Comments regarding Direct Gardening

I mailed in an order for 3 varieties of black raspberry plants on March 2nd. I sent an email to their customer service on the 13th, asking if they had recieved my check and when to expect the plants..

They said "We are not yet showing an order placed under the name and address provided. If you did just mail the order on March 2 we have not yet had enough time to receive and process the order. Please allow a little more time for this to occur."

I'm not sure whether this company is just not geared towards checks, or if the order was lost in the mail, or something else.

I asked for shipment ASAP, as roses and brambles are already leafing out here. I'll update when I learn more. They should have received my order/payment in 3-4 days...but who knows??? This could become a problem or it may not be a big deal...wish me luck!

I have been buying plants and trees from Direct Gardening for several years after finding out about them from Burgess and am very happy with my purchases. (I now know they are affiliates.)

I have ordered plants from many different companies whose products were more expensive and the shipments did not look better than those I received from Direct Gardening. I had a problem with one of my Direct Gardening purchases and the customer service person I spoke to was very nice and the replacements sent were in good condition and in a timely manner for my location. After getting burned by a more known company I won't mention, for much more money, I am a satisfied customer of Direct Gardening and will continue to purchase from them in the future. I even intend to place another order next month because my experiences have been good for several years (10 orders) and most of the stuff growing in my yard has come from them.

I read the reviews on this site after placing my order, and they made me nervous! I ordered a large quantity of bulbs, privet, maples and ground cover about a week and a half ago.

Well, my order arrived today and everything looks great. The two items that were supposed to arrive bare root are, of course, bare root and look as expected. The bulbs look great - no mold, no mush. Everything that is supposed to have live growth does, and looks very healthy.

Since I haven't planted these things yet and won't know until next spring how well they do, I'll come back and edit my review as needed - but overall, I'm pretty happy with the experience so far. My order came quickly, everything is accounted for, and the plants are a good size for the price.

This spring, my wife and I purchased land and looking to put in some shelterbelts and cover from the road at the lowest price possible. We ordered 60 Hybrid Willows and 30 Norway Spruce from directgardening.com. From the comments I read on sites like this I was really nervous about the quality of product or if we would even receive anything at all! Well, we ended up having a great experience. After 2 months in the ground the willows are 90% leafing and the Norway Spruce are all alive with new growth! One complaint was that I did not receive the free gifts. But at this point, we don't have much use for them anyway.

Recieved my order just last week. I ordered trees and my wife ordered flowers. Everything looks to be doing well so far. I can't say whether or not the bolbs will live because we just planted them over the weekend. Specifically I wanted to comment on the Walnut trees I ordered. They were strong and are already showing signs of budding. Everything arrived healthy looking except one lilac, and it looks like it got broken in shipping. Not DG's fault. Overall I am happy with Direct gardening.

I received several plants from Direct Gardening within the last 3 weeks, all in a dormant state, as promised. Four of them were trees (small ones), which I soaked overnight and put in pots until I could plant them outside. All four have broken dormancy & leafed out. They are healthy, small plants and should do well.

Everything I ordered was delivered as expected. The bareroot trees and bushes were small (as advertised) but are all growing well. Bulbs and seeds have sprouted in respectable percentages. I plan to order from them again soon.

Last year I purchased 250 privet hedges from Direct Gardening via their website. It is clearly stated that plants will be shipped when it is appropriate for planting in your zone.
My privets arrived in a semi-dormant state and were nothing more than 1-2 foot long sticks. I planted all of them and some of the smaller ones were combined to make one (Iwas getting tired of digging). Throughout the summer all of the privets leafed out very nice. They grew quite fast but I kept pruning them back to about 1' to encourage a fuller bush. I watered them regularly and sprinkled a 3 month time release fertilizer around them after planting.
I spent less than $.50 a piece for them and feel that I more than got my moneys worth. You definitely do not get full grown plants as you would from a local nursery but then you are not paying those prices either.
I am a landscaper at a golf course and if the need arises again for a mass planting of any kind, I will definitely order from them again. Sometimes a lot of patience is easier to come by then a lot of money.

