Comments regarding Top Tropicals LLC

I ordered 4 items recently and they all came in great shape, well packaged and lush. It is disappointing to hear all the negatives, since my experiences (1 order per year over the last 5 years) have all been good.

I ordered 6 bougainvilleas from Top Tropicals in August 2012. The web site described the plants as "large" and "3 gallon" size. The plants were small and spindly. The trunk diameter was less than 1 inch on each of them. The manager forwarded my complaint to the owner. The email I received included the following:

"On Sun, Aug 12, 2012 at 5:52 PM, Top Tropicals LLC wrote: Send him picture of plants in pot along with tape measure. Or simply ignore him."

The manager wrote, "they are all 3 gallon plants."

I bought a camera just to take photos of those plants. Three of them still bear the "TopTropicals" labels.

I have ordered several times from this company. Most of the time seeds, but a few plants. One time I ordered a plant that took a long time, with no updates on delivery. But when they finally sent the plant, they also sent a bonus plant to make up for the delay. I mostly order seeds, and last order was missing a pack. I notified them and they quickly sent out another pack. This company has a wide selection of tropicals, and is a pleasure to deal with.

Just received my Cordia sebestena tree today (10-11-2012) and it is in perfect health. I ordered the 3 gallon pot size plant and the tree is nearly 5 feet tall which was unexpected. Nice healthy green plant with a sturdy trunk.

The tree arrived in a tall slender box, root ball was sealed in clear plastic and still moist, the tree was supported in the box by a bamboo stake, the upper portion of the tree was wrapped in tube mess to protect the leaves and branches which was really a nice touch, and the box was full of packing peanuts as well. No other company I have ordered from has ever taken this much care when shipping me a plant.

Will definitely order from them again!
-Michael King

Ordered a handful of tropical fruit trees which were shipped promptly. However, they arrived in terrible condition and not what we had ordered.. As with experiences from other members, trees arrived with wilted stems and dried up leaves... But the worst concern was we did not receive what we had ordered.

Wary of the negative reviews from other members, we e-mailed the nursery before ordering to find out whether the trees were grafted or not and the approximate sizes. What we received were seedling trees instead of grafted trees and trees that were less than half the size we were told. When we contacted customer service to let them know of the error, no apology or explanation was made for the error. We had no choice but to return the trees and request for a full refund. Customer service had surprisingly agreed and even offered to give us a discount if we wished to re-order the trees that we initially wanted. It took nearly a month for the entire process and after returning the trees, we only received a partial refund and they refused to honor the discount for us to re-order the trees we had initially wanted. Very disappointed. We would recommend purchasing from another nursery even if the item is difficult to find elsewhere.

Ordered 2 sausage trees. Were shipped promptly and I picked them up promptly at the post office. One was received dead and leaves crisp. The other was in okay shape except that it was totally root bound. Did some root pruning before putting it into a container so far it is okay, but would expect better quality merchandise.

I wish I could give Top Tropicals (TT) a positive review because after reading some of the other reviews I believe their customer service has improved. In July 2012, I purchased a "Florida Hass Avocado" to improve the pollination success with my "Day Avocado" - Type A and Type B. The tree arrived in a timely manner unpotted in a plastic bag with a protective sleeve around the truck of the tree. I was ready for delivery and planted the tree in large planter with new potting soil and perlite. After a couple of days the leaves began to wilt and fall off. I immediately sent an email to TT to notify them of the situation and to inquire about a replacement if the tree failed to live. I received a next day response asking about how the tree was planted. I responded with this information and asked for any advice to help ensure the tree survived. I did not receive a follow-up email and in the meantime the tree lost all of its leaves. I sent another email and this time I received a reply stating that I didn't follow the planting instructions and the plant could be suffering from root rot. Implied was that I had voided any replacement/warranty since I didn't following instructions. Well it wasn't root rot but what I believe to be a bad case of shock/stress. The tree is not out of the woods completely but I have noticed signs of new growth. Although I'd asked about a replacement if the plant died I never received a direct answer. I would hope they would stand by their plants/trees and would caution any future buyers to following any written instructions precisely.

