Comments regarding Growers Exchange (previously The Grower's Exchange)

I stumbled on the Growers Exchange a few years back on a Google search...so happy I did. Not only do they have a very good selection of herbs that I adore, the plants arriving are healthy and ready for planting.

I was especially impressed by the careful way the plants are packaged for shipping. They remain secure in their own spots, and very rarely have any broken or damaged leaves. I have purchased plants from other places that just toss the plants in a bag or box and ship. I value the care Growers Exchange takes in shipping my "babies".

One plant in particular I have come to love is the "Holy Basil". The aroma is just so different and unique. Many times, when not picking the leaves to use, I just gently brush my hand across the leaves to release the scent. Makes me happy!

I recently purchased the flower press...love it! The flowers pressed stay true to color and are like precious rice paper when they complete.

Will continue to be a loyal Growers Exchange customer.

I am enjoying my third year growing plants from The Grower's Exchange. I am very satisfied with the quality and service I have received.

Posted on March 17, 2016, updated March 21, 2016
I just received my order of 10 herb plants this afternoon and could not believe that I paid this much money for these plants. 3 of them were in decent shape; the other 7 had broken leaves, were coming out of their pots, squished due to the way they were packed. They were so small (even with the top of the pot or just barely over it) that they looked like they had been shoved in the box and pushed up against the cardboard. The French Tarragon is so small it's about the size of a quarter/half dollar. My comfrey is sideways and has only 1 leaf since all the others were broken off. Both the hyssop and the roman chamomile have yellow leaves and were squished. The Tagetes is wilted, dry (though soil is wet) and looks like something off the 50 cent clearance rack at the end of the gardening season. The Borage also has broken leaves and looks very sad sitting there with its 1 leaf.
The Anise Hyssop is the only thing that looks decent. The German Chamomile and the Lemongrass are passable although I certainly wouldn't have paid the price I paid Grower's Exchange if I was buying locally. Actually wouldn't have bought them if I was buying locally and they looked like my shipment of plants.
It's very disheartening to wait 2 months from the time I placed my order (which I understand that they can't ship until weather permits); however, this has been a total waste of money.
As soon as I opened the box, got the plants out, and saw how small and damaged they were I called The Grower's Exchange but they were already closed. However, I did leave a message and hope they will make this situation right. Incidentally, the box arrived in perfect condition from UPS so it was not their fault for the condition of the plants.
So disappointed - and pissed off - in Georgia.

I have been a customer of The Grower's Exchange for over ten years now. I have never been unhappy with the products received. They are always large and healthy plants.

Their selection of herbs is excellent and would highly
recommend them to anyone considering buying annual or
perennial herbs.

I ordered 8 herb plants to replace some that were tired from summer production. The shipment was timed so there was not a weekend involved, which would have lengthened time in transit. The order was delivered on the date specified. Everything was in great condition. Grower's Exchange packaging is excellent. The plants were well rooted and well grown. (I already used some of the sage.) They responded well to next-day repotting. They are now housed for the winter in my little herb garden/greenhouse. I am pleased to know they will be part of my meals for the next months.

I have been ordering from The Growers Exchange for a few years. Plants arrive healthy and are packaged perfectly each in there own section of the box and plastic neatly around the pot so the soil stays in place.
The majority of what I order I cannot find locally, I was happy to find a mail order company that had exactly what I was looking for and one that took care in there packaging.

I have shopped the Grower's Exchange several times. The plants are healthy and hearty and arrive quickly and packed well. The communications from Growers exchange are helpful and prompt. I love being able to get healthy unusual herbs in such great shape.

I will continue to shop Grower's Exchange in the future and highly recommend them.

My experience with Growers Exchange has been wonderful. The herbs that I ordered came well packaged and in excellent condition. They are thriving after 3 weeks of adjustment to our central Florida climate. The quality of the herbs was exactly what I was looking for. I sent a comment to customer service and received a reply the next day. They are my go-to site for wonderful herbs.

