Comments regarding Direct Gardening

I ordered from Direct Gardening before I stumbled on this website. I, of course, became very nervous after reading the reviews. I placed my first order in late April and received my plants, which were healthy and what I expected, two weeks later. I am now waiting for my second order which was place May 4th.

I ordered from this company before reading reviews here. I ordered 3 rose trees, 1 that I could not find on other sites. a really dark red one. In any case I emailed them after 2 weeks of not recieving my order and I was told that it was in processing. I decided not to bother with getting more information and it eventually arrived between 3-4 weeks. The packaging was basically the rose trees in a bag. Because of this several branches were broken. They appeared moldy, but I sprayed them with 2 antifungal sprays. 2 of the rose tress started giving off new growth in 1 week and now have buds. The last one finally started giving off new growth a couple of days ago. I rate it as positive because in the end the rose trees are growing.

Posted on March 13, 2011, updated May 10, 2011
I have ordered from this company repeatedly over the last 8 years. My Harry Lauders Walking stick is 7 seasons old and looks fantastic. It is approximately 4.5 ft tall and still growing. My Purple Wintercreeper is now in its 7th season and is thriving. I even made cuttings from the Wintercreeper to use as ground cover in new plant beds. My hummingbird vines are now about 4 seasons old and stretch 10-15 ft on the trellis. One of them finally bloomed last year. Most of my Arborvitae are now 4 seasons old and are doing fine. Many of the Arborvitae I planted died during their first summer. I contacted the company about the dead plants and I received replacements in a timely manner. My Red Weigela are 4 seasons old and finally bloomed in their second season. One of the Weigela arrived dead and when I contacted the company, they sent a replacement. My Pink Honeysuckle are 4 seasons old and are about 4 ft tall. They have yet to bloom, but I'm sure they will in time.

I am truly surprised by all the negative feedback. Yes, the plants that arrive are in a dormant state and aren't the prettiest to look at. When I received my first order, I was taken aback by the lack of refinement in presentation - just a green bag full of dirt and plant material. However, when planted properly and given time, these dirt covered cuttings and tiny little saplings turned out to be well worth the wait. If you have more money than time, by all means, buy from a company that is selling plants that are more mature. The plants I received from this company were certainly immature and tender. But if you are willing to wait a few seasons for the plants to grow and blossom, this company can really save you some money.

I ordered the four seasons garden for 40.00 and a bunch of butterfly bushes, hydrangea trees, hydrangea bush, and a few odds and end plants which totaled about 75.00. I was aware of all of the negative comments, but I ordered anyway. I figured the prices were so good, that even if I only had half of the plants grew then I'd be even with my local nursery prices. So far two weeks in, just about every plant they sent, although bare root and looking dead, has started to grow. The plants are a lot smaller than I expected, but hey for the price if they live, I got a great deal. It took awhile to get my shipment, but I knew that it would take some time as posted on their website. Anyway, if you want big healthy looking plants, go to your local nursery. If you want cheap plants that will grow, go ahead and try them out. My advice is to not expect too much. You get what you pay for.

Posted on April 1, 2011, updated April 27, 2011
Direct gardening so far has been great for me. Great customer service. Great seeds! The package was not waterproof so my seeds almost got wet in the mailbox but thankfully it only soaked the free coupons. I am still waiting for my trees. I called them and they said that I should receive them by the middle of April and that it was still too cold where they were to ship nursery items. I was satisfied and I can't wait to see the trees. I will post further when I receive the trees.

Posted on April 23, 2011, updated April 23, 2011
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Posted on March 29, 2011, updated March 30, 2011
My experience so far on the site has been wonderful. The plants are really cheap to redo a whole landscape for my front and back yard.... I cant say much about my products that I have ordered now because I ordered one set of plants last wed.(March 23rd) and was billed two days later and i just ordered another set of plants yesterday. (March 28th) I'll give an update on how they are when they come.