I must concur with the other positive reviews. I have placed at least 8 orders to them over a 3 year period and not once was I disappointed! I just received a passiflora and a dwarf brazilian banana. Both were the largest plants I have ever received, in fact, MUCH larger and in perfect shape. A month before, I received 2 mangos, also in perfect shape. To be fair, I have never e-mailed or called for customer service, I found their website to have a lot of good cultural information. I know their prices are more expensive, but the plants are so much larger, at least based on my experience, that they are worth it. Based on my experience, I personally cannot say enough good things about this company.

I've recieved 3 orders from TT this spring and summer. a "3 gallon" brugmansia "super Nova" huge, branched plant with a 2 inch stem. It's blooming twice a week after a month in it's new pot. Thai adenium, perfect caudex, budding out now. Huge Condo Mango, no flowers yet, but next year? All were underpriced specimens, well pruned and grown hard. Perfect shipping, fast delivery to Northern Michigan.

Posted on June 21, 2012, updated August 2, 2012
Posted on June 6, 2012, updated June 21, 2012
Posted on March 23, 2012, updated June 6, 2012
Posted on March 23, 2012, updated March 23, 2012
Posted on June 27, 2009, updated March 23, 2012
I have always been happy with the plants I ordered from TT.
They arrive 3 days from the shipping date in good condition with planting instructions, and they are always larger than I expected. Also, their website is great. Green Thumbs Up to Top Tropicals

I ordered an one gallon Jasmine maid of Orleans from them. When it arrived, the leaves are all yellowish, many of have brown spots. I took photos and emailed them for advice (didn't even mention whose responsibility is). No response from them.
Never buy from them again.

I am planting two trees which will only survive if this climate change continues (we essentially have no winters in Atlanta any longer) , a ceiba and a jacaranda.
Since they are new, my experiment is just starting; nevertheless, I can attest to this fact: once you order anything from them you are completely on your own/. They WILL NOT answer any e-mail or questions on propagation, planting or anything else. They WILL NOT ship ANY guides or instructions whatsoever, so be prepared to use references.
BTW---I would say conservatively the trees I received had 2000 plastic peanuts, all nicely electrostatically charged.

I ordered from Top Tropicals back in March of 2011; why am I just posting a review? Let me explain. Top Tropicals delivered a cashew tree to my house I was aware that they are difficult plants to maintain but when you recieve a dead cashew tree from the onset, the chances of the plant living is nearly impossible. I emailed and called the nursery the following day and explained my delimma and as I expected the owner quoted the disclaimer clearly seen on his page without noting that they "guarantee" to ship healthy plants. At the prices and the cost of shipping charged Top Tropicals could afford to be more courteous and customer driven. I will not be ordering or patronizing anymore of their products to say the least. Thanks for the lesson TopTropicals I now know what the worst in mail orders look like.

I ordered some Joy perfume tree seeds from this company. They charged about $5 for shipping for an envelope that contained about 6 tiny seeds with a 42c stamp.The seeds were sown according to tropical seed planting instructions for a humid climate. None sprouted which makes me think they were not fresh seeds. Whenever I've called the company to enquire about different plants, the Russian couple that run Top Tropicals are arrogant and abrasive. Also their plants are overpriced and many can be found in Home Depot at less than half the price. I would only consider buying here if I couldnt find the plant anywhere else but otherwise avoid.

I placed an order for a pineapple plant to be sent to a friend in CA. I made the mistake of not reading the disclaimer that they don't ship pineapples to CA.

My complaint comes from their next action that they chose to cancel the order AND charge me a 6% cancellation fee for an order that was never filled. They informed me of the charge via email 7 days after the order was placed and not filled.

