Comments regarding Park Seed Company (aka Park's Gardens)

Earlier toward the start of this year I ordered and promptly recieved seed starting materials from Park Seed. In early spring I set everything up including the seedling heat mat I ordered from them. To my dismay the mat did not work and my seeds were planted so I figured that's that-by the time they get the old one back and send another it will be too late. I e-mailed customer service and explained the situation and in a couple days I had a new mat and was not required to send the old one back.
Since then I have placed orders for several of the seasonal sales they have and I placed the orders on the web (as I usually do) on the weekend and by the end of the week I had my stuff which is amazing considering it is at such low prices (I am stocking up for next season with seeds and supplies). I will definitely buy from them again.

I found Park Seed by accident online. I have ordered many packets of seeds, and all were excellent. I love the 75% off sales and used it last spring and again this fall. Most every plant arrived in good shape and the ones that weren't they replaced or credited me immediately. I will use Park Seed first from now on. Haven't been this satisfied in all the years I've been ordering plants and seeds.

I had very good service from Park Seed this spring '03, and received many discounts via email, after signing up for their newsletters and email notices. The various discounts and free shipping cut the cost in half!

I purchased bareroot lilies (a special variety, "Candy Lily," available only at Park's - they came packaged very well, with little green shoots and lots of 8-12" roots! They are thriving now, as are the bareroot roses I bought. I now know, from experienced gardeners, that a few of the other bareroot plants I bought died because I planted them incorrectly. I was nonetheless cheerfully reimbursed by the company without question.

Perennials and shrubs that came in various sized pots were well packed and are doing well. They were all the size specified by the customer service rep.

There is NO excuse for saying that a plant was "smaller than I thought it would be" when received. If you wonder how large a plant will be, just call the company. They have specifications for the minimum size that each plant must be before shipping.

If, for any reason, you are dissatisfied, they will refund your money!

This is my first experience with seed starting. I had a high yield per seed, and everything is very healthy. In response to others' claims of low seed count, I will say that the proper amount of seeds were provided for me in nice, foil packets.

The directions on seed packets are a bit "generic." However, the customer service representatives were helpful and either knew the answers to my questions or sought the answers.

I had a good experience and will order from Park Seed again, as well as their affiliated companies!

This was my first year gardening. I purchased seed and plants elsewhere, but the bulk of our money went to plants from Parks (veggies, flowers, hedges). I have very detailed info and couldn’t decide if I should vote positive or neutral.

Veggies were all plants: tomatoes (6), bell peppers (18), jersey giant asparagus (20), Georgia jet (25) and Beauregard (25) sweet potatoes, and Ozark beauty strawberries (25). I also purchased seeds – 3 packets of super sweet varieties. RESULTS: tomatoes all doing well, bell peppers always backordered and I cancelled, asparagus great only 13 or 14 crowns came up and got full refund, of the 50 sweet potatoes, 7 eventually died, all strawberries doing great. Corn seed packs had full amount and germinated and growing well.

Hedges – about 80 or so bare root Chinese Elm Hedge, and about 60 Cascade Rose Mini Hedge plants. 9 of the elm just never did a thing (got refund, no problem) and all 60 Cascade minis are doing well.

Flowers – too numerous to list, but I got 2, 3, or 6 plants of a variety of things. There were several of a variety of flowers that just did not make it. If they were shipped in sets (3 or 6), I got 3 or 6 replacements or full refund even if only one plant died. I thought that was very good customer service.

Overall, my experience wasn't unpleasant and the veggie plants and hedge seem reasonable. But not for flowers. Even though they took care of me apologetically and no hassles, it was a waste of planting time, waiting time, and removal time. I will purchase some veggie plants from them next year, but that’s all. I don't need more flowers and I buy seed elsewhere.

I have ordered several seeds from Park's over the past 2 years and have been EXCEEDINGLY happy with the germination rates of the seeds that I received from them. Unlike seeds from other companies, I have had over 80% germination on all of the seeds I have ordered. I'm a happy customer!

Recently ordered several plants & bulbs. Everything came alive and in pretty good shape. All plants are doing nicely; most of the bulbs are sprouting. Will continue to buy from them.

This year was my first vegetable seed order. I chose Park Seed because I loved their website and felt I had obtained a lot of good information from it.

Unfortunately, the planting directions on the seed packets were incomplete -- most of the packets were designed to be used to hold a variety of seeds so the information on the outside was over generalized and unsatisfactory. Although I haven't been disappointed by the plants I have grown from their seeds (nor the price or shipping) I still will be trying a different vendor this year.