With this place, you get what you pay for -- small, dormant plants in root or rhizome form that need a bit of attention. If you're not comfortable with this, you won't get far. I've had good luck with bulbs, liatris, roses, and many of their products. Haven't had to deal with the customer service, so no comment there. I'm a bit suprised at a negative below from someone who didn't even order from them, just posted a negative because of the comments here? Not fair!

I will defend Direct Gardening it is one of the best places for bulbs trees and shrubs there is. The daylillies I bought two years ago have overgrown the bounds of their beds. The paper bark birches are tall, 7' in one year,sure some dead but wal mart flowers die just as much. The lilacs I ordered are growing huge and blooming profously. Just grow up you stinkin babies and learn the plants just need more of that so called "babying" you should provide them with.

I have purchased $100's of Dollars of merchindise from Direct Gardening and there affiliates, 4 seasons, burgess etc.
I have been extremely pleased with all the trees I have purchased (except and order the US postal service trashed) And even then the order was replaced when I sent in my shipping lable with order.
The bulbs and roots stock items I have not had 100% sucess with as some come molded or to dry to save.
So I have decied to buy the magority of my flowers, bulbs and plants grown locally from a nursery. Seed, well I have never had much luck there anyway.
THE TREES ARE WONDERFUL. almost every tree I have ordered has lived. The one I am most proud of is a pink smoke tree. When i recieved it, the little thing was more of a stick then a tree. But faithfully I planted it, water and loved it through the first season. The next season to my suprise a tree grew it is almost 4 1/2 feet high and stronger every day. The popular and the hybrid willows for fast growing have also arrived a bit shell shocked from shipping but with a little love (and love from me is stuck in the ground and watered) they have grown suprisingly well. But one great Tree is the rose of sharon, it takes off like a weed. i guess it depends on your view of gardening, not everything you buy on line or locally is going to live

I recently ordered several items, including strawberry plants, honeysuckle vines, trumpet vines, among a few other things. This was the first time i have ordered online or mailorder for that matter, so i was a little disappointed when my order arrived and the items were so sickly looking. But i planted them just as they indicated. Today is 2 weeks since they arrived and were put in the ground. I was anticipating the long wait for them to come out of dormancy, but to my surprise, everything is looking GREAT! The vines are all getting leaves on them, the strawberry plants are growing like crazy! I am happy with the service and product, especially for the prices they offer. I emailed them prior to the arrival of my order to find out an estimated date of shipping and they responded curteously and quickly. Thank you very much.

On 5/10 I ordered 2 miniature hollyhocks, 20 hardy gladiolus, 10 hardy gladiolus, and 25 periwinkle from DG. As free bonuses I also got 5 exotica (peacock orchids?), 4 flowering shamrocks, and (thanks to a coupon from one of their affiliates' online catalog) an asiatic lily.

The miniature hollyhocks arrived on 5/30 - faster than I expected since, at that time, they said to allow 3 weeks to process the order before shipping. These were small, growing in seed-starting cells, but they were alive. They also had good root systems, but were not rootbound. I took a picture of them after unpacking them:
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As you can see, they didn't exactly look like something I would have gotten from a local nursery, but then again, a local nursery would probably charge at least 5 times as much for these plants - if they sold them, that is.

The rest of my order arrived on 6/14. Most of the bulbs were showing signs of sprouting, a sure sign of life. The free asiatic lily had sprouted enough that it could be considered a drawback (since you need to plant it shallowly at first, then replant it deeper after it goes dormant). The periwinkle plants were bareroot. They were bone dry, and their leaves had died back partway. They were alive, however. A bigger problem is that they only sent 15.

Of those 15 periwinkle, 8 survived. The others might have survived if I had babied them more. Some of the survivors appeared to die, but then put out new foliage. The majority of the bulbs were indeed viable; only 3 hardy glads, 1 orchid glad, and 1 flowering shamrock failed to grow. (This is a much better success rate than I had with the summer bulbs I got from Wal-Mart!)

Both miniature hollyhocks bloomed this year. Unfortunately, they were purple with a white eye, not pink as described. While this particular incident is not a big problem to me, it makes me wonder whether anything they sell as a certain variety is really that variety. One of each type of gladiolus bloomed this year, as well as all of the flowering shamrocks that grew. None of the exotica bloomed. The asiatic lily produced 2 flowers.

