Comments regarding Sunshine Farm & Garden

Barry was very friendly and helpful on the phone prior to my order. I explained that I lived in Zone9b (New Orleans) and that it was very hot and humid here in the summer. He encouraged me to order bare root divisions of his Helleborus giving me a "great deal" 743.00 for 100 of them. My order was placed 1-5-15. When they hadn't arrived by mid April, I contacted him with concerns about planting bare root plants that close to summer. He assured me that they would do fine. I planted the same day as arrival in early May. It was already in the high 80's here. By June 8th a majority of the plants were dead. I contacted Barry and sent photos as he requested... His first response was that they were overwatered...next he told me to test my soil, when that came back fine he suggested I contact a master gardener here in town. I did and he said that May was too late to plant bare root plants in New Orleans. Barry responded "Hi, we shipped you perfect plants, I know as I am the one and only person that does the divisions, you can't expect me to be responsible for the weather in New Orleans." I asked if he would consider a partial replacement at no charge and he said "no, but he would give me special pricing." Lesson learned for 743.00 and hours and hours of work- I don't recommend doing business with this company.

We placed order July 26 with Sunshine Farm & Garden, explaining our Master Gardener group desired to buy the retail sampler plugs to grow on in our hoop house for our September plant sale/fundraiser.
The order was not shipped until August 16 because of weather conditions at his location, he said.
At Barry Glicks’s direction and encouragement twenty sets of five each (100 plants total) were selected and ordered from the current plant list he provided by e-mail.
The order received had been poorly packaged – tall plants, instead of being laid down had been packed upright, and were broken off and soon died..
Two sets (10 plants – not ephemerals) of our delivered plants showed no signs of life in their containers. Two sets (10 plants) did not have labels.
There was no invoice or packing slip included with the order.
Worst of all, after spending time selecting 23 possible sets of plants from the e-mailed ‘current’ listing, only two sets of what had been ordered from Barry Glick’s currently-emailed list were actually delivered! The remainder of the delivered plants were groundovers! Really, Mr. Glick, groundcovers for a Master Gardener Plant Sale?
I spoke with Barry Glick personally and expressed dismay with the delivered plants; he shrugged it off and made no effort at all to correct the order and/or make good on the losses we have suffered by ordering from Sunshine Farm and Garden. Buyer beware of this business and its owner.
PS Barry Glick formerly lived and work in our area – PA – so we were especially disappointed in his and his business’s poor performance.

I am sorry that I did not read the reviews of Sunshine Farms on this website before I ordered nearly $600 worth of native plants. It took me over a month and a phone call to receive a few plants and they were most pitiful little things. I have planted them but it was too late because summer has arrived in Charlotte. I am babying them but already some have wilted. Had the plants been shipped in a reasonable time frame this would not have been a problem.

Of course, I did not receive my full order. When I called, I was told that it was my fault since I had ordered two pages of plants and they had not read the second page. I was promised that the nursery would immediately ship the remainder of my plants. Now, I realize that the internet site had not been updated in quite sometime so I was probably ordering things Sunshine Farm did not have. Though I have been promised plants from Barry's personal collection, I still have not received anything. I have asked for a refund and, if my experience is anything like the last posting I will not see any money or any decent plants. Stay away from this nursery.