I recognized my error of ordering a plant they could not ship to CA and requested that instead of cancelling the order and charging a 6% fee, they ship it my address in FL.

They have yet to respond (over a week ago) to that request even after a follow up email was sent. I contacted AMEX and disputed the 6% fee and AMEX removed the charge.

Charging cancelling fee's for responding to an email is a horrible business practice that I wanted others to be aware of.

I called, he didn't seem very nice at all. Then I read these and I wanted to say thanks to everyone... I was going to order a bunch of things that I really didn't know about and really wanted to buy them from someone helpful,that is obviously not this man. I wont buy anything from this company. Sorry to all of you who had bad experiences with him, and thanks for warning me. Jamie

My own experience with TopTropicals extends over about 3 years and probably north of a dozen orders worth many hundreds of dollars. My experience with this company has been uniformly positive. Plants typically arrive within 24 hours of ship-notification given my location in central Florida. They have without exception arrived well-packed and healthy. My only encounter with customer service involved double mailing of their magazine and was easily resolved to my satisfaction when I explained the situation by email. I consistently buy from TT for two reasons. First, although I'm no botanist and I have no authority to judge, the TT website seems to be science-based and to contain a really astonishing amount of information that is convenient to use. Second, TT sells plants that tend to be larger and more mature than those sold by other sellers. Naturally these are more expensive to buy and ship than smaller plants. Logee's for instance sells smaller, younger plants. (I order from Logee's as well as TT and have had nothing but positive transactions with them too, including customer service.) I'm not a shill for Top Tropicals nor do I suggest that critical comments aren't warranted. I'm just relaying my personal experience and it's been very good. Now, lots of my plants don't survive, but that's because of my relatively salty location 600 feet from the Atlantic and because I tend to have a brown thumb. With respect to salt-tolerance, I've concluded that guides and lists only take you so far. You have to try the plant exactly where you live. If it dies, well, one reason is you're too close to salt water. But you'd be surprised what works that's not supposed to. On the second issue, brown thumb, you just have to keep trying.

Posted on June 9, 2011, updated July 1, 2011
I giving top Tropicals a negative for several reasons. Their customer service is for the most part, POOR! I did speak with one woman named Lynn that was nice.... ONE time. The other time, not so nice. Madelyn was helpful regarding the care of some plants. I never spoke with Mike but apparently he is the head honcho there and they can't do anything without his permission including refunds.

My plants were shipped promptly and arrived in a timely manner, 2 days. Their packing was fairly well done.. One plant had the soft growth on the tips bent over or broken. I had to trim about 4" off.

I ordered several of the same genus. These were all in 3 gallon pots, advertised as bushy plants. 1 was nice, the other was a little twig with a few leaves on it and almost no roots. It looked like a cutting that they had started about a month ago. The other was full but the growth was all soft, as if it had been pushed to the limit with fertilizer.

Another was infested with scale, sooty looking mold, disgusting. I removed all of the leaves and cut it back. It was nice size, good roots, but I didn't want my other plants infested. I defoliated it, put the leaves in a ziplock bag and threw them away. The other was healthy but not a pretty plant. Leaves only on the tips.

2 plants were on backorder, even though they said they were in stock and it allowed me to order. 1 item they forgot to ship but did not charge me for it.

They do NOT like to give a refund under any circumstances. Be prepared that if the items are on back order, they want to use your money until it comes in. That is NOT how it works. Use a credit card. If they try this, send them an email and a letter and tell them to credit your account and cancel the item that was supposed to be in stock if you don't want to wait on it. If they don't do it, contest the charges on your credit card. They don't fight that, they know they will lose that battle and it's too time consuming.

Their shipping charges are ridiculously high. It cost them about half of what they charged. Boxes are free. I realize they have to pay someone to pack them, still, way too high.

