Comments regarding House of Wesley

On recommendation of our landscape designer, we've ordered a number of plantings from the Burgess arm of this company. Will see how the plants are upon arrival and planting, but will not hesistate to contact my credit card company to rescind payment if the merchandise is not healthy and as described.
Would recommend that other gardeners who've had bad dealings with them in the past do the same.

Charged my CC long before it was shipped, it took them over a month to ship, they never responded to my emails, they never answered the phone. When I recieved my shipment it was in yellow trash bag with no padding or support, most of the plants looked damaged or dead, but somehow most of them made it.

I recieved 28 plants:

3 butterfly weeds - 2 are alive and doing well, 1 is dead
2 bloodroot - Its past its time, so I'm not sure if its dead or alive
3 Ligularia - 3 alive and doing well
2 Black barlow Columbine - Both Alive and doing well
1 Golden Chain Tree - DOA
1 Cardinal Flower - DOA
3 Trillium - All are past, so unknown
1 jack in the pulpit - alive and doing well
1 Virginia blue bell - Alive
6 Robin hood roses - all alive
1 Gunnera - dead
4 Free Lillies - all alive

19 alive and well
5 unknown
4 dead

I will not be returning the dead plants, its not worth the effort (time & shipping cost) the customer service is non-existent. I will not order from them again, nor from any catalog of this kind, its a gamble, yet in the end I do not feel I was robbed. The price I paid for 2 alive & 1 dead, butterfly plant is equal to what I would of paid for 1 plant elsewhere. I lost a couple of dollars on the other plants, the big loss was the gunnera which when I think about it was a silly purchase in the first place.

Despite warnings to the contrary, I ordered a Patio Tree Rose and Climbing Shell Plant from House of Wesley. The rose arrived 6 weeks after ordering, shipped in a thin plastic bag with absolutely no padding or moisture control. Many of the branches and roots were broken off in shipment due to the poor packing. I was very saddened to have to clip it back, but the branches could not be saved. The resulting plant was very sparse and unbalanced. I had no hope for it. I planted it in a large container and wished it the best. After only a couple days of being planted, the rose started to sprout buds. I have been watering it regularly and giving it plenty of sunshine, and it seems to be doing great. The broken branches have not started to regrow, but I'm not sure how long that takes since this is my first tree rose.

The Climbing Shell plant was shipped three weeks after I received the rose. It arrived in perfect condition in a small pot. I have no complaints about this purchase other than the fact that it spent 8 days in a box with no sunlight. Despite that, it seems to be fine.

Although the rose does appear to be growing, I will not order from House of Wesley again. Their poor packing is just unacceptable, and they charged my credit card 4 weeks before they actually shipped the item. I gave them a neutral rating, because my experience seems to be better than most.

I'm going to go with Neutral for right now.
I live in Wisconsin were the winters are very cold. I ordered three plants from House of Wesley in the winter of '04, One 3-in-1 Dwarf Citrus Tree and Two Paw Paw trees. The order cam in when the weather was nice, in late March. My Dwarf Citrus Tree was very Dwarf, about 4 inches tall. It had many leaves and buds on it and was packaged nicely. But my Paw Paw trees cam in this big green bag that did not protect the trees from the elements at all! I took out the two trees and they looked dead, broken branches, not an ounce of life to them. I reda the directions and they said that they would be dormant to reduce stress on the plants. So I planted them and gave them some Tender Love and Care, 3 weeks later, there is still no sign of life. About 1.5 weeks ago I ordered again, thinking that the Paw paws would still be coming around, from a catologe that came. I ordered a Daisy Tree, Magnolia Tree, Bleeding Heart Bush, 6-in-1 Fruit Tree, 8 Rose of Sharon Hedges, and got a free Hydrandia Tree with my order. The order didn't cokme in yet, but I'm not too worried just so soon. But just finding this site I'm a little worried. I'll see what happens.