A negative review of Barry Glick and his business would be kind. I've ordered plants from numerous companies over the years, and this is by far the absolute worst experience I've ever had. I discovered this company while doing an online search for a specific plant, Spigilia marildandies (Indian Pink). After checking out his plant list, I placed an order for 24 plants, after which I was informed that several of the plants I'd ordered were no longer available despite being listed on his website. I eventually found out his "list" was several years old and outdated. After about a month, and many days after my check had cleared the bank, I emailed Mr. Glick to inquire as to the status of my order, since I hadn't heard anything in the way of a confirmation from him. After several emails assuring me that he personally was taking care of my order, it finally arrived. Instead of the 24 plants I ordered, I received 10 very pathetic looking plants. They arrived in a USPS flat rate box -- the medium-sized flat box, which was half filled with "popcorn". The plants were very small and sad looking. After several hours of looking at those plants, and knowig how much I'd spent, plus the fact the order was less than half complete, I emailed Barry to let him know I was not pleased and that I wanted to cancel the remainder of the order and have my money refunded. Let me say this: if you ever order plants from this guy and you have a problem, you will NEVER see your money. Despite repeated requests by me for a refund, that never happened. Instead, Barry assured me he "would make me smile" by replacing the plants that had died and the ones I didn't receive plus lots of "goodies". This dialogue went on for over 2 weeks. All I wanted was a refund and to move on. That was not to be. Of course, on more than one occasion, he insinuated that I had received all 24 plants, and that his ordering department had never made a mistake in 38 years, etc., etc. Finally, I just gave in because it was obvious he was not going to refund my money. I received another box with the missing plants from my original order, but without the Indian Pink that he was suppose to replace with "5 inch" plants from his private collection" and none of the "goodies" he had promised. Needless to say, I wasn't smiling. I had to email him again, several times, to remind him to send the missing Indian Pinks. Also, one of the plants in the second order had no name tag. All in all, this was the most unprofessional gardening experience I've ever had. I would never order from him again, nor would I recommend him or his business to anyone. He may be the guru of Hellebores, but his business/customer service is borish at best. This is not about "pleasing all the people...:, this is about plain, lousy service.

"On Jun 10, 2011 9:20 AM, Sunshine Farm & Garden responded with:

I've agonized for over a week now as to how I would answer this review and part of me said "leave it go, and the other part said, " you have to defend yourself here".

So here I am.

Seems like once a year we get someone who is IMPOSSIBLE to please. I bent over backwards to try in this case. I don't want to get into a war with this woman, but I called her several times to ask her what it would take to make her happy and I have a transcript of her rude, curt and demeaning emails.

I swallowed the abuse chanting the mantra "The Customer Is Always Right" "The Customer Is Always Right" "The Customer Is Always Right" "The Customer Is Always Right"


I re-shipped the plants that she claimed she never received and sent her additional plants from my own garden including some 5 year old Spigelia.

In the end she even told me that she was finally satisfied.

I have all the emails to prove it.

I AM about pleasing people, because I too am a plant consumer, gardening since I was 5 years old, at the same phone # for over 39 years on the same 60 acres. "

Wow."Negative" doesn't begin to describe it.When my order arrived it was supposed to contain 50 hellebores in 2" treeband pots but instead had a fistful of single hellebore stems, each with an inch or so of root attached...I'm being generous to call them "bareroot", they reminded me more of thinnings from a lettuce patch.As there was no packing slip,receipt,or explanation for the lack of potted plants, I emailed Barry Glick to discuss it.He insisted on calling me on the phone rather than respond to my email,then instead of hearing me out he spent half an hour interrupting me to brag about himself, his plants,his business,and his satisfied customers.He said the potted hellebores looked bad and weren't healthy,and the "bareroot" plants were "top-size".He was not interested in resolving the actual problem-that his plants were not even close to what he advertised and were absolutely never going to be worth the price I paid-but he was interested in cheering me up with a "goodie bag" of free plants.I told him I was not looking for something for free and that my problem was I paid for a product that was very different from the one I received,and bareroot plants wouldn't work for my purpose.Again,he interrupted me and began talking on and on about how the potted hellebores are no good.He offered to exchange the bareroot plants for potted ones,but since he had just told me over and over how the potted ones were even worse I declined.I decided to return the bareroots to him for a refund, and I emailed him when I shipped them out.I only wish I could post the full content of our email exchange here; I will gladly share it in its entirety if you contact me through DMail.If you want to order something from Barry Glick I strongly recommend you read these emails first.I think the worst part of my experience with him is the way he has constantly tried to manipulate the situation.I had a simple problem and I asked for a simple solution.I did not ask for anything special, I paid for my own return shipping, and I double-checked his website to make sure that I had not overlooked something or misunderstood the product descriptions and policies.But instead of dealing with my complaint in an honest way and getting it resolved quickly,he pulled out all the used-car salesman talent he could muster....at one point he literally accused me of taking food off his table by asking for a refund, and also claimed that he WOULD refund the money except that he didn't have enough money in his bank account to cover it. For the record, we are talking about a $100 refund,which is a lot of money to a working mother with two small kids, but not to someone who claims to be a coveted lecturer all over the world.And "Mr"Glick still has the money, though I sent the plants back to him on April 7th.I emailed him a few days ago to remind him that he still hadn't returned my check and he responded by claiming that the plants all arrived dead and that I had "ignored his email". He has never tried to contact me since the plants were delivered; my email provider uses permanent archives and to claim that he sent me something and was ignored is a complete lie....you really have to read these emails to get the full effect.Another reviewer called him a "huckster" and that's not far from the mark.I have worked in the horticulture industry for ten years and I am shocked and awed that this man is still in business.It's one thing to have a company policy against straight refunds, that wasn't the case here.His reasons for not returning my money were all pathetic attempts to convince me that he was broke.Speaking of broke,it has apparently cost me $100 to learn that SFG- and Barry Glick in particular-are not worth my time and definitely not worth my money....although that won't stop him from keeping it.

