Comments regarding The Cook's Garden

I was very excited to add a new twist to my garden with Cook's Garden gormet seeds and plants, at least that's what they advertised. I ordered both seeds and plants the first of March and was charged for all as soon as ordered, although the plants didn't come until the end of May. I have been a home gardener for over 35 years, while not an expert I have a level of knowledge that usually allows me to nurse even poor seedlings to produce something. That was not so with the plants for Cook's. When they arrived they had been tossed by the truck that delivered them and that is in no way Cook's fault, but they were so poorly packed that even if they had been gently handled it would not have helped. I ordered herbs and tomatoes they were so very small and broken they had very little chance. One was a "special" cha cha chives, there were only three little spikes of green showing and they were dry and more yellow than green. The tomatoes already had black spot, on the tiny stalk so I planted them away from other tomatoes, but there were tiny green aphids on one of them. For me they were worse than second rate Burpee for twice the price, and the seeds were okay but the exactly the same as Burpee but in a different package and again different price. Needless to say I will not use Cook's Garden again.

"On Aug 29, 2014 8:21 AM, The Cook's Garden responded with:

We appreciate hearing from our customers and are grateful for this feedback. We have reached out to you to make sure we have made the proper adjustment to your order of damaged plants. We strive to ship the healthiest and strongest plants possible in carefully designed packaging and we will share this feedback with our nursery."

Posted on March 16, 2014, updated April 4, 2014
I ordered seeds and live plants from this company last year and was very disappointed. The seeds are overpriced and come in a plain & ugly thin seed packet that rips when you open it. I did not get good germination or healthy thriving plants from any of the seeds. I ordered a Kiwi plant and it never arrived. I emailed them a month later and they sent the kiwi pair. They had brown leaves and did not look good. I tried but failed to bring them back to life. I tried twice to get off their mailing list (and Burpees) but they keep sending catalogs even though they agreed to take me off their list. Many of their seeds are treated because they never say they are not, and most are hybrids and PVP's. Just awful!

More than 1/2 (7 out of 12) has died on me, I found out they are diseases in these raspberry plants. I am VERY disappointed, it is very expensive $45 for these plants. I took very specific caring for them... They shoot up new stem and beautifully then the bottom of cane starting to purplish then spread all way to up top and caused it to black and drop completely dead!! I took picture of it and pulled the dead ones out. Since it is diseased, I wanted refund, no refund yet.

No body want UNHEALTHY plants especially raspberries. I will never buy from them again!

//www.cooksgarden.com/fruit-plants/raspberries/raspberry-favorite-collection-prod000496.html?_requestid=1434165 (this what I ordered)

ORDER CONFIRM #: Confirm # SO1952442

Sorry The Cooks Garden is a HUGE NO NO next time. VIRUS unhealthy plants. however the collection combo looks good, the plants itself inst! IT also took them 6 weeks later to ship them to me........ said "has to dig them up pack them and all"... SIX WEEKS!?!?! no way,

Gross diseases and look bad. I would like fully refund your plant "COOKED" with virus, so please send me my money back . Thanks :)

Andrea.

I am an experienced vegetable gardner since childhood (it was my father's business). I ordered Cook's Garden seeds and plants for the first time this year on the recommendation of another gardner and have been soundly disappointed. I echo the other reviewer about extremely low germination rate compared to comparable seeds from other companies, and glacially slow shipping of live plants, several of which arrived dead or dying beyond my best efforts to revive them. I let the seed germination issue go - but emailed the company after the very late/dead (and expensive) plants arrived, leaving a detailed message and order number information. So much for the 100% guarantee, because I have not heard a word from the company since. This is really unforgivable.So what is up with this? I notice that most of those giving positive reviews do not live in my region (Ohio Valley), so maybe there are issues with geographical location and shipping. If so, this should be made clear to the customer. I also realized (too late) that the company decides when you should put your live plants in the ground for you, and that late shipping is sometimes based on this calculation - but, again, this is not clear from the website, and I'd really rather order from a company that leaves it up to me. Micro-environmental conditions, soil, drainage and gardner preference have a lot to do with how early plants can go into the ground - it's not all about hardiness zone. As it is, too few seeds germinated, the plants that managed to survive the shipping definitely went in the ground too late and I've had to scramble to make up for my very mistaken decision to try Cook's.