To summarize: I do not like their customer service, their prices are too high for the plants they send. The plants they send look nothing like the ones in the photos on their website. I think they like to deal in quantity, not quality. Maybe their plants look good to people in the Northern states that never see really lush, healthy, tropical specimens. Shipping is too high. If you place an order and cancel it, even if it's 10 minutes after you place the order they charge you a cancellation fee. I would never order from them again.

I just ordered from Top Tropicals, well-knowing what a bad reputation they have. But they had two plants that were unavailable anywhere else. They were overpriced but I ordered them anyway. I received them yesterday afternoon. These were supposed to be 3-gallon plants and they'd shaved off two-thirds of the root balls and wrapped them in plastic, I suppose to save money on shipping (which I would have gladly paid for intact plants). Moreover the plants were under-watered. Because of the water-stress and the root stress, the plants are logically, now wilting. Frankly, I doubt they'll survive even when planted and well-watered. Garden Watchdog is oh-so-reliable and I should have listened to the advice here! Top Tropicals is a rip-off and I don't recommend buying from them under ANY circumstances! I can see why they're an LLC outfit! They would have lots of liabilities otherwise! This place is a disaster!

For the most part their plants are good sized even if a little over priced compared to other vendors.

However, if you have a problem with an order. In my case having a dead cashew tree among other items that were ok, customer service IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. They ignore phone calls and emails to resolve the issue. as always, BUYER BEWARE.

I ordered "Brunfelsia americana - Lady of the night"...arrived perfectly packaged & undamaged. I would highly recommend this company not only for the extra care taken in the packaging, but the large size/fullness/health of the plant.
Regarding the ordering process…When I ordered Brunfelsia seeds/shipped out the same day/received them in about 3 days. When I ordered plants, it took about a week for the order to be ready to send out…but once it was picked up by UPS, it only took 1 day for the delivery.

I've only ordered seeds, mostly Ipomoeas, from Top Tropicals thus far.They were a little slow in arriving,about two weeks, but they germinated readily and are now vigorous plants.I certainly would do more business with this company. They sell good, viable seeds.

I ordered a rare vine that had been uprooted and was told when I got it not to water it. When it arrived it was rather slushy and crawling with centipeds, I could not possibly put this in my green house knowing I would infect my entire greenhouse with that massive amount of bugs. I e-mailed a few times and he said it was normal for all those bugs, needless to say the vine died due to root rot on a disturbed rootball all the leaves were in the bottom of the box when it arrived. As for his attitude if you have ever been to a plant show and seen him he is by nature cocky and arrogant intentionally. He means to be and makes no bones about it, he even posts a sign pertaining to his rules at the plant show.
After reading his obnoxous list of rules that basicly says "if you don't have money in your hand thrusting at me don't talk to me, because I am not interested" so I didn't bother asking him while he was hiding behind his obnoxous sign if he had a specific tree, I found it some where else in the show...and that person was happy to answer my questions about the tree I purchased. There are other vendors with far better demeanors. If he has it so does someone else search for it.

Posted on October 15, 2010, updated November 8, 2010
I ordered a Jade vine and a Red Jade Vine from top tropicals and I received the plants less than a week later. The plants arrived in decent condition, the leaves were perfect, the roots less so. I'll keep everyone updated on the progress.

Mike gave a complete refund for an order that was not acceptable to our condo board and did so promptly.
I was appaled and abhorred at the decision to disgard and trash the order with out my knowledge or approval.
Mid winter at 34 degrees I was in an angry rage in a huge dumpster searching for the plants. They were in bad shape but all are exquisite now. Order from this company if you need a rare plant or something unusual you can be assured the material is worth it in the end!!! People Mike is a GREAT person professionally and if you give him respect and dignity you will have your plant king and dom.

I emailed them after seeing my order hadn't been shipped in 10 days. The owner emailed me stating they have to give priority to mailing out their live plants (mine were several packets of seeds and magazines). When I told him how inconsiderate his answer was, he canceled my order without warning.

