Comments regarding Audubon Workshop

On 3/13/12 I placed an order for a Fragrant Cloud Honeysuckle vine. Ever since I was a wee lad, I've always loved the smell of honeysuckle. On 4/13/12 I received a shipping confirmation with estimated delivery date of 4/16, a tad optimistic I thought, since it was shipped via USPS. The order arrived today, 4/19......I was reluctant to open the box after reading on Dave's Garden where Audobon is affiliated with Plants Alive ( now THERE'S a misnomer!); however, I was pleasantly surprised when I found a plant in amazingly good shape. A sip of water and it perked right up.
Unlike Spring Hill Nursery, Audobon seems like an ok place to order.

"On Apr 21, 2012 12:43 PM, Audubon Workshop responded with:

Thank you for sharing your experience with us. We always do our best to ship nice healthy plants. Happy Gardening to you and enjoy the scent of your honeysuckle."

Posted on April 10, 2012, updated April 14, 2012
I should have read these reviews first before ordering 7 white dwarf butterfly bushes. I ordered them in February and was told the shipping date would be the end of March. Then I received several emails moving the shipping date to the end of April/first of May. I have emailed the company twice asking that they ship the plants because I was planting everything but was holding planting some waiting for the order from Audubon. Their response to my first email was that the order was shipping the first of April. I have not received them and their emails still tell me it will be the end of April first of May. I did not get a response from my second email. I will never order from Audubon again because of this problem.

"On Apr 10, 2012 9:53 AM, Audubon Workshop responded with:

Thank you for posting and we apologize for the confusion over the ship time. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information and give you a date on when your order will ship."

I ordered two varieties that I have never seen in my local nurseries: Mexican Flame vine and Mayan Gold Trumpet plant. I asked that the plants be shipped the end of April/beginning of May to escape the late frosts. Plants were shipped per my request. The packaging was great! The plants were healthy , well-rooted plugs, in sturdy six packs with the soil still moist. The price was great for three of each variety. They are growing well, and I expect them to bloom by the end of June. I would order again from Audubon Workshop.

"On Jun 3, 2011 11:53 AM, Audubon Workshop responded with:

Thank you for sharing your experience with our company. We do our best to make sure our customers are satisfied and happy with their orders. Have a great day!"

My friend ordered with them and bought a few plants for me. Plants arrived healthy and we're well packaged. I was really surprised when I read they were associated with Garden Alives. Our experience with this order was excellent.

One of three Garden's Alive companies that I have had a pleasant experience with (the others are Brecks and Michigan Bulb).

The flowers for the hummingbird hanging baskets were potted, alive and are growing. Bird supplies I have ordered were as described and in perfect condition.

Always use a coupon.

Decided to take a chance with the $25 coupon, also took advantage of a buy-one-get-one-free special. Plants were held until the right time for me to plant. I was very impressed with the packing - special plastic snap together containers for each plant. The plant themselves were a nice size and seem quite healthy. I would purchase from this company again.

I recieved a coupon for free 25.00 worth of free plants and ordered two arrowwood verbernum. They emailed me and let me know they were shipped... Thet arrived in great condition. The soil was moist. There is great roots and the shrubs were a nice size for mail order, I got them in the ground and a week there is already growth on them!! Very satisfied. I have ordered from them before and will in the future. Ronna Bonneau

I received a coupon in the mail and decided to try them out. I ordered some ground cover plants and was pleasantly surprised. They were well packed in pots and the soil was still moist, even though it took me 2 days to get to the PO to collect them. Plants look nice and healthy and should do well.

I placed my first order with Audubon Workshop for a butterfly bush garden. It arrived packaged nicely, plants were healthy, hardy looking, and all went into the ground the following day. But we had a doozie of a snow storm that weekend and I thought I would lose the whole "crop", but I only suffered 1 casuality, a pink butterfly bush. I immediately emailed that I had one black shriveled up plant and they replaced it pronto. The replacement is in and the whole garden pkg is growing nicely. I was happy with the product, service and replacement. So I would be happy to recommend this company!!!

