Comments regarding Royal Dutch

My reaction here is "Buyer Beware!" Knowing better I still ordered anyway as I wanted the pink dogwoods they advertised. While at it I also ordered Walk on me plant (aka Thyme), Trumpet-Hummingbird vine, mouse plant and pep pills. Order placed 2/12/2014 and arrived, very much worse for the trip on 3/21/2014 in a large green plastic bag. Contents, when opened didn't look good and as the trees had no protection had broken down to about 8 inches tall. I soaked the bare root items in water and the Walk on Me Thyme as well, planting them the following day. The thyme looked much better for their soak and most seem to be taking hold. The 4 vines, the 2 dogwood and the mouse plant have yet to show signs of life or growth. As for the "Pep pills" - they were powdered and broken, again due to no protection. I used pieces as I planted the items and the powder on the thyme. I carefully saved all packing label, etc and will contact the company should my items fail to grow. This is a very poor way to ship plants, even bare root stock. They should have protection, stakes, etc. Shipping fees should warrent this protection.
I guess this goes to show - "If it sounds too good to be true - it probably is"! I should have bought from a more reputable company. Even if these plants grow, I'll spend lots of time nursing them along when better stock would be off and growing in the lovely spring weather we are having.
Janet van Mastrigt, Pioneer, CA

I've read the reviews and knew what to expect shipping wise. I've had about a 70% success rate with their plants, have a very green thumb, and have ordered 3 or 4 times $80-140 each time. For those items that didn't survive (mostly potted plants), I've requested replacement but it hasn't been long enough to hear back. They have great dahlia tubers, absolutely a steal at $20 for 16 dinnerplates and I've had a 90%+ success rate with them.

One of the things I don't appreciate, however, is the fact they replace items with something else, but still label it as the original. I know what I originally ordered, please let me know that you substituted the red lily with a white one, because white doesn't belong in my red and purple garden. Or, when I expect something to grow only 10 inches tall, so put it in the front and instead, have it replaced with something that is 3 feet tall. I get replacements may occur, just tell me what you're replacing it with so I can plant it appropriately or request a refund.

You pay for what you get. I don't mind coaxing baby plants along and expect them to be smaller at this price. I don't expect them to be dead, or shipped during a snowstorm (which happened this spring and killed most of the tubers in that shipment). You are paying less- don't expect top of the line. They'll get there eventually, but you have to give it a few years. Be patient or go elsewhere and pay double.

"On Aug 16, 2013 1:41 PM, Royal Dutch responded with:

A customer care representative has contact this customer for further information. We are sorry to hear that an item may have been sent in error as we do label all substitutions if they are sent. We do have a 1 year replacement guarantee on all of our plants and do hope that the customer takes advantage of this guarantee."

In the past, I've had about a 95% success rate with online bubs and plants from others. I ordered about $100 worth of bulbs and plants. They arrived a couple of weeks after I thought they should have. Did not like the packaging at all. If the postal service would have been rough with the green plastic bag- many of the plants/bulbs could be hurt. I'd rather pay an extra dollar 'shipping' for a real box. Some of the plants are 'protected' by a corrugated cardboard 'sandwich'. Several of the plants had the staple right on the stem of the plant. After a month, I sent Royal Dutch for replacement for about half the dollar amount of my original order. About 1/3 of the lily bulbs had never came up. A few other plants died shortly after planting. Proper planting instructions for the Red Sedum was non existent, and may have contributed to the mass failure of those plants. (we'll see how these fare, now that I found how to plant from another site) When the replacement order arrived (a little over a month after requesting), the lily bulbs were soaking wet- i fear these may have rot and not come up either.
Though mostly a negative experience, I am choosing neutral stance- with a few improvements, it could be a good company. I appreciated the 'no questions' replacement (though HAVING to return the shipping label is shady- as many people would simply throw away the bag).

I purchased plants from Royal Dutch last Spring. I had a very Horrible experience in the fact that I had a very disappointing experience with them. My climbing 9 climbing rose bushes were a disapppoint. Only 4 of 9 grew. I only got 1 rose out of the bunch. I asked for and was given a merchandise credit. You have to send them the original shipping label and send a letter with it to ge t proper credit.
I ordered all my Tulip bulbs for next year and, lo and behold, they sent some really nice bulbs!! I also ordered their Hosta Garden and they look okay. I will update this posting next spring. Even though Customer Service is not that BRIGHT (MORE TRAINING NEEDED), at least, with a LOT of nagging and demanding, this company does come through. We'll see next spring.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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