Comments regarding Royal Dutch

When I opened the package, a terrible smell came out. The bulbs were all rotten! When I attempted to claim a refund, I got a spectacular run-around. Finally I gave up.

I ordered some bulbs and a couple plants from them this spring before I discovered this website--needless to say, I had the same experience many others have had as well. None of the bulbs grew, and although one of the plants was still alive when it arrived it didn't survive very long. I didn't bother contacting them to try and fix the situation because I had seen the comments here and figured it wasn't worth it.

Unfortunately, I came across this forum much, much too late. I too ordered "plants" from Royal Dutch. Well over half of the "dormant" plants did not survive. Many others are still struggling 5 months later. I did not try to request a replacement as the bareroot planting season in my area has long since past. It is much too hot now to try to plant anything bareroot. I spent over $200 on my order and patted myself on the back for getting such a good deal as I am trying to landscape a rather large area. So much for cutting costs! I still had to go out and buy replacement plants for the ones that didn't make it and I am now redesigning my landscape on the fly as the local nurseries don't have what I originally planned on using from Royal Dutch. Be assured I won't order from them again. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

I've only ordered from them once, but the bulbs I received were immaculate and are blooming magnificently. I ordered tiger lilies, which came as beautiful, huge, firm bulbs and callas which again, were beautifully sized and firm. I appear to be the exception rather than the rule, but I do have to admit I'd be tempted to give them another try...Especially since what they sent me are doing so well.

In 2004 I ordered a daylily assortment, and when the bulbs arrived, almost all were obviously rotting -- mushy and falling apart. Sure enough, none of them grew. I sent my shipping label, plus a letter, to Royal Dutch and in a few weeks received a full replacement. This time the bulbs were firm and appeared viable. Most of these did grow. While I must say that Royal Dutch honored their guarantee, they should never have shipped the original poor quality stock in the first place. I do not intend to purchase from them again.

Of course I didn’t listen to the warnings on here. I went ahead and ordered the daylilies because of the cheap prices. Most of my order looked OK except for 2 items that looked dead upon arrival. They were shriveled up in their packages. Why in the world would they send out something that looked dead for awhile. (They probably have packers that couldn't care less if something is dead or alive.)

I contacted them and I was pissed off. Of course they said replacements would be sent. I sent back the packing slip and a letter about the replacements and asked that they would confirm via email or phone. That was on April 6 and now it is May 6 and I have yet to hear anything from them.

For the prices, I did not expect huge plants, but I did expect them to be alive when they get here.

Probably will not order from them again.
Their customer service sucks and they don't seem to care so why should I do business with them.

I orderred Sedums and hybrid poplar. The bareroot Sedums were in mediocre to poor shape; time will tell if they grow. 75% of the poplars appeared to be in good condition (and I delayed planting longer than I should have), and are currently sending out nice shoots. 25% of the trees were either broken, or lacked roots, or looked obviously dead.

Cheap prices, poor packaging. I'm happy enough with the trees to give them a try once again.

While I'm glad for those who have had a positive experience with these companies, I have to say that my experience with the Plantron empire was horrible. I work in Bloomington, and one of my students worked in the fields for this greenhouse and was full of admiration for how knowledgeable her bosses were--so, despite all of the negative comments about this company, I drove on over, hoping that maybe the products and service would be better for a local who visited in person. Sadly, that was not the case. The service was rude and unhelpful, not one thing I purchased actually grew, and when I got home I discovered that they had not included any of the "free bulbs and plants" that were supposed to be included with every purchase (despite the fact that I reminded the salesman at least three times).

I didn't try to get get a refund, since I kind of felt like I knew what I was getting into before I bought anything from them, and I didn't spend enough there for it to be worth the hassle. But if it makes anyone feel better, I sneer in Royal Dutch Garden's general direction whenever I drive by.

For those who have found this website AFTER placing an order, I must make you feel better in noting that I have had 3 great experiences ordering first from four seasons, then direct gardening and finally royal dutch. Infact, I lost my magazine and could not remember the website so I typed in Royal Dutch and this complaint site popped up first. I feel aweful for everyone that had a bad experience and wish you the best of luck in fixing your order, but I must point out to those who are waiting on their order. The assortment and pricing is unbeatable. When people are content or happy with a product or service they don't normally seek out ways to give the company free marketing. It is only when one is very disappointed that you vent to everyone that will listen. Thus perhaps there are many people like myself that have only good things to say about their Royal Dutch experience. Best of luck...

