Comments regarding Wayside Gardens

This was my third season ordering from Wayside, and have been pleased, as usual! They have some of the best packaging compared to many other mail order houses. While they are perhaps a little pricey, they offer a number of items that I cannot get anywhere else.

In the rare occasion where something did suffer damage (in one case a plant had been snipped off at ground level, and the top of the plant was loose in the container) Wayside offered a prompt replacement when I contacted them.

In other cases, when ordered plants did not survive the year, they offered replacements without question, and offered to ship that fall or hold the replacements until the following spring.

In my opinion, I have never had 100% survivability from any mail order catalog, so I rate heavily on customer service and satisfaction. Wayside is very good at getting you the plants that you ordered. I will certainly continue to order from them!

In June I ordered a daylily and 2 filigran russian sage plants at half-price. I received the plants - the daylily was bareroot with no growth and the 2 russian sage plants were brown twigs in pots of soil. (no sign of green at all) I received a leaflet which stated that the plants were not dead but dormant. Well, they looked dead to me, but I promptly planted all 3 plants. The daylily did put out new growth and I even got a few flowers but the 2 sage plants didn't do a thing. A month and a half later they looked the same as they did when I received them --dead! I called the company in August and they said I would receive a credit to my credit card account. The customer service representative seemed very nice and I promptly received a postcard from the company stating that my account had been credited. I haven't received my credit card bill yet to see if there is actually a credit to my account but hopefully there will be.

I have dealt with this company in the past with excellent to poor results. Their quality control was poor and so it was a long time since I had placed an order. One positive is that they would replace dead plants or plants that died without question and they had a habit of sending out such plants. However this year I ordered three plants from them on sale and all three arrived in great shape and are growing along nicely. All three were shrubs. They're potted perennials are good but their bareroot and dormant plants can be a problem.If you're careful about what you order fromthem it can be a good experience.

Pricey but watch for sales - sale prices are often very good. I have ordered a number of times from Wayside and all the plants have been happy and healthy with one exception; a DOA mailed during a heat wave. I will be contacting them about replacing it and will update this review once I experience their response.

I've always been very happy with my dealings with Wayside Gardens. Everything I've ordered has been exactly as their catalogue or website has described.
Sometimes they are too ambitious when they have sales -- it seems as if they see how many orders they get and them look around for plants, so your order may take a while to get to you.
But when it gets there, it's in great shape.

Normal prices are high but dose have good sales. Most plants are in good shape and have good customer services.

Wayside is a crapshoot - sometimes the stuff lives, other times it is DOA.

In this last shipment, 2 plants were DOA and 1 was mismarked and I have no clue what it is...

As long as the plants are on sale (which they generally are when I order) I'm willing to take the chance...

DECOBUG

This is the first time I have ordered from Wayside. I think their prices are quite high but they offer some plants that I have not seen in other places. All plants
arrived alive and in good condition. Their way of packaging bareroot plants is far superior to other companies. I planted them in pots first to watch them closely and they immediately started to send out healthy
shoots. The Creme de Cassis hollyhock plants were packaged
very well also--no dirt all over inside the box. I will
save my money by not ordering from some other questionable places and buy unusual plants from Wayside as I can afford
them.

Ordered a yellow clivia, usually a very expensive plant, was discounted. Was expecting a decent plant (but slightly worse for wear). Plant was excellently packed, had the evidence of three flower stems (!!!), was huge and extremely healthy. I haven't ordered from Wayside gardens before, but if this is the care which items are packed and the general health of the items, I'll surely order again.

I have ordered numerous times this spring from Wayside. Everything from perennials to trees have arrived alive and in good shape. I would order from them again without a second thought.

Fist time ordering from this company. Everything arrived just when they said it would and the plants were healthy right out of the box.

Another good experience with this company. I ordered from their spring sale. I was able to get many hard to find shrubs at a great price. Even the bare root plants look good.

I ordered several Roses from Wayside Garden. Unfortunately they didn't make it for some unknown reason. I called the company and without hesitation they replaced all of them..
A great company to deal with. I highly recommend them.
Their policy is so great on replacing I will order more Roses, from them this fall and sending a shipment to N.H.
Cold country but, I trust them enough to send anything they have there, as I know they will stand beside all they sell.
Sandy

I ordered 2 bi-color butterfly bushes a few months ago... planted and watched them grow. They went to bloom last week and both are PURPLE, not bi-color! I called and was told that Wayside is out of the bi-color for the season. I was offered (without having to ask!) either credit or a full refund to my credit card. I was pleased with dealing with a company who made good on their error. The purple bushes are nice and I will order the bi-color again next season. I felt Wayside handled this in a professional and courteous manner.