With all the negative reviews I was skeptical but I decided to give it a shot anyways since its spring and i want to redo my whole back/ front yard. They layout is nice for the site and I love how they change up the "sale" items instead of them keeping all of them the same for a long period of time. The only thing I've had a problem with is not knowing when my plants will arrive. Update coming soon. :)

Posted on April 15, 2011, updated April 21, 2011
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Posted on March 16, 2011, updated March 19, 2011
So far not much to say, other than I like the site layout. I ordered 96 Sedum, Creeping Red a week ago. They billed my card a few days later. If they have shipped, they never told me. Though I believe the site says they bill when they ship. That might be a ding. I ordered from them despite the reviews, because of the price. I'll keep you posted. I hope it goes well, because they have some great deals, and a plant I want that I can't find. I'll post the good the bad and the ugly as it unfolds.

I've ordered from the company for a couple of years and to this point ....haven't been disappointed.

The packing could be better but all the plants arrived safe and thrived once planted.

I would be happier if they sent an email when the order was shipped.

I have been gardening for a very long time & I have ordered many things from Direct Gardening. I've never had a problem with anything they sent, it all grew fine. I think some people perhaps aren't so experienced & don't know what a dormant plant looks like. As for plant size & packaging- you get what you pay for. I usually buy the most common & toughest plants from them. You have to use a little common sense. It's important to pay attention to details like the size of plants shipped & whether they are bare root or potted etc. You should do that no matter who you're ordering from anyway.

I ordered a bunch of bulbs a couple of weeks ago and they have now arrived. Everything looks good and they even threw in a bunch of bonus bulbs. Yay! I'll try to post a follow-up in the spring on how they actually do.

I ordered a bunch of stuff from this company and then I read all the posts on here and got really scared. I didn't expect to get my order but to my surprise it came. All of the bulbs and the bushes were in excellant shape. The root systems on the bushes was the best I ever seen on plants. I've ordered from many popular nurseries and I've ordered from very good local nurseries but the quality of the products I recieved from this company was better than what I have recieved from others. I was very pleased with my order and the service that I got. I was very leery after reading all the comments, but now I am glad that I ordered from this company. If my plants don't grow it won't be because the quality of the products shipped to me were bad, but it'd be from my neglect or poor weather conditions. Thanks garden direct, I'll be back.

My brother and I ordered about $87 worth of lilacs, hydrangea and rhodys on August 2010. They arrived on September. The plants looked like they were dead but we followed the directions on how to plant them. They are now all thriving and are doing fine. At first, we got scared of the negative comments here, but nothing could beat the prices of Direct Gardening so we thought it was worth the risk. We are very happy with our purchases. We are so excited. We looking forward to enjoying our new plants!

Ordered around $40 of merchandise and received an email confirmation immediately. About 10 days later I found more things to purchase and called the company. I was able to speak with someone directly who was helpful. Although they couldn't tell me if the first items had shipped, they still allowed me to place this order as an extension of the original order. This was nice because it saved me on shipping.

Both orders arrived in a few weeks. I was weary due to the previous bad reviews. The plants all arrived in good condition. Many of the plants I received were dormant roots so the sight of "dead sticks" didn't surprise me. I have ordered plants online before so I knew what to expect.

These plants were delivered to my shaded porch. When they arrived I made a point to bring them inside immediately and they were planted within 24 hours. After placing these items in a good soil and watering regularly, the items are coming out of dormancy.

I ordered a smoke tree, lavendar munstead, russian sage, a lenten rose, hakonechloa grass and several others. All plants were a remarkably good deal and are beginning to fill out nicely.

I will definitely be ordering from them again.