I am feeling very fortunate as I purchased plants from this company prior to reading these reviews...I ordered a 24 pack of golden sedum, a silver leaf vine, a hardy fuschia bush, and a 3 pack of "walk on me" thyme.. The plants did in fact look very sad in their "dormant" state upon arrival however, after just three days in the ground at least 20 of the 24 sedum plugs have rosettes and the vine also had 5 new leaves (both arived with little to no green and the vine was yellowing) My vine is now twice the starting size and it's just been two weeks in the ground.. My fushcia has many new buds emerging (and it appeared to be a stick). Sadly the only plants that haven't shown any signs of life are my thyme ground cover... All in all I'm pleased. For the overall cost this has been a success for me although the investment was minimal. I will repeat that these plants all looked to be dead upon arrival and this in itself wasn't encouraging and they are small but once again -for the $...and the fact that they truely are alive...I am satisfied.

If it sounds too good to be true; it usually is!! I was also swayed by the great prices. I placed an order on 2/21/05. I have emailed with no reply. Right now I would be happy with a response, even better a refund! (order # 31402938)

The Garden Watchdog is such a great resource, I should have checked here first.

I was very disappointed to see the flimsy packaging of my rather large fragile purchase (the rock bottom prices were enticing). I feared opening a bunch of crushed dead looking specimens, but things actually looked like they were in decent shape ("dormant", but the lavendar had some healthy sprouts). Sadly, I found this complaint page after receiving the order.

I can only hope that the company has taken customer complaints to heart and improved their offerings -- even if only as a result of legal force. I will hope for the best, but will bookmark this site and save the follow up contacts in my address book.

It's difficult to imagine how they make their money to stay in business unless their slim profit margin hinges such a large volume after settling complaints.

I had ordered from this company before I found your website, so I am petrified of what I will find when (and if) the order arrives. I'm going to try to cancel it.

I was wondering, though, about something I saw in the "thread" of conversation about this company. How can you know what a company's affiliations are? How can you know if a company keeps changing its "identity" to avoid people knowing who they are? How can you know what all the Richard Owens companies are, for instance?

I'm curious because I want to track down the affiliations of another company and I would like to know how to do it.

Thank you.

I received a catalog from Burgess/Royal Dutch of Bloomington, Illinois, claiming such great prices and quality. I purchased $105.15 of Siberian Elms, and sent my order form by mail back in December 2004. Finally, I received a charge on my credit card 012605 for the full amount, but no plants or mail received from the company, so I emailed them. I received an email back asking for my name and address so they could access my account. I replied back by email, with the information. No resonse has been received yet. I sent off another email today with the same response attached as before, and will wait and see. I advised them I will dispute this if I do not hear from them. (Boy, am I'm sorry I didn't find your site sooner!) I intend to dispute the charge as soon as my credit card bill comes in the mail, if my plants are not here in good condition. What I see is that I have 60 days to dispute with the credit card company once the charge shows. If I wait on Royal Dutch to play their back/forth games, the 60 day deadline may pass me by. I will dispute and cancel the dispute when and if I receive my plants. I don't think I would use this company again, due to the comments I read about it.

I ordered about $70 of assorted bulbs on July 1. I recieved them in a green plaastic bag, when the bag was open I was hit by a stench similar to rotted potatos.
I was told to send te original shipping label back and the bulbs would be replaced. I also sent an extra $9 for UPS shipping. I recieved the bulbs yesterday, when I opened them I recieved that familiar stench and sure enough most the bulbs had turned to a slime consistancy.
I called and asked for a reimbursement, to which I was told they couldnt do. I now have filed a dispute of payment with my credit card. If I were to follow the same directions again, by the time I got the bulbs,if they werent rotted, it would be too late to plant.
Within a 1 block radius of my house I've run into 2 other people that have had similar experience.
The customer service reps are rude and short, and leave you with no alternative but to keep sending shipping labels. Now they have my original (I took a copy) so if something else dosent come up Im just screwed.
STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!

