Comments regarding Paradise Garden

Having ordered last year from Oakes Daylilies, I expected to be as pleased with my order from Paradise Garden as I was with Oakes. Sadly, no. I think the problem may lie in fulfilling orders with suppliers, rather than directly from the company.
Issue #1: The order came in two parts, one from a Tennessee supplier (I don't think the company itself--the return address wasn't in Coryton). In the first part, two of my plants, a gaura and a toad lily, arrived well packaged, with the cardboard insert to keep the planting medium in the pot taped all the way from top to bottom; no soil falling out of the pot, in other words, and the box had a sturdy cardboard rectangular tube to keep the plants from getting crushed. So far, so good. However, while the plants had been placed in 6" pots and were advertised as more mature, they were obviously transferred from starter pots into the larger pots recently. As I turned them over to decant them, the rootball of both was only a few inches wide and quite shallow, and the plants were small as well. They were healthy, and I figured it wouldn't be worth the hassle to try to get the promised larger plants. So far they are doing well. I was miffed, but not really irritated.
But then, issue #2: The second batch of two plants, a cinerum geranium and a magnus coneflower, arrived about a week later. This time, they came from Michigan, so definitely from a supplier. The packaging was not great. The inserts to keep the soil in place had simply been rubber-banded around the pot on either side, and a considerable amount of soil (about a 1/4 total) of the soil in the geranium pot fell out before I got it out of the box. Also, the only thing to keep the box from getting smashed was two bamboo sticks in opposite corners of each pot.
The geranium seems on the wilty side, but that may just be the nature of this variety. The coneflower had a head on a 15" or so stalk, but had been smushed into too short a box, so that its flower head was seriously pushed over and about 3" of it was headed horizontally. Despite being out of the box a week now, the stalk has not straightened out. The leaves look healthy. I don't know whether this is typical of the variety I got (Magnus) or not, since it's a new variety to me. Possibly the stalks on these tend toward droop.
I can't say that I would want to order again from P.G., which makes me sad because they're not only in my zone (6b), but based within a few hours of Nashville, and so there's theoretically less of a carbon footprint made when ordering from them. But since they use far-flung suppliers, that's an illusory advantage, and the plant quality seems average at best.

The plants arrived in good condition. Have not had occasion to deal with customer service.

One minus: There is no email notification as to when the plants will be arriving.

My order of two clematis could have been moister and better packed. Were they broken enough to want a replacement? No, but for the money (and from the numerous positive reviews) I expected better. The packaging itself seemed fine, the vines looked to have been damaged before packing. I would think twice before ordering from them again.

I ordered 25 peonies. Due to one variety being sold out, 2 others were sent in its place. They are very nice. The divisions of all are big and healthy with 3 to 5 eyes. Several have 6 and 7 eyes. Having had experience with peonies, I am well pleased with the quality.
They were packed well and were still moist when unpacked for planting. They arrived at the right time since the weather was super for planting. Will order from Paradise again in the spring. Very good experience with the company. Appreciated the comment that was written on the packing slip.

I ordered irises and bulbs from Paradise Gardens, and was surprised to learn that they are just brokers - they did not grow anything that I ordered. I received the irises from Sutton's Irises. They sent me the eight rhizomes that I ordered, plus an additional six! (In excellent shape) However, I could have ordered all fourteen from Sutton's for less than I paid for the original eight I ordered from Paradise Gardens. Next, the bulbs I ordered have not arrived yet, but my invoice says I will be receiving them from VanBourgondien. The reviews for VanBourgondien are very poor, and I would never have ordered from them, so I am not at all happy that they will be sending me my order. I will just hope for the best! I have serious reservations about ordering from Paradise Gardens in the future, since I have no idea from whom I am truly buying.

I ordered daylilies, irises, and a tree peony. The daylilies arrived last month and there was a bonus plant much to my delight. A week ago I received an email telling me my irises had shipped but due to a quality problem they replaced 3 with "... substitutions based on like iris to what you had ordered". I looked the 3 up (on Dave's Garden of course) and they were nothing like what I ordered. I wrote an email back saying it was not acceptable. The reply I received said that the irises had already shipped but they would refund my money for the 3. I still had some irises in my wish list so asked if I could substitute 3 more instead of a refund. I was told yes and so I placed my order. With my order I thanked them for working with me but they *really* need to look at their substitution policy. I haven't received my replacements or the tree peony yet so I can't really say "yea" or "nay" just now but their willingness to make things right really impressed me.

I ordered 2 times from this company and both times I had problems. I ordered a clematis which was advertised as a 9 inch flower only to receive it with a stick advertising it as a 6 inch flower. The company did refund my money and changed the wording on their website. Then, I ordered some bulbs only to wait 3 weeks and receive an email stating those bulbs could not be sent. They also did refund that money. I am now waiting for about 5 more items which I ordered over 2 weeks ago.

I recived my order in a timly manner. In my order were three Clematis which all looked the same and in good shape. I planted them and two of them are over 42" high and blooming, the third, "Belle of Woking" thinks it's a bonzi, it is 12" high. I have tried to ask Paradise Garden why, voice mail full 4 tries, E-Mail 2 weeks ho response. Guess I payed 15.95 for a runt.

i ordered a hosta sum of all on 4/14/04. hosta did not arrive until 5/15/04 & was in very bad condition & smaller than i expected for $19.99(i think fed ex lost it) communication was excellent & david black(customer service) worked to find out where the plant was. it was not the best experience in mail order i have had but far from the worst!!

I ordered bulbs on Sep. 14. since then I havn't received anything. I contacted them via e-mail but no responce about when I receive shipment.

I placed an $85.00 order on 9/9 and did receive a few bulbs and one Hosta. But four weeks later 10/6 I still have not recieved the $35.00 hydrangea which really racked up the shipping charges. I've emailed and left several messages on their answering machine but NO RESPONSE. Perhaps they will see this message and respond so I don't have to contact my credit card company...

I placed my order on 9/9 and received a very nice double fanof Pumpkin kid in 2 days! However, today, 9/29 I am still waiting for the rest of the order

This is my own fault, but I ordered about 15 daylilies from Paradise and they were propmptly shipped to me from Oakes Daylilies. I looked at the Oakes webpage and I could have ordered the same plants and saved about $3-4 for each plant. Next time I'll shop around more on the web but everyone should in order to avoid paying more than you need to. Live and learn though.

I received a shipment from Paradise Garden today claiming to be order number 55779F5A24. However, it is only a partial shipment of my order. There was no explanation as to when I may expect the rest of the order.

I remain in suspense as to whether or not the remainder is forthcoming.

I loved the website. Kept me up very late looking, learning and enjoying. Ordered seeds, begonias and hibiscus. Received seeds right away with notice that begonias were sold out. My credit card was credited for begonias. Nothing about hibiscus. Waited and wondered awhile. Looked order up on website and it said "order processed". I began to wonder if lost in mail. Finally received one one plant. Fed Ex left it on the porch outside and the other was back ordered. That's OK. I hope other plant comes in better condition. This one appeared to have been packaged painstakingly well, with sticks to help box keep shape and cardboard rubber banded over container to keep soil in. But there must have been problems in shipping. The box was smashed to about a third of original size. The sticks almost saved it, but the stem with leaves was broke off just above the top of pot and all of the leaves were in one end of the box with over half of the dirt from the pot. The rubber bands holding the cardboard over the pot were still in place but the edges were bent up enough to let the soil escape. The only thing left was a small broke stem sticking out of a small amount of soil. I hope it grows back. It looks to me like mishandling in shipping was the real problem. I will wait for the other plant to see if I want to order by mail again.