I, too have had a problem with not getting the specified number of seeds and poor germination rates on flower seeds, but I thought it was just me. This year I foolishly placed an order for 12 Purple Wave Petunia plants. The plants were healthy, though very small, and of course came too early to plant (don't these people check the weather channel?). I kept them inside until they could be planted out and they are finally blooming, but they are Blue Wave not Purple. When I e-mailed the company (with my order confirmation attached) they responded that I must be mistaken because they do not offer Blue Wave petunias. I admit to getting older, but I can still tell the difference between dark blue and pruple-magenta! They finally offered to send me a merchandise credit (whoppee!) but the tone of the correspondence from customer service was snotty at best. No one deserves to be treated that way. I'll probably use the credit (providing I actually get it) for bulbs and plant them where it won't matter it they are not the correct item. I will never bother with this company again!

I ordered bulbs, bare-root strawberries, and live plants from Park. They were slow to fill the order, and I received a box of dead, rotting, and sickly-looking plant material.

The first problem was that Park apparently does not respond to web orders as quickly as to phone orders. After more than two weeks of silence, Park finally informed me my order had been shipped. When the package arrived, I was dismayed to find that almost the entire order was damaged or missing. Since it had been only a week in transit, in mild weather, the poor condition of the plants could not be explained by shipping trauma.
--- Of the four kinds of bulbs and corms I ordered, 3 of the 5 sprekelia were rotting and the other two looked doubtful, the glads all had a coating of mildew on them, and some other bulbs weren't even in there (though the packing slip claimed they were). Exactly one bag of corms was there as ordered and apparently in good condition.
--- Of the five live plants, three were dead, and a fourth was broken off at the base when it was packed (it had had time to turn brown and dry out). The fifth plant was alive, but undersized and sickly-looking. I would not have bought any of these had I seen them first, even as a $1 gamble on a nursery clearance table.
--- The bare-root strawberry plants were dried out, and several didn't make it. The bargain ones I bought on impulse from the local big-box store's nursery did better.

So out of the 10 parts of my order, only one of them was in satisfactory condition and properly shipped.

To my pleasant surprise, their customer service person willingly credited my card or sent replacements for the dead, rotting, missing, or broken parts of the order. She also suggested that I plant the roots of the broken plant, just in case it came back (and replaced it anyway). The replacements arrived much faster than the original order had. Unfortunately the replacement plants were also puny and frail-looking. None of the Park plants are doing as well as plants I bought locally for much less, including the discount-store cheapies.

I've mostly been happy with their seeds, but for bulbs and plants I'll shop elsewhere. Their catalogs are enticing, but they just don't seem to have their act together on this side of their business. Pleasant customer service staff can't make up for poor quality control and defective merchandise.

I've bought seeds from Parks for years, always with good success. Last year, the germination rates seemed a little down, but this year, I grew 35 'Shady Lady' impatiens from a packet that was supposed to contain 30 seeds! I've rarely had to contact their customer service department, but when I did, the experience was uniformly positive. A few years ago, I ordered an iris that was supposed to be white with a yellow rim. The iris that actually came was a sort of muddy bronze and yellow when it bloomed, and seemed to be a dwarf of some sort. Neither the customer service representative nor I could figure out what variety that iris actually was, but though I offered to send it back to them, she said 'Keep it' and sent me a replacement the next fall

Have had two bad experiences with seeds from this company. Failed to germinate, two seperate years - not tough to grow plants, either - impatiens, petunias. The customer service rep willingly offered to send new seeds out (it was mid may!) but had to be convinced to offer a due bill for next year. (I really wanted a refund, but no dice). She also implied the germination failure was my fault - curious how the impatiens/petunia seed I unceremoniously tossed in my fridge last fall germinated and grew into big, healthy (albeit, mystery-colored!) plants! Far as I'm concerned, they had their "second chance". I won't go back - except to spend that due bill, of course...rats!

I ordered over $100 of plants and was supposed to receive a free rain gauge. Well, no rain gauge (even after I brought it to their attention -- no "I'm sorry" or anything), and half the plants were either dead or dying. The plants were piled one on top of the other and the straw that was supposed to support the stems of the plants instead crushed the stems and leaves. I immediately emailed Parks Countryside and they replied 4 days afterwards offering to send replacement plants -- NEXT YEAR. I replied that I needed to landscape my property NOW, and could they please refund my credit card. They replied that they would, but so far they haven't.