I placed four separate orders with Wayside this spring, and I am very pleased with the results. I ordered both 3" pots and bareroot items.

I feel the potted plants were the right size for their pot, and for shipping feasibility. Large, overgrown plants would suffer more stem breakage. I'd rather have a compact but healthy plant subjected to the not-so-tender mercy of the postal system ;) The potted plants always had a raffia-like wrap around the base of the plant to keep it, and most of the soil, in the pot, and packing worms to cushion the rest of the plant as well as possible. They were all healthy enough to sit for some time before I had a chance to plant them. Once planted, they really took off.

The bare root items were all well packaged, neither too dry or too soggy, and ready for planting. The hosta all took off almost immediately, even the one I held for almost a month bare rooted. Planted it Saturday, saw leaf growth by Wednesday - now that's a healthy root!

The only way they could improve would be if they could give shipping estimates for items that are backordered, so I have some idea when to expect them. Thumbs up for Wayside!

This company should hang their heads in shame concening the size of the plants that they sent to me.For the prices that they charge they should not send plants that are only 2-3inches tall.I will not buy from them again.They have a beautiful catalog ,but thats about all.

My order was received in deplorable condition. Out of the ten plants I ordered, six were dead and the others not too healthy. The plants looked as though they had been packed by a nursery school class. Plants were just thrown in the box, on top of each other; several of the plastic pots were cracked; foliage that wasn't dead, was broken; and, plastic peanuts were tossed on top of that. When I called to complain, I was told that only one of the plants would be replaced at that time and that I'd have to wait a couple of weeks to make sure that the other plants didn't regenerate -- it would take Divine intervention to coax life from the dead brown stumps that I received. I'm still waiting for some resolution! In addition to the plants I ordered, three plants were sent that I didn't order which I had to return at my own expense!!! I'd have to be desperate to order from Wayside again. I'll use their slick catalog to plan my garden order and then purchase from somewhere (anywhere) else!

I placed my first (and last) order with Wayside on May 1st. I did not print a copy of my order confirmation at time of placement as their website said I would receive an email confirmation. I did get the confirmation but failed to read the details of the confirmation until 3 days later (I assumed it was correct) but discovered it contained only 1 of the plants I actually ordered!! The other 3 items on the order were selections I put in my shopping cart while browsing their site and later deleted from my shopping cart. I emailed them as soon as I discovered the incorrect items listed on my order (3 days after placement (order placed on a Sat. and emailed them on Tuesday).

They emailed me back EIGHT DAYS LATER saying the order shipped 2 days after my cancelation email was sent! Furthermore, 1 of the items was still on backorder and if I didn't want it to let them know! (Sheesh!! I already canceled the entire order!!!) So I emailed that same day (12 May) saying to cancel the backorder and I would return the shipped plants for a credit (which their email said they would do).

EIGHT DAYS LATER they replied to my cancelation of the backorder (which mind you was canceled on 4 May) and told me that they did not get my email in time and it was shipped that morning!! Canceled entire order on 4 May, they shipped partial on 6 May, canceled backorder (AGAIN)12 May and they shipped it anyway on 20 May!

I am disputing all charges to my credit card and emailed them that they were in possession of my cancelations well before their shipments and that it is their company's problem, not mine, if they don't read their email in a timely fashion.

They need to hire more staff or disable their email until they have sufficient staff to handle the volume of email they apparently get. I had seen their overall negative rating here before and have avoided them because of it. However, I was swayed by their buy 1 get 1 free SPAM mail and figured what do I have to lose! I had no idea that their online shopping cart system would retain items I had deleted from my cart and ship them even though they weren't ordered. Do yourself a favor and find the plants you want somewhere else - you'll get nothing but headaches from this company even when they have very enticing sale offers.

Signed,
Learned a Lesson the Hard Way

I have emailed Wayside Gardens once per day for the past 10 days attempting to find our on what date they will be shipping my order of 2 dozen rose bushes. Still no email response and more importantly no rose bushes.

Seperatly, I emailed them about a problem with a hosta I purchased from them last summer. No response to that email either.

