Comments regarding Kelly Nurseries

This place is the WORST in my experience of ordering plants over a 25 year period!! They offered a rare Japanese peony, which cost a rare price, and I received some common plant that I could have dug up along any country roadside. This was after receiving dead bare root rot and given the run-around for two years.

Last Spring I ordered a Harry Lauder's Walking Stick. It didn't grow. However a sprout came out at the bottom just below what looked like a graft. I do not know what the root stalk was. I sent a leaf off the sprout to Kelly and at this time I have not heard a thing from them. About 50% of the Freesias that I ordered at the same time did grow. I'm still hoping for a refund for $16.95 or a replacement for the Harry Lauder's Walking Stick.

This past spring I received Kelly's catalog and from it bought 30 of their super hybrid willow trees. I expected the trees to arrive in late March or early April, the best time to plant in Upstate New York. The trees arrived in late June, the roots seemed to be very dry so after soaking them in a bucket of water over night I planted them the very next day. About two weeks later I called my mother to see how the trees were doing. Very sadly she told me that all the trees but two seemed to be dead. A week later I made an inspection. She was right; they were all dead except two. In the catalog they show these trees growing to ten or twelve feet the first year. The erosion at the site where I planted them warrants such growth. I wrote to Kelly's about the end of August and explained that the trees had all died. I sent in the shipping label and waited. A month went by and nothing, not even a note. At the end of Sept. I wrote again and explained the whole thing, reminded them of their catalog guarantee. Here it is October and I have received nothing except a bunch of dead trees. Let the buyer beware, my hard earned money will never be spent at Kelly nurseries again. I wish I had read these notes before I ordered. No wonder they don't publish a phone number or have a web site.

I ordered a Harry Lauder's Walking Stick tree, and a blue rose form Kelly Nurseries. The Harry Lauder's Walking Stick tree died and the rose I received was pink when it boomed. I was real disappointed. I thought I would get the rare rose that I had ordered.

I will NEVER order from these folks again. I paid a lot for " 2-yr old" pyracanthra "shrubs", which appeared to be stem-cuttings. My bulbs were rotten, perennials completely smashed up, and phlox (their substitution for lily-of-the-valley I ordered but did not receive) was coated with slime. It wasn't until I inspected the order that I realized they had no phone number listed in the catalogue! I wrote to request a refund for the spoiled items, and accepted the rest of the order with what I thought was good grace. I got a refund for substantially less than I requested & vowed to avoid this company in the future.

I ordered from them and specifically told them the order MUST come first week of April or don't bother to send it! The order showed up the third week of April, I refused it. I called them telling them I was going to refuse it and they stated I also had to write a letter requesting the refund/credit be processed. I did this in late April and here it is July 14, 1998 and they admit receiving returned goods/merchandise but I haven't gotten my credit.

If you wish to change an order, you have to write to them, which is completely unheard of throughout the industry. When I realized that I had ordered from a Plantron company, because of my unsuccessful orders from Richard Owen, I was informed that I could only cancel an order by mail. When I was told I had to write to cancel an order, I sent a certified letter to them. They replied to me and informed me that I would receive half of my money back because an order had already been "shipped", although unto this day I have not received a thing from them. The order was canceled a month ago, so why would the items be in transit? I would caution anyone against ordering from them; they seem to engage in rather dubious business practices. Finally, their catalogues contain cheesy, retouched photographs and artwork.

Two thumbs DOWN on these folks! Last spring I ordered assorted plants, many of which arrived with sodden soil, no roots, or rotted tops. One "shrub" was just a broken stem with a label attached. Don't bother writing a friendly letter about your experiences; you must tell them every item you want replaced by catalog number and quantity (even though the original order must be included). Saying that "all the xyz pyrethrum failed to come up" will do no good. And THEN they start to delay! First they said I hadn't waited long enough (I'd waited 6 weeks before writing). Then they decided I wasn't specific enough (since when is "all" or "every one" difficult to understand)? After that, they claimed that fall was not a good time to plant perennials, and I would have to wait until (this year) for replacements. This year, the quality was just as poor.This time, I'm demanding a straightforward refund, and I personally will never order anything from them again!