I received a $25.00 off coupon last Fall on their catalog. I ordered the the blue and white dutch iris collection.

The order came quickly at the correct planting time for my area. The order was perfectly packaged and the bulbs were large and in excellent shape.

We had some very warm winter weather here in Illinois earlier in the winter and the plants have already sprouted. Now we have been in the deep freeze below zero temps and I am wondering if the plants will grow again in the Spring?

I was extremely happy with everything from this company and am now placing an order with them as I type. They again have given me another $20.00 coupon and I am more than happy to make use of it.

I have ordered twice now, and everything I have received was very healthy and vigorous! I plan to continue doing business with them as they have some hard-to-find plants (like Partridge Berry). VERY PLEASED with quality.

I have been a customer of Gardens Alive! for several years so when I received this Audubon Workshop catalog I thought I would try them.

The order arrived in a timely fashion and I was quite impressed with the type of plant containers they used. They were packed well and arrived healthy. I will order from this company again.

I ORDERED THE BUTTERFLY-HUMMINGBIRD COLLECTION LAST YEAR WITH THE $25. COUPON.THE ITEMS ARRIVED AT THE END OF MAY DUE TO THE WEATHER IN ILLINOIS.THEY DIDN'T CHARGE MY CREDIT CARD UNTIL THE ITEMS WERE SHIPPED OUT, WHICH WAS NICE, SINCE I PLACED MY ORDER 2-3 MONTHS EARLIER.ALL 16 PLANTS ARRIVED ALIVE, THOUGH SMALLER THAN I EXPECTED AND I PLANTED THEM RIGHT AWAY.BY THE END OF THE SUMMER THEY WERE LUSH, FULL AND FLOWERING!NOW IT IS JUNE AGAIN AND THEY ARE BIGGER AND MORE BEAUTIFUL:) I HAVE GOTTEN MANY COMPLIMENTS ON THIS OASIS FOR THE BIRDS & BUTTERFLIES AND I AM VERY HAPPY WITH THIS COMPANY!I TRIED OTHER MAIL ORDER COMPANIES THIS YEAR FOR MORE FLOWERS AND I WAS VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH THE QUALITY I RECIEVED.A FEW PLANTS HAVE ALREADY DIED AND WERE SHIPPED MICRO SMALL.PLEASE DO NOT MAKE MY MISTAKE AND ORDER INSTEAD FROM THIS COMPANY.YES, IT SEEMS NOT EVERYONE HAD THE SAME EXPERIENCE, BUT THE COMPANY SEEMS EAGER TO RIGHT A WRONG.UNLIKE THE COMPANIES THAT I AM NOW DEALING WITH THIS YEAR! (MY MISTAKE) I WILL BE ORDERING FROM THIS COMPANY AGAIN NEXT YEAR:)

I ordered a complete garden (made up mostly of ornamental grasses). I received the order at the beggining of May which was good. All of the grasses were in good condition - though smaller than I thought they would be. I was also supposed to get two "shrubs". The shrubs were smaller than the grasses and both dead. I emailed them and they sent two more within 2 weeks - one looked great - one was dead. I emailed them again and they apoligized for the problems and said they would ship another right away. All of the grasses seem to be doing well in the garden. I was pleased that they replied to my emails so quickly and also re-shipped so quickly.

Plants arrived as listed. I didn't have high expectations, but things went pretty well.

I placed a small order with this company this spring. Plants were small but healthy and the shipping was fast. Overall, a good experience.

I received several grasses, creeping phlox and shrubs from them last week and all arrived in good condition with the exception of one blue fescue, however I think it will bounce back so I will give them a positive rating for now. Also, the Spirea shrubs were smaller than I expected, but still seemed like a good value for the money. I had no problems with the order processing or the shipping and they were packaged well. I will return later to post any updates after they begin to grow.

After some deliberation about my rating (neg vs neut) I decided on neg because the overall experience left me feeling that way.

