Comments regarding Van Bourgondien Dutch Bulbs (dutchbulbs.com)

I ordered an assortment of iris from van Bourgondien on 5/27/04 (and this was charged to my credit card on that date.) The order date on the invoice I received was 5/29/04. I received only a partial order and the remaining iris (Siberia Coronation Anthem- $13.90 ) was supposed to be sent later.I inquired (phone) on 6/18/04 and was told "no shipping date, yet"...I sent an e-mail on 8-2-04 and have not received a reply as of yet.. To add insult to injury the bulbs were not only "dried" but as of this date 8-7-04 have not shown any evidence of "growing" in spite of failthful watering and care... I will not buy or recommend this company (?) to anyone....

First of all, I was a novice when I purchased 5 daylilies from them last fall. (I didn't know that there are nurseries that specialize and and sell better quality live plants). I received what I thought were single-fan plants in mid-Oct. Plants were tiny and dry, but I planted them anyway. Came this spring, I found that I have lost the "Strawberry Candy" and "David Kirchhoff" I bought from the company. Stella d'oro barely flowered this summer. 2 other daylilies (Big Smile, Cool It) are still single-fan and don't look like they will bloom at all this year. To be honest, I don't know how bad a deal I had until I bought I from other mail-order nurseries this year(Browns Ferry, Maryott, Ensata). The daylilies from the nurseries were similarly priced, but I get 2-4 huge fans of each plant. In addition, other nurseries also give bonus daylily plants too. As a result, their prices average lower than VB. Out of the 15 daylilies I planted this spring, 95% of them bloom the same year - compared to VB's 2 dead, 2 no-bloom & 1 struggling plants. Btw, the bulb size of the Purple Sensation alliums I received from VB as bonus were so much smaller than the ones I bought from Dutch Gardens. I gave them to a friend and was told that none bloomed. I kept the ones from Dutch Gardens -- all bloomed nicely this year.

Never never again. The Dahlia bulbs were rotten and the Varigated Canna is NOT varigated at all. The only reason I ordered from them was they were the only ones that carried what I was looking for.

Hi everyone,
I'm writing this because of the negative results I have had , so far, with this company and as a possible warning for future order placers.I purchased from this company one of their Daylily collections, the Picotee Collection. Beautiful pictures and who could beat the price at $37.95 plus shipping. I had gone to this forum and despite the negative comments, I called the company to place the order. Finally got through after waiting an a long time for a customer service person.I asked the customer service girl, at the time of placing the order, whether what I read on this site , was true. My questions were rather pointed in that I wanted to make sure that I would get what I ordered . The girl said they strive to please the customer. I , with a little trepidation, placed my order. I waited and they finally came. Rather small fans, all labelled with the right names. Planted them and as they started to produce scapes ( yes the first year !!!!) I awaited the possibilities of the various crosses that I would make with them with other plants in the garden. You see, I asked them specifically whether the plants would be correctly labelled . The girl's answer was a 'yes we will'.I told her , at that time , that if they weren't , I would lose an entire years worth of crossing with them. I was told no problem , they come from a great nursery. Two so far have bloomed and they aren't right at all. I checked on line to varify the colors. They aren't even close.Called CSRs and spoke with them . Was told I would get credit for them for NEXT YEARS SHIPPING. Gee , I get to wait another year for another screwup !! I said I would be more than happy to ship them back ( my cost) if I could get my money back. What I am afraid is that the other two are wrong also. Was told that this is impossible. I mentioned that they get the pictures right in the catalog and make sure that the pricing is correct and that the descriptions are correct etc.Was told that they couldn't ship now, not the right time. Funny, I can get daylilies from other sources now with no problem. But they didn't put the same effort into making sure the plants they shipped were right. I mentioned that this , in it's truest form might be conscrewed , by soem , as a form fraud. I have no guarantee that what I get , next year ( two years to get it wrong again , gee how lucky) . I argued with this lady for about fifteen mintues and asked to speak with her boss. She said that was impossible. Finally she said that I could speak with a lady named 'Joe' tomorrow. She will call sometime. I have to be available all day for a call from her because of their screwup. A friend of mine recently purchased a daylily from DUTCH GARDENS, var. BLUEBERRY SUNDAE . It came in wrong and they, WITHOUT A QUESTION, are crediting his credit card account as we speak. I saw it in bloom. It wasn't Blueberry Sundae. DUTCH GARDENS is a class company. Van DYCKES/ Van Bourgandien has a lot to learn. The customer service lady mentioned that they have been around for over 100 years. That dosen't mean
anything today. THE CUSTOMER SHOULD COME FIRST! This is not right.I am awaiting their reply to this problem and to see if they will do right as DUTCH GARDENS did for my friend.If to my liking , I will recant this negative experience to the extent that I feel justified.

