Comments regarding Gorge Top Gardens (also dba perennial-gardening.com)

My order arrived in May with 3 perennials being a pink variety instead of white. I emailed - no response - I called - no call back - I emailed again - no response. I will not do business with them again even though the plants I received were in good shape.

I ordered various perennials in Jan to be sent in April. They were a week late. They sent me a Knockout red rose instead of the rainbow Knockout I had ordered. My geranium Claridge Druce just bloomed, with blue flowers looking just like Johnson's Blue. The tag actually had Johnson's Blue on it but had been crossed out and C. Druce had been printed. I e-mailed their refund account but the e-mail was aborted so I emailed the customer service address. I received no replies to my many inquiries. I called left a message and again no return call. I ordered other things that have not come into bloom can only guess what I will get.

I ordered several items, but when my package arrived it was missing five geraniums. There was a penciled annotation that they would ship in 7 to 10 days. They have never arrived. I have phoned the complany and left messages as well as emailed them three times. I have never gotten a response back from the company. My credit card was charged when I placed the order online. Since I have never heard back from the company I assume I am just out $20. I would not recommend ordering from this company because of their poor customer service. Too bad, the packaging was superb and I am relatively pleased with the other flowers I received.

If you like to be ripped off, order from them! Thank god I used Pay-Pal and got my money back. If you read these comments and order and get ripped off, it is your bad.

I ordered 4 knockout roses and was billed immediatley. Two weeks later, I haven't seen any roses or emails. I emailed and called them and never got a response. I disputed the chrage with Paypal and was able to get my money back. I suggested to Paypal to quit letting them use their service. Gorge Top Garden is a poor company that I would avoid.

Katy, TX

I ordered 5 YELLOW knockout roses at $10 each. Keep in mind that you can buy a well-established knockout rose for $10-14. These were about 2 inches tall, most of the stems were already brown and dead, 2-4 leaves. 3 died almost immediately and 1 took less than a week to die It takes a lot to kill a knockout rose!!!! Well, 1 lived and lo' and behold it is red (which I can purchase anywhere and have) and not yellow. To say I am dissatisfied and disappointed is an understatement. This is my first experience with purchasing plants on line.

They have not responded to my e-mails and I plan on reporting them to the Better Business Bureau and may even take them to small claims court. By the way, Dave's Garden and Gorge Top Gardens appear to be the same company.

I was shocked when I came on site and saw all these negative reviews. My plants arrived in fantastic shape and the english rose I ordered had it's first little blossom out today just a few weeks after I got it. I would not hesitate to order from this company again.

OH I SURE DO WISH I HAD READ THESE COMMENTS BEFORE ORDERING FROM THIS HORRIBLE COMPANY.
WHEN MY ORDER ARRIVED, THROWN IN THE BOTTOM OF THE BOX WERE 2 RATHER LARGE , LOOKING TOTALLY DEAD LAVENDER PLANTS.
THOUGHT MAYBE THEY WOULD REVIVE SO I PLANTED THEM. DEAD AS DOORNAILS THEY ARE
SENT 2 E MAILS TO THE COMPANY AND RECEIVED NO RESPONSE AT ALL !!! HOW TOTALLY RUDE.
NEVER EVER AGAIN !!!!BE WARNED AND DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY WITH THEM.

I had read reviews about this company not sending plants that were true to name. Well, I ordered four Hibiscus, Blue River 2, Kopper King, Fantasia and Jazzberry Jam on sale. They all grew to be big healthy plants. I watched two of them and the foliage on both was identical, so I knew that I would have two Jazzberry Jam, since the other two were obviously what they were supposed to be. But, you know what, I got a more expensive plant and all were healthy, so I'm not complaining. I had good communication from the company and healthy plants that were from the right family, at least. I'll just enjoy the beautiful blooms of Jazzberry Jam and smile. That's what gardening is all about, IMO.