I should have known better.... I ordered 18 robin hood roses from this company (bare root) in mid-July. They insisted that even though it was mid summer, I'd receive healthy dormant plants, and I'd have no problem with planting and with the results. I received 18 DEAD- I mean falling apart, stinking, DRIED OUT plants. My options? Repackage this mess and send it back (at MY cost) or plant them (yeah sure) and let them know how they do after 6 weeks. I guess I'll "plant them" and call them after 6 weeks. I'll report the results in 6 weeks.

Ordered nice looking creepers and moss. They arrived 6 weeks later (!) and dead. I called the company and was told they were "dormant" and I should plant them and wait 6 weeks for them to sprout up. I did that, using standard gardening practices for those plants. Two tried hard to make themselves live, but were not successful. I lost $47. When I called the company today, they told me their policy was that I could have replacement plants. I explained that it is too late and would like a refund. No-go. They said I can send in the labels for replacements (I was told this at least 15 times, in very pleasant tones.) I called Visa and was given my money back. A happy ending to a sad story. I'd never use Royal Dutch Gardens for anything ever again.

w0w- sure wish I'd seen this earlier- but i was one of the lucky ones- my order from Royal Dutch did not ship and did not ship and did not ship and they kept promising so on the 59th day, I filed a complaint with my credit card company and finally got the credit- BUT, stupid me, I'd also placed an order with Direct Gardening which did ship and everything was scuzzy, moldy and/or dead so I sealed everything backup and went down to the post office and mailed it back insured. And they said they didn't get it etc for nearly three months until I finally faxed them a copy of the insurance form from the USPS. I told them if I didn't get a credit in 5 days on my account, they could fight it out with the US government and... the credit was issued

Hi everyone. I guess I am pretty much in the same boat regarding Royal Dutch's bad business practices. I ordered hostas, snow on the mountain, vinca minor, three rose bushes and one climbing rose...the results? Well the vinca minor was nothing more than a mass of black slimy leaves and dead vines, the snow on the mountain was brown and *crackly*, only one rose bush is producing any leaves (Red Treasure), the other two are black and show no green when nicked, the climbing rose (Blaze) is dead as a doornail. This was the first time that I ever ordered from this company and it will be the last. I'm not a rich person, so I put a lot of thought into what I want to order each year- this year has been the pits. Thanks to Royal Dutch. I am sorry that everyone else had losses too. I hope your next ordering experience is much better.

Warm Regards,
elizabeth

I ordered from Royal Dutch twice last year and couldn't be more dissapointed. The shipping was fine and all my plants did arrive.

I ordered three types of tulips, two bushes, a lenten rose, snowdrops, feather hyacinths, and a Pride of Ireland Iris. But out of nine items, only three survived. The bushes looked ill from the start and promptly withered away to nothing despite having good care.

The feather hyacinths and snowdrops never came up, which is funny considering I raise over 300 bulbs and know what I'm doing. I should after a decade of gardening.

The iris rotted, which is also a first. But I'm not surprised as it arived slimy and foul-smelling.

The tulips survived and look healthy, but even there I was let down. The Miranda was shipped as ordered, but my Double Beauty of Apeldoorn are singles. And the Blue Lagoon tulips are fire engine red, with no hint of turning into true blue or even the purpilish blue the catalog showed.

As for the free bulbs I earned, they all either rotted in transit to me, or were empty husks at arrival. I'd love to believe the snowdrops and hyacinths will show up and surprise me, but even if they did, I'd still avoid this company.

So far, my only complaint is that my order arrived too early. I have mailorderd from many different companies and have always been sent the plants at a time when it was safe to plant them. There is still some snow on the ground here and night temperatures remain low. since the plants are packaged in plastic, I felt I had to get them out to prevent rot. I currently have them acclimating in a paper bag in the garage. There was no packing slip or invoice that I could find until I saw a list of contents on the outside of the big mailer bag. There was not specific planting guides or info on returns or warranties.
On the other hand, the bareroot plants look healthy enough and the jury is still out regarding dependability.