I have placed several orders with this company and have been very pleased each time. The plants have arrived in robust condition. The packaging is wonderful and designed to make sure that the plants arrive in great condition with no damage. Plants arrive at correct planting time for my area and are hardy and healthy. I could not be more delighted.

I recently rented a house in a wooded area and want to control insects organically. My first experience with Growers Exchange was easy and pleasant with a heaping of sound advice on planting my Lemon Grass plants. I highly recommend Growers Exchange, healthy plants, well packed and fast shipping.

It's a fun site to find and learn pretty much anything you want to for your yard and garden.

I ordered an array of herbs and all arrived in great condition. Prettily boxed up for travel and so healthy!They have since been planted and are thriving. So impressed with the Grower's Exchange!

I have ordered many plants from the Grower's Exchange (GE) and my stevia plant is doing wonderfully. I bought a stevia from a local garden center around the same time I ordered one from the GE and the one from the local garden center is doing poorly compared to my one ordered from the GE even with the same soil conditions, water schedule, and location. I don't know how they do it but I am very pleased.

In January I ordered 17 herbs from The Growers Exchange. They arrived in early April at the appropriate planting time for my area (Zone 8B). Each plant had been placed in a separate compartment of the box and each was covered with a plastic bag. They were all well rooted in their containers, healthy and thriving. I planted the herbs within a few days in my garden and all have thrived except one, the Tagetes "Mexican Mint Marigold".....for some reason one of our doggies loves to pee on it.

I will definitely purchase more herbs from The Growers Exchange. I just need to find a different spot for the Tagetes.

I placed several orders and received beautiful plants last year.
This year I placed another order. We had some crazy weather in South Jersey when the plants arrived. So several did not survive.
I notified the Growers Exchange and just told them about the problem and that it was not their fault do to Mother Nature.
Their customer service is awesome. They replaced all the plants that died, without any problems.
I definitely recommend their service
Helga G

I found this company through a google search. I ordered without checking Watchdog, not something I do very often and I was a little nervous. When I got the shipping confirmation it had a come-back-coupon for 10% and a tracking number.
I watched the mail and there it was on time in a very nice box which turned out to be packed very well and the plants were safe, moist and healthy looking.
I would definitely order again, and I recommend them to anyone looking for good mail-order plants.

5 stars for a great site w/great plants.

The unusual or hard to find plants offered here are packed in shipping materials that actually protect your plants, which makes the shopper's experience & success with these herbs much improved & provides for a heartier plant when it arrives.

I grow lots of herbs that I harvest & use for cooking, soap making, & extraction, so getting good stock plants is very important to me & I think this site is one of the best. Hope they continue to offer the nice varieties/choices & continue with their great customer service. I would recommend this site to family, friends & fellow gardeners & fellow crafters.

Easy to obtain hard-to-find herbs. Love the packaging. I recently placed an order for delivery in the Spring and am excited to see how this will work out for me. I also appreciate their discounts and/or volume buying offers.

This is the first plant company I am giving a 5 star rating to. They have healthy plants that survive the shipping process, and grow wonderfully in my garden. I will be a repeat customer for years to come.

all plants arrived on time for spring planting and were so healthy. They thrived all summer. Can't wait until late winter to order more plants for summer 2015 from Growers exchange

All of the plants I received from this company have been in excellent condition and packed very well.

I ordered and received Basil 'Holy (Sacred) Green' . I did container gardening with it and it flourished. The plants were quite wonderful. I have them by the back porch and have harvested so much for this winter. Even a little brush fills the air with the most unbelievably great fragrance. I highly recommend this plant and nursery to all.
Teresa

This was our first time ordering from this company, and I was so impressed when the box arrived. Everything was so well packaged...it looked like they truly cared about pleasing their customers. Then a couple plants took a turn within a few days and I immediately submitted a form on their website asking for replacements. They replied and opened a ticket, but requested photos of the plants in question, which I thought was odd since no vendor has ever made that request in our 40 years of gardening! But I went ahead and sent them photos--and heard nothing back. After almost two weeks, I wrote to them asking if they were going to honor their guarantee. NO REPLY. Then I submitted another online form from their site asking what the problem might be. STILL NO REPLY. My only recourse is to call them and hope I reach someone who cares. As it stands today, I am thoroughly disgruntled by their bad business practices and will never do business with this company again.

