neutral' rating due to the email I promptly received from Gurney stating that they were refunding the money for the tomatoes and peppers and would cancel the remaining part of my order and refund that as well. So, Gurney still has a customer service department. But what we really wanted was nice vegetable plants for our garden!

I will not be ordering from Gurney again. This is sad. To have a company that has been in business as long as they have and then not be able to handle that business adequately. A real shame.

If the refund does not arrive in a timely manner, I will post again. Writing this review saddens me - but I wish I had checked out their reviews prior to ordering. It would have saved us a lot of wasted planting time.

I ordered 4 trees from Gurneys this year. I have ordered from them in the past and have been satisfied. I ordered a apricot, a nectacot and 2 peach trees. The apricot arrived first, they were out of the standard size and substituted two i dont even know if i could call them twigs to replace the full grown tree. I called and let them know I was very disappointed and they promptly refunded my money. I did plant the little sticks because I didnt want to just throw them away. Well they were so small the first time I mowed I ran over them because I couldnt see them! The next to arrive was the peach trees. I have ordered them before from Gurneys and they have been decent size, this year they were pathetic, half dead and very small. I called again to say I was very disappointed, they told me last summer was not a good year for growing peach trees. I told them I would try them out. I planted the trees, but within two weeks I could see they had died and I pulled them out. I called back and was again promptly refunded my money. I was waiting for my last tree arrive wondering what this one will look like. Well to my surprise they ran out of this tree and it was cancelled on me and Again I was refunded the remainder of my money. I was very disappointed in Gurney's this year, I have never got awesome trees from them in the past, but they at least were a little bigger and ALIVE! The only reason I gave them a neutral rating instead of a negative is because there customer service has been so good about refunding if you have a problem with anything. That has always been the case with Gurney's is their great customer service. I ordered fruit trees from Stark Brothers and Van Well Nursery. The Stark Brother trees were nice size and alive, much better than Gurney's, but if you want nice fruit trees order from Van Well Nursery, the trees I got from them were beyond nice. Large, well branched, large caliper trees. Very impressed with them. I will only order from them and if I cant order from them what I want I will go to Stark Brothers.

I ordered 3 blueberry bushes from Gurney's early last fall. they were pathetically small, spindly sticks of "bushes" and they arrived in early December (I live in the Northeast so by early December gardening is really over). The bushes appear to be alive, but I would guesstimate I will be lucky to have berries on them 5 years from now, if then. They are maybe 10" tall at best and have about 3 stems each. I would never buy from them again. Very disappointed, both in the timing of the shipping, and in what I received.

I ordered in 2013 black walnut blue crop blue berry chandler blue berry 2 raspberries English walnut and some garden seeds. everything grew nicely except the blue crop blueberry, they sent a very nice bigger than advertised English walnut. the blue berry was replaced this year as they ran out last year. customer service was nice to me. I ordered from them again this year and have received all plants and seeds. the butternut didn't look too good upon arrival box end smashed and the tip of tree is broke probably due to ups handling rather than gurney's but planted and will see what happens. by the way the blue berry that died last year when I dug it up this year it had a gopher tunnel under it. so I probably owe gurneys for the second blueberry as it wasn't their fault it died. the hazel nut they sent this year looks good and the Ozark strawberries are showing signs of life despite the cold weather the last part of April here. their black walnuts are a bit on the small side but have good root systems. I would recommend gurneys

Posted on April 18, 2014, updated April 26, 2014
Posted on April 14, 2013, updated April 18, 2014
Posted on April 2, 2013, updated April 14, 2013
Posted on October 26, 2012, updated April 2, 2013
Posted on September 13, 2012, updated October 26, 2012
I have bought plants from this company many times over the years, I only find the plants get here a little slowly ,only they tell you that to start with about when things are to ship..Everything I have ever bought from this company has grown and done well.

"On Sep 17, 2012 1:41 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you so much for your review. We appreciate you sharing your experience with our company."

I don't even know where to start. Horrible. I have ordered 3 plants, all arrived dead. Contacted the company, they sent me dead replacements twice.. The flowering crimson arrived with dry dead leaves twice. It is really hard to believe. I am not sure what is going on with this company but I have a feeling they are playing jokes on me. I will not bother to contact them again for a replacement. Please do not buy from this company, it is waste of money.

I wrote a similar review for Michigan Bulb, apparently Gurney's and Spring Hill are related. Their websites look exactly the same but the offer slightly different plants so I am not too worried about the quality since I was happy with my Michigan Bulb order. The only thing I am not happy with are their dynamic price changes which can happen from one second to another.

For example, you get your $20 off coupon which sounds so amazing right? Well, watch the prices of your shopping cart increase a great deal, you end up paying MORE with this coupon than if you don't use one. I had a banana tree in my cart, which I found for $8.99. When I added the coupon, my price went up to 19.99 and the prices on the website changed drastically too.

I became fed up with the price increase so I left the site and ended up finding Gurney's on Amazon with MUCH cheaper prices. I clicked on the Gurneys link which brought me to their site with very low prices and flat rate shipping. I ended up ordering from this version of their site and overall I am happy with the price and service so far. Am awaiting delivery.

PLEASE.....ALL AMERICANS.....NEVER BUY FROM GURNEY'S. THEY ARE USING OVERSEAS WORKERS FOR THEIR OVERFLOW CALL CENTER!!!! INDIA TO BE EXACT!!! WE NEED OUR MONEY TO PAY OUR AMERICANS. REFUSE TO DO BUSINESS WITH THEM OR ANY COMPANY THAT WILL NOT PAY AMERICANS. OUR UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IS SKY HIGH BECAUSE OF COMPANIES LIKE THIS!!!! BOYCOTT GURNEY'S SEED AND NURSERY....PLEASE PASS IT ON!!!!