On 8/4, I sent back the original shipping label and a list of what didn't live (or never arrived), requesting 2 Purple D'oro daylilies and a packet of White Beauty tomato seeds as replacements; these have a similar value to the items that didn't live. On 8/28, I received the daylilies. One package that was supposed to contain a bareroot daylily contained 3 tiny sections of daylily roots; I don't think any of these have survived. However, the other package had 2 decent-sized root systems with some green showing, and these are doing fine. They also sent me another freebie: a packet of ground cherry seeds. I received my packet of tomato seeds on 9/5. The seeds were sent in an unpadded envelope, which is fine for tomato seeds, but I hope they don't send pumpkin seeds and other easily crushed seeds that way.

Overall, I'd say my experience is positive so far. They do stand behind their guarantee as long as you follow their instructions, the plants have a pretty good survival rate, their prices are great (with a few exceptions), and they send freebies with every order. The only things that remain to be seen are whether their seeds grow, and whether their daylilies and tomatoes are the right variety. It is these things that will determine whether my experience remains positive in the end, and whether I will order from them again.

I ordered some houseplants and wisteria full knowing that I would receive little more than rooted cuttings.
Most of the houseplants arrived crunchy and dry. I blame the Phoenix heat. After returning the shipping label, I was promptly sent replacements that arrived in better shape (except 1). I have not contacted them for a replacement yet.
I am happy with what I received, knowing what to expect.

Some of the wisteria didn't make it and they were replaced as well, without incident.

I am very happy with the service and plants I have received, but I would caution anyone thinking about placing an order:
If you want more than a rooted cutting, you will be disappointed. (What would you really expect for such low prices?)

It seems my experience is somewhat different from most on this site. My wife and I ordered approximately $300 worth of plants from directgardinging.com prior to finding this site to begin filling the flower beds at our new home. I'm sure no one will argue that the prices are second to none, and for what we purchased would have easily cost us more than triple any where else.
We received our full order (4 separate shipments) in about 3 weeks, both in the green bags for bare root products and cardboard boxes for the others. Within two weeks, nearly everything is green and growing well, especially the rose or sharon hedges and astilbe. The only things that arrived looking bad were two mosquito shoo geraniums, which we planted anyway in some better quality potting soil, and they have revived and look great now in under a month.
For the price, I would say they are worth the try and we have definitely gotten our money's worth.
Thus far, our strongest growers (in about one month) are the astilbe, purple d'oro & chicago royal robe daylilies, hybrid lilies, rose of sharon hedge, dwarf burning bushs, houttuynia, patriot hosta, and dwarf citrus trees. The others are a bit slower, but still look healthy (especially for the price!)

I've ordered more than once from them, or from Burgess.

Yes, the plants I received were small bareroot trees packed in plastic bags: two apricots, 7 cherries, two apples. I planted them all carefully, and so far, after almost two months I have buds on all but the apples and one apricot. As far as i can tell, though, the trees are still alive, so I will give them some time before contacting the company to send out replacements.

I have not dealt with customer service, so am not able to comment. But so far, I am not displeased with the service. I don't expect to get larger, established plants for the prices they charge.

My order was for various ground cover, hedge plants and trees.
I received my plants about four weeks after placing the order (April 2006).
The packaging was minimal, consisting only of plastic bags, but it was delivered by DHL and everything was in perfect condition.
Everything was received as ordered and every plant is budding, leafing and doing well.
I will order from Direct Gardening again.

I placed an order with Direct Gardening in March, actually I placed 2 orders in March, both orders arrived in April.
I ordered a total of 48 douglas fir trees which are browning, but still alive! 6 Hummingbird vines that are doing great, 2 weeping willows also doing great, 50 Liatris bulbs already coming up.
The only things that didnt look good on arrival was my Royal Empress Tree which has since died and my 2 red clematis also dead.
I sent out my packaging label and a written request for replacements today and I have confidence I will get great replacements in return! My only concern is if something else dies I dont know how I would get a replacement since I have sent them my original shipping label already. But that I will deal with at a later day if I have to.