Mr. or Ms. White, if you have any interest in making this right, the two tickets opened by your so-called customer service are:
Ticket #879-7740 and Ticket #124-8730

"On Aug 1, 2014 10:50 AM, The Growers Exchange (aka The Grower's Exchange) responded with:

Hello! We are working hard to find you! We've searched out Customer Relations Management databank (where all communication comes in and out) with the ticket numbers above - unfortunately, we can't post a screen shot but it says: "opps, we couldn't find a match"! You may have just spoken to our Customer Support member, Cathy, who is trying hard to figure out where any communication may have gone using all the email addresses you provided. This is a really easy fix, but I can promise you that we HAVE NOT been ignoring you ~ the email address you provided doesn't turn up in a search either ... a quick call back and we'll fix the issue but it wasn't that you were being ignored. We have NO IDEA where any and all communications have gone, but we probably need to use the phone!

Regards,

Kenan White
Co-Founder
The Growers Exchange

Posted on June 29, 2014, updated June 29, 2014
I ordered ten of the perennial milkweed plants from The Grower's Exchange earlier this year. When the shipment arrived, I noticed one of the plants was not secured like the others, and assumed there had been some rough handling of the package during shipping that loosened it. Soon after planting, I noticed a few of the plants starting to get some yellow leaves. I had planted all of the plants within a day of receiving them, mulched all around them well, and kept them watered. My first thought was simply that there was shock from the shipping and transplanting and they would perk up soon. When they kept getting worse and others started to do the same, I called Customer Service and was instructed to send an email. After several emails back and forth I realized this company does not stand behind its products AT ALL. I originally got a response that said they only replace plants due to damage from shipping; then was told they will guarantee plants for ten days after receipt (I was only told this after I told them I wasn't sure how long I had waited to contact them. I didn't see a need to contact them if the issue was simply stress related. I'm not sure that they even know what their policies are and make them up to suit their needs as they go! in one of my last emails I explained how I have bought much product online from Spring Hill Nursery and have never had a problem with getting plants replaced. As hard of a winter as we just had, they stood behind plants I got last fall, as well as plants that I got this spring just prior to the late hard freeze we had (I'm in NC). No questions asked..the plants that didn't survive were either immediately replaced or scheduled to be shipped at the next shipping season for the particular plants in question. I will NOT order from The Grower's Exchange again and encourage anyone who reads this to shop Spring Hill Nursery if you enjoy buying plants online!

"On Jul 2, 2014 4:33 PM, The Growers Exchange (aka The Grower's Exchange) responded with:

Hello Mr. Nelson:

Sorry for any misunderstanding regarding our policies. We do guarantee our plants past shipping, but what we do know is that after 2 + weeks, there is a point at which there are a lot of things that could happen that are basically outside of our control ~ as a gardener, you know what I mean! We try to make our policies clear for customers before checking out ~ you actually can't check out until agreeing to the guarantee.

So, your shipment took one day and we ruled out stress. It was difficult to say exactly as we only had one photo to go one, but we are more than happy to provide you with a store credit to be used in the fall. Just let us know how you'd like to proceed and sorry for any misunderstanding.

We are a small, family owned and operated herb farm and we've been in business for 30 years. We even have an A+ rating with the BBB as well as over 50,000 pretty happy customers. We are VERY sorry that we have let you down as we are not in the business of disappointing folks. We aren't a 'Money back guarantee with no questions asked company' and we tell folks that right up front. But, we are gardeners and try hard to work with our customers.

NO EXCUSES - just stating facts!

Get back to us when you can ~ we'll leave the ticket open until we hear back.