"On Jul 14, 2009 6:30 AM, Sunshine Farm & Garden responded with:

You can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time. That said and accepting that as a reality, skipping the gory details, let's just say that this customer has been COMPLETELY satisfied. I've been growing and selling plants for over 30 years now and my record speaks for itself. ALL of my customers have access to my home and cell phone numbers and I am available 7/24 to help with any gardening or plant questions even if the plants didn't come for me. I LOVE my job!!!"

Here's what I wrote to Sunshine Farm and Gardens in response to their request for feedback:

Last spring I purchased from you (based on an on-line sale offer) 7 plants of Phlox stolonifera, and 7 plants of Allium sp. The total order was $70; or $5.00 per plant.

All of the plants have survived the summer and have been planted out in the woodland garden. However, I was initially very disappointed in the size of the plants provided--really what we previously called "liners" or small propagules in approximately 1.5" plastic pots. At $5.00 per each for plants as easy to propagate as these, I had expected much larger, more established stock. In fact, our locally owned garden retailer had the same plants in quart pots for $3.99. Later I found closely related, similar species in a "big box" store in gallon pots for $4.99 (I bought some and the Allium sp. turned out to be identical; since I have found that it is a common "pass-along" plant in our area). With this experience, my initial disappointment was intensified.

Because I am an experienced gardener and propagator, I was able to successfully raise all the tiny plants to quart-pot size over the summer. If I had planted them directly in the garden, I am sure none would have survived. And certainly a less experienced gardener, who might have planted them all out directly without growing them on, would have lost them all.

It would be a service to your retail customers if you would, somewhere on your website, state the size of plants you supply. The pictures you provide imply that you ship much larger, more established material than is actually the case.

"

I've tried in vain to contact Bill Shear, "collector" to see what I could do to please him. His negative commentary is incorrect as my pot size is 2" X 2" and this is stated on EVERY offering I email as is the term bareroot if the plant is shipped that way. Sometimes you find a better deal somewhere and sometimes you don't. I would have appreciated a call or an email from Bill alerting me to his dissapointment before he placed a negative comment. I guess you can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but................
Anyway, my home phone is at the bottom of every email that I send out and I don't rest well until I have made every effort to make EVERYONE happy. "

I read all the present negative comments and they are 100% correct. The plants arrive in a mess. Plant tags are everywhere IF they are even present (usually get one tag regardless of number of plants ordered). Plants that were sold as 5 years old were a long root with one stem with four leaves. GIve me a break!

And the snails!!! I have never seen so many slugs and/or snails on such tiny plants in my life. I do not need to import pests.