I ordered 6 empress trees and 2 weeping willows. I planted all 8 trees the day they arrived (late March or early April). All are growing and doing great. I would definitely buy from Direct Gardening again.

I got my order today that I placed more than a month ago and everything seemed fine. My freebee (stargazer lily) was moldy but that seemed to be the only problem. All the bulbs seemed healthy and my Oriental Poppy roots were big and healthy. So far so good...I hope everything comes up well!

I placed a large order with Direct Gardening via their website. I added a few plants to my order via phone the following day. Then I found this site and I was extremely nervous after reading the reviews, but I was willing to take a wait and see approach.

It did take a while to receive my plants, but 'Express Shipping' was not an option and for $8.95 shipping, I wasn't expecting it. It took 3 weeks to the day for my order to be processed and another 3 weeks exactly to receive 3 out of 4 of my packages.

My 'Herb Collection' was shipping on the 12th of April and has yet to be received. I was told that if I do not received it by the 12th of May, they can trace it per USPS policy. That is fair in my oinion.

I received the other 3 packages yesterday:

One box had 2 small containers with the Passion Flower vines I had ordered. One of them had 2 vines in the same contaner so I got 3 for the price of 2.

The first green bag we opened contained all of our vegetables and free gifts. We won't know how the bulbs fair for a while. The 9 Walk-on-Me Thyme are all healthy & beautiful. The 10 asparagus were all healthy with HUGE roots systems. Only one of the 50 Stuttgarder onions was bad. The garlic sets were healthy. I ordered 15 blue potato (seed). I received 18 of them. They are all tiny and none had any eyes. Not like any seed potate I have ever used before. I planted 11 yesterday. If they grow, I will be happy. If not, I am only out $4 and I won't get potatoes from them again. Overall, I am satisfied with the contents from this package.

The largest green bag had all of our shrubs, trees & bushes. I was concerned because there was a small hole in the bag where one of the shrubs was sticking out, but they were all the height stated on the website and look healthy. We had ordered 36 Purple Leaf Plum Hedges. All of them appear to be healthy. One fo these is missing all but one root. We are currently babying it and hoping it will survive and can join all the others , but the odds are against it. The 2 Hansen Cherry bushes, 3 Mock Orange, 1 Dwarf Granny Smith Apple, 2 Manchurian Apricot, 1 Sugar Sweet Cherry, 1 Black Tartarian Standard, 1 Dwarf Pear (5 on 1), and 1 Dwarf Nectarine all have a healthy root system. We had ordered 6 grape vines, 2 Catawba, 2 Niagra and 2 Concord. We received only 1 Catawba, but we got 3 Niagras. Since we got 6 overall and they all looked healthy, we aren't that bothered by it.

So far my experience has been negative, may upgrade if they get their act together but won't be holding my breath. This is my order:
The following items were requested on 3/23/2006 11:26:32 PM:

Item # Description............................. Quantity Price

6924 Fern, Christmas 2 $3.75
7596 Astilbe, Lavender 3 $6.75
5572 Wintercreeper, Purple Leaf 6 $5.25
5103 Walk-On-Me 18 $9.00
5782 Lily, Japanese Hardy 2 $2.96
7439 Rose, Hybrid Bargain 2 $4.75
3704 Perennial Bargain 1 $9.95
6700 Crownvetch 4 $2.79
7216 Geranium, Hardy Blue 3 $5.75
6021 Bleeding Heart, Zestful 3 $9.95
6201 Butterfly Bush, Mixed 2 $2.96
6755 Daisy, Shasta 4 $2.50
6936 Cauliflower, Snowball 1 $1.25
7353 Hollyhock, Miniature 2 $2.95
6155 Pea, Sugar Snap 1 $1.10
Free Gifts as Earned
Free

Sales Tax $0.00
Packing $8.95
Total Charge $80.61

Quite the bargain, but wish I'd seen this site prior to ordering. My emails for shipping date/status go unanswered and 04/21 I recieved a video cassette-sized box containing the 2 hollyhocks in 2 plastic seed-starter containers. Tiny (miniature, ha!), but I can live with that. What is annoying as heck is the waiting on an uncommunicative company. Yes, I'm aware of all their fine print and conditions and that you get what you pay for, but the "GETTING" needs to happen. I'm prepared for dinky leftovers from wholesalers or whatever, as long as they're alive, but so far, this will be my last order from these clowns. Heaven help them if I get a bag of dead stuff.