Last year I placed my first order with Van Bourgondiens. The plant arrived dead. They said they were out of stock for the year and that they would have to mail a replacement next season. By doing this they now negated their return policy which states you can get your money back if you return the merchandise within 10 days. Nowhere does it say that you won't get a refund.

This year they sent the replacement, another dead plant. I called their customer service who sent another replacement, another dead plant. They then sent a third and final replacement which was also dead. Over a year and a half I received four dead plants from them. They said they would not send any more replacements.

They said I could have a credit. I did not want a credit because ther was nothing else in their catalog I wanted, and after receiving four dead plants I did not want anything else from them. Customer Service said they were just an answering service and that they would FAX the company requesting a refund. Twice they FAXed the company and twice I never heard from them.

Their customer service, which is only an answering service and not a direct customer service with the company, though they are nice, they are very unhelpful. Each time I called I was put on hold waiting for the next customer rep. Each time I had to wait 20 minutes to talk to someone. Each time you wanted to talk to a supervisor they had to take your name and number and then nobody would ever call you back. They told me that their phone system was set up so that they could not just transfer calls to one another. Each time I spoke to someone I was told they don't give your money back for any reason. I told them that nowhere in their catalog does it say that. They insisted that you can't get your money back and that they are just an answering service and they don't make the rules.

This has been going on for MONTHS. After talking to one Customer Rep, they told us to send back the three dead plants and we would get our money back. We sent them back and never heard from them. After calling them again we were told they had no record of receiving the dead plants. After I got them to finally looked for the plants, they found them and said we still could not get our money back. I had just spent the money to buy a bubble wrap envelope and postage because they said I could get my money back, and now they said I can't. I didn't need to spend more money in sending them back if I am just going to get a credit anyway. I had been promised my money back and then they changed their mind.

I finally gave up and accepted a credit. I will use the credit, but I will never place another order with them again, and I would not recommend them to anyone.

In short, after having to call them almost weekely, I never received but one call back from them; and that was them telling me they found my dead plants I had mailed back. And after struggling with them for close to two years I still have no plant, no money back, and no credit (though I do expect to get it).

I've placed numerous orders with Van Bourgondien's over the last few years for various bulbs and perennials and have been satisfied with the quality of their stock. If not satisfied, a call to their customer service department quickly resolved the issue. However, last spring I ordered two rather expensive herbaceous peonies. Both arrived in somewhat sorry shape, but I diligently planted them hoping for the best.

One peony grew weakly and even sported a single blossom this spring; the other plant failed to grow at all. Again, a call this spring to customer service resulted in a replacement peony arriving. Upon removing it from the bag, I was immediately struck by the "swampy" odor. Realizing that it was in the advanced stages of putrification, I again called customer service. A rather terse young lady informed me that plants are shipped in various stages of dormancy. I replied that after having been a gardener for a number of decades, I was well acquainted with the not so subtle difference between dormancy and decay. At her suggestion, I planted the remnant and was not surprised when nothing appeared.

Now a call to customer service yields the result of being informed that the company only replaces a plant once. After that point, apparently the customer is simply SOL. No offer of a different plant, no catalog credit issued for something else, no offer of a refund.

I asked to be removed from their catalog mailing list as there are too many other nurseries that are also vying for my spending dollar. It's now necessary that I move the existing plant and replace it with a different peony as I had wanted identical plants flanking the entryway.

All of the good will generated by my previous experiences over the past years has been negated by a single act of a callous customer service representative - Van Bourgondien's has last a good customer.

