Comments regarding Burpee (W. Atlee Burpee)

I've always had very good luck with Burpee, for both seeds and bedding plants. Although the flowers/plants they offer tend to be very common varieties, you always know the quality will be excellent. Last year I experimented with Cosmos seed tape (talk about lazy!!!). It was terrific. I planted two rows of Cosmos in minutes and enjoyed their leafy foliage and welcome late blooms for weeks. (People could hardly make it through the flowers to get to my front door.) The catalog is a terrific reference, and they include all the right information for every variety. (I'm disappointed when catalogs are uneven with the inclusion of information. I always want ease of growing, bloom time, sun/shade information, and description. Why isn't that standard for every plant in every catalog?!?) In fact, they now even indicate which flowers are scented or attract butterflies.

This was the first year I ordered plants from Burpee. I have been satisfied with their seeds but even though I called my order in early (February) they were not able to fill it. I ordered sets of three different perennials and they did not send any of them. Two were cancelled and they substituted on the other and one of those didn't grow. To add insult to injury it took forever for the credit to be processed. This has soured me on mail order; I'll shop at the local nurseries.

I have been very disappointed with my last two orders. Out of 5 Daylilies only three survived. On the other order they sent the wrong plants and then were unable to replace them. This caused added expense to send them back and replace them locally.

I had an unhappy experience with customer service over an oriental poppy collection that died. I had to call 3 times before they would believe that the plants were dead and the customer service rep. who finally gave in and promised to send me new plants was downright surly! I don't think I'll order plants from Burpee again.

This seemed like a good idea to me, but the actual site is a mess! There is no way to order the items on-line; if someone can figure this out they must have actually taken the time to trouble-shoot it. Ordered catalogs from 4 seed companies on the http://www.2 weeks ago; 3 of 4 responded within 4 days...Burpee has yet to do so. Tried to call to get some questions answered; I waited 20 minutes on hold. Bigger isn't always better.