Comments regarding Direct Gardening

I am having a very difficult time with them. They charged my account the day after my order was made. After 6 weeks and many attempts to talk to them they keep sending me e-mails stating that I have a backorder and all my plants are to be shipped when it comes in. They also state that it will take 2-3 weeks to ship at that time. If I'm lucky I'll receive my plants in July. I contacted BBB in IL and they said that there are many customers trying to get their money back without satisfaction. I am also in contact with my MC company because I don't want to be charge for these plants that I'll probably never see. Thank you for having such a site where companies can be checked out.

This company is atrocious. I wished I had never ordered from them. They took over 8 weeks to ship the product. I had to hound them every step of the way to get them to ship the product. The product was in horrendous shape but so far, the plants seem to be making a valiant effort to survive. Their customer service is rude and uncaring. They can't answer your questions and you aren't able to talk to the supposed supervisors. Forget these guys. Their deals aren't worth the headache it is to have to deal with them.

My wife and I are new gardening enthusiasts and have ordered plants before from Springhill catalog with great success. I hate to admit it, but sadly I did not visit your site before placing an order from a site unknown to me - DirectGardening. In short it has been an absolute nightmare. I ordered and paid $139 for 77 plants two months ago. I have received 11 plants and only 2 of 6 bush roses. Three plants died. When I inquired about the missing roses and other plants, I was lied to and given no indication at all as to when I might receive the balance of my order though they had told me they could deliver everything in plenty of time for spring planting. Well spring in Georgia don't last as long as other parts. When I tried to cancel the unshipped balance of my order I was given contrasting stories by their order status and customer service departments as to whether or not I could cancel. I guess the moral is stick with the better-known suppliers!

I ordered a lot of different plants, including scotch moss, some pine trees, bulbs, and almost NONE of them survived, or even arrived alive! They stuck two different bare root plants into a bag, with no cover (like wet paper) whatsoever; they were completely dry. Another of the plants I ordered weren't just MOIST, but soggy! A big mushy mess. Many were moldy, and I wasn't even able to identify what type of plants they were (there were no tags on their bags, or on the plants).

I've ordered aome plants from this company on Feb 7th. They say they send their plants when the whether permits. Some of my plants arrived in March in a middle of frost. 90 percent of them were dead. 3 out of 4 lavenders were dry.
All Carnations were dead. Some plants were packed in air tight packets and were rotten. A tree came in with bare roots and completely dry. Some of them didn't come yet and I wonder if they plan on sending them.
No more orders from Directgardening.com

DIRECT GARDENING IN AFFILIATED WITH, (FOUR SEASON NURSERY)(BURGESS SEED& PLANT) (FARMER SEED & NURSERY) AND SEVERAL OTHER NURSERIES. I ORDERED SOME PLANTS FROM BURGESS SEED AND PLANT BUT I HAD TO GO THROUGH DIRECT GARDENING TO PLACE MY ORDER. I GUESS MY PLANTS CAME FROM BURGESS SEED AND PLANT, THEY WERE IN FAIRLY DECENT SHAPE BUT I DID NOT RECEIVE ANY DIRECTIONS OF PLANT CARE OR ANYTHING. ORDER AT YOUR OWN RISK

In January 02 I placed a order with Direct Gardening for $65 and as of now I have recieved all of my order that was promised to be shipped as of this date in my zone 6 area. When I recieved my first order of 2 smoke trees, 3 pink honeysuckles @$1.95, Old Fashioned snowball bush @ $2.00, and lots more including lots of free stuff they did look like sticks but for the price that's what I was expecting. Every plant had a healthy root system and I soaked the bare roots shrubs in water for 8 hours, planted them in 1 and 2 gallon containers with a mixture of peat moss, compost, miracle grow potting soil and about a tablespoon of slow released fertilizer and put them out in the sun. That was 3 weeks ago and everything they sent me is sending out buds, leaves and growing. I am so pleased with my order I will most definitely order from them again. My suggestion for the price, which I found to be one of the best, start small and give them extra care they will reward you in the end.

When pulling up House of Wesley I was put thru to Direct Gardening and ordered over $100 of different plants from hedges, trees, vines etc. They arrived really 'looking good'. I got a feeling if they don't do good it is my fault and climate - not theirs.

I ordered 3 roses from this company (despite bad web reviews) as I could not find the varieties I wanted elsewhere. The bareroot plants arrived at the appropriate time, but were of mixed quality and poorly packed. Given the cheap prices and lack of other options I'm not complaining, but would not yet recommend them to others.

