Comments regarding Burpee (W. Atlee Burpee)

I receive their always-beautiful catalog in the mail this past January, went to order, and had filled out an online order form and was preparing to check out. To my chagrin, the shipping charge was WAY beyond what I had expected. I had been prepared to order about 20 packets of seeds, which would weigh, oh, maybe a few ounces. Since I've received orders from them in previous years via the US Postal Service, I figured that the shipping charges for my order shouldn't have exceeded a few dollars. When $10.95 was tacked on to my order for shipping, I immediately cancelled the order. (Those must be SOME heavy seeds!) Burpee's prices are high enough (too high IMHO), and to have that kind of shipping charge added to my order was beyond belief. If I need Burpee seeds in the future, I'll buy them at the seed kiosk in my local garden shop. There is no sense in endorsing such ridiculous shipping charges (and in many cases, exorbitant seed prices)!

I ordered many vegetable and flower seeds from about 7 different companies this winter, all in mid to late December of 2008. I ordered a lot of seeds from Burpee.

Nearly all of the seeds that Burpee sent me were packed for 2008, and marked "sell by 12/08". Amongst ALL the other seeds from ALL the other companies I ordered from, all but ONE of those other seed packets were packed for 2009 and marked "sell by 12/09".

Burpee unloaded their old seed on me. The other companies sent me good fresh seed. Guess which companies I'll be looking at first, next time?

"

Please be assured that we only send out seed that meets our highest germination standards and that we test our seed frequently. Also, all of our seed is stored in climate-controlled facilities to ensure it stays at the optimal conditions for excellent germination. Further, W. Atlee Burpee offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee, so that if you are not satisfied with our product, we will either replace or refund your purchase price.

Happy Gardening.
"

Look if you're ordering seeds I suppose they are alright. But don't order potted plants from them! Why? Because they don't know the slightest thing about packing plants so they will arrive safe! I have placed several orders this year, and the coleus plants were all destroyed, so were the majority of the lisianthus, and some of the perillas. Amazingly bad, stay away! Breaks my heart too because I really want to have those beautiful plants in their catalog without the whole seed growing process.

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Hello,
Thanks for your feedback on your experience with Burpee. We are sorry that you have had a poor experience. We offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Please provide me with your name and we will refund your money. Thanks.
Paul
"

I ordered a mixture of plants and seeds from Burpee on April 14th. My comfirmation letter said it would be 7-10 days and listed both the plants and the seeds. I got confirmation from ups that my package would arrive on april 24th (10 days). When I got the package I was surprised it was so small and that my plants were not in the box. I figured that since I had ordered in April and the delivery for my area was supposed to be April that I would get my plants. So I looked in the box and there was a reciept for the seeds, but there was nothing to tell me when my plants were coming, just that they would be shipped seperately. I waited till May 12th to contact Burpee by email and didn't get a response that week, so I called them and waited on hold half an hour to be told my package wouldn't arrive until the first week of June and if my plants don't perform this summer then I can have my money back. A couple of days later I got an email response (7 days after I had sent the email) saying that my package would be there in early June. So, after ordering in April I should be finally getting my plants on June 9th. But from the other comments I guess I shouldn't be relying on that package for my garden. Good luck to whoever orders from them in the future.

Had a nightmare experience with these guys ordering tomato plants.

We waited until too far into the growing season to start plants from seed, so we decided to pay the substantial premium to have them ship us plants instead of seed packets. They assured me at the time I ordered that the plants I wanted were in stock and that they would ship them in 3-5 days for delivery in 7-10 days. Instead, three weeks went by without their shipping out the plants. Three weeks! I could have started my plants from seed in three weeks!! I'd ordered three different kinds of tomato plants. They didn't even ship one kind at all. Why? Because it was out of stock. What about the fact that they assured me it was in stock? Their first reponse was to say that I was wrong and no one there could have done that. Then, after I point out to them that this is silly, why would I make that up, they go, oh yeah, we'll we're very sorry that you had this experience. Another of the plants I ordered? They shipped me an empty pot. Not a pot with a little baby plant that died. No sir. An empty pot. The person who made up that package couldn't possibly have thought he was shipping me a plant. There was no plant. 3 weeks late they shipped me an empty pot. Yes, they offered immediately to refund that purchase price. But honestly, how ridiculous is this?? Why do I have to even go through the hassle of waiting on hold for 10 minutes to receive a refund for being shipped an empty pot? 3 weeks late?

Lesson learned.

Will always make sure to start plants from seed ourselves.

And will never ever buy from Burpee again.

