Comments regarding Van Bourgondien Dutch Bulbs (dutchbulbs.com)

In January, 2007, I placed an order for plants to be delivered in May. I ordered a purple shamrock plant, a package of 10 Lily of the Valley pips, and 3 cinnamon ferns. The purple shamrock bulbs grew but weren't purple. The 3 cinnamon ferns died even though I watered them regularly (although to be give them the benefit of the doubt, it was probably too dry for them where I live). The 10 Lily of the Valley were only seven and of those only a few of the pips were not mushy. I called VanBourgondien and they were to give me a credit for the shamrock and send me an additional package of 10 lily of the valley. The next package of pips was one large pip or grouping of pips which I could not separate without damaging the pips so I planted it whole. Nothing grew from either 10-pack. Called them again and they said they would give me a refund which I have yet to receive (not holding my breath). Very disappointed with this company.

In nearly 40 years of gardening I have never come across another garden company where the quality of everything we have gotten from them is so poor. The peonys never grew leaving us with a credit we are trying to use up. A full 30 % of the dahlia tubers didnt send up shoots and many of the ones that did produced flowers that were either far smaller than they should have been or not the color described. The flock roots were so small and dry we could hardly tell them from the packing material - their growth was clearly stunted. The company is living on its no longer deserved reputation and should be avoided at all cost.

DON'T BE TEMPTED - Throw their catalogs away

Things hit bottom them about five years ago when they sent dried out plant roots that looked like they had been in storage for years. I complained and they sent more of exactly the same dead roots. That was the last dealing I had with them

In March of this year (2007) I placed an order with Van Bourgondien. I was entranced by the pictures in their catalogue and did not think of googling them. My mistake, and I am still paying for it. This is the chronology:

In late April my order arrived. The most expensive piece (a tree) was quite obviously dead. I called in early May to request a replacement and was told that the tree was dormant, not dead. I explained I could tell dead and requested a replacement. They told me that they were out but they could send credit or a refund. I asked for a refund and was told it would be soon.

Having received nothing, I called again in mid-July. A young man (Joe) told me that they were busy issuing refunds in the order in which they generated, that they had many to do, and mine would be gotten to Really Soon.

In early August I called them. The young man (whose name I didn't catch but it wasn't Joe) said that my refund must have been mistagged, and I should get it next week.

Two weeks later I called them. I got Joe again. He gave me exactly the same song and dance routine: they were issuing refunds in the order in which they were generated, that they had many to do, etc., etc. I told him that they must have an enormous number of unhappy customers, and I was certainly one.

As I said, I let myself be taken in by the glossy pictures in their catalogues. This was my mistake; it shall not happen again.

And -- on a thoroughly ironic note! -- I mentioned my problems to my 87 year old father. His initial response? In so many words, "they're a bunch of crooks." Many years ago, he had been given the same kind of treatment when his merchandise had arrived dead. He wrote to the Better Business Bureau; Van Bourgondien apparently told the BBB representative that Dad had withdrawn his comments and was happy, which was not the case. This went back and forth, and Dad did finally get a refund.

Me, I'm still hoping.

I,too, was enticed by the "free" $25.00 worth of plants. I spent a lot of time choosing just the right things to order. I sent my check on April 29th. Of course, they were "out" of most of the items on my order. I sent it all back as I was very disappointed as I was so looking forward to receiving my complete order. I received a letter dated May 11 that I would "be receiving an adjustment shortly" to use their exact phrase from the letter. I waited until I thought "shortly" had passed and started calling. I did always get to speak to a real person but got the runaround each time. There are many phases to their process of issuing refunds and I learned them all. There supervisors are always "busy" as well. I got my check today, August 20!! A lesson well learned. A word to the wise is sufficient!

I had used V-B for nearly 20 years, pretty much exclusively after having bad experiences with other growers My orders were usually $ 400- $1000 an order, for top level bulbs and live plants roughly every two years, so I only used the wholesale side of their business.

