Comments regarding Moonshine Designs Nursery

I purchased one plant from this seller, who I found through eBay. It arrived a week later. It was healthy and well developed, except that the main stalk was broken during shipment. I contacted the seller, and his only response was to prune it back and let it regrow in spring - which is probably perfectly reasonable advice, except that I'm a bit disappointed to have a less-than-perfect plant.

As a note, he seems to have a good stock of Color Choice type plants - and at pretty reasonable prices. If it weren't for the lukewarm response to my question, I'd be tempted to order a couple more plants from him.

"

As noted in that eBay listing, shipping damage is the responsibility of the carrier and not us. The shipment was insured and the option was given to make a claim.

We were not really concerned since this was a Sambucus and we routinely cut them to the ground in the fall here in the nursery."

I ordered some Knockouts on ebay. I was pleased with the buying and shipping experience, but I was somewhat disappointed in the size of the plants. While I did get plants that had two or so branchings, they were *very* small, more like plugs, with very spindly branches. They are growing well, but it will be a season or two before they get to a decent size. Just this past week I purchased some more Knockouts from Lowe's and they were at least 4 times the size for double what I paid from here (not included my shipping fees).

I should have been more patient and waited until the bushes were around here locally. I would have gotten much larger bushes for my money.

Perhaps seller could take pictures of the exact size plants he is selling. This picture was about the size of the plants and rootball I got, and I paid twice as much for them:
//www.knockoutroses.com/starterplants.html

I did leave positive feedback on ebay, but I only stated that it was a good shipping experience and the plants were healthy. I do feel he should post pictures of the approximate size of the plants he is selling in the future.

The plants *are* healthy and growing, but it did leave a bad taste in my mouth because they were so small.

Found this source last year on Google. Placed a couple of orders for a number of plants. I was not happy with the size of the plants I received - they were small, bare-root twigs, but I gave them a chance. Most did okay - I only lost one or two plants and did not bother to contact them.

I decided to give them another try this Spring. The plants I ordered were one Viburnum 'Winterthur', one white callicarpa, one set of three 'Wine & Roses' Weigela, four Itea 'Little Henry'. There was a separate order for a cell tray of sedum.

The plants arrived as usual - small, bare-root dormant twigs wrapped in wet shredded paper and plastic. I only received one Weigela, instead of the three. I planted all the plants and emailed them about the missing ones and stated that the viburnum arrived looking mushy. I did not hear back so I re-sent the email and called them two days later and spoke to them about the missing ones . They did ship the two missing ones.

Upon receiving those two, I emailed them to tell them I received them but the viburnum and callicarpa showed no signs of growth. At this point the itea also had not shown any growth but I knew they were late to leaf out - I had three others I bought from them last Fall which were only just starting. I received an email back saying it was still early so I gave it more time.

After three more weeks I emailed them again saying that there was still no foliage break on those two plants or in ANY of the four itea as well. The scratch test showed all six plants as DEAD. They did not respond to that email, as well as three more follow-up emails - the last two requesting replacement or refund.

So this is where it stands - they do not even acknowledge or return emails, let alone try to resolve problems. To boot, twice in the last year I alerted them to errors on their website and this is the thanks I get.

Bottom line - go elsewhere and avoid headaches. There are a number of sources that ship stocky, healthy plants and value customer service. Why take a chance on twigs and have to stand on your head to get what you pay for? Don't repeat my mistake.

I won 3 Rugosa Roses on eBay on 4/27. I paid right after the auction of all 3 were won. For some unknown reason, in Delaware, I can't find anyone who sells these roses. We are the perfect climate and soil for them, and I was very happy to find someone who had them to sell, even if I couldn't see the actual product. I did bring one with me when we moved here almost 13 yrs. ago, and it does fine (pink). I inquired on 5/9 to see what was going on, as I was getting a bit itchy to put them in, and got a nice reply to my email saying they had a rough spring and would be sending them out soon. On 5/15 I rec'd. another email saying they had shipped out and I would receive them on 5/19. I did, and they were packed with some soiless mix inside damp shredded newspaper, tightly wrapped inside of plastic wrap. The plants themselves above the bottom were yellow leaved with some brown spots, as well as some dead branches,and looked pretty wilted; also some brown leaves. I did cut some off, but didn't want to be too shocking to the plant. I planted them and used some transplant solution, and they still looked in shock a week later, so I gave them some water soluble plant food, still a week later, nothing. Being very careful, I trimmed them all off the plants today, and noticed that there are some new green leaves starting to come out. I did what they said in the booklet that came with them, but my husband and I were starting to get worried up until today, 6/5. I've never had plants that took so long to get used to the soil- usually it only takes a few days or so. We even watered them almost daily, if no rain. I don't know if it was UPS fault, or what. I'm not putting blame on the nursery, but felt very uneasy about them taking all this time until today to take. I didn't email them after I received and put them in, just figured that with time, hopefully they'd take. I wasn't crazy about the condition they arrived in, inside the long cardboard box- they looked like they got banged around a bit, and I guess I was hoping for green leaved plants, so that was a bit dissapointing. I am on the east coast, and they are in the mid west, so maybe the shipping should have been shorter to spare the stress to them, I don't know. I might buy from them again, but am not sure. Just glad that they are showing signs of life, for that I am blessed.