Comments regarding Pinetree Garden Seeds

I ordered vegetable and flower seeds Feb 12 from Pinetree. I have not received them yet and today is March 11th. I have been trying to call them since yesterday and their phone is always busy. I have sent them an email but haven't received a reply yet. Some of the seeds that I ordered should be planted this week and even that they maybe a little late. If I don't get some satisfaction this week I will not be ordering from them next year. I have been their customer for a few years now and they have always been very slow but not this slow.

I ordered over a month ago and still haven't received my order. Their phone line always seems to be busy and two of my emails have not been answered. They did respond to my first one because we were gone and all the other seed orders were here and I thought something might have happened to the Pinetree order, but it just hadn't been sent yet.

I have liked Pinetree in the past and am hoping this is just a one time thing. I ordered at the same time last year and don't remember any problem with delays. I hope they will assure their customers delivery of their orders in a timely manner next spring.

This is my first year ordering from this company. I placed my order back in late January along with my orders to other companies. Pinetree was the last to arrive but it was still timely, second week of February.
I have no reason not to use them again. Good, easy to read catalog and fairly good prices.

I never have trouble with slow delivery from Pinetree, but I do my order in January so they are much less busy. I love their small packets so I am not left with a bunch of leftover seed. Their year end sale is great, huge bargains. Just today I called to ask them about a problem germinating some seeds, and they answered right away and are sending a replacement pack. I like them a lot.

I ordered 25 packs of seeds on Feb 15, 2009. Needing to start the tomato and pepper seedlings, on March 19th, I called to ask what was going on. I was told it would be at least another 2 weeks before they got to my order in the warehouse. Then I would have to wait for shipping. I cancelled my order, and bought locally. When I called to cancel my order, I asked for an email confirmation of the cancellation, just as I had received an email confirmation of my order. I was haughtily told that phone confirmation would have to do. I've had trouble with shipping and customer service with this company before, but this time, I've vowed to never order from them again.

I placed an order on March 3, for about 10 seeds packets.
I paid the extra 4.50$ for 24 hours processing and guess what... it's not shipped yet !

No explanation, no answer to email.
I can't believe a business runs like this.

I had originally ordered from Park Seeds, but had to cancel the order,
given they operate fraudulently, without actual stock.
(I should have found about Dave's Garden before!)

So is there any American seed company that actually ships
upon receiving an order — not WEEKS or MONTHS later ?

Disheartened.

I placed an order on 2/10/09. The website said that orders placed in February would be processed in two to three weeks. I did not receive the seeds until 3/9/09, and that was only after I emailed them to find out why I had not received my seeds. I placed orders with Johnny's and JL Hudson within a few days of ordering from Pinetree, and received those seeds within a week.

This a great company, if only for their wide selection and very reasonable prices. They said my seeds would ship in 2-3 weeks -- after 3 weeks, I was getting worried, so I emailed. They responded by calling me at home on a Sunday, and telling me exactly when my order was shipping. I have never experienced this level of personal customer service from a seed company! I've been very satisfied with the seeds I've started so far; germination of the cabbage seeds they sent me was terrific, almost 100%.

Have ordered from Pinetree for many years. Great prices and good seeds. Never disappointed. It is always good to keep in mind that orders placed when catalogs first arrive will be fulfilled much sooner than orders placed during the busy season.

I've ordered from them for more than 3 years. Their seeds are very reasonable. This allows me to order more than I would with other companies and to make experimenting affordable.
This year I forgot to order one packet of seeds that I really wanted and called a day after I realized my mistake. The person that picked up the phone let me order the one packet without charging me another handling fee even though the packet was going to go out separately. This is the kind of service I love and I very vocally recommend them to other gardeners.
Their seeds always arrive promptly. Once I had all the seeds I planted on a specific bean fail (that was a freak thing because all the other seeds I've gotten have been fine). They offered me a new seed packet or a packet of something else.
Another nice thing they do is send a $2 discount coupon with your order so if you place another order within a specific time period you catch a price break.
They are the first company to mail out their catalogs in the winter. Just when I feel the loss of being in the garden, their catalog arrives allowing me to dream.
They rock!

Ordered 2/08/09 - finally got someone to answer a phone 2/27/08 - they told me my order would be at least 2 more weeks to be processsed.....5 weeks or more. Very poor customer service. Cancelled order. Will not do business with the company again.

I have ordered from Pinetree for years and have been happy with their merchandise. They have always delivered the seed in a timely manner and with the exception of a few packets of seeds over many many years, the germination of their seed has been good. I like their range of varieties, but at times would like a little more information on some of the seeds which they get from Europe and Asia, such as days to maturity. Their prices/packet size allow me to order and trial more cultivars, which cannot be done at the prices other companies charge. Overall, they deserve an A+ and kudos to their staff, who are knowledgable and curteous.