I placed a large order from Direct Gardening and while I was a little disappointed that most of the items were dormant, I have been thrilled with how fast they've grown once they got started. I do think if the company were to indicate on each item's listing that the purchase is for a dormant plant and have a link for each item that would go to a page saying what a dormant plant looks like and how to get it to grow, customers would be better prepared and not disappointed by what they receive, and to warn that shipping can take three weeks. For those readers who may have never heard the term dormant, it is as if the plant is in the dead of winter, but it isn't dead. They are artificially kept in the dormant state which means very low maintenance, storage space is at a minimum, and this results in being able to sell plants at a much lower price than the cost for a living potted plant. The plant will have no leaves, any growth area is trimmed down to a nub. It should have a root system, sometimes being bigger than the plant. A friend of mine bought coneflowers, they were mostly roots and a tiny bit of stem to know where the ground level should be. I spent 40 dollars and if I were to replace the plants and shrubs elsewhere, the total would have been closer to 100 dollars. Can't beat that! My order came a month ago, everything had the APPEARANCE of seeming dead. I put a tree rose directly into the ground, two mock oranges that I didn't know what to do with yet got laid on top of dirt pile and forgotten for a week, various perennials got planted in spare nursery pots and placed in light shade. The secret to getting dormant plants to grow is to give them a fake spring. Bright light but not scorching sun, and water, water, water. And not just a few minutes of a passing hose, soak through to the bottom of the roots, at least every other day. If they break dormancy but then don't get water for a stretch, they can give up and die. My rose tree now is covered in growth shoots, and while they are short yet, there will be more branches making it quite full and lovely as it matures. I paid 19.99 for it. My neighbor got one at the local nursery, paid 70 for hers, and it will be meager in comparison by next year. Those two mock oranges cost me 1.50, yes, really, a dollar and a half. They were about a foot tall with 5 or 6 thin, spindly branches. I remembered them on top of the dirt pile when I saw leaves showing up a few days after a rain. There roots weren't in the ground and the poor things were trying to grow! I plopped them in a bucket, threw enough dirt on them to shade the roots and carried them to shade - and forgot them again for a week. I even missed them when I watered most of the time. A few weeks later, I moved them out of the bucket where they were drowning in rain water and put them in a nursery pot. These abused baby shrubs have grown now until all the branches have sprouted and they're thriving, but I still don't know where to plant these things that will become 10 feet high and around some day, all for a dollar and fifty cents. My friend's coneflowers have all come up in her flower bed and she's thrilled too. Can't beat the bargains at Direct Garden, they really help you stretch your gardening budget. Dormant plants aren't fool proof, some may not burst out into leaf, just be sure to water them and baby the plants for a few weeks and the success rate will be pretty high. And don't give up if they don't sprout leaves even in a week or two. I planted a dormant spice bush in early spring, along with many other dormant shrubs bought elsewhere. All the others leafed out in a week or two but the spice bush really looked dead but I kept watering it. Three months later, it finally has leaves! I'm thrilled. Hopefully all this will help someone purchase more plants for their dollars and help them get their gardening treasures to grow. I won't hesitate to buy from Direct Gardens, or any of their affiliated companies, again.

Posted on April 8, 2010, updated June 27, 2010
This is my first order with Direct Gardening, & I will have to say I love this company! I ordered 2 dwarf Elberta peach trees, 1 dwarf Damson plum tree, 1 Hall's Hardy almond tree, & 2 American hazelnut trees all for less than $50 total including $9.99 shipping. My order arrived about 10 days after I placed it. All of the trees were bare root & small, as I expected, but also appeared to be very healthy. I planted them all within 3 days of receipt. It has been about 2 weeks since I planted, & the 2 peach & almond trees are producing a good amount of green shoots. The 2 hazelnut & plum trees have not yet produced green shoots, but they do appear to be alive. I have not given them any special TLC, unless mixing in some good leaf compost & making sure they don't dry out is considered TLC. The almond tree alone was going to cost me $69.99 at a local nursery & the peach trees would have been about $25 each. I know these local trees were much larger, but since I have a lot more time than money, I am thrilled to pay the small, small price & take the time to let them grow! I am a very, very happy customer & I will definitely order from Direct Gardening again.

Last year, I ordered 2 hibiscus syriacus plants from this company and while they arrived small (2-3 inches tall), they were bright green with 1 bloom on one & 2 blooms on the other. Today, they are going strong. They're both about 12" tall and getting ready to bloom.

This year, being extremely pleased with my previous order, I decided to order from this company again. The order said it would take 1-2 weeks to process the order. Well, 2 & 1/2 weeks later, everything arrived except one plant that is not in season. They arrived in the dormant state as stated on the order page.

I think alot of the negative ratings for this company are unfair and caused more by the consumer and not so much the company. I'm sure this company has probably sent out some items that didn't make it in shipping, but I'm also willing to bet alot of the fault should go to the customer for failing to read before placing their order. I will definitely be ordering from this company again!

On 5/31/10, I placed an order at Direct Gardening, consisting of bulbs, corms, perrenials and a few house plants. My order arrived yesterday, 6/11/10.

