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

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 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 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.

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.

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.

I liked most everything about park seed. Their website was well organized and reasonably informative. The shipping time was acceptable (about a week).

My sole complaint is that the first seed pack I opened was one of the bell peppers I ordered.

Like several of the other negative comments for Park Seed, I counted 12 seeds in a packet marked for 25. I have not opened the others yet to see if any others are short.

I have not contacted Park Seeds about this, I simply will not order from them again. It appears to be a long term quality control issue with them judging from the other complaints here.

The germination rate of the seeds was not very good.

This *USED* to be a 5 star company, but has declined rapidly over the last 3 years. In fall, I placed orders totalling over $200. Well, the daffs were rotted, most of the plumbago was dead/moldy/empty pots, the trycirtis aren't contemplating coming up, the Arkansas star were dead, and the Niobe clematis was LESS than a root. Their replacement plants were no better. I wasted my afternoon searching for *A* root in the pots.

I normally order A LOT (I love my gardens) but I'd get (and did get)better response from WALMART plants.

After over 30 positive years, I was very disappointed with germination rates of seeds I purchased last year. Many varieties failed completely. A packet that was supposed to contain 25 seeds only contained 2 or 3 (this was replaced but only 2 germinated!). I ordered a dahlia at a cost of about $10 in 2001 and was disgusted when I received a single piece of tuber with no buds!

Actually I would give Park a 7 on a 1-10 scale. A broad selection of plants, seeds, & supplies. Their plants are good quality, but high priced and the seeds have preformed fairly well over the years.

This is my first time ordering from them. I ordered 6 packs of seed, opened the first which were candy lillies and package said 25 seeds. In the package were 20 seeds and some so sad looking that I doubt they will be viable. I am ticked off. I won't bother writing to them about it, I just won't order from them again. Wonder what the other 5 packs have in them...

first time using them.For SHAME! Ordered the Fuji mixed morning glory grouping of 5 seed packets. SO DISAPPOINTED> I was lucky to get 4 or the fuji. Got a handfull of the others. Maybe,a handfull. Pictures are NOT true of what you get thats for sure. Would never bother with them again. Only half the seeds in each packet sprouted.
Called them. they said they would replace. Still waiting. But. its only been 9 months...........

I've ordered seeds and plants from this company. Germination rates on seeds were very poor. Only the marigolds came up. Live tomato plants were good, but the potentilla was dead. I called for a replacement of the potentilla, and they sent me another dead plant. I didn't bother trying to contact them again. Their catalog and website are very nice to look at, but their quality is not good.

Long in the business, a beautiful catalog, great customer service, sometimes a poor product.
Have ordered seeds and plants. Most years the seeds were great. Last year the seeds barely germinated. (vinca) Good thing I wasn't counting on them.
Also ordered a daylily collection. Many of the plants were so moldy they fell apart. They replaced them immediatly, however, the replacement also contained moldy, dead plants!
Have also ordered clematis vines from them. One year nothing grew. I did better with Wal-mart boxed and potted clematis at 1/3rd the price. This year they grew, but they send you very small plants.
I would sadly say try to look elsewhere for your dream plant before ordering from them, as they send out small, weak plants. Seeds are another issue. Since they carry a great assortment, and seeds are cheap, you won't lose too much if they don't germinate.

I ordered several pks of seeds this spring and planted them all. I had a very low rate of germination. Some packs grew nothing at all. I also ordered from another co. and almost everything grew. I won't waste my money again.

I have been ordering from Park Seed for years, however the germination rate for some seeds has been less than acceptable the last two years. Also, the seeds I ordered were not what I received for two items.

I have ordered many seed varieties from Park, I also have had very poor germination success. When you depend on this for a living, it can be more than frustrating. The seeds are packaged well (foil VS paper), many even double sealed! I expected more and didn't get it. I have since found other sources for my seed orders.

I ordered a number of seed packets from Park Seed last year that all had problems with germination. Clove Drops Carnation had an 8% germination rate, Ring of Fire Sunflowers had 0% (yes, zero) germination and Supersweet 100 cherry Tomatoes had about 25% germination. I've been growing most of my garden from seed for a number of years now and have never had this problem before. All the other seeds that I purchased from other companies at the same time had normal germination rates.

I'm rating Park as a whole, because I don't like the fact that they have all these affiliates such that you can't order plants from Park and Park's Countryside Gardens without getting hit with 2 separate shipping charges. I have no complaints about their seed. It's the plants. I place orders for a dozen small display gardens and I cringe when they come to me with requests they found in Park or Wayside catalogues. I try to find the plants elsewhere but occasionally that's not possible. So this year's order arrived with 2 out of 3 Phlox, dead, with the 3rd well on its way. They are very happy to send you a refund, but you're stuck with no plant.

This is the second time I have ordered the infamous "shell" corkscrew vine and have received a "dead" stick. I have nobody to blame but myself as I never send anything back but this time in addition I ordered the Tree rose, which was to have a rosetree top and roses at the base in a lovely pot. Well, I got the tree rose, a trunk with bare roots, no pot and no other roses for the base! Last time for me with Park Seed! Wasted enough money there to enroll 10 more people to DG!

Just plain over-rated. period.

I ordered a small avocado tree in March '01. I was told that it would ship at the end of April. Then it was back ordered until June. After not hearing anything from them, I contacted them, and the rep stated that due to a poor shipment, they wouldn't be ready until October. Again, after not hearing from them, I contacted them again and was told that they just started shipping, Well, in four days, I received a dead stick which was the graft of this "special avocado" on a regular sprouting avocado pit. There was no possible was that this grafted piece could have been alive when it was shipped. I was refunded the purchase price (minus shipping) because they stated that they no longer carried it. I then requested that it be sent from their Wayside Gardens company(who is still selling it) and was refused (twice). I will not purchase from them or any of their other companies again!