I ordered sunflower seeds two years in a row, and both times they produced weedy, nonflowering stalks. I will not order sunflowers from them again.

Because their seeds are readily available in many retail outlets, why pay extra for shipping when you can buy Burpee seeds at any store?

I placed an order on April 15th for some tomato plants. The website said the plants should arrive within 7-10 business days. After 14 days, I called (because you cannot track your order online) and was told that I would receive my plants in two weeks. I sent an email to the customer service center last week and hadn't heard anything. I called today and was told that my tomato plants would not ship until the end of May or the beginning of June!!!! I live in the south and ordered my plants at the appropriate time and they were not going to send me my tomato plants until June! I would not have tomatoes until end of August or beginning of September. I understand you want to order seeds early (which I did and received fine from Burpee) but why should it take so long to get my plants? I asked the rep this question and she said that there was a high demand and I really need to order in January or February. I have to order that early for plants!!! Give me a break!!!! This company took my money on April 15th and they weren't going send my plants until June - that is unacceptable. I promptly asked for a refund and we will see if I get my money back timely. I will not be ordering anything from Burpee again and that is sad because I ordered over $200 worth of stuff from them this year including my tomatoes. My husband told me that they are too high on their stuff anyway.

I too had a very bad experience with this company. My plants were out of their pots & dead! UPS must have had a ball throwing this package around. When I called them the woman said they get a lot of complaints about this.I realize I live far,far away but,other companies get my order to me in a timely fashion with no damage to my plants. I suggested to her she tell the delivery dept. to switch to FedEx. I trusted this company because of their name & they let me down. I will never order from them again!! BTW : She said They would refund my money.As I haven't received my statement yet I cannot tell you if they did. I assume a company of this size & reknown will stand by it's word. I am not worried about my money.

I ordered a cone flower in October. It was a special 'saul' one that I really wanted. It came up in March and then promptly 'disappeared'. I emailed them regarding their policy and they said they would replace it. Well, the replacement came about 2 weeks ago - at least a month after I complained, and it had no growth at all. Just roots in a pot that was somewhat displaced in the mail. My cone flowers at the time all had leaf showing, so I'm a bit dubious. I planted it immediately, but it's been in 2-3 weeks and nothing is happening. I check on it every couple of days. All my other cone flowers are huge. I will have to email them again I suppose, but I'm quite disappointed. They are a big, well-known company and it was an expensive coneflower which I wanted for a specific spot.

I recently received my order of three "ice tomato" and three super sweet tomato plants. I was horrified upon opening the box to find that the soil (and plants) had completely fallen out of two of the containers. Two of the others were half way out of their containers, as well. There was no plastic bag or newspaper around the individual plants for protection. The "This Side Up" arrow ran perpindicular to how the plants had to be arranged in the box inserts. I'll just have to see if they make it, but I will never order live plants from Burpee again.

"

Hello,
We are sorry to hear about your problems with your recent plant order. We would like to apologize for your problems with Burpee. Please know that Burpee will stand by its 100 customer satisfaction guarantee and will refund your money. Please check your DMail and send me a note back so we can process your refund.
Cheers.
Paul
"

In late February or early March I first placed an order for lisianthus and some heirloom tomato plants. Only after I placed the order did I realize the plants wouldn't be arriving until April, so I canceled the order and instead bought some celebrity tomato plants locally. Here it is April, 16th and I already have a small green tomato on one plant. Waiting until mid-April to ship tomato plants to New Orleans is too late!

I placed another order for blue lisianthus and added tuberose bulbs. I thought they would both ship on April 4th, but I didn't receive the lisianthus plants until April 14th, and I have still not received the tuberose bulbs. When the lisianthus 12-pack arrived via UPS, the box was battered, half-crushed, and poorly packaged. The 12-pack tray was crushed and not a single seedling was in its compartment. I dug through the pile of dirt and pulled out what was left of the plants, but I'm not sure they will grow with what roots were still intact. That box of dirt was not worth $26.00.
I emailed Burpee yesterday and attached two pictures of how the plants arrived, but have yet to hear from them.

"

Hello,
We are sorry to hear about your problems with your recent plant order. We would like to apologize for your problems with Burpee. We have a 100% guarantee and will process your refund promptly. We are always reviewing our ways to ship live plants and will be conducting additional tests this summer to improve our methods to provide well-packed and happy plants to our customers.
Cheers.
Paul
"

I have been a customer of Burpee for several years, but I almost had a coronary when the shipping and handling charge ($7.95) was added to my modest $40 order. Wow, that added an extra 80 cents to the price of each package of seeds. They arrived on time and in good shape, but 10 packages of seeds fit in a medium padded mailer and couldn't have weighed more than 8 ounces. As you can imagine, I will be checking the price of S/H before I order from them, or anyone else, in the future.