Up until five-six years ago, I am hard pressed to think of any plants or bulbs that were not outstanding and beat the competiton hands down -
Then, entire bags of bulbs in an order didn't grow while the another bagful planted next to it came up fine - maybe two bags out of 25. I don't mind a couple missing bulbs in a cluster of 25, but a "hole" in the plantings is unacceptable. 3-4 bulbs in every bag of 25 was dried out, most of the potted plants were slow to start and rooted poorly.

It was like some accountant bought the business and decided that instead of culling the bad bulbs or adding root stimulator in the pots, that a bulb was a bulb, that value meant low price, and that customers wanted low prices and didn't care that much about product or time lost - and like so many companies today, the company's poor managment would be ok if they guaranteed the product. If their CEO worked for me, he'd be fired.

So if you want low price and don't mind replanting some things and having the plants show two years from now instead of next season, they might be an option.
But they are no longer a reliable source for me.

I have ordered two years in a row and I won't be ordering again. None of the plants look anything like they do in the catalog when they come out of the ground. And other plants never come up at all. I twice planted Habenaria radiata, but they never came up. The 'lord liutenant' Anemone that sprouted in my garden were a pathetic comparison to the image in the catalog; all washed out in color and small in size. I planted 6 hardy cyclamen in the spring of 2006 and only two put out leaves last fall and I doubt they will be back this fall. The white and pink asiatic lilies arrived this spring already growing, but I planted them and they did manage to flower. However they were actually white and such a dark burgundy that it was nearly black. The hardy gladioli never came up this spring.

The only thing I have received from them that have been successful have been the summer blooming daffodils. But in general daffodils are extremely hardy in and of themselves. Also, they were listed a fragrant. However, it was a fragrance only a stink bug could appreciate. Basically, I've had better luck with bulbs purchased on a whim at the super market.

This is a fraudulent company. They are liquidators for stock that is typically dead, diseased, or culls, and resell it to unsuspecting customers at full retail prices. They expect to make a profit from people who forget what they planted, blame themselves for their failures not realizing the bulbs arrived dead or diseased, or who simply give up fighting for their money back.

I would like to point out that several of the "positive" ratings were posted by people who use vocabulary and sentence structure suspiciously similar to that used by "Debbie van Bourgondien"--if that is even a real person. Read the positive ratings carefully, and notice the lack of details, the exuberant generalities, similar comments and choice of words, and similar sentence structure. I suggest that the Dave's Garden staff check the IPs of these posts, which I suspect are as fraudulent as the company. Note that several of the positive reviewers have ever only contributed positive reviews of van Bourgondien to Dave's Garden!! I am not stupid.

I ordered Habenaria radiata. It showed up quite dead. I was told it wasn't dead and that I needed to give it a chance. Months later it was still dead, and rotting.

I asked the company to make good on their "customer satisfaction guarantee". Their customer service representative stated that they were "unable" to issue a refund but that I would receive credit for a replacement. No credit memo ever showed up.

I told them that this was completely unacceptable, that I am not interested in any more dead plants, that they were indeed able to refund my money, and that I expect them to do it. Moreover, I pointed out their so-called "customer satisfaction guarantee" and reiterated that I am NOT satisfied.

I for one never got any $25 coupons. I paid full price for unsalable merchandise which was marketed in violation of implied warranty of merchantability laws.

The quality of the customer service and the plants are the poorest I have ever dealt with! Their catalog is one that should immediately go into the garbage.

My whole experience with Van Bourgondien was disgusting. I would never recommend this website to anyone and would warn anyone from purchasing anything from their website.
I ordered two times from this company and both times the bulbs sent to me were horrible. They put up an impressive catalog, but their bulbs are always in a bad condition. They put up a lot of their stuff in clearance which are rotten. Don't be fooled into buying them because of the low price. You can getting nicer stuff at your local nursery or some other mail order companies.
I myself will never be shopping with them ever again.