I ordered a dozen roses from Wayside this year and all but one had big root systems and were healthy. I e-mailed them about the one, and they sent me a beautiful replacement. In addition, there was supposed to be a bonus of 5 unnamed daylilies for orders of a certain size. The first set they included had molded in the packaging and were extremely small to begin with. When I requested the replacement rose, I also mentioned the problem with the "freebies". They sent me 5 huge named daylilies with a value of over $30! I think that this company does make mistakes, but they are very willing to fix them, and in my case, went beyond the call of duty. I would order from them again.

I ordered a Daphne Briggs Moonlight. The website says a 1 gallon plant, received a 1 quart plant. I have sent three emails to two different email addresses for this company over the last two weeks. There has been no response. I understand this is the busy season, but I feel two weeks is more than sufficient time to answer an email. I have now planted the Daphne for fear of it stressing in the pot.
The plant is beautiful, and i am willing to accept it for the refund of the price difference, but have not had any response to the emails.

I have placed several orders with this company and had good luck, and want to place another order, but am skeptical because of the lack of email response and follow-up customer service.

THEY HONORED THEIR GUARANTEE WITH A CREDIT A YEAR AFTER THE PLANTS WERE PURCHASED.

I purchased a Gillogly avocado from Wayside via Internet. It arrived within two days of their advised shipdate. The tree was healthy and vigorous, and has adapted well to our patio. Included with the tree was a "twofer" coupon that we took advantage of by ordering two Musa Dwarf Cavendish banana trees. Once again, delivery was timely, the plants were vital and the adaptation excellent. I've had two superior experiences with Wayside and would have absolutely no qualms about dealing with them in the future, or recommending them to my friends.

If you check their website and catalogs carefully there are some great deals. And, unlike Jackson & Perkins, they stand by their products...

A standard form Hibiscus purchased last spring did not make it through the winter. They are replacing it without question. Cannot ask for more than that.

The items I have purchased from Wayside are sometimes found elsewhere at cheaper prices, but the number of their selections and their unique items make them worth shopping. I will continue to buy through them.

My first order from this company was small, 9 plants. However, all nine plants arrived in good condition, packed well and were planted two weeks ago. One of the plants is already blooming! So far I'm very pleased with the product and the service. SharMac

After looking at their beautiful catalog but reading so many negative comments about this company, I was leery of ordering. I couldn't resist and ordered 7 bareroot roses that were marked down 60% off on 4/27/04. To my wonderful surprise I received the roses on 5/4/04. They were all well packed and in wonderful condition. The canes and the root systems were strong and already had small nodules on the canes. These roses were the best bareroot roses I had ever seen. In fact they looked even better than the potted roses at the local nursery that had leaves and cost more. I can't wait to see the roses in bloom. I will buy more from this company and hope that the rest of their plants are just as good. I am so happy I took the chance.

I placed several large orders from Wayside this past fall and spring, mainly for perennial shrubs and some small trees, as well as a few other items. I have had excellent results with their plants...every hardy hibiscus I planted is thriving, though none of them showed any growth in the pot upon receipt since they were dormant. The two Malus Brandywine trees I ordered flowered within two weeks of planting, and the Oyama Magnolia Colossus, which is only about three feet tall, has already produced two huge flowers and is growing rapidly. The only one I had any concerns about was a Magnolia Galaxy (I gave another away as a gift), which seemed lifeless for the first couple of months since planting. I was out of town for the past week and returned to find bright green leaves sprouting on it from several places...and I had been thinking of pulling it out of the ground. I'm happy I didn't, and so far Wayside/Park has earned an excellent track record with me.

I recived my order from them today. I have tossed out better looking plants than this. The lonicera serotina was the best looking of the plants.And belive me im using that term loosely. The buddleia bicolor is dry brittle sticks. The Athyrium is a clod of dirt in a pot? Maybe there are some fronds down there, would have been nice to see at least one? I emailed them but its by far the worst $57.85 i have ever spent on 3 plants.

I received my first of two orders from Wayside yesterday (Michigan). I got three each of hollyhocks and honeysuckle. The plants were well-packed and delivered quickly. I expected dry, dormant twigs but all six plants are green and growing and one honeysuckle even has flower buds on it already! I am thrilled with my order and I can't wait until the second one (roses) arrives.

I ordered a great deal of plants from this company and most of the plants were of poor quality, especially the bareroot ones. The plants seemed to take longer to get established, and compared to plants of the same species either grown from seed or purchased in the local nursery were significantly smaller.