I am leaving a neutral rating because I have not attempted to contact the company in regards to my order. I take partial responsibility because I should have better researched the company instead of ordering from them on faith (though that's what mailorder is all about, isn't it?) Also, none of my items were clearly dead or rotten. What I did get ($50 worth) was crammed into my mailbox in a single plastic envelope. What was inside was laughable. To say I felt ripped off was an understatement. The twelve daylillies I ordered were teeny little 3-bulb rootlets that will take years to produce anything worthwhile, should they live. The three pink pampas grass were crumpled in the envelope (in the mailbox!), but did have a healthy root system. Some would say that what you get is fair for the price, but I would disagree. If I had spent the $11 (for Wesley's "three" pink pampas grass) at the local nursery, I could have gotten a 1-gallon pot with a big, tall, well-rooted plant and could have divided it to make 6 or 8 of the "Wesley" sized version (and would have money leftover). Same with the shasta daisies. I think that their version of a "plant" is more what we would consider a very stingy perennial division. There is something rather shady about the fact that this company has so many names... trying to avoid the "bad press" being attached to a single name? I can't say what their reasoning is, but it makes one wonder. The bottom line: I had lowered expectations because of how cheap some of the stuff was, but the itsy bitsy "plants" that you get don't justify even the itsy bitsy prices! And, just in comparison, I received a daylily order from Gilbert H. Wild the same day and the daylillies that cost me less from them were four times as big and healthy as the Wesley version. Don't be lured by the prices: these are no bargains. These folks give mailorder a bad name.

I ordered some 100 plants from this Company. So far all I have received is 1 pink pampas grass. When I sent email regarding my order, I was told that the rest of my order was coming in the next shipment. We ordered from this company because we have some major property line planting to do and it was the cheapest way to do it. We came in well prepared that all of the plants will not do well. But the plants that we order cost about 6 bux a piece in a local nursery and we were able to get 8 for 4 bux. So we can afford for some of them not to do well. I do have to say that my pampas grass was in good shape when it got here. So I guess that's a good sign. I will post again when the rest of my order gets here with the results.

Also if anyone knows a mail order that is reliable with reasonable prices, I would greatly be interested, just in case this doesn't work out. Please put in a post here with the company name so I may order a catalog.

I haven't received my order yet (getting a little nervous) but after reading this forum, after I had already ordered of course, I did email them and ask about return policy - this was the response, thought I would post it for those of you who are having the problem with returns:

To: CustomerService@directgardening.com
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 10:15 AM
Subject: Just a Question


I haven't received my order from you yet, but I ran across this on your website and I was curious about what to do if I have a problem later.

If you have to send in your original shipping label for a replacement on one plant, what if you need the original shipping label later for a different plant?

"We will keep the shipping label on file in our office for the year the warranty is good for. In the event you need additional replacements for other items included on this label, simply write to us and indicate that we have the label on file due to a previous replacement and we will process your request.

Remember to always keep any label attached to a shipment.

Thank you,
Customer Service"

We purchased quite of few Holiday Cactus from House of Wesley and some other plants from their interconnected associated companies. For the most part they arrived in acceptable packaging. However, most of our Holiday Cactus has died, some within 1 month the rest took 4 months and then died. We have contackted them and did send in the original mailing label, as stated in their guaranteed policy, and received those replacement plants. But then those replacement plants died and we are waiting for the 2 round to be received.
So, my rating for them would be Neutral at this point. They did follow thru the first time. We did have some BiColor Day Lilies that have not arrived but did receive a card from them just yesterday stating they need to send these in the Fall when the right time for their imparticular planting success would be. So we did hear from them and yes, they did cash the check so hope they don't shut their door before we receive all our "Replacements".

After reading all these complaints, I'm worried about sending my order! I ordered from House of Wesley last year and ALL my plants looked a little unhealthy when I unwrapped them but I planted them and they grew beautifully! I ordered from another company and got terrible results. I guess I will try again with H.O.W

I still haven't received this years order though it was placed 6 weeks ago, oh well I'll have to wait and see.

The House of Wesley catalog is the only source we have found for Sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum) of Sorrel Tree, (aka Lily of the Valley tree.)

I just received an order, my first from House of Wesley. I am a bit concerned about several of the plants. as they don't appear to have survived the shipping (loosely packed in a large plastic bag.) I do plan on returning a PawPaw tree that has no roots at all attached to the twig labeled "PawPaw". The rose looks hardy, as do the daylilies. Of the twelve lavender I purchased, three actually look viable; I'll plant them and watch. Maybe I'm inexperienced in what these plants should look like, I hope they come up as I really liked the presentation in the catalogue.