Last year, I ordered 12 Rosa Rugosa and 10 of them died. I returned the shipping label as per their policy and requested 10 replacements. Although I did not receive them until this spring, they sent 12 new roses, and so far, all of them are doing well. In a separate order, I ordered a Pink Freedom rose last year, and it is doing fine.

I purchased five trees and fourty shrubs and about One Hundred ground cover plants from this copmany ! It was the first purchase from them they were very helpful! I orderer in october 2005! They sent me a e-mail to confirm my order and a shipping date around the end of March and the beginning of April! I e-mailed them around the end of March to get a around about time to expect my plants! They e-mailed back the next day and stated they had been shipped and I could expect my order in 7-14 days! My oder arrived in about 9 days all the plants were health and the size I expected for what I payed! The were all alive and are doing great!!! The planting instructions were very handy and easy to understand! I have order from many other mail order companies they were alot better to deal with then some of the other mail order companys! I will order from them again!

I placed an order for 10 Redbuds and 10 Rose of Sharon in 2004. They were small and had little root systems, but they all survived my planting skills. I've since moved and missed my plants. Being so impressed with my previous purchase from them, I placed another for 12 more Rose of Sharon and 2 Weiglas. They arrived today and I must say I'm 100% satisfied, even if I have to wait a few days to plant them. Not one is under 3 feet tall and they all have wonderful root systems. I have no doubt that they will flourish. I must give them my kudos even if everyone else does not. Thank you so much!

I had a small order and received it in 1 1/2 wks. Can't wait to get them planted. Everything looks fine. I was really happy with the get the second plant for 1cent sale although I only needed one.

Order about 2 weeks ago and received all my plants. I have no Problems with anything.
Packing was in small plastic bags along with a few small trees wrapped in a big green bag. The roots didn't have any special protection but I don't think That would be to much of a problem.
I planted everything the day they were dropped off and I already have most growing. Hosta's, elephant ear, rose trees. My ground covers haven't shown signs of life yet but they looked in good shape when planted. Walk on me, red sedum and crownvetch.
Over all everything looks like what it should, billing was correct, shipping was about 2 weeks from order to delivery. I couldn't ask for more.

In case your wondering I live in zone 8 almost 9 so I'm well into my growing season. I just had some blank spots around the yard and wanted to try some stuff. Next year they should be going strong.

I am giving a conservative positive rating at this time. I did received an email indicating the week of shipment & an estimate of arrival. Most of my plants did arrive within 2 weeks of placing the order, and many were in good shape as well as individually packaged for shipment. However, I have issue with their green garbage bag shipping "container?" Due to the lack of protection my lilac bushes, trees, and honeysuckle suffered some major abuse during shipping so each arrived broken, but salvageable (hopefully). I'm not a great gardener but I think I'll be able to nurse them along!

Now for the "conservative" part...After unpacking & searching, I found that I was missing a hosta. I called DG and was told that I needed to mail a letter along with the original packing slip. OK, easy enough, but what if I have problems with other merchandise? The attendant said they would keep the slip on file? Considering other comments on this company's approach to customer service, I will probably eat the cost of the hosta in order to keep the packing slip. The rest of my order was significantly more expensive than 1 hosta and I'd rather have some "insurance" on those plants! Please keep in mind that this is my decision, it is not that the company refused to make things right. My other caveat to keeping a positive rating would be the timely arrival of the rest of my plants!

Overall, the prices are in line with the merchandise received. If you can afford better quality, I'd suggest doing so. If not, DG is a good option.