I feel they have a good selection of speciality plants, and their catalog is full of exciting and new plants, but based on my past experiences with this company I generally only order one or two speciman plants and go to the local nursery for buying in bulk (or start from seed).

I have ordered from them for years. I have had several bad experiences with them. The most recent, this spring with rosebushes. I ordered more than 200.00 of roses. First of all some of them were sold out, which the computer should konw at the time of placing my order. When they arrived some of the best looking ones had the canes broken half off. Beautiful green canes broken at the bottom. I am not going to plant a rose that has half of its canes broken off. It makes me sick knowing what they could have been. Out of the 25 roses I bought, more than half were damaged INCLUDING 4 replacements from last year. I ordered roses several times from them last year. One order was not shipped to the correct address and was dead on arrival. The second order was sent, although the plants I had ordered were now sold out, and when it arrived 3 plants were mislabeled. I also bought a gift certificate for my mother which they assured would go through that day, it took 5 days. I do have to say they are always eager to fix the problems when you call them. I suggest you talk to a supervisor express your concerns and let them know that they are going to lose you as a customer. I have jsut called to have my roses replaced and they should be here soon. I want what I order not something else that I have to take the time to plant. They try to fix the problems but I am getting tired of it.

I received 2 orders from Wayside this Spring--the first time I have bought from them. My first order was five rose plants. They were large and very well packed and all of them are growing. Today I got an order of perennials--again very well packed. All seem healthy and the hellebores in particular are far larger than I expected--about a foot tall! Everything I bought was on sale so the prices were quite good. I'd definitely order again.

Have now ordered twice from Wayside. The first order, bareroot roses, arrived in great shape and are greening up quite nicely. The second order took 8 days to get from SC to NC! For some reason, it was sent 4th class. I'm worried about the health of the plant after that long in the box. However, I'm happy to say that when I called Wayside and told them how long it took, they agreed that was completely unreasonable and refunded my money. What sets apart companies that I take my business to is not whether or not there ever is a problem but how they handle it when there is. Given the two experiences described above, I will be happy to order from Wayside again.

I must say I have mixed feelings about this company. Last fall, I ordered some iris and 3 Fanfare Gaillardia. The iris were huge, the best of all places I ordered from. They are growing great this spring. The Gaillardia were skimpy, only 2 or 3 leaves, and none came back this spring. I did write to them and they offered to replace them, but won't do so until fall. I would have liked to have them now.

I also ordered a Razzmatazz Echinacea over winter for around $16. It came today. A tiny 3" pot with absolutely nothing growing. I am assuming there is a root in there. I don't want to disturb it to check. It was wet. But I would never pay even $2 for this much less that much. I am going to give it a few days to see if it grows, but I hold out little hope. From now on, I will buy iris, but nothing else.

I have ordered more than a dozen plants in the last two years from Wayside. They were packed well, but I've lost at least 50% of the bushes/perennials. Even lost a couple replacements. I believe part was due to the wet summer of 2003, but others I don't understand. Two plants I later found out either needed winter protection in Z5 or should have been brought in to a Z6 space. Just all in all I didn't have any better luck than from any of the less expensive mail order companies. I think the plants ought to be labeled more specifically for soil type, winter protection, # hours of sun, etc. I also wonder if ordering from a more southern zone (if it was grown there) has anything to do with the individual plant's hardiness.

First of all I have to say that I love your catalog. I was taken with all the beautiful pictures of plants and placed a large order. I worked weeks preparing the soil in anticipation of my plants arrival. I was so appalled when my order arrived. All the bare root stock was so small and spindly that it was hard to find. The plants that did survive did nothing all season long and did not come back this year. I as so disappointed with this company. I do mail order all the time but I will never order for this company again.

I placed my order in early March for some bareroot and 3" potted perennials. Their online order status was always updated and easy to print out. When it was time to ship, they showed the shipping date (4/12) for each plant, and my plants arrived two days later.
They were packed VERY well. All the plants had good root systems and were labeled nicely. The packing materials and potting medium were nice and moist. I planted everything yesterday and today....now let's see if everything does well!

Over the years I have ordered roses from many different companies, including Wayside. Just today I received the three roses I ordered for spring planting, and they look great as always. All three plants have strong, healhy canes and are good sized. I have found their roses to be reasonably priced and a good value for what you get.

I love Wayside Gardens!! I have been ordering from Chris for a couple years and have been happy with everything. I like the specials and get many roses this way. I tell all my "flower friends" about waysidegardens.com!