I have been gardening for a long time, and mail ordering just as long and never had such a awful experience! I used the $25.00 off $50.00 order coupon,( which they have gotton from another company I have had very good experience with), any way I ordered 8 items (Some with multiple bulbs) I did receive them in a timely manner, well 2 of them anyway. My invoice stated they were "sold out" of 6 of the items I had ordered. There was no explanation on what would be happening to the rest of the money, just "Sold Out!" I had to hunt down the answers myself and called customer service. I did reach someone who told me I HAD to take store credit, out of the same cataloge. I ordered what I wanted, and did not appreciate being told that the only way to receive my money back was through the products they had left, (And by the way my tall Pholox was dead!) She did mention that the had sent the two packages at the discounted price, considering the pholox was dead and that I had used the coupon, that was very nice of them. Having talked to a lawyer, since I paid by cash (check) and it was not a return I can and should get my money back! I later received a letter saying I would get a refund for the items I did not recieve. Still waiting! Save yourself a stressfull situation and do not buy from this company, There are many good mail order companies out there, Van Bourgondien is not one of them!

This company still has not filled my order!! I have been waiting since September 2006, only receiving the spring bulbs (which didn't bloom the color I ordered).
Do not order from this company, no matter how much of a "discount" you think you might get. The product is bad and the customer service is worse!!!

Avoid this company at all costs...they are not to be trusted. I recently took advandage of one of the 50% savings offers they run and ordered nine items. The invoice clearly had the 50% deducted from the order. The shipping charges for these 9 items totaled a ridiculous $19.18, but I overlooked this obscene charge because I was getting the items on sale. They started shipping items in late April, and I noticed they were charging my credit card for the FULL PRICE for the 5 items shipped. The tree peony had no roots, was dried up and dead. The Lilium only contained two plants instead of the ordered three...only one survived, and the other items were bulbs which were barely adequate. Then they informed me in early May that three items were no longer available, although they had already charged my credit card for the majority ($17.44) of the shipping charges. I have made four attempts to get them to correct the overcharge of over $35 due to their charging full price instead of 50% off, and have been met by silence and complete indifference on their part. Order at your own risk. Van Bourgondien and their alias Van Dyck completely lack integrity and need to be put out of business immediately...they give mail order gardening a bad reputation!!

My Arisaema Specisum was rotten. I did not even bother to call. I new better but I wanted it so much that I went against what DG said . Never do it again.

Please consider this report as a serious F minus. These folks sure play up their wares with glossy photos and flowery language in their catalogs but boy did I get cheated with dead or dying material and some things just never showed up. I could never in good conscious ever send a friend......or even an enemy to these unscrupulous operators of a plant clearing house. Terrible......just terrible.

Most of the plants sent me didn't live - many were so dead their branches and roots snapped off. Customer service wasn't interested, and was abusive, saying the plants were fine and I was responsible if they died. I send faxes to Debbie van Bourgondien who didn't bother to reply. Not a company I will ever deal with again. A total scam. Avoid. They also sell through Walmart so I would avoid anything that has their name on their plants. I will notify Walmart to drop them as a supplier. They have various pseudonyms so avoid them too.

I placed an order with VB last fall and was marginally satisfied with what I received. The bulbs were on the small side but with the exception of one daylilly and 3 oxalis versicolor which appeared dead on arrival, most of the plant stock looked OK. So I placed another order this spring for some dahlias and siberian iris. 2 iris just rotted in place ( I have never had this happen before!) and who knows what the dahlias are doing but they are not up yet. The oxalis versicolor all failed to sprout and one of the muscadet oriental lilies appears to have a virus as the leaves are discolored and it is growing in a contorted fashion. The daylilies are growing, but several are so small they look like weedy blades of grass. Top this off with the hassle of calling their customer service folks 4 times this spring to correct the shipping information they had right last fall and couldn't seem to get straight this spring. I have not contacted VB on the dead plants as their guarantee is only for replacement of defective material and I have no desire to end up with more of the same garbage. I am chalking this up to experience and will not order from VB again.

I ordered only a package of 5 Cote d'azur pinks in January. The box arrived in April, 10 days after supposedly being shipped, and contained only 4 shriveled and dried out roots that I did plant (no signs of life as yet). I spoke with Cassandra in customer service who informed me they were sold out and that it would be a waste of time to credit me for 1 plant. She'd put a note on my order and if there were problems "Maybe next year" they could help. Last order I will place with this company. Poor quality and worse customer service.