I did talk with Barry Glick and he is one heck of a marketeer. (He does not take credit cards---h-m-m-m, wonder why) But after the razzle dazzle, the plants are puny, in delicate condition and I had 10 tiny pots with nothing but the most invisible seed (I think) which I was told to "scoot" out of the pot and plant for appearance in the spring. Felt silly planting dirt from a pot.

I just say, buyer beware. There are tons of other places to buy quality plants with visible plants in pots bigger than a jigger glass.

"

I have contacted this customer to offer her replacement plants of her choice and have yet to hear back from her."

I have waited four days to popst a negative comment, but 'neutral' is certainly not how I am feeling about this transaction. Have purchased helleborus this year from three companies, three of these mail orders. Two orders arrived within ten days. This order had not arrived three weeks later, at which time I was scheduled to be out of town. By email we agreed that the plants would be shipped to coincide with my return, as I did not want then to arrive while I was away. After another two weeks with frantic emails, the package arrived. This was not even recognized as plants, because the small recycled Amazon box appeared to be books. Yes, the entire 300 'plus a bunch extra' "Five year" plants were in that book box! The roots, wrapped in moss and plastic wrap, was, in diameter, the size of a quart pot. The root mass of FORTY of these together was less that that of ONE of the ONE year plants that I had just recieved from another company! I spoke with Mr. Glick. who told me that these plants were small because they had been grown in the woods, and that when placed in pots they would 'take off.' I had no intention of potting three hundred plants. The intention of planting these in the woods and edge of wooes to be ,naturalized was made very clear to Mr Glick in our conversation regarding this order. I had asked him to quote the three-year plants on his website in larger quantity. He said that if I could use 300, he would sell them to me for $3 each, and, not only that, but they had some "Beautiful, healthy, five year plants, that they just had not had time to pot, and that, if potted, these would sell for $10, but", having just made a deal with someone else, he would extend it to me , so that, efficiently, they could pull both of the orders at the same time, so if I would just send him a check for $900, he would send me 300 of these "beautiful "babies". I was told that these were grown in beds in the woods, but there was certainly no indication that they were less developed than a 'normal' five-year plant. All description emphasized the quality and vigor of the plants. Now I am told that they will 'take off' when potted. I have 2'x2' helleborus in wooded and semiwooded areas now. They are four and five years old. These came from plants that looked very much like those I have just recieved from Sunshine. The difference is that they were in 'cells' of approximately 1" within flats purchased at the greenhouse of the local commumity college hortifculture program. They were sold for $.50 each by the kids who had planted them earlier that year. Yes, I understand that these plants could also grow, but I had ordered and paid for established plants for an established garden. Mr Glick has assured me that not only will these 'take off' but that he will replace any which do not live. I have spent considerable labor and materials in preparing holes for 300 nice plants. It just makes me sick to even deal with these little things. I would be even sicker to have to do it again. This is a MOST DISCOURAGING transaction.

"

I am in contact with this customer and we have agreed on what it will take to make her happy and as soon as this much needed rain ends, we will be shipping them to her."

I ordered from them last year and had some problems with his ambiguity (which he never clarified even when asked directly) with mixed batches and emailing back and forth with what was in stock, similar to GagglyWogger. I found the plants to be extremely small for the price, $3, and not worth the money at all. I purchased a few of a particular bulb from him. The ones he sent were as small as a fingernail (less than half an inch), yet this year a local nursery is selling them for half the price as Sunshine, and they are FOUR-INCHES across! I will not be ordering from him again.