I ordered 4 packets of (expensive) seed on January 6, 2011. After several weeks with no seed, I called the company and was told that there had been an error with my order, but that my seed would be shipped soon. Within a few days, I received 3 of the 4 packets. I was charged full price for all 4 packets even though the packet contained only 3. There was no explanation for the missing seed. I called again and was told that the missing seed would be sent out. I then received another envelope containing duplicates of the same three seeds I had originally been sent. The enclosed invoice again (wrongly) showed that all seeds had been shipped. I called a third time and was told that the 4th type of seed had never been sent because it was not available. Not sure why I wasn't told this right away so I could have purchased the seed elsewhere. They did refund me the price of the one packet of seeds that they had wrongfully charged on my credit card, but the whole experience left me with a bad taste in my mouth. At these prices it shouldn't take three phone calls to get just part of a simple order.

On April 7, 2008, I ordered 75 strawberry plants from Cook's Garden. They didn't arrived until the first week of JUNE, 2008. There was no communication from the company telling me what was up with my order until I contacted them in mid-May, at which point I was told they'd be shipping "soon".

Half of the plants never broke dormancy after I planted them (in a raised bed with drip irrigation). Now it's spring 2009, and only 13 of them are still alive.

Their seeds may be fine, but for live plants, I'll be ordering from other catalogs from now on.

I am a very experienced gardener and ordered a lot of seeds for this year's garden from Cook's. In general, the germination was extremely poor, with some items (cutting celery, yellow chard) not coming up at all despite repeated plantings. In addition, the instructions on the packets were inadequate, and sometimes just silly. Since I live in a challenging climate (7200 ft., very short spring, water-challenged), getting seeds into the ground on time is critical if I am to harvest before the "roasting" season. Very few of my cool weather vegetables from Cook's made it, although seeds from other companies did fine in the same conditions. I called the company, and a woman apologized and promised a refund. That wouldn't have saved my garden, but it was a nice gesture. But I never heard from them again. Will never order from Cook's ever!

"

Hello,
I am very sorry to hear that our seeds did not perform as they should have. We have a 100% satisfaction guarantee for all of our products at The Cook’s Garden. I checked your account and we show that we refunded your account for 5 packets of seed on June 24, 2008. Can you check our account to see if that refund came through? Please email me at Phofer@burpee.com.
Cheers.
Paul
.

Erica,
We made a refund to your card for $16.05 on 6/23/08. The transaction was processed by our credit card company on 6/24/08. Can you check your credit card statement to see if that came through.
Thanks.
Paul"

I ordered quite a lot of vegetable and flower seeds from Cook's two years ago, at the same time I ordered seeds from two other companies. In nearly every case, the Cook's seeds were more expensive yet showed noticeably lower viability than the others, and completely failed to come up in some cases (parsnip, kale, stocks). I have been growing plants from seed for years and have never had such sprouting failures. In at least one case the Cook's seeds were mislabeled - Empress of India nasturtium, supposedly a premium red -orange variety, came up a common yellow nasturtium. And when I called the company to ask about some radish varieties that were incorrectly described in their catalogue, the person I talked to didn't have a clue, and couldn't find anyone who knew anything about their own products. My first big order from Cook's has been my last.

"

Hello,
We are sorry to hear about your poor performance with The Cook's Garden seeds. We provide a 100% satisfaction guarantee on all of our products. I have sent you an email. If you provide me with your name, we will promptly refund your money.
Cheers.
Paul"