I had a very good experience with this company. My seeds arrived shortly after I ordered them. The lime basil and zinnias did wonderfully. My squash did not, but I blame the bugs, not the seeds as they germinated quickly and grew well. The tomato plants I ordered arrived at planting time and also did great. I will order from Burpee again.

After receiving their beautiful catalog last December/January, I immediately placed an order and was told I would receive it within 10 business days.

Well two months and many emails later, I finally received my seeds.

To my dismay, the artichoke, asparagus, and soybean seeds never sprouted (I didn't have a problem with the Renee's Garden replacements I purchased either)...

I would never ever buy from this company again, seeing how many great companies are rated highly on this site.

Just like most mail order places, with slow shipping that you have to pay for, but what made this go from neutral to negative for me is that they sent me a '$5 off' coupon that expired this past June! Thanks a lot for that!

I live on 4 acres and have a 780 sq. ft vegetable garden. I purchased all my seeds for my annual flower gardens and vegetable garden fom burpee this year. I couldn't be happier with the results. My seed germination rate was almost 95%, although I did notice it took longer to germinate seeds in peat pellets vs seed starting mix. Next it will be straight seed starting mix for me. The african blondies are now the size of Patriot hostas and the vegetables are exploding. My juliet tomato plants are well over 7 feet tall. Even the cantelope and watermelon are producing like crazy. Thank you for the best year yet.....I won't buy my seeds anywhere else from now on.

I ordered a Patty's Plum Oriental Poppy from Burpee in April. I've been in love with this particular poppy for a while, and Burpee was the cheaper of the two companies where I found the plant available. It seems you get what you pay for.

The plant took a very long time to get here, and they never sent me a confirmation e-mail after I paid for the plant. I began to wonder if the order had even gone through. I ended up sending an e-mail to their customer service, asking if I actually did have an order in process. It took them several days to get around to responding to me to let me know that the plant had been paid for and was on its way.

When the plant arrived, it was "dormant." When I ordered it, the website said "plant". When I order a plant, I want a PLANT. Instead, I got what looked like a cigar butt with roots in a plastic bag of mulch with a rubber band around it. I waited so long for this plant to arrive, and this is what I got.

I was upset, but some gardening friends assured me that sometimes plants come dormant and to give it some love and care and that hopefully it would start to show some signs of life. I immediately planted it in good soil and have regularly watered it, given it lots of sunshine, and followed the very brief instructions that Burpee sent with it.

It is now August. (Four months later.) I still have what looks like a shriveled up, black, cigar butt in my backyard. I have cared for this stick the same way I have cared for all of my other plants, and there is no sign of life in it whatsoever.

I ended up buying a poppy from our local nursery for about $3. It's not a Patty's Plum, but who cares about having a fancy plant if it's dead? My poppy from the nursery is green and lush and thriving. My dead poppy from Burpee cost $12.90.

I've wasted my money and my time on Burpee. You'd think, being such a name in gardening, that Burpee would actually offer professional customer service and beautiful, healthy plants. This is not the case. It's better to go elsewhere, even if it's a little more expensive.

In short, Burpee ripped me off. They have my money, and I have a dead stick. I can say for sure that neither I nor anyone I know will ever order from them again.

I bought four packs of seeds-- tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and pumpkin-- I did everything the packet told me and was a complete dud. They only sprouted two leaves, and 3/4 of them didn't even sprout. I only replaced the tomatoes, and I compared those puny little tomatoes with big tomatoes that I got from a local nursery- it's like comparing a great dane to a hamster. Stay away from burpee, or you will loose a growing season.

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Hello - I work for Burpee and I would like to apologize for your poor germination experience. If you can provide me with you name and address, we will refund your purchase price for the seed packets.
Cheers.
Paul"

I ordered four packets of seeds - pole bean, bush beans, carrots and broccoli. The first sowing was a complete dud. I partially replaced them with locally purchased seeds and replanted what was left. The local seeds are going gangbusters, the Burpee seeds are completely unproductive. I also ordered a 9 plant tomato set. They mailed them weeks after our zone time guideline, so we're already behind. They all looked spindly when we got them. I planted them within 48 hours after following the package directions for watering. The only two who have grown at all are in planters on the deck, completely protected from the elements. The ones in the garden, in three weeks, have not grown at all. A locally grown plant that was smaller at planting is growing like crazy and already flowering.