Last fall I ordered Daylilies and Oriental lillies from this company. I used my debit card and was duly charged over $100.00. I never received the plants. The incredible thing was the difficulty I had in reaching these people to get my money back. I have no clue why but these people have multiple phone numbers in several states. When I finally roused someone out of the stupor that these people operate under, no one would take responsibility for the error. The money was finally credited back to the account. But I received no apology of any kind and of course was left without bulbs or plants for the planting season. I would never deal with these people again and asked to have my name removed from their mailing list.

I ordered close to 100$ worth of plants. When the box came I opened it and it was full of fungus gnats. They were even crawling on the paper work. One of the plants was very very dead. Not as if it died in shipment, but had dead for a long time.

I called and they offered to replace the dead plant but for the fungus gnats they said they do not do refunds, only credits. I said now that they fungus gnats were in my house I would have to treat all my house plants and the new plants from them. The best they said the would do was give me 25$ credit.

also FYI the plants where tiny. My issue was how poor quality these plants were and now they have given me an insect problem I have to deal with now.

I received my $127.65 order for Dahlinovas Dahlias and two Agapanthus. I would absolutely been ashamed to sent out such tiny scrawny Dahlia tuberous roots. Never again will I order from this company.

First I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to inform us of the scam practices of this company. I placed an order with coupon for $ 25 off of a purchase of $50 or more. At the time I was unaware of their decietfull practice. Just as stated in previos e-mails a couple of months after my order I get a call from a Isabel asking if all was good with my order. I told her I hadn't recieved it yet as it was still a couple of weeks early for zone 4. She then said that I still had an outstanding bal. on my account. She said the coupon was for $5 dollars off not $25. I told her I was well aware of this scam they were using as it is well documented here at Dave's garden. She then told me that it must have been a mistake and she did not know why they would've put down $5, but she would look into it.
I contacted the attorney general here in Minnesota and I also filed a complaint with the Virginia consumer affairs division. That contact number is 804-786 2042. Please take the time to file a complaint and put this company out of buisness. They give the mail order buisness a huge black eye. Thank you

Same thing happened to me. 2 months after placing the order, they emailed me to let me know they wouldnt honor the 25.00 off 25.00 purchase. They told me they would be happy to honor 25.00 off a 50.00 order however. I told them to forget it, and to stop wasting my time sending me catalogs and emails under all their company names present and future.

False advertising -- also got one of those $25 off coupons
for $25 or more -- two months later was told the coupons
would not be honored.

We ahead and ordered some bulbs because my
mother-in-law really wanted some plants in their
catalog. When she called to get info on planting
the bulbs, a brisk person at their company told her
to look up the info herself.

When my order arrived, one package of rhizomes(Tacca) were completely dead and dried out. As a botanist, I could tell these had been dead for at least a month. The other item (Arisarum) were fragments of plants, not "No.1" or even close to anything useful. After calling customer service, they refused to refund the cost of these items. Even by returning the products, they insist on in-store credit. Since 2/3 of my order was garbage and I have paid (once) to ship the garbage to me and (twice) ship the garbage back to them, why would I want more headaches by getting credit for garbage? I will never order from them again and I urge readers not to be misled by their catalog's pictures. They are the worst company I've worked with. I'm a professional mail order company president/owner; Van Bourgondiens should be ashamed. The quality and terrible returns policies make business with them a nightmare.

I have had the same bad experience with this company as so many of your other members have had. I used the code which gives $25 off $25, gave out my credit card number, they confirmed the order. I placed more orders for my friends. A month later they came back and said pay more or we won't honor your order. They replied to my emails very brusquely, when I called to speak to a Supervisor, a woman spoke to me in a cold, hard, bootcamp voice and more or less told me I was out to crook their company. I canceled my orders but I am so upset. I would like someone to guide me on what action I should take, I would like to bring their unfair trade practice to some authority who would look into this. Gardening is supposed to be a pleasurable experience, Van Bourgondien has treated me and probably many more gardening enthusiasts so shabbily, they should not be allowed to continue their crooked trade.