Back in Dec 2001 or Jan 2002, I contacted Mr. Glick about a wholesale order that I wanted to do for another gardening club that I belong to. I saw that he offered wholesale and proceeded to email him and explain what I wanted to do. I wanted to do a wholesale order for this garden club, I would do all the gathering of orders, compiling, etc and submit it to him once I had it done. He ask me to call him in a return email which I did. We chatted and, once again, I explained what I wanted to do. He said the $1.50 per plant was plants of his choice in a package. Well, I knew our order would far exceed the number of plants that came in the package and explained this to him. He that was okay, we could make it our choice at $1.50 per plant AS LONG AS we did plants in multiples of 5. Fine. I go gather orders, email the list to Mr. Glick. Well, first of all he tells me that Hellebores are $3.00 per plant and deletes all the plants we want that he is out of stock on. Fine. I go back to my group with this info. Fine, everyone is fine with this. We re-do our orders based on this new info. I submit it again to Mr. Glick. I am then told that Hellebores come only as a mix. I go back to my group with this info. Fine, everyone still wants their Helles. So, I am now into working on this order for two months. It takes ALOT of emailing, adjusting, re-choosing, upping quantities, etc to get an order to match specs for wholesale when you have 40 people involved in the ordering. In the meantime, I stay in contact with Mr.. Glick. Emailing him occasionally to let him know where we stand, what our plant list consists of, etc. SO, FINALLY, after months of work on everyone's behalf we get a finalized order and EVERYTHING is in multiples of 5. Our order was for 605 misc. plants and 55 Hellebores for a total of 660 plants: $1,072.50. I submit the FINAL list to Mr. Glick. He emails me back with prices that are NO WHERE near what our agreement was. So, I email him back to tell him that he had agreed to give us a price of $1.50 and $3.00. He comes back and says that that price is per plant per flat. I email back that no, you told us as long as we ordered in multiples of five. He comes back with okay, but that 4" pots will be priced $3 - $5. This was the first time I ever heard that the plants we ordered even came in 4" pots. So, he emails me back with every plant broken down to a price that was no where near our agreement. So, I call him. It is now 10 PM at night. He is not budging on the price because he can't afford to sell 4" plants at $1.50. hey, I am not in disagreement with him. I just KNOW what he told me to begin with and since then has had AMPLE opportunity to say the prices had changed. He had changed the Helle prices at one point so why not all of them. Anyway, he would NOT give us the price he quoted to begin with. His final comment on this was, "I don't think anyone will mind, after all, they are getting twice the plant for double their money." Now, you have to understand that I cannot just cancel the order right then and there. I have thirty some other people to get together with via email. I must tell you, I wanted to give him a new idea for a place to plant his weeds. Now, I am angry and he is trying to get me to talk these people into spending double what they thought they were going to. I had to about chew my tongue off because I didn't know what the group's opinion would be, really. Now, for the final kicker he tells me, "I'm not going to pot these plants up until you get here. That way you can walk around with the girls and help." What the heck does that mean? Do I have to pot up my own plants? I didn't even respond because it is now time for me to get off the phone before I go ballistic.
Needless to say, we canceled our order. He has made a whole bunch of gardeners angry. We knew he had some problems when he was advertising stuff on his site that he doesn't even grow but we had no clue we were about to get hit with the old bait and switch. This has been a real disappointment to all of us who were involved in this and at our garden club his name is mud. Every time I would ask him something via email I would get some vague answer. it always took me two or three emails to get my question answered in a concise manner. I am a VERY detail oriented person and VERY organized and when I know I am dealing with a disorganized person I am very careful to nail down specifics. You could ask anyone who deals with me on any project, I am down right anal when it comes to details. Mr. Glick, even suggested at one point that I had bitten off more than I could chew and that was the problem. NO. When I do ANY project it is set up with a spread sheet, every calculation input correctly, every name included, all my i's dotted and my t's crossed. I set things up and anticipate problems before they happen. transitions run smoothly when I am hosting a project. I expect change therefore I am ready. I must say, I never expected or anticipated the old bait and switch, though. Perhaps, I will next time with other companies. If Glick does it and stays in business then it must be a working program.

Barry Glick's company showed up on a list of certain native plants that I was looking for. I e-mailed him and he sent a small tree's worth of literature but his list was a single page with no prices. Seems that he asks what he thinks the market can bear and I refused to pay $12 to ship a half dozen small thumbnail size bulbs. Maybe he's better in situ but not by phone.