Plants, corms and bulbs are alive and well.
Bulbs/corms are fresh/firm, house plants, well-established, and perrenials, perky. I especially love one perrenial called Euphorbia Ascot, Variegata. Its colors are gorgeous.
One perrenial, Cherry Bells, is a tad smaller than I hoped, but its roots are healthy.

All in all, I'm very happy with Direct Gardening, and plan on shopping with this nursery in the future. Toni

So much negativity! I did wait a bit longer than I had wanted to for my order, but it all came, in decent shape. 2 seperate shipments, but that is fine with me. The plants were small, and I am still waiting for my Fruit Cocktail Trees to do something, but for the price, how can you go wrong? I have purchased from them in the past and while the plants are small when they arrive, they do tend to have cast iron varieties.

Posted on June 2, 2010, updated June 4, 2010
After reading all the negativity on this board I had lowered my expectations considerably. I am please to say that I placed my order on May 19, 2010 and received all of my products on June 2, 2010. I called the company once and was told that my order had shipped the prior friday. I am pleased.

Despite the feedback on this list, I bought from Four Seasons Nursery because the prices are outrageously cheap. I desperately needed to plant 30 Lombardy Poplars to quickly block my view of the teenage gangsters who sit on their roof glaring into my backyard. I also needed the added security of the beautiful (and ruthless) rosa rugosa along my perimeter fencing. This would have cost me a fortune - if I had one. So when my long awaited package came, it was, indeed, a dried-up bunch of bareroot sticks in one smallish package. I unpacked them immediately into buckets of water and to my surprise, they budded within days - before I could even plant them all. And they are all doing beautifully; for the tiniest fraction of what I would have paid elsewhere. I couldn't be happier and I will definitely order again!

Posted on April 12, 2008, updated May 17, 2010
Well, I am one of those who've had a very positive experience with Direct Gardening. To be honest, I'm having a better experience with Direct Gardening than I did with Four Seasons Nursery.
You can read my review for FSN if you're interested, I'm not going over it here, because this is to comment on Direct Gardening.

Anyway, I know (knew) that DG doesn't have the best reputation around these parts, but since I had decent luck with FSN last year I was going to order from FSN again this year, but when I got their catalog they didn't have half of what I wanted listed. I even checked their website - alas they didn't have them there either - so I decided to place my order with FSNs parent company Direct Gardening who's website did have everything I wanted listed, and ordering everything from DG saved me on shipping. If not for DG I would have had to order from at least three different companies to get everything I wanted and would have had to pay multiple shipping costs. ;)

Anyway, I placed my order in early Feb and since not all of the order was plants it was divided into separate shipments - three to be exact. The first was for peat pots and those arrived before the end of the month. The second shipment (March 15, 2008) involved shrubs, bulbs, and four live plants.

On a side note, I'm sure I saw on their website that they didn't begin shipping live plants until April. Not that I'm complaining, not really, but three of those are starting to look very bad - I may have to test DGs replacement policy on these, though I haven't given up on them yet, because while they aren't looking healthy, they ain't dead yet.
(After they started looking less than healthy I decided to put Miracle Gro dirt and feed to the test. I'm not sure, like I say they aren't dead, but they don't seem to be recovering either - they may even be a bit worse.)

To be honest, I'm a bit stunned, because these looked best of everything when I got them. They were alive, moist, and in great condition. And for the life of me I don't know what has gone wrong here. I treated them exactly the same as I did the ones of the same that I got FSN last year (better in fact, because the three from FSN stayed in the green bag for several days - I removed the ones from DG right away), and while the ones I got from FSN were a bit slow to take off they never looked as bad as the ones from DG are looking at the moment, which is interesting because upon arrival the ones from DG looked better than the ones last year from FSN. So go figure.

The other live plant was a Houttuynia, which also arrived alive and moist. There were a few broken stems (not a big deal) but the plant itself was a bit wilted, and the pot it was shipped in was very very small. It seems to me that this plant would have benefited from being in a slightly larger container, because despite the small pot size at some point it is clear this thing was growing like a weed because one of the stems (not one of the broken ones) was actually growing outside the "pot" though a drainage hole.