Ordered 4 Echinacea 'Sunrise' plants in June '09. Plants were offered at 1/2 price sale. Received the order quickly, but noticed that none of the plants were echinaceas. I think they were gaillardias, but am not sure as they were labeled as Echinacea 'Sunrise'. E-mailed the company, and received an apology with the promise to send the correct plants right away. It is now Aug. and after repeated e-mails to them I still do not have the plants that I paid for, NO refund either, and no further response. I have no idea how this co. stays in business. Do not EVER order from these people!!!!!

I ordered three plants from them in June of 2008. They were very inexpensive, but none of the bare roots had any leaves when they were delivered, and none of them survived.

It isn't worth the time to plant them, when their stock is so poor. I'll never order from them again.

Hosta 'Royal Standard' 3.49
Echinacea 'Magnus' 3.99
Asclepias 'tuberosa' 3.99

Waste of time and money. I was so excited when I received my order. I had put them in a pot for the meantime until it my new garden bed was ready. But when it started blooming, I noticed that one of my plants didn't quite match with the rest and my other hostas foliage was a different color. How disappointed I was. So I had emailed them in May 19, 2009 about it and said they apologized and that the guys will send it out. Its June 22nd and nothing yet. Someone else stated that this company is as bad as Spring Hill Nursery. I have to agree b/c 2 out of 3 of my plants looked unhealthy. I also ordered 3 nishiki willows; Found out that I will be expecting them in October!!!

OUCH AVOID 6/18/2008 They Do Not Return Calls.
My Order was Incomplete. Note on statement: S/O refund credit back to credit card still no refund no credit no return email no return call nearly a month has passed NOTHING ..POOR BUSINESS PRACTICE the insignificant plants received were in poor condition very small, unluckily to make it :(
save your hard earned Money!! Shop for Perennials ELSEWHERE.
this place is just as BAD as Spring Hill and all the other BAD Nurseries
I Love Gardening and am HUGELY DISAPPOINTED

Just wanted to list my own greivances about this company. Never order here! I bought echinacea sunset, sunrise, Sunny Border Blue Veronica, and Early Sunrise Coreopsis from them last spring. None, zippo, nada, have returned. I had the same problem where some of the tags were marked in black marker, crossed out names of plants, and "new" name written on. I have since replaced all of the ones that I ordered there. Let the buyer beware!

I ordered 6 columbine (Clementine Purple) and 3 Hostas. They arrived healthy, but were not the varieties I ordered. The columbine bloomed as simple yellow colombines and the Hostas, although blue-green like the ones I had already bought from a local nursery, were a different shape altogether. I have emailed them and left them messages requesting a refund or replacement, and have received no answer, no money, and no replacements.

I had an overall good experience with my purchase.
The hostas, ferns, Russian sage and knockout roses I ordered were delivered on time and in good health. They are all growing and doing well in my garden. When I had a question about shipping, I emailed and got a response quickly.
I did discover that the one hosta was not what I ordered (or what it was marked) and the Japanese fern is a Christmas fern, but I can overlook that since the price was so good and the plants are doing well.

This winter I ordered 5 Bonica landscape roses from this company. I received them this spring. I was surprised at how small they were (one to two stems, 2 to 3 inches long), with clean roots, wrapped in wet newspaper. The thing that concerned me most were that they had tags labeling them as knock out roses. The label was marked out with a black marker and "Bonica" written in. After planting them I was very impressed at how fast they grew. In no time at all I had small rose bushes with lots of buds. This morning my first bud opened and what I feared deep down was realized, I was sent 5 knock out rose bushes. I've tried calling, but no one answers. I've emailed them and am waiting for a response. I'm hoping they will either send me my Bonica roses or give me a refund.

I ordered ferns plants from this nursery earlier this year. There was a sale going on, and I got some really good deals, one being 6 Ostrich Ferns very much below the average cost. I am proud to say that all 6 of those ferns plus all the others gotten, are all up and growing beautifully. They were all dormant when they arrived, but as I said, they are now beautiful and growing so well. They arrived well packaged and within a reasonable length of time. I will be doing business with them again.

My questions about shipment were quickly answered via e-mail and the box arrived on time. I got an e-mail when the shipment went out with a UPS tracking number. The plants were in good health and some were average size while others (in particular the Beacon Silver dead nettle) were larger than expected! All of the plants were packed well. I would order from this company again!