It seems a lot of people who had negative experiences had higher expectations than they should have for a mail order deep discount catalog service. I ordered 10 hydrangeas, 3 fairy roses and 2 butterfly bushes in May 2004. All but one of the butterfly bushes absolutely thrived! And I had the hydrangeas heeled in for almost a month!(couldn't find the time to plant them). The fairy roses bloomed that summer, profusely! I didn't bother asking for a replacement for the butterfly bush because it was only a dollar. The shipment took a while (4 weeks) but again, my expectations were appropriate for their pricing. I got all the above for $27 which included their flat rate of $7.95 for shipping. This year, the fairies are all sprouting and healthy and my hydrangeas are getting leafbuds just like everyone in my zone. I'm happy with Direct Gardening and will order again. To be fair to the "negative" people, I didn't have to deal with customer service at all so I can't comment on that aspect. They sent a detailed booklet on planting everything they sell. I followed the instructions to the letter and got the results. They do have a guarantee also, but I'm not sure if it's lifetime or a year. Anyway, in my book, it's worth it if you want to save big bucks and have patience.

I ordered several plants and shurbs through this company and like many others found this site a few days later. I wanted to cancel my order but decided to wait and see because of the excellent pricing. I ordered on April 18th and called the company on the 2nt of May. I was able to get through to the company on my first try and was told that my order would be shipped in 3 separate boxes. Two had been shipped on the 29th and the third would be shipped as soon as the plants were available. I received one shipment on the 4th of April and the other two on the 7th. All plants and shrubs arrived in very good condition. All showed signs of life and seemed to be healthy. No mold or broken parts. I have potted everything except the shubs and they have been temporalily heeled in to my garden. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. My order came to $108.50 and I was not very happy when I read the reviews. So far this has been a very positive experience. I do not have a green thumb as this is my first big experiment with a garden, but I remain hopeful and positive because the plants looked so healthy. If they do not survive it will propably be my lack of skill, and I can't blame them for that.

Hello, Just wanted to offer my good experiences with this company. Like many on this thread I found this sight just after ordering from Direct. I though about cancelling and decided to go with the "get what you pay for" thinking. I only spent $47.00. I received my order approximately 4 weeks after I made and I can say that I am very please with what I received. I got everything I asked for and it all came well wrapped. The mail carrier did an excellant job with not breaking the branches on the Pee Gee's. Also, the "free-bees" were received with out any trouble. I look forward to warmer weather and having them bloom.
Thanks
Cathy G.

I ordered a lot of plants from them, they sent them All, and all looked good, I'd recommend them. For the person who couldn't find her bill of lading it was on the package, and I got a bill in my inbox on my email server, if I have a problem, I'll contact them and I'm sure I'll have no trouble getting my issues resolved, They are making an effort towards better customer service. I will continue to deal with them.

Katy Brezger

Like many others, I ordered from Direct Gardening just a few days before finding the Watchdog. I seriously turned pale! The order taker sounded very young and new nothing at all about plants or gardening (but was very nice). My first of 4 packages was bare root plants, they all made it! My second package arrived with seeds about 10 days later, then a few days later my pots came in. My potted plants arrived first part of April as stated and most really looked pretty good! They are doing well so far. I did call about my pots before they arrived and a lady answered the phone right away and was nice and looked up my orders promptly. Due to the straggly shipping and less than experienced staff, this is a conservative positive.

I am so sorry to hear so many folks having troubles with this company. I ordered 50 hostas (handful of hosta) and everyone came and was planted last year. They were bulbs (which I like, less digging in clay). They are all coming up again this year and I am so happy I have 40 butterfly bushes on order with them now. They may take longer to get some of your plants, but for the price - I will wait. I know many people believe butterfly bush is a weed, but it grows great from Michigan (my first home) to Florida (college) to Georgia where I have set roots (LOL).

One benefit they could offer is notification of when the order is on its way. I allow for their complete guideline - say March to June here in the south, so I am happy when they arrive within that timeframe.

I did loose 12 plants last year from them - but that was due to a mold or virus that killed over 1000 (one thousand) of my plants due to too much rain. 3 backbreaking weekends and they were all killed due to mother nature. I did not try to replace the 12 plants of theirs - I just picked less picky plants this year. My smoke tree is 3' tall and doing great!

