Comments regarding Burpee (W. Atlee Burpee)

I've just had rather good experience with this company, despite some problems with their web site. I did not get an automatic confirmation that my order was received, but when I contacted their customer service people they were able to find and confirm the order. Ok, it took a couple of days to exchange email, but nothing out of the ordinary. It took 2 weeks to get the seed, again, not bad. And some of the seeds I planted 5 days ago have already sprouted!

Last year I ordered around $50 in seeds from Burpees well within the time alotted to receive in time for my area. Weeks went by and nothing showed up so I emailed them with my acct number and the date I had mailed the order/payment. I was told they were on there way. I wait another couple of weeks (as indicated by them) and still nothing by then it is summer/late spring and I still have nothing. I called and again I'm reassured that my order was on the way and that they'd send a replacement order. Again the waiting game, finally I'm told by the customer rep that they had mistaken my order from the year before and that they'd never received the order which is why I'd contacted them to begin with. So therefore I ended up going to a nursery and trying to find the pumpkins we needed for my daughter's kindergarden.

I'll be sticking with Gurney's, their plants may look half dead when you receive them but at least I get them!

tanya

I placed a small $30 order of seeds only. It took 3 weeks to receive it, although my credit card was charged the day after the order was placed. Nowhere on the site did it say that seeds could only be shipped after certain dates. I really doubt the mail could take that long. I am not too impressed.

In the spring of 2004 I ordered a set of tomato cages, three big mama hybrid tomatos, and several packs of seeds.

I did not have any issues with customer service or the web site. I have used the tomato cages the last two years and they are very sturdy. The tomatos arrived in excellent condition and provided plenty of tomatos throughout the season. The seeds were good as well.

I order from many companies and 99% of the time have had excellent luck. Burpee unfortunately is one of the few exceptions.

Thinking my initial bad experience may have been my own fault or a fluke and because I do garden in a very challenging climate I did place a small order a second year, being very careful to order plants I knew to be extremely well-adapted to my area. Every plant promptly died, including every single bulb. I'm assuming this is due to a) worst packaging I've seen to date and b) my climate.

People in other climates may have better luck with them but all in all there are too many better nurseries to bother with this one.

I ordered seeds from Burpee twice within the last six months or so. Each time, my order was shipped promptly and packaged well. I received my seeds less than 10 days after submitting my online order. Their website was easy to navigate and the checkout process quite simple. Overall, I was very pleased with my experience with Burpee and will order seeds from them again in the future.

I ordered some viola plants on Sept. 8, 2005 and did not receive them until Oct. 6 which I thought was a little slow. However the weather was unusually hot in Sept. so I thought that might have caused the delay. The plants arrived in decent shape except for poor root development which disappointed me considering the cost. They did include 5 free copper plant markers which were very nice.

Our healthy and well-rooted plants arrived in perfect condition and in a timely manner. We consider this to be great service, which we have always gotten from Burpee, for many years.

All the plants are growing really well and we look forward to a beautiful garden and lots of delicious vegetables.

An extra bonus: a company that cares enough to use recyclable packaging.

Jack and Alice

I received my 2 orders right on time. The perennial plants were beautiful, really big and the shasta daisy is blooming.

All the plants were well rooted and the prices were fair -- Burpee ships a one-year-old perennial, the same as I would buy at a garden store for more money.

Both my tomato plants and flowers arrived the week before Mothers' Day. I love their tomato-growing tips/instruction sheet with lots of good information. I had no problem with the quality, and they had great root systems.

I am most pleased with Burpee using all recyclable products for their packaging: no plastic bags or peanuts, and their tomato package is fantastic.

GG

I have purchased seeds from Burpee's for years and years. The quality and selection are great. The reason for the neutral is that, like the other reviewers, I have received poorly packaged plants on the edge of death. This year I asked for a refund which was quickly and cheerfully given. Burpee's should really learn how to package plants properly.

Last year I ordered seeds and was very happy with them. This year, I ordered seeds again and a tomato plant collection.

The seeds, as before, did very well, almost 100% "took". The exception is some pole bean seeds. Started 2 weeks ago sowing beans and as of today I have 5 little bean plants coming up out of over 50 seeds.

The only thing stopping me leaving a positive for Burpee is the plants I received. Terrible! Small plants for price (averages about $3 each), out of the pots, one had only one side stem that was not broken! I am nursing that plant back to health (may not get any tomatoes, short growing season, but gotta try.)

In short, great seeds, poor live plants.

I have the same complaint as many other people - the packaging. I ordered Lisianthus plants this year, and all but one plant had been tossed from their packaging and consquently died. I sent an email including a picture to Burpee, and they issued a refund, although I did have to call them to find out that a refund had actually been issued.