I ordered fifteen salvia in last summer and was told (reasonably) that they wouldn't be shipped until the weather was cooler. When the shipment finally arrived, there were only 10 plants; the shipping receipt indicated that I'd get a refund for the five plants that I had paid for but had not received.

Gorgetop Gardens had had months to either reserve enough plants for me or at least inform me it wouldn't be able to fill my order. If I had known it wouldn't be able to fill the order, I would at least have been able to look elsewhere for the plants I needed.

There were two additional problems, as well: Five of ten plants were in terrible condition and did not live. And despite repeated phone calls and emails, I never got a refund. No one ever even returned my calls or letters.

I'm an "end of season" shopper. I look for bargains. Until something is significantly marked down, the prices seem too high. So I was intrigued when I noticed the significant markdowns at Gorgetop Gardens.

I shopped! I ordered 13 plants and received 10. Three were no longer available, and the invoice was marked "refund." Five substitutions were made, without advance notice.

The refund was slow in coming, and I wasn't happy with the substitution. I wrote an email giving my accounting for the refund due for eight plants -- three no longer available and five unacceptable substitutions.

In the meantime, I read the comments here about Gorgetop Gardens and assumed I was likely to be disappointed. But in a matter of days, the full amount I had requested was credited to my account.

Two recommendations: Send an email to the address given on the website to settle such issues. More importantly, be polite in your communications. Be reasonable in your expectations.

By cutting them some slack, I got satisfaction. And the plants I received are doing well. I would have been happier had I received direct communications.

Will I order from them again? If the price is right!!

Initially unhappy, I was willing to take a chance and reach out to a company that is clearly struggling, and I was rewarded for my efforts.

DO NOT ever order from this company. I don't know how they stay in business. I received a large order in May - all the plants were healthy, but of the 15 or so plants I ordered, only 3 were what I'd ordered. For example, I ordered a coneflower and received a shasta daisy (of course it was marked coneflower). I also ordered some of the new echinacea varieties, and received some sort of weed instead - so now I paid 7 dollars for junk. If I'd seen all the negatives about this company before I'd ordered, I would NEVER have placed an order. Oh well, $120 down the toilet. Do not trust these people - they are not a good company.

Received beautiful healthy plants a couple of months ago but now that they are blooming most are not what I ordered!!!

Darn, once again I didn't check here before ordering. I ordered two Gurnsey Cream Clematis and one perennial Hibiscus'Fantasia". The order came yesterday, if I am lucky the clematis will be big enough to put into the ground next year, the Hibiscus came in what looked like a huge peat pellet, it does have roots on it and the plant MAY be 1/2" high. I don't see this one being big enough to put in the ground until maybe fall. I am dubious as to what variety of Hibiscus I got since the tag was for a different variety and that was xd off and Fantasia written over it with magic marker.
I know better than to not check here first, I should have my head examined. Stay tuned, I may have something more positive to say in late summer. I did take all of them into the greenhouse and pot them into a next bigger pot to see what will happen next.

I received the order on time and delivered when expected as requested on order. Plant were only 3.99 each and came in squares of soil 4 inches wide with 3 plants per pack packed in sawdust. I ordered 12 plants and they looked like 2nd year plants. They were phlox 'Eva Cullum' and Franz Schubert' 6 of each. Some plants had rust appearing on lower folage as so many phlox do but overall I was completely satisfied. Each bag was not labeled but it did not take much to fiqure out which was which, I think the company really tried. I planted immediatly and so far has not even wilted. If they die I'll let you know, but will probably be my fault.

Guess I was one of the fortunate folk who had a great experience with Gorge Top Gardens in 2007. It was my first time ordering from them and everything arrived when they said it would, in excellent condition, carefully packaged. Labels were missing or had been borrowed from other plants with names written on the back in marker. Clematis sent up vigorous growth within days of me planting it. Hosta is also in excellent form. Communication regarding the high heat and drought was prompt and professional. I'm completely satisfied with all aspects of my experience with this online nursery.