Anyway, I left it in the small pot for several days (which was a mistake, but), because I thought it might be suffering from ship shock. I finally decided to put it in a bigger pot, and now it is healthy again and growing like a weed. The downside is - the roots stink very badly, and mine doesn't have any pink on the leaves (it was pictured with green and pink leaves) at the moment all the leaves are two-tone green with maybe just a touch of a pink outlining some of the leaves. It's not ugly, just not what I was expecting. Maybe they'll turn pink(ish) later. Who knows? I'm just happy it is healthy.

The five Red Twig Dogwood arrived bare root, obviously. But except for one runt they appeared very healthy and they were very well packed, actually even the runt looked okay. The roots were nice and damp.

Of course, the problem was that I wasn't sure what to do with them, because I usually wait until the last of April to plant anything, because we can have frosts and even freezes in April, and sure enough it appears that it is going to turn off cold again this week - there will probably be at least one night (if not more) of frost.

Anyway, a week after they arrived I decided to plant them - I knew if I waited they would end up dead. So, three of them ended up in pots because in those cases I didn't have the garden ready. Funny enough two of the three potted are starting to bloom already while the two in the ground don't look any better (or worse) than the day they arrived. Weird, because I was actually more worried about the ones that I was putting in pots. Still, as mentioned, I am a bit worried because now it is looking like it might frost, so I can only hope the ones already budding will survive it.

As for the bulbs - two I ordered the rest were freebies, and I think at least two (eight bulbs) of the freebies won't do very well in Zone 6, because from what I've been able to tell with my google-foo they are tropical plants, but hey they were free, and I have had some tropical plants do pretty well here, just have to remember to bring them in for the winter.

Anyway, it may be sheer luck that those arrived in great (good) looking shape. Granted they were in separate plastic bags inside a larger plastic bag inside the large moist green bag, so being in separate bags probably helped. ;) Still I admit when I saw how moist everything was I feared that the bulbs would be wet, dead, and useless. To my surprise when I unpacked them I discovered all of them (except the ones I ordered strangely enough - I've fixed them up, and hope to plant them soon) were dry, firm, and seemingly in great shape, even four that had spilled out into the slightly larger plastic bag (not the green one) were dry and firm, despite the fact that there was a bit of moisture in that slightly larger clear bag.

Some of those freebie bulbs are small, but for all I know they aren't supposed to be large, because the two I actually ordered are the size they're supposed to be. But hey even if they're supposed to be larger I can't complain cause the small bulbs were the freebies.

Finally, last week I got the rest of my order, and I was surprised. There were two items, one was a 3-in-1 Citrus Tree... It wasn't exactly large, but was a bit larger than I was expecting. There were (of course) a couple broken twigs - the box should have been marked with which side was supposed to be up, because I opened it upside down, and there's no telling how many times it ended up upside down during shipping. However, the dirt had stayed in the pot (both of them), and DG had even braced the stems with a plastic stick, which no doubt kept it from being even more damaged.
(Don't know how it will continue to do, but right now it looks healthy and happy.)

The big surprise (for me) was the Black Magic plant - I was expecting a bulb, and so I admit I was a bit confused about why it didn't come in the second shipment. Well, now I know, they shipped a live plant, which was a nice surprise. It arrived with two good leaves (one completely black, one green with some black), and one dying black leaf. Honestly, I don't believe the leaf was damaged in shipping, I think it was just naturally dying. Of course, it was in a very small pot - the smallest pot I've ever seen a company ship in to be honest, but that doesn't seem to have hurt it. Because I've had it less than a week (repotted it the same day I received it) and in that short time a new leaf has come in. Of course, the leaf come in green, but I'm starting to suspect they come in green and then turn black later.

So right now I'm pleased with DG, even if I do have to end up getting replacements for the Festuca Grass, and three of the RedTwig Dogwood - the ones that haven't yet broken dormancy, they still could, so I'm playing a wait and see game for the near future. And, obviously, while the two I just received seem good at the moment I have seen seemingly great looking plants just up and die - hopefully that won't happen but you can never be sure.