Apparently from the gardening forums I visit, I am not the first person to experience this. He (Mike) must be overworked and think that a customer should wait on him, instead of vice versa.

But I'm glad he canceled my order, I've found other nurseries that have much more quality rare plants and they're a lot cheaper! like Pine Island nursery, ediblelandscaping.com. So that is my silver lining to this horrible experience!

Beware when ordering from this company. I ordered two plants (trees). Both came without the trees in the pots they were grown in. Instead the root balls were wrapped in plastic bags. The plants were clearly in distress. Their instructions are put the plant in a pot the same size as the root ball, water, keep at 75 degrees and out of the sun until the plant show new growth before planting. In other words nurse the plants back to health since we disturbed the root ball before planting. I don't know why they can't leave the plant in $3 dollar pot it was grown in. They certainly charge enough.

Ordered a Mangosteen. Received a good quality product.

I've ordered couple of rare flowering plants from them, which i've been looking up in their site for long time. Couple of days since i placed the order, it was shipped and we received very healthy plants in another two days. The packaging was so great and not even one single leaf was damaged. We are very happy with the order. We were so benefitted by the reviews in this site about various online nurseries and felt i should contribute about my experience too. Thanks for all the contributors.

Great company and lovely healthy plants. Only "negative" is all the wonderful plants that I keep finding in the info section but can't find anywhere online. It is very tempting to want just about every thing on the site info only or the merchandise. This year I am going to use the wish list and hope to get lucky. Their plants are always well packed and delivery is prompt.

I found Top Tropicals using a web search for a particular plant. Sure enough they had it plus another I had been looking for. I immediately checked Garden Watchdog ( as I always do! ) and found that though there were a couple negatives mostly they seemed pretty petty so I ordered.
My plants arrived within a week. I have to say the packaging was some of the best I have ever received. The plants themseves were beautiful and healthy.
Living in a very remote area I depend on mail order and Garden Watchdog and I would most certainly order from Top Tropicals again.

So far I've only ordered from this company a couple of times, but have been very pleased with the results,

I ordered a hard to find vine from TT I had actually ordered the same vine from a different source 2 different times and both came delivered dead in 2.5 inch pots. I found that TT had the same vine so I went ahead and tried ordering it hoping for a better outcome ( a living plant that is ) I spoke to Mike who inquired on weather I was able to accomodate this finicky pet so I didn't waste my time or money.
He recommended an alternitive if I couldn't.
I assured him I could and the phone order was placed.
I received a confirmation the next day that it was sent and it arrived the following day, less than 24 hours from being sent.

The plant I received was indeed alive...very alive!!! Well rooted and a good size (far bigger than aloha tropicals dead 2.5 inch pot) plus well packed!!
I live within 100 miles of this nursery and hope to visit and see all he has to offer, his website makes for a great wish list.

Thanks Mike

I ordered two plants. One was a Jackfruit the other a Carrie Mango. After sending several emails, no response however they did send me an email on their mailing list of exotics. The Jackfruit seedling and Carrie Mango both came in a single order box. The Jackfruit was fine, no issues. But the Carrie Mango seems to have been infested with caterpillars inside the shrinkwrap and on or in the rootball. I emailed them to inform them and ask how to handle these very thing inch long green caterpillars as there are many. TopTropicals other then their phone maze never returned my emails. It seems they are setup strictly to do business over the net and even then they did not respond. Sad cause I would have purchased other exotics I could legally get here from them if they had just responded. Needless to say Green Arrow nursery sold me a mixture called 7 and I used the soil mixture with water to try and kill the infestation of bugs.

I ordered a Jasminum sambac Grand Duke from Top Tropicals. It was my first order from them and I was very impressed.
The plant was on sale, it arrived promptly and was in excellent shape. The root was wrapped and the plant was wrapped in mesh surrounded by popcorn. It was packed to perfection and arrived that way. The plant is huge and has many new starts with buds on them. I am very pleased with Top Tropicals and would not hesitate to order again from them.
I would recommend them to anyone.
I hope someday to be lucky enough to get the Jasminum sambac Grand Duke - Supreme from them.

