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

Posted on June 24, 2011, updated June 24, 2011
I placed an order last year, spent over $100 and never received anything! I callled and emailed repeatedly and never heard back from them. They are terrible! Don't waste your money!

I've ordered from them three times. Order 1: 3 different hostas, 3 bleeding hearts, 3 ajuga, 3 columbine, an astilbe, 3 lamium. Two hostas were the wrong varieties; heuchera instead of ajuga...oddly they all are doing well and look great. 1 columbine died, the bleeding hearts are barely hanging on. The rest are lovely. Order 2: 3 foxglove, 2 echinachea. All the foxglove now dead, echinachea alive and well. Order 3: 3 Lavender, 3 yarrow, 5 lady's mantle. 2 yarrow died, 3 lady's mantle died. The lavender is gorgeous, the surviving yarrow & lady's mantle look great. So they're not 100%. Also, their product availability is mostly a miss.

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.

My expectations are lower for end-of-season sales. I ordered from their 50% off sale. 2 daylilies and 2 clematis. One daylily was excellent, a triple fan which after 3 weeks in the ground has produced another fan and a small flower scape. The other daylily was good, a small but double fan. One clematis was pretty good for the price and is growing, the other which was much smaller is iffy and may die. The daylilys were too moist, starting to mold, and the clems were dry. They were supposed to mail 'the week of the 17th' according to the site, which they did, on the last day of the week, the 22nd (according to the postmark). I emailed them on the 20th to see if they had shipped or not. The answer I got back was: 'it will be mailed the week of the 17th.' This did not exactly answer my question. I give this company a neutral, a slight lean towards the negative because of the unclear email response and the iffy clematis, a slight lean towards positive because of the 1 excellent daylily. I don't know if I would order from them again.