I complained via email, the response completely ignored the seed issue and she basically told me to mulch (I did that the day they were planted) and because of the heat (our summer has been pretty normal) the plants were going to struggle a little. She also admitted that a bunch of their plants froze in shipping, meaning what should have been mine were shipped as replacements, making mine weeks late.

No offer to compensate, no mention of the seeds, nothing. Just a perky little admonition to wait!

I replied - I will never buy from Burpee again.

"

Hello,
I work for Burpee and would like to apologize for your poor Burpee experience. Can you provide me with your name and zip code we will provide you with a full refund
Cheers.
Paul

Hello - Today, we provided a complete refund to your charge card. Again, we apologize for the problems with your order.
Happy Gardening.
Paul"

I will no longer be purchasing anything from this company. As a gardener and plant lover, I will not put money in the pocket of this person that is obviously neither!

When I owned in DC, I ordered only a few times from Burpee and had a good experience. Now moving to a house in VA with a lot more space to garden, I ordered from them and several other companies. After a week and a half and no order (I received all my other orders from 4 other companies), I called to find out the status and learn that because I ordered by plants "late" they would not be shipped out for another 2-3 weeks (order placed on morning of 21st).

I asked where on the website did it say for Zone 6 my order was "late", she tried to find and I actually end up finding that my order which was for perennials was order 9 days within the time period and even within the correct time period if they were all annuals. She indicated that to have it shipped at this time, I would have had to order back in January...ah...that makes no sense.

I then asked to cancel my order and was told that my order was filled and sitting in the nursery waiting for shipment...huh (then why has it not shipped???)...and if it ships out and is not canceled I will have to send it back to them. At this point, I mentioned that that was ridiculous. You won't ship my order within the 7-10 business days as indicated in my receipt but if you ship late after my request to cancel...I have to make arrangements to ship back??? She finally talked to her "manager" and said my order would be canceled.

There are too many companies that clearly state when they will or will not ship to you to deal with this kind of bs. I won't even buy burpee's seeds in the store due to this poor customer service and mishandling of my order. I am extremely disappointed.

I went against my better judgment in ordering from this company. I had read the reviews on this site, but I was so intrigued by some of their seed offerings. I placed the order on Feb. 25 and on March 8 I had still not received the order, although it was only for a few packs of seeds and I live in the same state as the warehouse. When I did finally get them (on March 10, 2007) the pelletized pentas seeds were completely crushed and no longer pelletized. The torenia seeds were completely missing. There were no seeds in the packet whatsoever. I will call them about that, but by the time they come it will be too late to start them. So, the lesson I have learned is that I will pay very close attention to the Dave's Garden reviews from now on!!

"

Hello,
I work for Burpee and would like to apologize for your poor Burpee experience. Can you provide me with your name and zip code and we will ship your seeds out right away. Please send your information to PHofer@Burpee.com
Cheers.
Paul
"

After 20 years plus buying from Burpee, I can't do it any longer.

1- Their guarantee only works if they (Burpee) respond to your comments/complaints

2 - In 2005, after taking my order, and not receiving anything for 4 weeks, I called and was informed that my entire order was being held due to one iten (seed starting formula) was not available, whne my order finally arrived, several of the items I ordered were not included, with a note that they were no longer available.

3 - In 2006 upon receipt of my order, I was informed that one item was no longer available. Also, germination rates were unacceptable (compared to seeds purchased from other providers) - Biker Billy peppers (excellent peppers) - a total of 4 seeds germinated out of a packet; New Guinea Impatients - 6 seeds germinated out of a packet. I also ordered their new Salsa Tomato, and as plants grew, it became obvious when fruit set, that not all plants were "Salsa" tomatoes - half of my plants were of some other variety all from the same seed packet, which were terrible.

I emailed and called Burpee to inform of my experience, and they provided no solution nor did they respond to my emails.

I recommend Territorial Seed - Far Superior experience with product and service.

Total disappointment! For what they charge maybe they could say when something's no longer available! Why would I waste my time ordering something when they don't have it! But they don't tell you that! Never again!!

"

We tried to contact Plantactic to get information on what they ordered, but they have not provided us with any details. At W. Atlee Burpee, we pride ourselves on providing, up-to-date inventory information on our website. We will remove any items that become out of stock. Furthermore, W. Atlee Burpee provides a 100% satisfaction guarantee - if at anytime during the first year, you are not satisfied with your product, we will promptly refund or provide a replacement for you.
Happy Gardening!
"

I grew up with Burpee. As a youngster I spent much time looking thru their catalog and have so many nostalgic memories of the vegetables and annual flowers that I raised from Burpee seeds with my family back in Ohio. I and most of my extended family now live here in California and have continued to patronize Burpee through the years ....until now!