I have (had) been a Parks customer for years. However last year's order was a big disappointment. The viability of nearly all of the seed was unacceptably low. I am a very experienced seed starter, so I don't think the fault was mine. To their credit they promptly replaced the 'bad' seeds, but the second batch still exhibited very low viability. Life is too short. In the future I will order elsewhere.

I have ordered seed twice and both times I have been dissappointed with both the quantity of seed and performance for the cost. I prefer to shop elsewhere.

I ordered a total of 9 own-root roses from these two, related companies (Park and Wayside). They arrived tired, with broken roots and branches, and several with blackspot. Six have died.Of the 27 own-root roses I bought from other vendors, only one has died. The others are flourishing - Austins, shrubs, hybrid musks, climbers, and OGRs.

I have had bad luck with Park Seeds; never have any seeds produce… Maybe sharing information on the Internet will help good quality nurseries to continue to send good stock and inform the not so good quality nurseries to send good stock. Shipping at the right time and packaging for ease of planting is a plus.

I am very disappointed. I placed an order at Park Seed in August, 2000. They confirmed the order by email. They sent me the seeds I ordered. I was waiting for a blue Rose of Sharon plant that they had for $10. We started getting frost warnings in Philadelphia in September and needed to mulch my garden for winter. I emailed them in September, but got no reply. I called them the 3rd week in September and was told that they apologize. They should not have confirmed my order in August as they were out of stock at the time. I should have (but didn't) receive notice by post card. Their best suggestion was that they'd make sure to send me their sister catalog, Wayside Gardens. The Wayside catalog usually carries Rose of Sharon in the Spring catalog at twice the price because they are older plants.I'm very unhappy. Rose of Sharon is practically a weed. It's such an extremely hardy plant it seems to survive anything. And they grow veryfast. I told them it's a waste of money to pay extra for an older plant.I only became aware of them this summer, but now that I know to look for them it seems there is one in every block. There are plenty of white and red but I can't find blue either in the neighborhood or at local nurseries.So I'll be stuck spending twice the price if I want to order it in the spring. Seems to me they could have made arrangements to send one fromWayside now since they did confirm my order, but they didn't make this offer. This is not good customer service or what I'd call a reputablecompany.

If you want to order anything from Park Seed -- don't bother with their website. I placed an order on 1/19 -- and they haven't even begun processing it yet (as of 1/25). I called this morning to check on its status because I hadn't received it yet -- and they can't even give me an estimate of when they might start processing the order, much less when I can expect to receive it. The customer service representative told me that she could cancel my online order, and take my order over the phone and they'd get it out immediately. So -- if you're desperate for something from Park Seed, give them a call...but personally, I won't do business with any arm of a company that has such poor online order handling.

I have been gardening for about 30 yrs. and grown plants from seed for most of those years. I started buying seed from parks many years ago and when I had poor germination rate I thought it was my inexperience was the problem. Well, after many years, I have decided it is not my fault but Park. Seed I buy from other companies have good germination rates. I will say if you buy a new seed it will germinate well but a couple yrs. later forget it. I have also bought some bulbs a couple of times and they were already dried out and dead or did so soon after. I have been a Purdue master gardener since 1988 and do know how to grow plants from seed.

My experience with Park, twice, was terrible. The worst was my order for clematis, which I ordered based on their photograph of a husky plant. Mine (three varieties, six plants) looked like culls, worse than those little boxes at the discount mart. I don't go back to false advertising.

I was most displeased with my order. Although they willingly refunded my money, I called them shortly after receiving my order that the plants had dried out. They suggested waiting until spring to see if they grew. After waiting a reasonable time in spring I called again to tell them nothing had grown. They suggested waiting 2 more weeks since the plants in question were typically late to start. Two weeks later still nothing so I called to request new plants only to be told they were now out of that plant. In one order of Geranium "Splish-Splash", whose flowers are white splashed with blue, one of the 6n plants I ordered has now produced all blue flowers and looks like Johnson's blue, not Splish-Splash. Two other plants they sent that didn't thrive -- they were very puny plants -- when I called for replacements they were again out of stock of that plant. I've just about decided that it's better to buy from local nurseries where you can see what you're getting.

I am not too thrilled with Park's. This fall I ordered (first order, I was testing their service) a rose, a daylily, a geranium, a shasta daisy, a monarda. Seemed pretty basic. But they really disappointed me. First They informed me that the rose and daisy were out of stock and refunded me some $12. I was disappointed, but those are the breaks. Then I waited and waited and finally called to know how my order was doing. I was then informed that the geranium, the monarda and the daylily where on back order until spring. Well the entire point of my ordering it now was to plant it in the fall so that it could be established by spring. I don't know if I am the beneficiary of an outrageous amount of bad luck or that they simply provide a lousy service, but meantime there are 5 big holes in my garden begging for plants and I betcha PARK'S is not going to be the one to fill 'em.

I really expected an extraordinary company after reading the postings. I was thus more disappointed than normal. The seeds arrived on time but even following strictly the instruction in the packet I got only 10% of them sprouting. The rest of the plants arrived late, the vinca cuttings were HORRID (only stems, very little leaves and brown at that!), the cuttings I do from my gardens are growing three times as fast as the "professional" ones. A rosemary plant died 7 days after receiving it (it was shaggy and small to begin with). The iris collection was never completed. And they refunded me because they couldn't send new plants (no stock). I really wouldn't use them.