The one good thing is that two other small trees were received from them in a different package, and those trees were very healthy and in good condition.

But a local nurseryman told me (after the fact) that Parks Seeds is an excellent source, but the live plants section is horrible.

I've been ordered from this company for many years. Since I've read some of your negative comments, I had to count the seed amounts I recently ordered and shipped here. I have ordered 8 items, 4 items were 15-20 seeds less than what pkt supposed to contains. One seed, I paid nearly $4(silly me, and seeds were sooo tiny)for 15 seeds, I got 10 only. I emailed their customer service although I didn't expect to hear from them.

Within 3 days, I got a response from them and apologized this happened and offered me to send all replacements. They also said they will forward my compliment to right dept to see what is wrong with it. They admit their machine is not working properly so need to be checked.

I think I got this kind of quick response due to a slow season. If this happened in early March or beginning of the year, I suspect shipping takes longer and no responses from them.
Last year, it took almost a month to receive the seeds I've ordered, it was around March. This year I've ordered in June and got it within 7 days. I don't know when exactly I'll be able to receive those replacements though, at least I got their feed back so I don't feel too negative about it.
They need better quality control - thats for sure!

I've always ordered seeds from them. Had excellent luck. This year I ordered plants from a sale they had. I have to say, I'm more then pleased with my order. My plants were packed better then ANY mail order I've recd. Everything arrived healthy and in perfect shape. They were even very large for a mail order plant. I was very pleased and would order again.

I've been very happy with Park Seed. They have seeds that I couldn't find elsewhere, and though some of the seed amounts are small, I didn't receive less than was stated on the package. Also, several of the lantana plants I ordered didn't make it, and when I contacted them about a possible replacement, they sent me out a new shipment of 6 plants right away, no questions asked, very polite and professional. Plants are packaged well and come with detailed instructions. I'll definitely order from them again.

I also like the quick order confirmation and the fact that I can check online on the status of my orders.

I had a very good experience with this company. They responded very promptly when I e-mailed a problem to them and it was handled very professionally. I will order from them again without reservation.

I am glad that so many posted with thier experience with this company. I am troubled by the seed orders with Park Seed Company - why do they rip you off with the seed amounts, this does not seem to be an accident. I would expect to get 50 seeds if I ordered a pack of 50 seeds, not 20 or 30. Thank you for informing the uninformed about this deceitful practice, I will never order from this company!

I ordered the first time from Park Seed this year and was very unhappy.
My only comment is they sent me the plants too early and the seeds too late.
I emailed and emailed and of course got the run around but about 6 emails later she told me that Feb was the right time according to their records for sending plants to Northern Georgia. So they don't really know what they are doing. Of course I had to baby those plants until after the last frost before I could plant them.

I will never use them again. If they don't know the right season for planting in area how well do they know their seeds and plants

Ordered 5/22 from their 75% off sale (from their newsleter). Plants were shipped 5/28 and arrive 5/31. I was very impressed by the packaging. The bare root plants were either in plastic bags or wrapped in straw and plastic wrap. All the plants looked healthy, and all had an ID marker with planting instructions and a planting guide.

I've ordered seed in the past (and gotten good germination) and was impressed with the Dahlia root I received a month or so ago - it is growing big!

A fig tree I had ordered did not live. I e-mailed them when I felt it had to hope. In about a week I had a replacement and it is up and growing. No hassle and no shipping labels to send back. I will do business with them again.

I've ordered from Parks for seeds and gardening products on several occasions. I've known about Parks and used them since elementary school. Thats going back about 30+years. Recent orders were received very prompt. Seeds are good germination rate, floating around 80% germination eventhough the quality of some of the seeds ordered were lower than expected. Will order from them again. Happy experience overall.

I have had a positive experience with both Wayside Gardens and Parkseed. I ordered three plants which failed to thrive despite my best efforts. I spoke with a lady who was very polite and customer friendly. Without any fuss, she put in the order for my replacements. I offered to mail the original plants back along with my receipts but she said that it wasn't necessary. This has been a pleasant experience and I would definitely order from them again.

This was my first order with the company and it will certainly be my last. I had placed the order well in advance, the order was delayed once and when it arrived it was incomplete. My account has already been charged for the full order. When I contacted Park Seed a week ago about the missing items I was told they would ship them right away. As of today, still no plants, and when I contacted them again I was told they hadn't been shipped yet and I will receive them by the end of the month. I am starting to wonder which month....