Several years ago Burpee purchased Heronswood Nursery. For those of you not familiar with Heronswood, Heronswood was the premier nursery in this country for rare and unusual plants. Dan Hinckley, the former owner, was the man responsible for so many of these introductions. Their catalog was a jewel in and of itself, just a wonderful read. Now Burpee bought the place and trashed the whole operation. The catalog was reduced to some glossy piece of garbage a fraction of the size of the former catalog. The former witty writing style was replaced with bland commercial script. Now they've closed the entire operation under the guise of wanting to better serve their national gardening audience. How was the dismantling of this treasure in the best interest of any gardener in any part of the country?

I and my family will never again buy anything from W. Altee Burpee !

I ordered 3 perilla plants from Burpee. I think the plants might have been in good condition when they left Burpee's nursery. However, by the time they got here only one plant was in good condition. Both of the other plants had branches broke off and laying in the dirt in the bottom of the shipping carton. Burpee ships in cardboard boxes which does little to protect the plants. Even though they said they will refund me the money, I am still out the plants and it is too late to replace them.

A very strong NEGATIVE regarding Burpee, and I will never deal with them again. After a month and countless e-mails regarding my order that never showed up (most of which went unanswered), I still don't have the seed potatoes and garlic bulbs that I ordered. They falsely claimed that they delivered them, but there's zero indication of that, only their word, which is obviously worthless.

I just bought a new house, and for the first time in my life I have my own garden! Or I will once I fertilize, compost, cultivate, water, weed...etc. I was so looking forward to starting my first vegetable garden. I haven't worked on a vegetable garden since I was a little girl planting alongside my grandmother.

And Burpee, singlehandedly, ruined it for me. That, and they stole $50 out of my pocket, so I can't afford to replace their order via another company. So this year I look at weeds and dead dirt instead of potatoes and garlic.

Stay away! They once may have been a reputable company, but they aren't any longer.

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We here at Burpee are proud of our customer service. Your order was shipped from our facility on 04/28/2006 by UPS. The UPS tracking number for your order shows that it was delivered to your front door on 05/03/2006 at 8:41 AM. Have you checked with your neighbors? Even though we have evidence that it was delivered to you, we issued a refund to your credit card on 05/10/2006. We cannot control what happens after an order leaves our facility, so consider that, before you vent your anger to us or any other merchant you deal with. "

I recently ordered 3 Brandywine tomato plants from Burpee's internet site. I added some plant labels to make the shipping charge palatable. They did not have the plants at the time of shipping and shipped the plant labels with a note in the box merely stating that the plants were unavailable. Now I understand that cash flow is important but I do not understand why an item remains on a website that is not available. Burpee went through the trouble of putting a note in the box...would it have been so difficult to send an e-mail before shipping the partial order advising me that the plants were not available, giving me the option to cancel? I called Burpee and they did credit back my card but they can't compensate me for the inconvenience, the aggravation and the time I've wasted. Of course I can't find the brandywines at local nurseries. In the "computer age" inventories are easy to track and so Burpee I give you a negative for putting cash flow before people and ethics.
Robert Oliver

This company is the pits.. It took forever to get through to customer service to place an order. apparently I'm not the ony one. They took the order for seeds & plants with the seeds comeing a few days later. The plants weren't so lucky. Either the company or the shipping department have a problem filling orders. Only half the order came on the shipping date that was promised . I tried calling customer service & never got through, only because I later found out they only have one person to answer incoming calls. I live near their Warminster place so I went down there. Even bigger problem. The place is enormus but it's surrounded by a chain link fence & you have to go through the guard at the entrance. The office door is locked so that you need someone to let you in & that's where I found out they have one telephone operator. She called her boss who had to call someone else who finally admitted they never got my plant that was ordered. I got a refund in the mail the next month but after all this I'm staying away from Burpee's.

In the spring of 2005 we ordered from several seed companies so that we could compare the products of each. The seeds from Burpee were more expensive than those from Gurney's and Ferry Morse and we felt they were less productive. All were treated to identical conditions, and identical watering. The Burpee seeds simply did not produce as well. These were planted at our farm in Ohio in extremely rich river bottom soil and were watered regularly.

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 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.

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 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.

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!!!

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.

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.

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.