I have ordered from Direct Gardening many times. I always received my plants, usually was my card was charged a week before I received my items. KEEP YOU SHIPPING LABEL for replacement. I have used this option couple of times and ALWAYS received my replacement plants. I will have to admit, it seems like I always have to call in order to get my order shipped to me, after my phone call it usually takes a week. Sometimes I have a hard time getting a hold of someone on the phone. But they are much cheaper than anyone else.

This the second year that I have ordered from them. Last year I was shocked at what came in the mail. (first time doing mail order). I followed the instructions with the order and planted my plants. Most are starting to wake up for the spring and are double their size from last year. I did lose some of my plant but that was on me. A few I still have not put in the ground. Like my Red Maple, He is just to small. So He will remain in a 5 gl this year as well.
I will say this to any gardener that orders from them the plants will be small and do require TLC the first year. But for the price I can wait for the garden they will become. Oh if you go onto their web page you will see whom they supply, so you know what you will get from those companies as well.

This is the third order I have placed with Direct Gardening, I must say the first time more due to my fault some of the plants did not survive. It does take some getting use to bare root planting the plants do look half dead or dead, but with a little now how and care they grow beautifully. I live in southern/central florida and now have lilacs,hydrangea, delphiniums,and others that where put in by bare root and have suprisingly thrived....in climate they are not expected too grow. Please look at shipping schedule for your area before ordering as my first order was placed to late for that seasons shipping so I had to wait. The next orders where shipped within 2-3 weeks of placing the order. Also if purchasing bare root trees I soak for a little bit then plant in old containers or pots for a while until established before transplanting to yard.......to eliminate the threat of weed wackers and lawn mowing !!!!

I just order 2 plant - the Blueberry Top hat last October 13 , 2009
i shop around for the cheapest price and I found Direct Gardening. My pleasant surprise is that it come one week after after I order them online . I did not expect it too soon.It came in perfect condition. I have tried several site. Some are terrible and the quality is bad and I did not even bother to ask for replacement and the nerve of some to ask for a fee to ship them back and some are great but you pay a hefty price but Direct Gardenig send me healthy plant. i plant them on a pot and enjoying the weather before it gets too cold . Just like one previous review - new plants are very fragile . They need a lot of TLC. I am going to take photo of these plant like a baby and chronicle their growth .I am really sorry for those who had bad experience but these things happened even to the most reputable firm. the difference is 5-10 dollars in addition to s/h . They came in a box while my purchase from Direct gardening came by Fed Ex in plastic envelope.
You get what you pay sometimes but i don't mind it .

In the spring of 2009, I placed an order for Angel Trumpets by regular USPS mail with a money order for payment. When I did not receive them within what I thought was a reasonable amount of time, I sent an email with a request to check the status of my order and was told it was being shipped. Lo and behold I did receive them the very next day. Happily, they were not puny sized plants by any means. I was a bit concerned about the shape they were in upon their arrival, however. They were a bit mushy and I had to trim some of the stalk. I placed them in water for a couple of weeks and they bounced right back and rooted. They are now happy and healthy plants and have bloomed beautifully.

I visited the Direct Gardending website 7/10/09 for the first time. I placed an order around 12:30 PM and had my order confirmation within an hour via email.

After reading the notes regarding the plants being shipped to specific areas during the planting season, I really didn't expect to receive them all at once, or so quickly.

My plants arrived this past Saturday, July 18th, just after noon via FedEx. I was shocked...and pleasantly surprised.
I inspected the plants, and immediately began reading the Plant Care Guide included FREE in my shipment.

I received just what I expected.....barerooted plants, and all seem to be doing OK. I followed the instructions and I also placed my shipping label away for the future, if necessary.

Sorry so many of you had trouble, but plants are like babies....they need lots of TLC, they can overcome a few bumps and scratches, but they cannot grow on their own.

As for one, I am very happy with my purchase, and will continure ordering from Direct Gardening until "they" loose my business.

On March 18, 2009, I put in an order for $68. The items arrived slowly, and in 2 seperate shipments on April 11 and 20th. Some items arrived very small, others all tangled (to the point where you had to destroy the stems to pull them apart), and some looked completely dead. I did receive the free items and I got a free hosta using a coupon. I did exactly what they said: I planted everything, even the dead looking stuff, and to be fair, some of the dead looking stuff did come up. The prices are super cheap, so I figured I should give it the best shot. I emailed them with some questions and they responded promptly with a personalized email.