I placed a mixed order of seeds, supplies (plastic mulch and row covers) and some potatoes and bareroots that won't be available until spring. My seeds and the supplies arrived almost exactly two weeks later, with the seeds neatly bundled in the same order as on the invoice, making them easy to inventory. The bulk row cover and plastic mulch arrived neatly folded and free of snags or tears.
Pinetree has some of the best prices and a nice variety of heirloom and open-pollinated seeds. I've started the onions already, and although they're well-known for having low germination rates I got about 95% germination (and slightly more seedlings that I planned on).

Although communications (i.e. when shipment has shipped and response to emails) seems to be lacking...shipping charges are MORE then fair. Great prices on a nice selection of seeds as well!!

I love how you can buy 15 tomato seeds for a buck from them instead of 75 seeds for three times that much. That's really nice when you have a small garden and really don't need thirty White Cherry tomato plants. Yeah, you can save the extra seeds for next year, but what if you're trying them for the first time and find out you really don't like them? With Pinetree's prices, I can try out two or even three new varieties/plants for the same price as just one from other places, and not have that many (if any) seeds left over, so I think using them for my seed ordering has actually made me more adventurous.

I also like how their shipping is based on the dollar amount of your order. I had the largest amount ($9.99), and it probably cost a couple bucks less than that to send me, but who cares? It's SO much easier to calculate that way.

I just received the seed portion of my order from Pinetree yesterday. It was packed nicely and sent promptly despite there being over 70 items to round up. The corm/tuber portion of the order will ship in spring, so if there are any problems with it I'll post back here ~ otherwise, consider my experience a positive one. I will definitely order from them again, and will tell all my friends to order from Pinetree.

I ordered seeds from this company and they mailed them off on the 2nd and it took two weeks to get them in the mail.

I love many of the items Pinetree offer, especially some of the gift sets. The one issue I have had, however is with shipping and customer service. Shipping when stated as being " within a week" often takes a month or more. E-mails are not responded to and customer service is not too helpful or friendly.

I have been lucky on occasion but due to extremely poor communication and slow and inconsistent shipping, I will go to other sites that value their customers.

Of all the seed companies I've dealt with, Pinetree is the only one who insists on selling my name to other companies, despite my requests they not do so. I write it on every order form, I've emailed the request to them, and two years ago I even got an email response that they had fixed the mailing list. But I still get seed catalogs from someone I don't order from and in each case I've inquired where they got my name/address and the response has been "Pinetree". Pinetree almost never responds to email questions. This spring the usual order I place with them will instead go to Fedco or Territorial or Johnnys or someone else that pays attention to customer service.

I have been ordering from Pinetree Garden Seeds for oh, at least 25 years now. I think I first saw them advertised in the Mother Earth News as a company that specialized in seeds that did well in short growing seasons for small gardeners. At the time, I was a beginning gardener at about 9500 feet of altitude in the Rocky Mountains.

Well, I was amazed to find that I could grow fantastic lettuce, brussels sprouts and leeks at that altitude in soil that consisted of little more than decayed granite and horse manure.

A few years later I moved to northern New Hampshire and grew fine gardens for quite a few years with their seeds and other products.

I'm back now in the Rocky Mountains, and still find Pinetree Garden Seeds to be absolutely one of the best suppliers of quality seeds in the nation. I have tried them all, and if I can get the seeds I want from Pinetree I will always prefer them over others carrying the same variety for viability, dependability, and price. And very often they carry varieties available nowhere else that are superior in flavor and robustness to more widely known types.

I ordered quite a few seeds from Pinetree this year. It was my first order with them, and it was quickly delivered from an internet order. Germination was great, even with the more difficult seeds. I will be ordering from them again, and really look forward the the 2009 catalog.

Ordered two books and some seeds, on sale, from Pinetree on a Sunday afternoon. The package arrived Wednesday morning, a very good deal for $3.50 S&H. This was the third time I've ordered from Pinetree, and all three times have generated very satisfactory results. I agree with other commenters here that Pinetree provides excellent service at a very fair price, with primary consideration given to home gardeners, rather than commercial growers. I'll definitely order from Pinetree again.

I've been ordering from Pinetree for a while. I'm very happy with most of the seeds they've sent me. I'd say that perhaps 3% to 5% of the types I've ordered didn't germinate at all, which is okay with me because their seeds are cheap and I usually order too many anyway.

On the other hand, I had a bad experience ordering strawberry plants from them. I think I ordered some other green plant or bulb and wasn't too happy either, so have decided to only order seeds from them. (They did replace or credit me for the plants, but why go through the hassle again?)

My favorite seeds they sell are Sungold tomatoes and pineapple tomatillos.

DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY, you will be very sorry. They are rude and not helpful at all. On Aug. 19, I called about my order which was received on Aug. 7. I simply wanted to know whether or not my order had been shipped yet. The telephone person assured me that it had been shipped but would not say when. She hung up on me after finally admitting that my order was being filled by an outside "mailing service," and was not being mailed by first class mail. They charged $3.50 for shipping 4 packets of seeds. That person said she had no idea when my order would be delivered, and said I should call the Post Office about it. How this place can stay in business is beyond my imagination.

I've tried many seed supply companies and have found Pinetree to be one of the best! Delivery of items has been quick on seeds and seasonally shipped plants/bulbs, seeds produce at an excellant germination rate, prices are more than fair. Their choices of products are numerous; the people involved are simply great to do business with. After 14 years of trial, error and failure with other suppliers, I keep returning to Pinetree as I can fully depend on this company's goods.

I've ordered from Pinetree only twice that I can remember - once a few years ago (2002) and once this year. Why did I wait so long to order again? Because I didn't need to order - the seeds I bought back in 2002 are still viable!!!! I've kept them in the refrigerator, and planted a few each year (I only do 3-5 tomato plants per year, so it takes a while to use up several packets of several varieties). Ordered some more stuff this year because I am finally running out of the old seed, I'm growing more food than I used to, and it was just soooo tempting, looking thru their catalog.

Now here comes the really exciting part....
I ordered seeds AND asparagus and jerusalem artichoke tubers all back in February, knowing the plants wouldn't arrive 'til spring. Received the seeds quickly, then, believe it or not, FORGOT I ordered the plants. Bought some asparagus at the local big-box nursery & planted it. When the Pinetree plants arrived, I pulled them out of the box, confirmed they were good & healthy - and stuffed them back in the box to wait til the weekend to plant. Then waited another weekend. And another. Finally decided I'd better do something quick. Extended the asparagus bed & added about half the Pinetree asparagus crowns (which had started to sprout in the box) Planted the other half in a new bed elsewhere in the garden. Set the Jerusalem artichokes aside to plant later in the day. Then had some unexpected company stopping by and went into turbo-clean mode (throwing stuff in boxes & trashcan so I don't look like a total slob). Yup, I lost the jerusalem artichoke tubers. A month creeps by. The poor, abused asparagus is growing healthy & happy & about twice the size of the big-box-store stuff! And, here's where it gets REALLY bizarre. I found the jerusalem artichoke tubers, in a box in the hot, humid garage, where they'd been accidently tossed back in early April! I figured they were probably dead and useless, but opened the bag just to check. To my surprise, two of the tubers still displayed healthy-looking root and shoot nodes. I planted them in a pot, and, believe it or not, THEY ARE GROWING!!!!! All I can say is, Pinetree sells some REALLY strong plants, if they can survive that kind of abuse & keep on ticking. Yes I would order from them again (and I promise I'll take better care of the plants this time).

Last year I ordered Rouge D Etampes pumpkin seeds. The plant grew beautifully, but the fruit was clearly NOT a rouge d' etampes, it was wrong shape and wrong color. Clearly a hybrid of some sort. I have ordered there a couple of years in a row, and the seeds arrive slowly but they DO have to cross the continent......

I ordered blueberries, purple asparagus, seeds and innoculant in late March, and they arrived OK about 2 weeks later. The staff were pleasant and seeds and innoculant worked well. When the asparagus grew green, I eventually found out on my own on the internet that purple asparagus stems do that (Pinetree said purple asparagus starts green and becomes purple, but apparently it's actually the reverse). The blueberries appeared small, and the Elliott had only some thread roots (I separate roots by hand on planting, and so see them directly). Pinetree said to be patient, and the thread roots without any main roots were due to the Elliott ripening later. I pointed out this was irrelevant, and after continuing uninformative email communications, eventually went to our area's best full-service nursery about 15 miles away to check things out. The nursery's same-age plants were twice the stem thickness of Pinetree's, with more stems and much more robust growth. I estimated the Pinetree plants at about a year old rather than 2 years as advertised, which meant that fruiting would be delayed an additional year. Pinetree then owned up that their plants are tissue-culture grown and smaller. I complained to Pinetree about their uninformative and misleading advertising, with no further response. I've replaced one blueberry, and am looking to replace the other. Overall, a mixed esperience, but since the blueberries were the most expensive, they determine the rating.

After the frustrating experience that I had with Wayside Gardens, I suppose I became a bit paranoid. In checking my orders from various companies I found that Pinetree Gardens had indeed shipped the seed that I had ordered and they were in perfect condition. I had also ordered two live plants which I expected to be shipped at the proper planting time for this area. When I checked their online catalog, I found that both of these plants were "sold out." I called Pinetree and talked to the nicest lady you can ever imagine. She told me indeed the plants were "sold out", but since I had ordered early, my plants would ship next week. I can not tell you how nice it was to deal with a knowledgeable person who did not try to give me a runaround.
I definitely will continue to order from this company.