On January 12th, I placed five individual orders, each taking advantage of their supposed "get $25 off a $25 order" promotional code. I was a bit surprised that each order accepted the code, but then if you don't plan to honor the order as accepted, why not? Nevertheless, today (3/9), I received their "bait and switch" message telling me that I would have to spend $50 now to get $25 off or they would simply cancel my order. Needless to say, this ticked me off. Their little game is a direct violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. I sent them a pdf file I created with all the accepted orders, the original promotional code, and their bait and switch email message. I went ahead and had them cancel all my orders, but informed them I will be filing a formal complaint with the Consumer Fraud Division within the Attorney General's Office in Texas and their state as well. I guess it's better to let go of the orders and get my bulbs locally, but because of their deceptive practices, I simply can't let their behavior go. If you contact your AG's office, Consumer Fraud Division, they will take your complaint and look into it. If they determine that the problem is widespread, they will take action.

I get a code for $25 off of a $25 order. Good deal, right? I place a order on 1/16 and everything goes through and it shows how much I owe. Today 3/9/07 I get a email that states that my code was wrong & they give me a code for $25 off of $50. It would have been fine had this been shortly after I placed my order. My bulbs should of been here by now & i get this. I should have checked this site prior to ordering, seems to be quite a few unhappy people besides me.

My order was placed 2 months ago, and was supposed to be shipped one month ago. I emailed customer service and they said they need to first validate the order. All I'm trying to do is find out where my order is. I need to get these bulbs in the ground now. It sounds like a canned excuse for not shipping my order on time. I'd rather deal locally with honest people than play games with Van Bourgondien. From reading the things on here, I highly doubt my order will even arrive.

I ordered... the hard to find... Black Pearl Amaryllis for a Pirates of the Carribean-themed party from this company. Arrived late and all bloomed white! I was given a credit so I ordered some plants that were due to arrive 2/20 and still haven't seen them. I own a small greenhouse business and mistakes like this could cause me more serious problems. I order from Van Engelen, usually. They are absolutely the best and most reliable bulb company. They have wholesale and retail. The slightly higher price is worth it. For everything else, Park Seed.

Late arrival of order
Poor quality of products
Many items failed to grow
Disappointing results from few plants which did grow
Many ordered items"sold out"
Given credit-eventually-but I wanted what Iwas promised and ordered when I needed it, not substitutes sometime in the future
Van B.can keep the credit-expensive lesson, but more importantly very dissapointing experience
Really impressive catalogue- I'd like to know where they
got the plants pictured in it, obviously not the same source or quality as the ones I received.

Being a bulb grower I have ordered wholesale from many companies, this is the worst, over 50% of the bulbs are the wrong cultivar or species. The last order (I will never order again, credit or not) was one they shipped out when they were frozen at the time of shipping. What didn't arrive dead (most of the order) was again the wrong thing. As a grower I have no time to grub out the garbage, no spare ground to contaminate with the wrong variety, and no time to waste on planting the wrong thing. They have always been good about giving a credit, but after the last order I won't even cash in on it. I cannot believe even they would ship out an order when they were that cold at their own warehouse.

Last year I purchased a tuber from Van Bourgondien which was sold and labeled as being that of a tree dahlia (Dahlia imperialis). I raised the tuber in my garden and it indeed grew quite well. However, I was concerned that its growth habit did not resemble what I have read about this species. When it bloomed, the flowers were that of lavender and white informal decorative as opposed to the single maroon flowers inherent of Dahlia imperialis. I sent an e-mail describing the flowers of this plant and expressing my concern. I was basically told by return e-mail that their plant experts said that the informal decorative was indeed a tree dahila. After a couple more e-mails, I gave up and told them to forget it. Now I just received a 2007 Van Bourgondien catalog and what is pictured for the tree dahlia is indeed a tree dahlia, but it looks nothing like what they sold me last year. I understand that plant companies can make mistakes, but they really need to admit it when they do.

I ordered from this company in May 2006, then got a letter from them stating that the flowers i had ordered where "out of stock" and they would issue a refund. Well here it is January 2007 and i am still trying to get my refund from this company Do Not Order from them!