I have purchased seeds and gardening supplies from Park for the past several years, and this spring I decided to try some of their perennials. I got an email announcing a very good sale on certain plants, so I placed an order. The results were mixed. I ordered six verbena plants, which were in poor shape but I've managed to pull them through. The Joe Pye Weed was dried up and dead. The bareroot hollyhock mallow just didn't grow! The other four plants in the order were in good shape and are doing well. I've always been very happy with Park's seeds, but maybe I'll stay away from the perennials, or at least the ones that are on sale.

Have ordered from this company fairly regularily over past 10 years or so. I must say that I have had generally excellent germination, most of the seed I order is perennial or unusual annual flower varieties. I am an experienced seed starter/plant grower & run a small commercial nursery.

Shipping to Canada is reasonably priced. Seed packaging is excellent. Germination is good to excellent, most items. (A few duds but that is to be expected with ANY seed supplier with hard-to-start items) Selection is good, though getting a little more sparse for seed items as company seems to be focussing more on nursery stock.

BUT I have some concerns, which I will now voice to add to comments above. (I thought maybe it was just me, but I guess not.)

Seed quantities NUMEROUS times have been less than stated on package/in catalogue. For example, with Dahlia 'Bishop's Children', stated 50 seeds, actually contained 27 seeds. Hollyhocks in separate colours stated 25 seeds, ranged from 7 seeds to 23 seeds. And over the years other disappointments. I have never complained because often I am sowing the seed a year after I receive it, which leads to 2nd concern:

At least to Canada, catalogue comes way too late to order for present season. As a repeat customer I expect the catalogue to come promptly but it trickles in about March or April, 1 year MAY! which is way too late. I need to order in December/January as most of my perennial flowers need to be started indoors & early.

This year I made an order from the website & sent it in early January(by fax, with credit card info). Received seed at the end of February. Still too late for some things - seed packets are filed for next year at this point.

I have tried to order a book from them as well but they insist that they are "not allowed" to send books to Canada. ????? I consistently order books from the USA, & for that matter from around the world, and have never heard such nonsense. I stated that I would be more than willing to pay whatever extra costs were involved. No go, just the insistence that somehow government regulations prohibited the export of books & supplies. Very strange. I can understand reluctance to bother shipping bulky items cross border, but a slim book ("Park's Success With Herbs" was what I wanted) could easily have been packed with the seed order. What gets me is the insistence that it is mysterious "government restrictions" that stand in the way. Ridiculous.

Anyway, I will continue to order from Park because they do carry a few things hard to get elsewhere, but I am going to complain in future re: seed counts - this to me is the most unforgivable of seed company offences - when one counts on getting 25 hollyhock seedlings(from a packet of 50 seeds not an unreasonable expectation) & then only receives 7 seeds this is most disappointing.

I think Park should concentrate more on their seed selection & seed packing & shipping & customer service departments & less on their gaudy catalogue & endless email offerings. A great seed company slipping a bit, in my opinion.

I recently ordered a large amount of plants and seeds from Park and am quite satisfied with my purchase. Everything that I have planted so far is coming up nicely. My one complaint would be that they should put the plant picture on the seed packets. I ordered several packets of seeds I've never seen before and when I got them, didn't know which was which without going back to the site. Other than that my experience has been great!

I've ordered seeds from Park for a number of years and the last two have been very disappointing. The quality of their seeds has deteriorated so badly that I will NOT order from them again. This spring I started seeds from Park and Burpee. Burpee seeds far outshine those you get from Park.

I have had very good experiences with evrything I have ordered from Park Seed Company and do recommend them.

Sam

I placed my first order from Park Seed Co for the raspberry collection from their web site and was very disappointed with the experience, especially after reading all of the good comments.

I placed my order in early April and all the items in the collection were in stock and the order status said it would ship in a week. A week later I checked the status again and it said it wouldn't ship until the beginning of May. The order did arrive at the beginning of May, but it was incomplete. The raspberry collection contains 4 varieties with 3 plants per variety. I only received 3 plants of one variety and 1 plant of another variety. The invoice showed that the collection had been shipped and nothing was backordered. After calling customer service I was informed that one variety was sold out and they had a crop failure on the other. She offered to refund half my money. I had to pointed out that I received only a third of my order so she said she would refund half of my order and reordered the incomplete variety and have it sent out right away. That was a couple of days ago and I just checked my order status again and it says it is expected to ship on May 31! So much for right away. I wonder when my refund will get here.