I ordered an upside down woodpecker suet feeder for sm. birds & woodpeckers. Only squirrels came, and eventually knocked the feeder to the ground.

Since the item did not come w/placement suggestions, I called the C/S dept. Although the rep. was cheerful, she had no suggestions to offer, after looking up their product info., but said she could have a product specialist or somthing like that contact me within 24-48 hours. That was about 2 weeks ago. Still waiting. In the meantime, I did receive another ad. on a special on their healthy bird attracting plants.

If they could only devote the same energy into customer care, I think their rating might improve.

I decided in March to give this company a try using the $25.00 coupon that came on their catalog. I ordered their butterfly bush collection (4 plants) and their "wild romance" aster (3 plants). They have a spot on their order form to put special instructions, so I asked them specifically to not send my order till May since I'm in Minnesota and planting here before then is just too risky. I received my plants at the end of the first week of May, and my card was not charged until the last week of April, so that impressed me. I'm also extremely pleased with the quality of the plants I got and how they were packed. The butterfly bush plants are huge compared to any other mail order plants I've ever gotten; probably 6-8 inches tall with a good sturdy main stem. The asters came in 2 inch pots and the plants were at least 3 inches tall and very healthy. The stuff was very well packed and everything was nice and moist. I would definitely order from this company again.

I received 4 plants from Audubon Workshop today all in great condition via a free 25$ try-out offer. They even paid for shipping and handling! The 3 moonbeam coreopsis plants were well packed and larger than I expected. The dwarf bleeding heart had a great root system and a few green healthy sprouts on top. I would definitely buy from them again if these plants are an example of what they have to offer.

I recently took advantage of the of the $20.00 coupon that came along with this catalog. I was very leery about ordering anything from this company because of the negative reviews. I ordered the 3 roosting pockets for birds @$14.95, so even with the shipping it came to under $20.00. I placed a phone order, the customer service rep was very friendly and told me I would have the order next week. I truly did not expect to receive anything. About a week later the box arrived, the roosting pockets were exactly as in the picture and the box was wrapped well. I am still not sure if I would order from them again.

I am glad to have found this website because just days before I had filled out order forms for several other mail order catalogues that turned out to be associated with Gardens Alive, and after reading the negative reviews, I am so very glad I saved my money and have used this forum to place orders with reputable companies. Thank you for doing a great service to us gardeners.

I used the $20.00 gift certificate that came on the catalog. I ordered 4 packets of seeds, and was not really expecting to see them. Less than 2 weeks later all 4 packets came. I started the seeds indoors, and with in a few days they had all germinated. I was very pleased with the quick response, and the quaility of the seeds.

Based on the experiences that others have had with this company I was hesitant to order. I like others also had the $25 off coupon offer. I decided to place an order, but only on items other than plants...just to see what my experience would be like.

I ordered a hummingbird feeder and a bird feeder. I received each under separate cover as the hummingbird feeder was on backorder. The bird feeder was advertised as having a clear outer container that would hold the birdseed. When it arrived, the outer container was blue...something I did not want. I contacted customer service and not only did they send me a bird feeder with the clear outer container...they also told me to keep the one they sent in error. They were very pleasant and were eager to correct the problem.

Because they took care of the customer...me...in such a timely and pleasant manner I will do business with them in the future.

I received a catalog with a coupon for $20 worth of free merchandise. I ordered a natural log bird feeder that included a large package of non-animal suet for $19.95. I only paid for shipping. I received my order within 1 week and was very pleased with the quality. The feeder was much larger than depicted in the catalog, and was made of a fresh cut cedar log that smelled wonderful.

I ordered some trees from their catalog. I received a Winter King Hawthorn (which I had a hard time finding elsewhere reasonably priced), two fringe trees and three blackhaw viburnums. Unfortunately, because of delays in some work in our yard, I had to put them in pots, but all six trees are thriving and have grown a lot this summer. I will get them in the ground in the fall. The prices were better than I could get locally. The plants were not huge, but were healthy, well-packed and as advertised.