On 6/7/09 I ordered Epin and Cirkon plant growth regulators. I had previously purchased those products from TopTropicals with satisfaction. These normally come as liquids inside vials inside hermetically sealed plastic envelopes. This time, I received the merchandise with all of the envelopes cut open. Judging from the odor, I suspected that the vial contents were replaced with water. I emailed TopTropicals and they said that the cut the envelopes open to check for leaking vials and that I could return for a refund if I didn't like it. I successfully did so at the loss of postage cost.

Since the Epin envelope has a clear window so that the inside can be seen without opening the envelope, I have no doubt that TopTropicals explanation was a lie.

We just received our first order today from Top Tropicals. It was disapointing to open the packaging only to discover the cactus we had looked forward to receiving (lophocereus schottii monstrosus) was nearly cut in half! Upon reading several of the reviews on this site, we took the immediate action of emailing and sent photos to Mike to report our findings. We will update the experience once a conclusion is reached with Top Tropicals, stay tuned!

I have placed several orders with this company since the beginning of the year, for both plants and seeds. The plants ( a Silk Floss tree, a Dwarf Ylang Ylang, and a Jasmine) all arrived in great condition and are doing well....I am quite satisfied with them. The seeds however (mostly quite a few different types of flowering trees) don't seem to have a very high germination rate and some types have not come up at all. It is always possible the lack of germination has been my fault.....but I haven't had this problem with seeds ordered/planted from other sources. I would definitely order from them again but I will stick to buying the plants!

My recent mail order (March 2009) for the Chinese Perfume Plant did not arrive & I emailed TopTropicals after about 4 business days (6 calendar days) about my concern and for their awareness,... with no response. On the 6th business day (8 calendar days after) of no plant, and no response, I reiterated my concern and crafted my email to provide me with a more likelihood of a response and some options to resolve the situation (e.g. resend via a 'traceable' method of mailing, full refund, or a suggestion/other options from them). I followed up with a phone call a few hours later and the gentleman apologized several times (reluctantly & with a slow under tone as if I was bothering him) and repeated that he has emailed me & refunded the full amount (without any elaboration). I was also concerned that they end their responsibility of the order at the time they drop it off to mail it but hoped for the best. I would have rated them, probably, a "neutral" because they did refund the money though the Customer Service interaction is not so up-to-par, as other reviewers have mentioned... but I provided a negative rating because the gentleman on the phone appeared to be attempting to get off the phone with me as quickly as possible by repeating to blurt the words, "I apologize that you did not get the order..." in an under tone as if he did not care a bit about my potential as a continued customer, sort of like I was bothering him & he wanted me to disappear because he refunded the money. Even though, I began to realize his intention and disregard to help me further, I stopped him to ask... "But I would really like to order this plant; Could you resend it via UPS or something?" He sort of snickered at that & repeated the apology & that he refunded the money, which was not relevant to my question. (I have to say that in my email, asking for a refund was not my top request as I have been searching for this plant from my old country for a while now.) He explained how he thought Priority USPS mail was better than UPS in cold weather, and I explained that I received a plumeria from a nursery close to him in 2 calendar days, and ordered days after his order was placed. So he attempted to cut my words off again to say with a firmer, more definitive tone, "I refunded the money, ok? ...Bye, bye." I was shocked by this behaviour as well as the attitude, and dismissal. In my disappointment (in many ways), I told myself that this is only a plant. Perhaps, I could search online for somewhere else as he refused my business. At the least, I receivd a refund. I am thankful now that I refrained and waited to test the reliability & quality of this company before putting in an additional order for a Sugar Apple Tree that I've always wanted. If you still decide to go with TopTropicals, buyer beware...