June 6th I decided to write them a letter asking for replacements of all the things that didn't live to this point. Here is a summary of the items:

NAME #plants that lived/ total
5102 Butterfly Bush Bi-color 0/2
6826 Butterfly Plant Orange Glory 1/3
5728 Blue Festuca 0/3
6811 Periwinkle 0/50
7753 Sedum, Improved Golden 10/24
5103 Walk on me Plant 0/18
5799 Amaryllis Miniature 9/10
6837 Torch Lily 3/3
6992 Grass, Japanese Blood 1/1

I did not list the free gifts, and they also don't replace those.

Today, June 26, I received a bag with all the replacements I asked for, in fact, they sent more than I asked for, replacing ALL of any particular plant that had some not live. The replacements all look better than the original shipments, bigger plants with more green, therefore more alive looking. Just beware that when you order from them, SAVE the packing slips on the packages you receive! Very important! You also must be willing to take the time to snail mail them the packing slips with the request to replace. I find this company to be reliable although their packing skills are less than stellar. So, for the price, I would order from them again. Just know what to expect! :)

I ordered a row of mockorange shrubs. and a pair of Manchurian apricots. the order came quickly. of the ten mockorange, four did not leaf out. the manchurian apricots were dead on arrival. I contacted first by email to ask could they reship just the apricots, so I could hold onto my "original shipping label" to see how the mockorange fared. I was told they could not do it that way unless I returned the dead apricot trees. I had not saved those.

so I waited another couple weeks to see if any growth would appear (it didn't), and mailed the shipping label and my request for replacements.

I worried that they might not have received my request, and emailed them, but later that same day the replacements arrived. they are all leafing out nicely.

for the price, I cannot complain about anything in my transaction, and will order again from this company (or any of the many affiliated companies). my neighbors giggle at bit at my "sticks" but after decades of gardening I really do prefer to avoid the transplant shock of larger specimens at the box stores. my little "sticks" take off by their second year, and I am in no rush.

I ordered: dwarf fig, dwarf pear, dwarf apricot, dwarf cherry, sweet cherry bush, hazelnut, indian currants, grape vines and siberian elms.

This is June and I recieved my order in a timely manner. They gave me nice healthy bareroot plants. I will be ordering again this coming month. I am totally completely 100% happy!

So far, I am satisfied with our Direct Gardening experience. I ordered 3 fruiting trees and some bulbs. The trees arrived with several leaves and looking good. And the bulbs arrived looking fresh. I have saved my shipping labels just incase. We all know some plants don't like to be shipped. But they look good now!

I was really surprised to see so many negative comments on here, so I thought I would add my experiences with this company. I placed two orders with Direct Gardening last spring and received them within two weeks. All the plants (Hydrangeas, Rhododendron, and Hibiscus) lived and have come back beautifully this year. The Rhododendron was broken when I received it and so I requested a replacement using my shipping label and got a new one within a week. I placed another large order this spring (Roses, Delphinium, Hollyhock and another dark colored Rhododendron). The order took about a month this time but the plants arrived in plenty of time for the season. This key to ordering from this company is to carefully read the instructions about how and when to order, saving the shipping label, not letting the plants sit in your mailbox upon delivery, ect. It is possible that I just got lucky with my three orders, but as long as I keep getting good plants I will keep buying from them.

I ordered over 100 items from this company...not thinking it was a scam.

After reading all of the negative comments I thought I would never get my order.... I thought I'd get real crappy rotton bulbs and dead starts..... I thought I'd get the wrong items or not enough or too much of one item.

But guess what????
I got everything right at the beginning of May just like the order said! I got every bulb right down to the exact count. And everything was alive and well.

I am glad to say I received everything. Especially after reading all the terrible reviews..... So there is hope for this company after all .... =)

Happy planting!

Marie from Hoosier Land.