Ordered a couple of years ago and never received order. Customer service email generated no response and phone mailbox was full. Gained address information from phone number research. Contacted local law agency to gain some information about this business. Reported bad business practice to state and federal agencies and copied letter to owner of company. I did receive a refund in response to the letter.

I was skeptical when I read the comments, but had already placed an order. My order came promptly and all the plants were labeled correctly and were very healthy. They are doing great!

back on 4/17/06 I ordered four different colored Butterfly bush's and now that they started to bloom I see that I have three of Buddleia 'Black Knight' and one of Buddleia 'Honeycomb' . They must have been mislabeled because the label named the plants I orderd. I have tried numorus emails with no respose, this was when their nursry was under construction now I see no web site message at all.

I did receive my plants on time and in good condition. However the one plant ordered was labeled "blue umbrellas" as ordered, instead received striptease.

I called and emailed for over a month. Not a word heard re: switching the hosta.

Another plant appears to be dieing.

I won't due business with them again.

Last time I visited their website, it said closed til spring for expansion! I wish them luck. Don't know if they'd go thru with expansion if they saw the negatives.

Judy

Ordered from them in May. when I received my order, not everything that I had ordered was in the package.(it wasn't a large order- 10 plants) emailed customer service and two weeks later was sent an email saying the rest of the plants would be shipped. to this date I have not seen them. the plants I did get I planted. nothing except the ferns were labeled correctly. I specifically ordered everything that bloomed in white and nothing is blooming in white. Emailed customer service again with low hopes and they didn't disappoint me. I had to email several times to be emailed back to that this would be corrected, that I would be sent out the correct plants. Again to this day, no further communication from them, but did notice on my credit card statement that I finally received a refund for the plants I did not receive. Out of 10 plants, 2 not received, five not white bloomers, the rest are fine. (while the five are not what I ordered they are growing well) I have ordered several hundred dollars worth of plants off the internet this year and this is the ONLY place that I have had problems with. Will not do business again.

22 Aug 2006

I have had three live-plant shipments arrive from Gorge Top Gardens, over a two year period.

My order for Spring of 2005 arrived six weeks late, and only after several emails and a certified letter finally got their attention. The plants were great! And they had a reasonable sounding excuse, a disruption due to a personal tragedy.

So I ordered real early this year, asking for shipping in mid May.

In March I received a box of lovely Gorge-top plants, but the ground in Warwick was still frozen. I had to store the lovely little fellas till the ground thawed. Then I noticed the plant list did not match my order list. They had confused MY order and an order to be sent to Seattle in March!

They apologized and promised to send the correct plants in May as per the original request.

May came, and passed, and no Gorge-top box of plants arrived.

When contacted, they said their records showed they had already filled the order. In March !

Dang! Deja vu all over .... ;-)

After much emailing, and snail mailing I did get most of the correct plant list, late but healthy. Gorge Top Gardens seem overwhelmed by success .

Gorge-top obviously has problems, improved record keeping and communication would solve most of them.

I love the plants they sent, but hate their chaotic organization. I am calling this a "Positive" assessment because they have eventually come through for me, and so they never cheated me, but their failure to answer email and lack of an 800 number, can sure cause stress and frustration.

They would be top notch if they communicate as well as they grow plants.

Marty
Warwick, NY

This spring (2006) I ordered 3 daylilies from Gorgetop (actually my daughter ordered them for my birthday). They were to be: Strawberry Candy, Gordon Biggs, and Carolyn Criswell. Gordon grew well and came true to form. Carolyn grew well, but turned out to be Prairie Blue Eyes. Strawberry has not flowered, remains a bit weak, and I hope will turn out to be either herself or Carolyn. No answer to emails or inquiries. I will not order from them again.

I had ordered from Gorge Top in the past and had been reasonably pleased with the plants I received for the low prices they offered them at. When I hadn't received any notification regarding my last order, placed on 6/15, I went to the website only to find that the order had been cancelled. I notified customer service who did respond within 24 hours. They informed me that a cooler had gone down and they had lost thousands of plants. My order contained many of these plants so they just cancelled the whole order without notifying me. They apologized but that was it. There was no offer to send any available plants and their website still claims plants are available.