One month after placing my order, I still had not received anything. I called customer service, waited on hold 10 minutes before speaking with someone, only to be told that most of the order was on backorder. A phone call or email telling me about the backorder would have been nice.

I finally received half of the order about a week later. I thought I was getting plants. Instead they were dried up, shriveled up roots. Out of 80 roots/bulbs I received, only 9 are actually growing.

The quality issue totally aside, I called and cancelled the rest of the backordered order and was assured I would only be billed for the items sent. I just received my credit card statement and I was billed for the entire amount, including the cancelled items.

Of course I can't reach the company on Saturday because they only work Mon.-Fri. 8:30-5pm EST. I have called this company twice (spending a total time of about 30minutes) regarding this order and have emailed them twice. I'm tired of trying to reach them so I just called my credit card company and am going to let them handle it.

As for the lack of quality, I don't want replacements. I'll now go and spend more money at a garden center for PLANTS that will grow. This is one lesson I won't forget and I will NEVER order from this company again.

I have ordered from these folk for many a year and have had some excellent results.....however...one experience this year regards some Tradescantia left me agast....I received three miserable looking hairless roots that looked like nothing I have ever seen before....I planted them under grow lights but complained anyway re the condition....I received three more that looked slightly better.....but.....of these three one is looking good, one appears to be making it and the third "zero"....of the first three none made it. (I am somewhat of an experienced gardening chappie...been at it for over 60 years and I do know what I am doing)......Harry W

I ordered PLANTS from this company and received ROOTS. Very poorly packed and the contents of each bag was dry and dusty. The six bulbs I ordered were wrapped in a paper like material, supposedly to keep them wet, but these too were totally dry. I have planted all of them with hopes that they will actually grow. I WOULD NOT ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY AGAIN.

Van Bourgondien was one of my choices for my 2004 mail order because they offered a variegated Elephant Ear that no one else seemed to have. I placed my order early to make sure I would get what I wanted. Weeks later I checked their web site and saw they were then out of the Elephant ears. It had a sold out sign on them. Fine, at least I knew I had gotten my order in while they still had them. Due to last freeze date of April 15th I asked for the order to be shipped after that date. I ordered enough other bulbs to make the payment of shipping cost effective. I got my order and it was short the elephant ears that were the only reason I placed the order. It said backordered. Well over a month now and past planting time I've not seen them. My problem with the company is that either they don't ear mark their stock that they have sold for the customers, or they never had the product to begin with. Poor business practice. I haven't heard a thing from them. Further illustrates their lack of concern. An explanation via e-mail or phone would have been proper.
At least Brent and Becky's were kind enough to let me know what they couldn't fill, in plenty of time for me to find a replacement source of what I needed to complete the display garden.

Where to start? I ordered from what the website called GardeingBulbs.com. Nowhere did it say Van Bourgondien/Dutch bulbs(where the box came from.) I am a pretty laid back guy and most things don't bother me but this place does and prompts me to write my first ngative note anywhere. I received the box about 3 weeks after ordering 4 things. The packing slip said 2 items were no longer available. Never mentioned this on the site and they never contacted me with respect to this. The paperwork says nothing about being credited back to my Visa or store credit or anything as all these fields are blank. What was there was real depressing, some pampas grass which every growing part was snapped off due to lousy packing and the roots were about an inch or so long. The other prairie Mallow was real sad, a very small jumble of dried out roots. This was not cheap either. Hardly worth the effort of putting it in the ground. I have ordered from many mail-order nurseries and this has got to be the worst. I wrote to them and have not heard back yet. Live and learn.

I wish I had known about this site before the following experience. I ordered a Hosta Collection around the first of March. The ship date was to be around 3/15 and was to ship via US mail. There was MUCH discussion in arriving at this information. The order did not arrive as scheduled. I called two more times. On 4/7 the day before we left on vacation, I attempted to cancel the order and was told it could not be cancelled because it was in process of being pulled. When we returned, UPS had sent a postcard saying the pkg could not be delivered to a PO Box. UPS had received the order on 4/8 and I had until 4/15 to claim the pkg. It had obviously been shipped prior to 4/7. UPS did a "return to sender". Remember I was told it would ship via US mail around mid March. This was my first try at mail order garden products. In the future, I will only use companies recommended by this site. Thank you.