Royal Dutch is nothing but a scam. My card was charged in August (for stuff I didn't order) and I'm not sure how this company got my PERSONAL information. I have tried numerous times to tell these dingbats that I didn't order $198.01 worth of merchandise (stuff that looks dead, by the way), and they have refused to respond UNTIL I threated them with legal action. Here is their email to me:

"Our refund guarantee states that the Original shipping label, the items along with a letter requesting a refund need to be returned within 14 days of receipt. You will need to send the Original shipping label (s), the
items along with a letter requesting a refund for these items. Be sure to state in the letter that you did not order this and that someone else used your Debit Card without your knowledge. The shipping charges are
non-refundable, however, you can state in the letter that you are requesting that the shipping charges be refunded as well."

So now I have to spend MY hard-earned money to send back I didn't order to a shady company. BUYER BEWARE!!!!

I placed an order with Royal Dutch Gardens to be sent as a gift to an experienced gardener in northern New York. When I visited her this summer, I learned that the plants arrived in very poor shape and ultimately died after they were planted. I did not receive the package or mailing label and the recipient of my gift did not keep the package or mailing label. I asked for and was denied a refund by Royal Dutch Gardens and they refused to replace the plants because I could not produce the mailing label which never came to me. Surely Royal Dutch Gardens has a record of this order and my payment by check. I have sent my complaint to the Central Illinois Better Business Bureau, 413 SW Washington Street, Peoria, Illinois 61602 and to the Office of the Attorney General, Consumer Protection Bureau, 500 south Second Street, Springfield, Illinois 62706

On April 22, 2003 I ordered (3)Pride of Ireland Iris and (3)Dorothy Rose Columbine. I did not know that the policy of the company was to charge my credit card for the items that I had ordered and I would be shipped the items in the fall.
I called in May to find out when my order would arrive, I wanted to plant the iris as soon as possible. I was told that I had ordered from the fall book and they would ship the order as soon as they could. I called again in August about the Columbine at least. These had been shipped the May before and I had never received these items. I called again this morning and was told that there was no definite ship date on the columbine and they had no order for the Pride of Ireland iris. My credit card was charged for both items. I do have my online receipt! When I did talk to customer service this morning, they told me to send a copy of my receipt to a supervisor and they would investigate my order,which I did. After seeing all the negative things people have to say about this company, I'm really not very hopeful about my order.

I ordered from Royal Dutch Gardens via Direct Gardening. I ordered bulbs which I will not receive until fall. I also ordered pampas grass that arrived dead. It was gross. I can't believe a company would send anything like that. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of leaving the packaging lay in the garage and my husband promptly threw the original packing slip away and they have given me a very hard time about that. Even though I have a copy of the charge to my card and a copy of my order, I have not seen replacements yet. I wish I had found this website before ordering from them. I think I'm about to lose on this one. I'd like to cancel the bulb order, but am afraid that they will not replace the pampas grass if I do. I would not recommend this company to anyone and think they should be reported to whatever consumer agency.

So far I've only ordered 3 roses, some bulbs and a hydrengia. Two roses died, one did well. I had no problem replacing the roses and so far so good with the new roses but it's only been a week. The hydrengia came dead looking & wilty and a stow-a-way (baby slug) but I planted it in a pot and within two weeks it was healthy and thriving. I just planted the bulbs so we'll have to see about those.
My biggest complaint is customer service. I've needed help with some products and I've had to contact our own nursery for help.

I ordered 100 trees from them last year, over half of them were sent, obviously dead, and the rest were already budded out but most died shortly after planting. I did everything possible to give them the best chance at survival and only 5 of them survived this year. The other plants I bought came to me destroyed they weren't packaged for shipment. all the dirt had fallen out of the packages and no chance of survival. With out a number (how convenient on their part, that should have raised a red flag to me) I cant get a hold of them to make sure they will be replaced and I only have until the 30 of this month for the warranty.

Ordered plants last Fall (02); they arrived late & looked dead. Sure enough, this spring they were 95% dead. They will not talk about an adjustment without original invoices, which, of course went out with the shipping cartons last year. This is not a good company.

Bulbs were of good quality, all grow and bloom well. If you order their non-bulb items though, you may be asking for trouble.