Scam company. I've placed two orders with them, both before i found this site. First order rec'd was third rate quality. Thought I just got end of season junk. But my most recent order, some bulk Daffodils on "clearance" was unilaterally canceled a couple of weeks later because they were "out of stock". But if you go to the website, they are still selling the same items, but now at a higher price.

What a scam of a company. You couldn't pay me to shop with these sleaze bags.

Don't see how these people stay in business On a $170 order, about one third was missing or dead on arrival, even though the packing slip showed everything shipped. Customer service promised quick resolution, but after no service during one followup call I felt like a fraud suspect. Not allowed to talk to surpervisor. Final guy was good. . Major complaints:
Multiple (severely) dead plants (dead, decomposed, gone)
Omission from order
Undelivered promises
No communications when when things change

After a month, I have now been promised refund for missing bulbs, and store credit for dead plants, but the whole thing was not worth the hassle. At the end, I was not a polite customer, and for that I am sorry Would rather buy at WalMart. .

One of my favorite nurseries to order from is Paradise Garden, so you can imagine my dismay when I ordered 4 varieties of tulips from them and received the bulbs via this company. When I called to complain to Paradise, the rep. that I talked to claimed ignorance of VBDB's rating in Garden Watchdog. Paradise Garden states on their website that Oakes Daylilies is their supplier. Not so, at least in my instance. Paradise Garden wants their customers to rate them in The Watchdog, but they were unaware of one of their suppliers rating? Hard to believe, especially with a rating as bad this company. Why would a reputable nursery use a supplier like this?

I actually took the time to register for Garden Watchdog soley to comment on my terrible experience with this company. I am, as most of us are, extremely busy, but if I can save one person from ordering from this company, my time was well spent.

My bad experience began with a confirmed order for sale items. When I called and gave them my confirmation number, they told me the sale price was no longer available because the items had been clearanced. This was despite having an order confirmation with a September order date.

Due to the rude/brusque customer service rep that I spoke with, I told them I was cancelling the other $250 worth of bulbs that I had ordered. I asked for a confirmation of the cancellation. The rep was very short with me assuring me that they "never ship orders that are cancelled".

Long story short, the entire order was shipped and while I had a terrible time getting any responses to my complaints via email, they managed to contact me to tell me my cancelled order was being shipped via that same email.

I do not have the time/energy to deal with them any longer and just planted the bulbs, but will NEVER, NEVER order from this company again.

I would strongly recommend Van Engelen, a company I had ordered from before with great success. I was lured in by the cheap prices at Van Bourgendien but you get even less than you pay for. I may file a complaint with the Business Business Bureau.

Orders? People actually RECEIVED orders from this company? Back in mid-August, I ordered about $100 worth of various bulbs. For my region, I was told they would arrive for planting at the "end of September".
As September was ending, I called customer service on Sept. 28th to find the status of my order. I was told I called the wrong place, but the woman on the other end of the phone told me she could look me up anyway. This can't be true, as when you go to K Van Bourgondien (wholesale) and look up Customer Service online, you get the number I called. It's the only number to call on the site.
The customer service lady was a bit brusque, and acted put-out by my request. She told me they were waiting for my phlox order to come in. As with many other garden centers, who will ship separately if an item is backordered, Van Bourgondien will not. They will wait (and wait... AND wait!) until EVERYTHING is in stock. The customer service woman gave me the impression everything was boxed and ready, but waiting for my phlox. So I asked when it would ship, and she told me the beginning of October.
Today (the 16th of October) I called again, and this time it seemed I came to the right place (same phone number!). My order was called up quickly, and this time not only the phlox, but the tulips were on backorder! It actually felt as if this customer service lady was making excuses. I had to stop her mid-sentence (nicely) and tell her I wished to cancel my order. She put me on hold in order to "write this down", for about 5 minutes. She was courteous throughout the conversation. Theat's the best part of this entire experinece. ONE nice customer service person for a long, drawn-out non-order. I cancelled not only because now it is too late for me (I no longer have time) to plant these almost-200 bulbs (and non-phlox), but also because I was lucky enough to come to thiss website and see the large amount of negative reviews.