I ordered a number of amaryllis bulbs from Van Bourgondien's wholesale division in the fall. When a couple of weeks went by without receiving the order, I called and was told there was some problem with their order system and that they would be going out soon, but they couldn't tell me the exact date. I called several more times, looking for more explicit shipping date info and a promise to expedite the order so that I would be able to force the bulbs in time to use them as holiday gifts for my clients. They gave neither, but finally told me the bulbs were on their way.

I received the bulbs in early December, too late to prep for holiday gifts, and in retrospect, I should have refused the order. But I was hopeful that I could have the plants ready for gift giving in January, at least and potted them up the day they arrived.

It's now late February and only TWO of the NINE bulbs I got show ANY growth whatsoever. Those two are showing only leaves (no, I just checked and a flower bud just emerged from one with already spindly leaves).

I emailed the company to say that I was dissatisfied with my order and wanted a refund. I offered to send photos to prove the sorry state of the bulbs they supplied. They offered only a merchandise credit or a replacement of the shipment next fall. The only way to receive a refund is to return bulbs within 10 days of receiving them, which obviously doesn't do much for all of us who plant the bulbs and realize they're not viable. Only after they sent me the URL could I find the customer service page on their web site that explained this company policy. I have reluctantly agreed to accept a merchandise credit, but I have no faith in this firm and their ability to provide acceptable bulbs, so I'm not sure what I'll do with the credit.

Very dissatisfied with this firm and hope that their negative ratings here are taken seriously by others. Had I known about this site, I would never have ordered from them in the first place!

I placed my first order (for about $100) about a month ago. I live in Palo Alto, CA, and things are starting to bloom here now (hyacinths & cherries/plums started a couple weeks ago, daffodils and tulips are getting started now). I checked in to see when I might expect the order to ship, since I'd like to get the plants in the ground soon. Van Bourgondien couldn't say. Literally 3/4 of my order was on back-order, which they never bothered to tell me. I think there were only 2 items actually in stock. The part I found particularly amusing is that the bonus items were among those backordered (though certainly not the only thing). To me, that makes the bonus more of a disincentive. I cancelled the order today, since these were mainly impulse buys. Am trying out bulbmeister.com instead for the calochortus (mariposa lily).

On fall of 2003 I ordered potted plants from this company. Instead, I received bare root plants. When I complained to customer service they asked me to ship it back to them at my expense. Only after I argued that it was a mistake on their part and that I should not bare the cost of it they agreed to give me credit for these plants.
I used the credit to order bulbs in October. This time I received only some of the bulbs I ordered and they charged me again for the shipping. When I did not receive the remaining bulbs by the beginning of December, I called them and asked to cancel my order since it was too late to plant bulbs for the season. They refused to cancel my order. I finally got the remaining bulbs on December 15th, which was too late for me.
Also, when I made the original order from their catalog, they promised a bonus of 5 Giant Allium but I have never received it.

We are probably not the typical customer for mail order with most of our orders on plant material running in the 5-20,000 dollar range and a desire to see plant material before purchase driving more of a local purchase pattern. That being said, here is our experience with the folks at Van Bourgondien. We have bought from them once in the past, nearly 4 years ago and recieved what we felt we paid for with a few dead plants in the mix, but nothing too serious on a large order. So this year, when a customer approached us with their catalog in hand, dog eared pages and notes on varieties, we told her that we would go ahead and place the order with them to get the specific plants she was after. 54 varieties and over 14,000 bulbs ended up being the order for waves of display throughout our spring in zone 5. I faxed a plant list to them in mid september and followed with a phone call to check availability of the quantities we were after to know if any color changes would be necessary to compensate for low or out of stock numbers for any of the varities. Was assured no problems so went ahead and made up the order and sent it in to them with payment. They were delivered in spurts throughout late october and november with the last of what will be delivered arriving here 2 days ago. December in the Rocky Mountains for those of you keeping score. 4500 bulbs short. All out of stock now apparantly, although many of the ones they are saying are out, were not at the time of the order nor even at the time of the first shipping when they sent the acknowledgement along. Disapointed is an understatement. Refund promised along in the next couple of weeks now, so we'll see how that pans out. We will not be placing orders in the future and recommending against it to our customers and those in our trade associations. I agree with some of the other posts, use their well laid out catalog for ideas and information and find your plant material elsewhere.