On a positive note, because I ordered early I got two free packages of seed. My seeds germinated quickly and I have several productive cucumber plants and a nice patch of mixed flowers (mainly zinnias) as a result.

I will stick to ordering seeds and supplies from Burpee, but I don't plan on ordering live plants again.

I wish this company would find a better way to package their live plants. The plastic tray is o.k., but the clips do nothing to keep the dirt where it belongs....with the plants. I've had this problem with them in the past and wasn't going to order this year, but they had a few varieties I couldn't resist. So I ordered a dozen of each (the minimum), and received healthy seedlings, but alot of them had no soil around their roots.

I am a long time customer of Burpee(1975) but this was the first year I ordered live plants. My seeds came right away but since Burpee doesn't confirm orders I just had to look through the catalog to find out when to expect my herb plants. They did come today and ontime I might add. The packaging was less than adequate to say the least but the plants are all still alive. I have read a lot of the comments here about the Burpee live plants and I must say that this is the only place I have ordered premium priced plants where the packaging was inadequate. They use kind of an egg crate deal which keeps the pots immobile but does nothing to keep the soil in the pot. This seems like a simple thing to correct but evidently not...

For the second year in a row, I have received two separate shipments of poorly packaged tomato plants that were much the worse for wear after an eight-day cross-country trip in poor packaging.

The first batch, last month, contained three plants that had tumbled out of their pots and were tangled together within the inner packing material. The second batch of three, which arrived yesterday, was dry as a bone and, most likely, irretrievably wilted. One of the plants was DOA and another is in intensive care. I doubt I'll be able to save it. The third will probably make it.

I have for many years ordered seed from Burpee with good results. The last couple of years I've ordered plants out of convenience. I love Burpee's exclusive varieties, but they're not much good to me when they arrive dead or so severely damaged that they fail to thrive when planted.

I'm sure they will offer me a refund, they did last year when the wrong plants arrived in one shipment and damaged plants arrived in another. However, my concern is that year after year they seem to do nothing to improve the quality of their shipping or take into account that no plant should spend eight days in a dark, dry box. Other mail-order plant companies I do business with ship from regional growers, so transit time is minimized to a couple of days max. They also use superior packing methods and the items arrive in very good condition.

This is probably the last year I'll order plants from Burpee.

I rate Burpee a positive based on the fall planted
bulbs that I have ordered from them. All have been
beautiful this spring (tulips, iris, daffodills, crocus). I would order from them again based on the results of these bulbs.

C&NN

I had a similar negative experience to others listed. Last year I bought plants from Burpees. I also made a purchase from Krazy Keiths at the same time. The plants from Burpees were all but dead and were packaged very poorly. I planted them, hoping to salvage at least something. None were saved. All the plants from Krazy Keiths are alive, well and starting to bloom again this spring. I was very disappointed as I had purchased Burpee seeds for years and had always felt they were an honest, reliable company. I won't purchase from them again as I feel they must know they are sending out junk and apparently don't care. Buyer beware!

I am a brand new Dave's Garden member. While I have not ordered anything from Burpee since last spring, I was a very long time customer of Burpee's and wanted to share my experience. I always ordered hard to find vegetable and flower seeds every spring from Burpee. My seed order always arrived promptly and the seeds grew fine. Then I ordered canna lilies last spring. Half of the canna lilies arrived rotted. I contacted Burpee's by e-mail, multiple times to request a replacement for the rotted cannas which were "guaranteed" according to their catalog. Burpee's didn't even respond to my e-mail's and I certainly did not receive any replacement cannas. Guarantee's are only as good as the company that offers them.

I have had very good luck with Burpee's seeds. The quality seems to be very reliable. The only seed-related complaints I have are that the seed selection in garden centers is nothing like the selection in the catalog, and the seeds ordered from the catalog do not have the picture of the plant on it. I have not had a good experience with their plants, however. The plants I ordered arrived as if a bomb had exploded inside the package. There was soil and pieces of plants everywhere. A refund was no problem, but I wanted the plants!. Not worth the risk to order plants from Burpee!

super fast shipping and excellent seeds. Will be a repeat customer

We received package of yellow watermelon and Black Krim tomatoes seeds. I planted them indoors in Ferry Morse "greenhouse". It has been over 3 weeks and seeds are still sitting in the soil, did not germinated. I am dissapointed since we paid almost $5 for 10 seeds of watermelon ( my husband wanted that specific kind of watermelon). I had a great experience with Ferry Morse tomatoes seeds from Walmart! Those plants are ready to set blossom!!!

Last year I order several seed varieties and the special 18 pack of Lisianthus. The seeds came within a few days of my order and the lisianthus arrived at the appropriate time for planting.