I found that the selection was great, but the germination rate for some of the plants was very low, though it was an easy to grow plant. I am giving the Neutral rating because I had some problems communicating with this company. I have ordered some plants from them (haven't received them yet), and needed a better time frame for their arrival other than April-June. I sent them an email and heard nothing. I called several times, and got a busy signal. I did finally get a short email a week later, informing me the plants would be shipped today. I will have to see.

Again this year, great selection, service and germination rate for several seed varieties. I'm particularly excited about Bacopa blutopia which I've not seen offered by others in the U.S. to retail consumers. A good number of my mature perennials were started from Pinetree seed and continue to be outstanding. For value, there isn't anyone else like them, and I've ordered from no fewer than 30 MO companies in my gardening life.

Wow, I was floored by the negative comments since I have been ordering from Pinetree for probably ten years or more without a problem of any kind with seeds, books, products OR customer service.

BTW, the reason that they give less seeds (and a correspondingly cheaper price) is because they are specifically geared toward the backyard gardener. In one catalog now many years gone, I read about how Dick Meiners started out with the idea that most gardeners did not need as many seeds as came in most seed packets. I LOVE this approach. There's not nearly as much waste this way, which is good eco stewardship, IMHO. Think about it...how many of us with yards and not market stands need 50 zucchini seeds for instance??

Pinetree has a good selection of interesting varieties, and when I asked them if they'd consider carrying a particular tomato I had really found worthwhile, they said they'd pass on my suggestion. Fast forward a couple years and lo and behold they were carrying it! AND when I planted some older Sungold and SunSugar seed (late) last season, they sprouted like champs and proceeded to take over the garden bed they were in. We spread some of these vines out at end of season and had some close to ten feet long.

I've found that you get what you give with customer service. Having done customer service work myself, it can be very hard not to return diatribe for diatribe. Even if you are displeased, try to remember that the voice on the other end of the line is doing the best they can with what they've got. They are not trying to thwart you or hold up your order!

Re the person who was told to "give it a try" and see what happens -- unless it was said to me directly in a nasty tone, I'd not have been offended. Via email, you really cannot tell tone. The suggestion was just a simple statement of fact. How else would you get to the next step of figuring out if replacement was needed?

I've ordered from this company twice before and all my experiences with them have been good. The timing between ordering and shipping was fast. There was initially a problem with my debit card and the customer service person was really nice and it all got straightened out promptly. I ordered seeds and books and they arrived UPS nicely packed. What I really like about this company is the price point. I like to try a lot of varieties and I don't need 200 cabbage seeds of one variety so this enables me to try different items without having a lot of left over seed and without breaking the bank. Also, love the books. Great price on books I'd love to have but don't want to pay the normal retail cover price.

I have been gardening for years,and I ordered over 30 packets, for these prices and such an assortmen I was impressed. Right now they are in my Biodome and are germintining perfectly.lus, over the years I scoured the website and ctalog a have never seen pplanys like some they sell!

This was my first order with Pinetree, and it has been a pleasant experience. The prices were excellent, and allowed my to try a larger assortment. The germination on those I've started so far has been excellent, and delivery was speedy.

I received my seeds in a cardboard like envelope. There was no padding or bubble wrap to protect the seeds. When I went to the post office to pick up my package I was dissapointed when I saw that it was in one of the damaged package envelopes. I went ahead and took it home to open up. The envelope looked like it had been crushed in a postal machine and part of the end of the envelope was opened. I was missing several packages of seeds and the ones that I did receive were either open and loose in the envelope or crushed. I have contacted pinetree garden seeds and am hoping to get this matter resolved and be able to change my review to a positive one.

I have used Pinetree seeds for most of my plantings for several years. The packets are small but very reasonability priced which allows me to grow more varieties for an affordable cost. This year (2 orders thus far) as in the past I have received exact and complete orders of seeds and supplies in reasonable time. Shipping gets slow during the busy season but they warn you of that. I also appreciate the easily recyclable packing material.

I ordered seeds and books via the Net from these folks this year. Order was filled promptly and completely. They offer good value.

I ordered vegetable seed from Pinetree, which arrived promptly. I did discover a mistake in the order. I emailed the company and received a response the next day. With an apology for the oversight. I was told they would send the correct seed pkgs and for me to just keep the one's I already had.
Prices were quite reasonable and service was excellent. I will certainly buy from them again.

I LOVE THIS COMPANY. My order (several (6) packets of vegatable seeds, some cover crops, and 12 peat flats) came in less than a week and a half, and was packaged very nicely using the flats as the main support and some newspaper. At the bottom of the box I found a few ads, an extra order form, a packing slip stating that everything came except walla walla onion seeds and a credit for $1.10, as well as a $2 coupon!!! I will be ordering within the next week.