I've ordered from Burgess several times now with no problems, so even though this site showed an overwhelmingly negative response to Direct as well as Burgess, I ordered anyway because I wanted the Hall's Honeysuckle that Burgess didn't sell. I got my order yesterday from both Burgess and Direct Gardening. I had ordered pink honeysuckle from Burgess and they were 30" tall bareroot shrubs, full of branches. The Hall's Honeysuckle from Direct were in a little baggie, 3 tiny little plants, very much alive, though, and leafing out already. Hmmmmm, why such a difference? I'll have to look into that more today. I also ordered some more Rose of Sharon (I've gotten about 20 from Burgess last year) but this time I ordered them from Direct. Very big, nice looking shrubs. Of course, at this time I'll have to wait and see if they are alive!
I'm placing neutral at this time because of the tiny honeysuckle and until I see if all the shrubs live.

My only experience with this company was positive.
I ordered mixed hybrid asiatic lilies in fall of 2004 which arrived promptly, in good condition, with plenty of healthy roots.

The bulbs were small (10-12" circumfence) but sold that way. All bulbs were healthy. I think the secret to the success should be found in the timing. Lily bulbs are lifted in summer by the growers. Directgardening probably received the bulbs recently from the growers (or had the grower drop ship in their bags) which would explain the excellent quality. If you order lilies in spring, the storage in winter will entirely determine the quality of the bulbs.

I ordered "mixed" lilies, so I can not complain about the size/color/named accuracy. Based on fact that even very reputable lily growers have a hard time shipping named lilies correctly, I am sure that "mixed" bags is probably give you the best "satisfaction".

If I am to buy inexpensive "no-name" mixed lilies, I would not hesitate to try directgardening again.

What a wonderful thing!! great prices, i love the spending incentive of the free gifts.. I got about 60$ worth of plants and a lot of them did great.. i did have problems with some of the more tempermental plants such as the ferns but i had saved my shipping label and i sent that in with a list of the ones that needed replacing.. got them in the mail a few weeks ago and they are doing good.. what a wonderful experience.. !! For others, the company might be what you pay for but i got more then what i paid for.... plus i LOVE THE SHIPPING!!! 7.95!! how do they do it?????

I have bought from Direct Gardening probably 4 or 5 years now, and yes I have had to ask for a couple of plants to be replaced, now and then, which they were. There are a few things to keep in mind when planting...Chances are that not everything will make it, and those that didn't for me were replaced.
Have you ever tried to transplant a tree in your yard...you think you have everything just right, got all the roots, and it dies anyway. A large problem may be due to lack of watering. Things coming out of a bag need lots, and lots of water, especially if put in full sun. I'm talking...keep them wet. Watering just in the morning every day is not enough, the plants, trees, bushes, etc will be in shock for a few weeks, and of course some will not make it, but as I said, in those cases I sent back my shipping lable, and recieved new plants.
Frankly I am amazed that a place can dig up things, put them in a bag, and mail them to me...and they do survive.
As a side note. With the help of Direct Gardening I have a Certified Backyard Wildlife Habitat, certified by the National Wildlife Federation. It is filled with trees, shrubs, and plants of every kind, many from Direct Gardening.
So I would have to sum this up by stating that my experience with Direct Gardening has been a positive one, and I am fully satisfied with their plants, and service.

I placed an order for the first time this week with Direct Gardening because their prices were so good. I just moved into a new home with 1/2 acre "blank canvas" to satisfy my landscaping passion. Immediately after I placed the order online, I found this web site and thought, "Uh Oh, I better cancel my order." Based on comments from this site, I figured cancelling would be a problem in and of itself. So, I sent an e-mail within an hour of placing the order. I had already received the order confirmation in my e-mail and just responded to that e-mail (using respond to all). I added "URGENT - ACTION REQUIRED" in the subject line, along with "CANCEL". I received a prompt response that they were sending the e-mail to the order department. When I received that e-mail, I waited a day and asked if the order was cancelled. I got another prompt response indicating that they were able to catch the order and cancel it. Therefore, my first experience with this company was a positive one. Maybe I should have just given them a try, but I figured I have enough stress in my life and don't need anything more to have to deal with. Some of the comments on this site would be things to make my blood pressure rise beyond healthy acceptance. So, I placed a very small order with a company called Gurney's. They only have a 52% positive, but I really wanted a particular tree that not many places carry.