This company sent me canna lilies that I had ordered, they took a little while to bloom but I had bought them in bulk and had a 75% success rate with them. I would rate them pretty high though, not as high as Easy to Grow, where I was really 100% pleased with their service and the fact that everything they sent bloomed beautifully. Still, 75% isn't bad right?
joy112854

Because this is a discount gardening center, I didn't expect much. I ordered 5 Hansen's Bush Cherries, and a fig tree. I was nervous that there was no moisture wrapping around the roots, but all of the cherry bushes are alive and were well-rooted, some of them had several 2-3 ft. branches as well. I'm not sure whether or not the fig tree is alive. It was only about a foot tall, and few roots. I dipped it in rooting hormone and will water it along with the cherry bushes and see what happens. I have kept the original shipping label should anything need to be replaced. In addition, I got my "free gifts," the flowering shamrock and exotica bulbs. My main complaint is that they taped the plant labels so tight around the branches that I couldn't remove some of them without damaging the branches. What can I say, great prices and if these plants actually grow, I will be quite pleased, despite all of the other negative reviews.

The prices of plants on this site are unbelievably low. I ordered 250 privet shrubs and shipped to me for about $185. Suprisingly the plants that I got were much larger than anticipated averaging over 2 ft tall. They were shipped bareroot and upon reciept I soaked them for 24 hrs in water before planting. Again, at a quantity that large I expected numerous dead plants, but instead was suprised with very quick budding growing plants. After only 5 days I am seeing visible growth on 99% of the plants. Not only did the quality and price suprise me on how great a deal this was, but the speed at which they were shipped and recieved. The site said it would take about 2 weeks to process and then mailed out, but I placed my order and recieved them in 9 days. I will be definately ordering from them again.

Here was what I ordered (about $150 total) in mid March and received all in time in April and planted within 2 days of receipt -

12 Indian Currant Coralberry - (Bare root) - Seems dead so far, I'm going to ask for replacements
8 Dwarf Burning Bush - Very small (less than 6 inches) but healthy and came packed with soil around it.
8 Forsythia - (Bare root) - Mostly healthy and most of them are greening up.
6 Pink Honeysuckle - (Bare root) - So far looks like its coming to life.
3 Variegated Weigela - (Bare root) - No greening yet but probably will pull through.
2 Mountain Laurel - Probably the best, came very well packed in a small pot.
6 Hardy Boxwood - DO NOT WASTE money on this, I received plants about 1-2 inches long with soil around them.
2 Royal Purple Smoke tree - (Bare root) - No greening yet.
10 Red Twig Dogwood - (Bare root) - Disappointing in size (thickness of stem is probably 1/6 of an inch) or less, no greening yet but probably will pull through mostly.
4 Pink Weigela - (Bare root) - No greening yet.
2 Pussy willow - (Bare root) - Looks like this will pull through.
2 Forsythia tree - (Bare root) - Greening already
2 Hydrangea tree - (Bare root) - Received one tree and 3 bushes. No greening yet.
2 Pink Mist Smoke tree - (Bare root) - No greening yet but looks like it will pull through.
4 Willow shrub dappled - (Bare root) - 2 of them growing nicely already, other 2 are yet to show growth.
2 Arkansas Amsonia - (Bare root) - Received it today and it looks like its dormant.

All in all based on other reviews here, I received better (plants that are surviving) plants. Mountain Laurel has been delivered in fabulous state which somebody also has mentioned before.

The plants are small but I'm fine with that since my intentions are for long term anyway, so I was specifically looking to spend less and get more. I have about 2500 sq ft of hill in my backyard where I already have about 15 trees and all of the above are for filling bare areas.

I ordered six angel trumpets a couple of months ago. When they arrived they were in great shape. They were carefully packaged. All six were green. This is the first time I've ordered from this company. I was very aprehensive due to the negative feedback I've read on this site. However, my experience has been nothing but positive. I have repotted all six plants, they are under grow lights and doing very well. I am very pleased with this company and am placing my second order.

Last year I was looking to buy a dwarf lemon tree. Every place was so expensive until I found the Direct Gardening website. For less than it would have cost just to get the lemon tree at other nurseries, I got their 4 citrus collection. It came with Orange, Lime, Lemon &Tangerine trees!! I potted them and put them all out on our deck. Unfortunately I lost one tree due to my negligence but the others are thriving. Now in less than a year I have small fruits setting on already! The clematis I also ordered did very well with an abundance of blooms.
Their prices are unbeatable!