Regards,
K. White
Customer Support"

I ordered 4 Heavenly Blue Morning Glory Plants from this Company. Was my first time purchasing from them as other suppliers I have used in the past didn't carry, so I really didn't know what to expect. I was delighted, the plants were all healthy and after hardening off I planted them below my deck below the lattice I wanted them to climb and attached string to train them. Even though our spring/summer here has been wet with hardly any sun to speak of 3 of the 4 have already wandered up 2-1/2 feet and are now twining around the lattice, and the 4th has had 3 gorgeous blooms already!! If we ever get much sun and they really take off I'm going to post a picture. Would highly recommend this company and I'm sure I will be ordering from them again in the future!

I had a poor experience with this company. Half the plants in my initial order were the wrong plants, and some of the others were in very poor shape (and did not survive). After they sent replacements for the plants I was supposed to have gotten, I find that these are the wrong plants too!! Now they are claiming that these are the plants I ordered. Nonsense. I have ordered from this company for years now, but they have really gone down hill, both in terms of quality and customer service. I would not order from this company again.

"On Jun 17, 2014 2:20 PM, The Growers Exchange (aka The Grower's Exchange) responded with:

Hello:

We are sorry that you had a bad experience with The Growers Exchange. It is hard to address this concern, as we don't know who you are, but the only issue we've had this spring regarding 'wrong plants' has to do with Green Holy Basil. So, we all know not to assume, but if this IS about the Holy Basil, we can only address it this way:

We grow, advertise and sell Ocimum sanctum - it has numerous common names including Tulsi, Holy Basil, Tulasi, Sacred Basil. But, as we list on the website as well as in our catalog, we grow true to species plants. The photos are our own, taken of the plants that we have grown from seed.

If we could do anything more for you, we will try. However, we have already reshipped the order and at this point, we are at a loss as to how to move forward. We are not in the business of disappointing customers and we want you to be satisfied with your order.

Best Regards,

K. White
Customer Support
The Growers Exchange"

This was my fist time ordering from them...I ordered 8 plants. They were not the biggest plants, but they are all healthy and are thriving. Great plant selection! Shipping was swift and hassle free. I will buy from them again.

Posted on May 1, 2014, updated May 4, 2014
I have ordered plants from Grower's Exchange before and they always look wonderful!

When I placed my current order, I never received an email confirmation, but I always save my confirmations at check out to PDF, so I was covered. I contacted them and asked about the order and attached a copy. I received my plants in a timely fashion and they all look great! But the packing slip showed I was shipped a comfrey and a chamomile along with the rest of my order. What I received were two chamomiles and no comfrey with the rest of my order. I sent photos and asked what was the possibility of my receiving the comfrey I wanted - I also told them how great the plants looked and that I loved chamomile.
The next email I received said I would be receiving a refund. I responded again with the question is the comfrey out of stock, because I'd really like to receive it. Several hours later I receive email confirmation that my refund had gone through.

No response as to whether comfrey is in stock. It shows in stock online. Now, if I want the comfrey I originally ordered, I will have to pay shipping costs toward someone's packing mistake because someone conveniently issued the refund before my question could be answered.

I find that underhanded and just a little slimy and won't order again, no matter how good the plants look. It's not worth the frustration when, with a little extra time and effort, I can get my own from seed. Especially since I just got the display model mini-greenhouse from a local store at half off.

I will NEVER order anything from Grower exchange again ! The plants I ordered arrived in poor condition and half of them never made it through the hardening stage. I sent photos back to the company showing them how badly they looked right out of the box and instead of just sending me new plants they allowed me a CREDIT on my NEXT order!
There will never BE a next order I explained (They did"nt get the first one right). I was certainly not going to throw good money after bad.
My advise to any one thinking of buying at Grower Exchange...find a REPUTABLE dealer that is trust worthy and stands behind their products and will refund your money if your not satisfied.

"On Jun 17, 2014 2:24 PM, The Growers Exchange (aka The Grower's Exchange) responded with:

Sorry that we missed this; a bit late but we did want to address the issue. We did provide credit as we had stopped shipping in mid-summer. We do stand behind our plants, in fact we really care about both the plants and customer satisfaction. No one would appreciate a box shipped mid-summer when our outside temps are in the mid-90's. We begin fall shipping in September, so the credit was intended to provide an opportunity to reship.