I have become an internet bulb junky this year by ordering from several different companies. Most of it has been fun. Van Bourgondien's bulbs are healthy but they are small considering the high price. The bareroot plants are okay but
I have received better from other places. The packaging is not great. It doesn't even have their name on it. Because I can get much better value elsewhere I probably will not order from them again unless they have a selection that I can't find from another company.

Ordered many items and had a very poor success rate with many plants, from ferns (2 of 4 opened - one had yellow bugs and died shortly after opening) to ornamental grasses -(ordered two - both were duds, but the one that barely sprouted was not the variety I ordered), and I have found that only 20% or so of what I ordered will actually come out of the ground. Once something I didn't order appeared in the mix although it was not the bonus item. Very disappointing so I use this catalogue as a reference and order the same thing elsewhere. Although the catalogue prices are reasonable, that changes when you factor in the failure rate.

Terrible experience with these guys. I was drawn by the pricing and selection, but they sent me dead plants . . . then messed up the replacement (which took more than 3 weeks!). . . which was more dead plants. Look elsewhere!

Last fall I received rotten oriental poppy roots from them. They graciously replaced them but the news ones never grew. I also ordered around a dozen siberian iris -- not one came up this year.

I have ordered from Van Bourgondien in the past and have been satisfied, however, this year I have received horrible horrible specimens - and two plants were completely dead on arrival (I am sure they were shipped dead). I sent pictures to customer service and called them directly. They tried to tell me the plants were just dormant (NO!) so I asked to speak to the manager but that request wasn't fulfilled. Then they told me that they couldn't give me a refund, only replace the plants next year. Forget it. This is the last time I'm doing business with these folks. Not sure what happened over there, but there are still mail-order nurseries out there that send quality plants - I'll spend my money with them and avoid Van Bourgondien moving forward.

I have ordered from Van Bourgondien before and been satisfied, but I ordered some bare root plants this spring, Fuschia and Geranium, and they did not come up. I emailed them and received no replay.

Mixed bag. I ordered 2 pink hardy orchids and 2 lavender hardy orchids. The pink orchid bulbs were enormous, ready to explode to the soil surface...and they did. The lavender ones were small and somewhat dehydrated...they have yet to appear. (I suspect that they won't.)

I also received a free large begonia bulb, which was an "Internet order bonus." No sign of any begonia life to speak of...

All bulbs were planted a month ago.

I received my order on 5/9,mostly bareroot perennials and everything looks healthy.There in the ground and we will see if everything grows.I have had good luck in the past with them but some things are overpriced.

I ordered from this company in 2001 I recieved my order of several daffodils and some cyclamin and lilies promptly but was dissapointed by the quality of the product several of the bulbs were very mushy but I planted them anyway and no surprise all were dead. the only thing that lived was the monte-negro lillies which in the description are red but in reality are orange. They did send me some extra bulbs but I don't think they could be counted as bonuses because they were very rotten.

The plants arrived in poor condition. None of them survived. Customer Service was rude and insisted that I had to get more plants - I could not get a refund. So, I ordered more plants for the next year - same problem. And, one of the plants was unavailable so I had to wait 3 years to "complete" my order. None of them lived. The experience was frustrating, unpleasant and costly.

Ordered from Van Bourgondien once. Bulbs were ok, but nothing special--similar in size and condition to those in packages I picked up at the feed store at 1/3 the cost. Ferns and astillbes I ordered from them were small, dried out root divisions--none were successful.

Several years ago I was gearing up for a small nursery venture, and bought $400 worth of bulbs from Van Bourgondien. Every single order of bulbs arrived completely withered and desiccated, moldy and dead, so immature that they were at least two years from blooming, or infected with virus that manifested when the plants came up. In those cases I was able to detect, I called customer service and received replacements. When the replacements arrived, it was immediately obvious they were from completely different stock than the first bulbs. It appeared that the company was systematically sending out garbage for all first orders, and assuming that they would make a profit on the portion of orders that were not caught or that people were too busy or too naive to call and complain about.
Two other friends had similar experiences. The catalogue is quite seductive with many hard-to-find plants, but people should be aware of the company's tactics.