The seeds were fabulous. I grew my first lavender from seed and it even bloomed non stop the first year. I have tried to start lavender for several years running with no luck. Of the lavender I started, admittedly only about 50% germinted in my less than perfect starting conditions however I lost 0 to dampening off or any other perils.

The lisianthus unfortunatly was pretty beat up when it arrived. I don't think it was poorley packaged it looked more like someone had shaken the box up and down and then stomped on it. I don't think Burpee was negligent it was just one of those things. When I called customer service they immediatly refunded my credit card, sight unseen. I don't know if I will buy live plants through the mail again - seems iffy and there is great stuff available locally - however I will use Burpee for seeds again especially if they increase their selection of heirloom veggies.

Experience is two edged. This was my first online gardening order so I didn't know what to expect. I ordered some seeds and some tomato plants back in December. Within 10 business days I recieved my seed order. It was complete as ordered. I was slightly surprised that my intire order was not on the invoice (the tomato plants) with a marking to say they would be shipped in spring sometime. Come April, after it started to be gardening weather, the tomato plants arrived in horrible condition. I opened the box and pulled out the packing box, dirt fell out everywhere. Once inside the plant packing box, the tomato plants were out of their containers, the dirt was bone dry to the point that the roots were bare and were starting to shrivel up. I placed them back in their pots and filled it with my own dirt in attempts to save them. They still look sickly, but they seem to be making a slow recovery. I called the company to complain about the shipping method and to let them know that packaging was insufficient when shipping through ups. Was told that it was standard shipping practice. I will not be ordering live plants again from them until they get their shipping straightened out.

Last year I ordered Pysedelic spring viola- no germintation - but I had a HUGE problem with damping off last year- I didn't call them - SHOULD HAVE.

This year took a chance bought more Pysedalic springs and wishbone flowers which are pelleted-- when I opened the package to plant the wishbones half the pellets were smashed. I called then and spoke with Ann who was very helpful, told me to plant the surviving pellets and "dust" and that they would also send a new package- also upon realizing I lived near their company- emailed me directions to the burpee store in Warmenster (guess where I'll be going this spring?) the email even has suggestions for places to stop for lunch!

She also assured me the Burpee garuntee even covers the .97 cent seeds from Walmart!

Overall very pleased - pricey- I only order from the catalog what I can't get anywhere else and am drooling over. but worth it.

On Feb. 18, 2005 I ordered only one item, bean/pea innoculent. As of today, March 13, 2005 I have not received it. I've sent two emails. One was said to be undeliverable from their own website cust. service. I called on the phone and cust. service said it should've been here but would I wait a few more days so I have. I will be calling cust. service on Monday again. I did receive an email back from their cust. service that said my order was shipped on Feb. 20 keep looking for it and have a nice day. I will be calling cust. service again on Monday.

I've ordered Lisianthus plants from Burpee ever since they began carrying them years ago and have always had good luck with them. Last year, the 18 plants I ordered arrived in a box that appeared to have gone through a war zone. Inside the box, only two plants remained in their cells, and several had broken in half. I photographed the outside and inside of the box, emailed the photos to Burpee, and asked for replacements. Unfortunately, they had sold out of Lisianthus entirely. They refunded my money, apologized profusely, and sent a very generous merchandise certificate. I just placed my 2005 order for Lisianthus, and while I hope they arrive in good condition, I feel confident that Burpee's customer service department will do whatever it takes to stand by their products.

Last summer, I ordered pennisetum rubrum from them, an annual grass. For about half the price of other nurseries selling the same plant, these plants did very well for me in my garden.

While I may not order all of my 2005 stock from Burpee, I am ordering the same plant and some seeds this year from them.

It was our first time trying to grow potatos in our area. We ordered some Yukon Gold potatos and some Kennebecs. They (the mini- tubers) arrived in a nice package with good instructions on how to plant. They all grew, as well, and we had potatos all summer and well into fall!! There were so many we could not dig them all and some still remain in the ground today! I would definitely order from Burpee again. I do understand that some people have had poor service and I am sorry for that. I intend to keep trying!

Expensive but good service, good selection but they could use more open pollinated seeds.

I am happy with Burpee's seeds, but their prices are higher than those of several other reputable seed sources. I ordered 38 seed packets back in January and received all of them in plenty of time for propagating them indoors under lights. I raised some indoors and some outdoors. Most of the packets had terrific germination rates, but the alchemilla and stevia both netted zero plants and the lemon balm produced only one plant. All but one watermelon split before they were even ready to pick, same with the cabbage. Everything flowered and produced prolifically. It was beautiful, except for the mutant Black Beauty eggplants. Some of them looked like three or four (or more) had grown together to create one vegetable, but there would only be one stem. Despite all of this, I still like Burpee. However, next year I am buying most of my seeds elsewhere, mainly to get a bigger selection and a better price.