I ordered from Direct gardening on 7/2001 and have still yet to get a living replacement for the plants that I ordered! They will not give me a refund for the dead, not dormant, plants that they are sending me and they argue that I do not know the difference between dormant and dead. I mean a broke trunk on a plant usually means that it is dead. They were all DOA and have been every time they have sent a Replacement. Which by the way I have made them send at their expense 5 times now. I have also reported them to the better business bureau for false practices and am waiting on a response.

I have to say that I'm really disappointed with this company. I tried ordering plants from several different mail-order companies this summer and had great results with all but this one. They just sent my plants yesterday (Oct.22) and supposedly things are sent at the ideal time for my area. I'm already having frosts! I ordered in July when I ordered from everyone else and the other companies shipped in early to mid-September, which would have been ideal. I have to admit that the attraction of cheap prices was a little to hard to resist, but you can rest assured I won't fall for it again. I repeatedly had to email and call them and the emails I received back were generic messages that they obviously send out to everyone ("Your order will be shipped at the appropriate planting time.") Customer service's response to when would I receive my plants ("we are just now getting our plants in", " it's not like ordering in the spring") What's that supposed to mean? I realize that they tell you not to be discouraged by the appearance of the plants when they arrive, but I have to say that I've never seen a more pitiful site and I don't see how anything is going to make it. Stay away from DirectGardening!

I placed an order via internet. I never received any e-mail confirmation and the phone number always seemed to be busy. I e-mailed Direct Gardening and I did not receive a timely response. I did receive a response from Direct Gardening ONLY after I sent a complaint toCome-To-Buy (see attachments). I was told Oct 5th, the order should be shipped any day. The latter part is a transcript of the e-mails. As of 1:45 EST 10/18/01 my order had not been shipped and I requested a cancel and return of funds paid. My opinion: Poor and unresponsive customer support. Negative feedback and information. Insensitive to customer concerns. I never received product nor do I now desire to. I suggest other companies.

The roses I received from this company turned out great but the trees and bushes never bloomed. The phone is always busy. I did get replacements for my lilacs that look like they are going to make it (green buds on them) but the trees never had a chance. It is a definite risk ordering form these folks!

Stay away from Direct Gardening -- they are cheap, but their customer service is atrocious. Their website banner includes the following: "Welcome, our plants are shipped to you in peak condition at just the right time to plant." Yet, they shipped Sparaxis and Freesia (half ofthose mouldy) to me in mid-July (zone 6), even though the website Freesia entry explicitly said "This is a fall ship, fall plant product. We will ship this product at the proper time for planting in your geographic area." The customer service didn't respond to my emails for a long time. When I called instead, their representative told me that this was the right time to plant them. I directed him to his own website and told him about Freesia flowering requirements (several months cool, preferrably under 60F); he repeated his line (email customer service, when it finally responded, suggested I just plant them and lift them in the fall. Uh-huh). I told him that Sparaxis aren't hardy in my zone and that they get either planted in late fall for houseplants or in spring for summer flowering, which didn't sink in. He refused to issue a refund if I didn't sent the "mailing label" back which struck me as pure obstructionism seeing that they clearly and unambiguously messed up on the date. To put this into perspective: all other plants-by-mail outfits I've dealt with refunded or replaced cheerfully and promptly whenever I emailed them what the trouble was, even if the problem could conceivably have been my fault (that includes garden.com, Van Bourgondien, Breck's, and Spring Hill).To repeat, stay away from this outfit -- bad quality, bad service, untrained representatives, and lousy attitude. There's no merchandise cheap enough to make that kind of hassle worthwhile.

The plants I ordered all arrived in pathetic condition. Although I opened the package promptly after receiving it, all the plants looked not only dead but rotten. The leaves and needles were mostly black, covered with mold, and frankly rotting. Moreover, the plants were basically flattened; perhaps some heavy packages were on top of my package when it was beingsent by truck from Illinois to New Jersey. When I cut open some small branches, only a very few showed any traces of green color inside. I have ordered plants my mail before and have had far better experiences--with Mellinger's, for example. Obviously, the reason for ordering plants by mail is that they tend to be considerably less expensive than plants from a local nursery. But to receive 250 privet, 12 hemlock, 12 blue spruce, 6 wisteria, 250 vinca, etc. in such miserable condition is--one word--terrible. The customer service desk phone line at Direct Gardening is always busy, and no one has responded to my emails. Very poor quality: both product and service.