I guess my main complaints are:
- I wasn't contacted when they knew they couldn't fulfill my complete order, I had to contact them to find out what happened to my order.
- I was billed the full price for an incomplete order.
- It is taking 4+ weeks to deliver each order. Unfortunately since it took so long and they don't have the plants I ordered, I have to find another nursery that will still deliver. If not, I will lose another growing season.

On the positive side
- the plants that did arrive were a good size, looked healthy and had good roots
- the packaging was good and the plants arrived damp
- their customer service was nice and helpfull and they did try to correct the problem without giving me the run-around

I ordered for the first time from Parks and have been very happy with their service. We placed quite a large order and they had a free shipping deal so it was helpful for us.

The only problem with the order was that they had not put in one of the plants we had ordered even though the invoice said that it was there. I sent an e-mail to them and they sent out a replacement right away.

All the plants (some in pots and some bareroot) are leafing out just fine except for the miscanthus huron sunrise (ornamental grass) that I planted. I'm giving it a little bit longer to see if it just needs a bit more warmer weather and if it doesn't come up I'll contact them again.

They've been great to work with so far.

I have ordered from Park Seed for years and why I don't know. I have also visited the nursery. Plants are very small for the price charged and at the nursery it is easy to see that they are not necessarily well cared for. Seeds rarely grow - and I have grown most of my bedding plants myself for 40 years. Bulbs are fine most of the time but smaller than I get from other sources and a bit pricey

I've been ordering from Park Seed for over 40 years and my mother did for years before me. I was very satisfied with what I ordered up until a few years ago when quality started
to go downhill. I overlooked disappointments, but this year is the final straw. The packet of gomphrena I ordered was supposed to contain 50 seeds - there were 8. These were planned for a border, so I am furious. I will never order from Park again.

I just don't learn-I keep ordering from Park's and am usually disappointed! I ordered abutilon seeds that were supposed to contain 25 in a packet, it actually contained 10. After numerous emails, they sent me additional seeds "as a courtesy". Then I received a half-price email and quickly ordered MORE seeds from them. The madagascar jasmine that should contain 6 had 5 seeds. Chrysanthemum "coconut ice" that was marked 100 had 50. The germination I have found to be only fair on most seeds, and poor on some. I'm very disappointed with this company.

I ordered a mandevilla vine and it was back ordered. They sent me a very apologetic email and shipped it as soon as it was received. My vine was packed well and arrived very healthy looking and nearly 6 inches tall. I was very happy!! I also ordered seeds and they are germinating nicely.

I've bought their veggie and flower seeds for a long time and always found them very satisfactory. Those little foil packets are amazing - my Mom gave me resealed packets that were 10 years or older and the seeds germinated!

The quality of the Cook's Garden seeds did not decline when they were acquired by Parks either. I love the mixed varieties that they have marketed for years and others are just now picking up on - summer or winter squash, eggplants, etc. as well as the lettuce mixes.

I am a loyal customer of Park's, and I appreciate their variety, quality and prices- certainly as compared to Wayside Gardens. Everything I have ever purchased from Park's has been as advertised, healthy, and either already growing or waiting for the right conditions to come out of dormancy. This year, for the first time, I bought 17 different kinds of seeds and the Jiffy 7 pots to grow them in. I wasn't sure how I would do since I've never tried seeds before, but I figured if I failed it wasn't that big of an investment. I can't believe it- I have an almost 100% germination rate, and some serious thinning to do!

On 2/2/03 I placed an order with Park over the internet for a Daphne x Burwoodii'Carol Mackie'for $17.95 and it is to be shipped after 4/10/03.This week I received an email that stated that they are this weeks internet special for half price.They want you to order early and now your penalized for doing so.I told them I will no longer do business with them or any of there affiliates.I'll stick with Bluestones or buy from local nurseries.

SO GLAD THEY SHIP SEEDS TO CANADA FOR DECENT PRICE!

Their catalogs have such a wide variety of seeds that I have a difficult time resisting buying from Parks. Although I've never been very happy. There's a lot of "fluffing" in their plant descriptions, which irritates me. I've seen too few seeds in packets. But mostly it's the low germination rates that are a problem. If you're going to charge 3 or 4 bucks for a packet of 25 seeds (!!!), you need to have more than a 20% germination rate. I had them replace a packet that gave me ZERO seedlings, but the replacement was no better. It's easier to spend five bucks on a flat of good plants at the nursery.

I'm not buying from them ever again! Temptation will be resisted.