I have had good and bad luck with seed ordering from Burpee. But I rate them with a negative because of the perennials I just received from them. As others have written, their packing was a real problem. But besides that, they shipped me a Buddleia that wasn't even more than a seedling for $8.00. The roots weren't even established in the pot. The Echinacea species I ordered were half dead seedlings, also for a lot more than I would have paid if I had known the state they would be in. Customer service told me they were shipped in a dormant stage and the roots were healthy. But I know a seedling when I see one, and the roots were too undeveloped for these to be mature plants! Very disappointing, because the catalogs are so enticing and because I have had luck with seeds.

Out of 5 or 6 seeds offered, one type germinated ... one! Ok, maybe it was me ... I would not rate a company negative based on this.

Here's the bad news ... I ordered dozens of lisianthus plants from them ... the plants might have been healthy when shipped, but the packing was horrible. Actually, the packing was non-existent. The plants were just stuck in the box; the box was not well marked ... the shipping department had taped over the part that said live plants. Anyway, the plants all fell out of their cells ... exposed roots, etc. Some of them survived, but I had ordered several different varities, and had no idea which was which, since they were all out of their cells.

Another order I received in the same condition and the plants were absolutely sodden. Impatiens and petunias all died, tho I tried my best to salvage them immediately. I managed too save 3 scaevola out of 6, but it took them a long time to get established.

I emailed them about the condition of the lisianthus in the first shipment; to their credit they replaced them ... but they arrived in the same condition as the first order ... sodden and not in their cells, exposed roots, etc.

After that I gave up; not worth the effort and the disappoinement. It's discouraging to see that despite complaints here from 2002 and 2003 about the way things were shipped (wish I had known about Garden Watchdog before I ordered) they've made no improvement. I am semi-housebound and get ALL my plants online. Everybody else I have ordered from takes great care with packing their plants ... either packing peanuts, shredded newspaper ... SOMETHING to keep the plants in their cells.

I will never order from them again.

I have been getting Burpee seeds for years without problems. I ordered Strawberry plants as well as Rubarb and they came in time for planting and have produced bouniful plants.
A good company to deal with from my prospective.

I ordered 12 tomato plants from them this year and only 3 plants arrived dead. Customer service was kind and offered a refund which I recieved today. I only had to call them once, unlike other companies where you have to call over and over again. I would buy from them again.

June 6, 2004: I had a bad year with Burpee this year. I only received half of my plant order. Half of the plants I did receive were dead. I did get a very apologetic lady on the phone (This was after I emailed them twice about the plants and had no response.) They did refund the money for the plants. However, It's June and I live in Zone 4 so trying to get replacement plants is proving to be difficult. I had ordered from Burpee the two previous years with little problem. I hope it's not a sign of their future product.

I am a second-generation Burpee customer, following my mom who has been ordering from them since the 1970's. My first order from them 3 years ago took quite a while getting to me, and the plants were healthy but not packed very well so two were damaged. However, my orders from them this year have been processed and shipped promptly. Seeds are always great quality with high germination rates. I was fortunate enough two years ago to be able to shop at their main warehouse, and it was obvious to me by the aged condition of the warehouse that they had not made any changes in their order processing in quite some time, but judging by the vastly improved speed in which I received my last order, it seems like they are finally making the improvements they have so desperately needed for such a long time. They're not perfect, but I will definitely continue to order both plants and seeds from Burpee.

I ordered three tomato plants and so far I am pretty happy with them. The plants are a tad smallish, and it seemed like it took a long time for them to get here, but overall I'm OK with them.

This is a mixed review, so I felt that it was necessary to write two comments.
I recieved my order for plants today that had been placed in early March. I never recieved a confirmation of my order via email which was important to me. When I called to find out more information, they said it was really busy and promiced to send a confirmation and never did.
The 12 Gaillardia Sundance Bicolor plants were awful. All the tops were off leaving only the bottom seedly leaves. Of the 12 plants, I really have only 4. The Helichrysum Silver Mist plants were so young, I could have planted my own more succesfully. The roots system is fragile and tiny.
The Vinca Berriwinkle mix was okay.
It was really a major dissapointment when I called the company and they said that they would refund my money, but the Gaillardia were no longer available. Our home is on a Garden Tour and I was really counting on quality plants from Burpee.
I will not order flowering plants again from this company.

I've ordered twice from Burpee's: once in 2002 and again this year. Both times it was a positive experience. This year I ordered some chilli pepper and watermelon seeds and some raspberry canes. The seeds were shipped promptly and the germination has been close to 100%. The raspberries were shipped when the catalog said they would be shipped for my state, arriving on a Friday, which was timely for a weekend planting. All 5 canes are now growing and appear healthy. I would certainly order again in future years.