Again, sorry that you had bad experience with The Growers Exchange. We work hard to make sure that customers have success with our plants, and we are sorry to lose you as a customer.

Regards,

B. White
Co-Founder
The Growers Exchange"

I ordered lavender, rosemary and a terracotta pot from the Grower's Exchange and it was a very positive experience. Communication about my order status was good, shipping was relatively quick and the plants were large, robust and healthy when they arrived. They're now growing well in the ground. Would definitely buy from again.

When I first ordered herbs online, I placed orders with three companies, and the results were less than wonderful: some of the plants arrived dead or moribund at best, and others didn't live long. Then I discovered the Grower's Exchange, which sent me healthy, bushy herbs expertly packed that thrived. Some of the lemon thyme and the rosemary are still going from that first order, and I've reordered two or three times--a few more each time. I wouldn't order herbs from any other source.

I have ordered several times from Growers Exchange. The plants have all been healthy and have grown well after planting. A Bay Tree I ordered several years ago thrives in a planter that lives in my green house during the winter, along with a lemon grass plant that has become huge.

My order came in great condition (April 2012 - Cat Herb Garden). Part of the set was unavailable at the time, so they offered a substitute. We exchanged a couple of emails, and even shared a couple of laughs - I like gardeners with a sense of humor! In the end they managed to find the piece that was unavailable.
I'd order from The Grower's Exchange again, and would recommend.

I ordered my plants, last May. They arrived in awesome packaging and the plants were healthy, in A++ condition. I love the selection they have on-line and will order, again this Spring. I've recommended Grower's Exchange to family and friends.

I have ordered plants twice - first time, assorted herbs last Summer and last time, late Fall, three kinds of perennial plants that were on sale. The re-potted perennials are thriving in the greenhouse awaiting Spring. My rosemary plants did die but it was my mishandling at fault. All the plants, herbs and perennials, arrived in excellent condition. I will buy again from Grower's Exchange.

I received my plants last spring. Everything arrived safe and sound. All the plants did well over the summer which here in Missouri was hot and dry. We did water some but as little as possible. The really amazing thing is the two rosemary plants are still alive. They are in pots on our patio, not particularly sheltered. We've had some snow and below freezing weather several times, including over a week where the temperatures didn't get out of the 20's. Definitely will be ordering again next spring.

I've ordered herbs several times. They've arrived healthy and in good condition. I appreciate the fact that they ship only at the appropriate planting time. I'll shop there again.

I ordered a potted herb kit as a gift for my sister in law to grow herbs with her son. She told me he was thrilled when he opened the box to see something LIVING inside! She was equally as excited to get a gift that can turn into a teaching experience. The site is easy to use and offers many tips for growing. Plus, the order shipped out the very next day! I will be ordering again!

I received the Potted Herb Kit last week from the Growers Exchange. In perfect time for lots of summer recipes. Growers Exchange did a great job packaging both the pots as well as the plants to make sure they were well protected during shipping. Everything was easy to put together and the herbs were easy to transplant to the pots. They were healthy plants upon arrival in the mail. The Growers Exchange also did an excellent job providing great directions on transplanting, phone numbers to call in the event of damage during transport and also recipes for the herbs I received! I am very impressed by the Growers Exchange and will definitely use them in the future.

"On May 16, 2012 10:55 AM, The Growers Exchange (aka The Grower's Exchange) responded with:

Thank you for the kind feedback regarding our Kitchen Herb Planter! (http://www.thegrowers-exchange.com/Kitchen_Herb_Planter_p/he...)

We're very glad you enjoyed potting this kit, as we feel it's a great way to give the gift of gardening. Thank you for your order and enjoy using your new indoor herbs. We also have lots of great information on our herbs and recipes on our site to help you use your plants in new ways. Thanks again and we look forward to hearing from you in the future!"