I ordered approximately $135 worth of bulbs in early September, 2002. Never Ever received them, even after ten very "long-wait" phone calls and never answered emails. The great irony was that I did get the worthless freebies. The best explanation I got from them was that FedEx was the problem and next time I should ask for UPS. Geez, no next time for me.

Last year (2002) only six of 36 plants grew and 2001 was about the same. I am planning to try someone different this year. Overall they seem to be headed down hiil, 5 years ago they were as good as other mail order plant company, but in the last 2 years their reliability has dropped.

I have had several experiences with plants arriving that were obviously dead---customer service replaced them with more dead plants--they should stick to bulbs.

I had a very unpleasant experience with this company, and I concur with some of the other comments that: (a) the quality of the bulbs is poor, and (b) the customer service is very rude. I ordered a large quantity of lily of the valley pips and paid extra for expedited delivery. When they did not arrive I called to find out the problem. They told me that my card had been declined and that they had not sent the pips for that reason. This turned out not to be true (I checked) but even if it had been why didn't they let me know so I could give them another card? It would have taken a two-second email. (See the other person who commented on the same "declined card" tactic, below). Instead I had to follow up with them in order to get the bulbs sent. When they finally arrived (not within the delivery period specified for expedited delivery) the pips were very dry and very tightly bound in rubber bands. About a third of the pips were useless once freed from the rubber bands so I threw them out. The rest were planted in carefully prepared shady soil that was properly watered. The result? One spindly plant sprouted--out of 50 pips purchased and about 35 that could be planted!

You can guess the rest. When I complained to customer service they behaved as if I, and not the pips, were defective. The refused to give me a refund and insisted on a credit for only the pips' cost--not the extra cost of the expedited delivery (I got stuck for that). They were very rude through this process, acting as if my whole criminal modus operandi was to scam them out of their crummy convalaria majalis pips. I have rarely dealt with a company that has such a disregard--verging on contempt--for its customers. It's been several months and I haven't even gotten around to using my credit because I have such low expectations of the result. In my opinion DO NOT buy from these people. They don't deserve your business.

After waiting for several months for my spring order the plants I received from them died within days, and they could not replace them but gave store credit. Three months later I am still waiting on the bulbs that I ordered with the credit. Customer service is non-existant. I will never give another dime to this company.

Slow delivery. Undersized bulbs.

I have no idea whether their plants are any good but their customer service STINKS. In April, I placed a small order with this company (3 trumpet vines) and waited and waited and waited. The plants never arrived and I never had any notification from the company as to the status of my order. After a little more than two months, I called the company to inquire and they told me they were out of stock on the items I wanted but that they would "probably" come in by MID-SEPTEMBER. I began the process of cancelling my order and the person there initially argued with me about whether I could cancel the order and then was snippy when I insisted.

Plants arrived late and in terrible condition. The scabiosa were moldy pieces of mush. The hostas and lobelia were fungal. Overall quality was poor on over $100 worth of merchandise.

There are much better sources with better quality plants and bulbs out there which I will be using in the future.

My first and only experience with Van Bourgondien bulb suppliers has been very disappointing. After ordering some very overpriced Canna Lily bulbs and planting them next to ones I bought from my local Wal-Mart, the difference is apparent. The foliage on the bulbs from Wal-Mart is larger and much more robust. The overall plant size on the local bulbs is much larger. Shame on you Van Bourgondien.

BIG FAT NO!!!! Will not refund. Plants not good. Bulbs did not come back, if they came the first year. Did not replace the dead plants, because some were freebies. NO NO NO

The plants were dead when they arrived. Some things were out of stock, and they had no substitute. They would not give me a refund, only store credit, even for the out of stock plants.
Their cust service was rude and simply did not care about their plants or me. I pointed out that it was fraud to advertise and sell merchandise they did not have, then keep my money so I have to purchase something else.
I called VISA immediately and got a refund.