I ordered from this company because the plants were so cheap, but they were all disappointing.

My poppies are still alive, but 3 months later are the same size as they were when they were received. My lupines never came up and when I dug them up, they were infested with bugs. I believe these bugs must have been in the bulbs when I received them.

I emailed the company to let them know about the lupines and got no reply.

I placed my order with this co. back on the 25th of May. I clicked on delivery for the week of June 5. Today is June 22 and I finally got my order. I mainly went looking for white hostas, but found great deals on some yellow and green ones too -- so I bought six hostas total, plus some butterfly bushes and a lot of other plants on their "sale". Anyway when I got my order, the first thing I noticed was that they'd shipped it in a box **NOT** marked "Live Plants" or anything -- just a plain cardboard box. So UPS has no clue what's in there and they obviously threw a very heavy box on top of it in the truck (or en route) because the box was completely SMASHED. *sigh* ANYWAY -- my butterfly bushes look like clippings off the one I bought for my mother at Lowes (for a reasonable price of $8 and in full bloom). Everything was very wilted -- maybe because I live in Zone 8 and it's usually very hot and muggy. So as they sat in that box, covered with cedar shavings and wrapped in plastic bags (that's how they all came, some without a container) they wilted or lost leaves to dryness. I hope they'll live. I'm trying to get them in the ground right now, but they already seem so shocked, I don't have too high of hopes.

Also, on my packing slip they indicated 5 of the 6 hostas I'd ordered were unavailable so they scribbled: **REFUND $20** on the bottom of my list. Well, I added it up and whatever way you look at it, the hostas that I ordered and didn't receive come out to be $28. So why the arbitrary $20? Where is the 8 bucks going? It obviously isn't going toward appeasing me by sending my plants out overnight, nor paying for any long-distance phone calls returned to me (I left messages and sent numerous emails), and we know it's not going toward packaging since that was a total bust. And I paid their flat rate of $10.95. So... I'm stumped as to why they think they're entitled to $8 extra from me. I'd love it if they took that $8 and hired a teenager for a day JUST TO RETURN EMAILS and keep customers INFORMED about the status of their orders. But honestly, I'll be very surprised if I ever see the actual "$20 refund" they promised me.

I'm not happy at all with these folks and wish I'd seen the complaints here before I ordered anything from them. Yes, they promised cheap plants... and now I fully understand the adage, "You get what you pay for."

Two green thumbs down.

I have been gardening for well over 30 years and have done business with some of the biggest and well known perennial nurseries in the US. I found Gorge Top Gardens about three years ago and have been purchased hundreds of dollars worth of plants from these folks. I was a bit taken back to see the negative comments posted here. I just recieved my second order of the year from Gorgetop and as with all the orders I was extremely pleased. The prices are unbeatalbe and the quality is always dependable. I have had to have a couple of items replaced but it has never been a problem to do so. I don't know if I have just been lucky or if some of these folks have just been unlucky but I will continue to purchase my flowers from Gorgetop Gardens until they fail to meet my expectaitons - as of today and three years of ordering they have always beaten other companies prices and plant sizes. I hope they can clear some of these negative comments up, I hate to see my favourite source for plants getting flamed like this.

I ordered from this company and was very pleased with their prices. Upon receiving my order I found that in pen was handwriiten that my Blue Angels were backordered and would ship in 7-10 days. That was a month ago and still have not received them. Some plants were healthy but some barerooted hostas seemed to have rotted on the tops. I planted them anyway to see if they would grow, but nothing a month later.. I only have 3 out of the original 10 hostas ordered. There is no guarantee from the company so why not send rotten merchandise?

I wish I'd found this site first. In brief, my plants were puny on arrival, and they are either struggling or dead now. I filed a complaint against Gorge Top Gardens with the Better Business Bureau of Western Virginia (you can do this online, just go to Google for the site) and got an email immediately from Gorge Top saying they'd refund my money. I also said I would sue them. Unfortunately, sometimes only threats work.