Comments regarding Wayside Gardens

this fall i ordered green halo peony. i received a nice, big root with about 6 eyes. i was very pleased with my order.

I live in California and ordered a lilac bush, oriental poppy, a clematis vine and a dwarf avocado. The plants were shipped fairly quickly, were well packaged and doing nicely in the garden and greenhouse (the avocado). As for size, the clematis and poppy weren't huge, but I didn't expect them to be. The lilac came in a one-gallon container and was much larger than I expected. The avocado was a good size and came bare-root. I'm happy and would order again.

I have had problems with Parks before and was wary to order from this company being that they are owned by the same people. I decided to go ahead and try again so I ordered quite a few bulbs, and several plants from their fall sale. They were sent quickly, and the quality and size of the bulbs was excellent. The two potted plants that I received arrived looking pretty good however the bareroot plant was mushy on the main stem and I don't think will make it. Their customer service is excellent and you can't beat their warranty. The only complaint I have about this order was 2 hyacinth bulbs had exploded more or less and the mold had spread to one other package. I called and asked for replacements which they did send out right away, however they charged my credit card for them! I called them as soon as I noticed that and they claim they refunded that...I guess I will find out on my next credit card statement. Overall I was very pleased with my order from this company.

I had ordered from Wayside Gardens years ago and was really pleased with my Salix purpurea 'Nana' - it had arrived bareroot and is still thriving . I haven't had the funds to place another order with them . Recently they hosted a crossword contest - I was one of the selected winners of 2 Helebores. I am delighted to say they arrived today in excellent condition . Now the Pine Knot Strain was a bit small as expected for a 3 inch pot as stated but the Royal Heritage far surpassed my expectations - Both very healthy , very well packed , very nice plants. I will be ordering from them next year for sure now that I know how well they ship their freebies .If they take that good care of plants that are totally free, I can only imagine how great they do on paid for plants.Well done Wayside !

I have ordered several times from this company and have had good results everytime. I usual order at end of season to take advantage of huge discounts (I ordered 18 plants for less than $30 with shipping, not bad at all). In one shipment, I had two plants that appeared dead, but I tried planting them anyway. Neither one made it, so I called and was promptly issued a refund, no questions asked. They CSR's have always been friendly on the phone and helpful. I am new to flower gardening, so I can't vouch much for size or quality compared to other companies. I would buy from them again and plan to in the future. I am always looking for a good bargain and I don't mind if I have to wait until next to see the plant bloom!

I received my order quickly and I was very pleased with all of my order. I got everything at once and everything was packed great and everything was nice and healthy! I will definately be ordering from this company again.

I say this with some reservation (I'm still waiting on most of my shipment, I may change my mind) and my transaction involved steep discounts and mainly bulbs. The first package arrived today, was very well packed and seems very healthy.

Still, I wouldn't buy from wayside outside of these seasonal sales, and I'd doubt I'd buy shrubs or herbaceous plants from them. Their sale prices are really good, better than even Costco or Walmart for better quality goods.

Ordered 6 Thuja "Green Giant"s and 8 Japanese Holly "Sky Pencil"s. Thery were on sale, so I was a little worried about size, but all were larger than expected. All arrived in EXCELLENT condition. Delivered in under a week, plants were well packed, good size and are now thriving. I highly recommend this company.

In April, 2004 I ordered 10 "Cajun" Hibiscus. They came in very good health (they have now been moved to 5 gallon cans after outgrowing the gallon cans in 4 months.) Well packaged and quickly delivered.

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!

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.

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!

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 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 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.

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!

I just received 4 roses that I ordered a month or so ago with a 60% off email offer. Total order with shipping was less than $26.00. The roses look fine, none have a HUGE root system but more than other bareroot roses I have bought in the past, from other suppliers, which have thrived. Canes are a decent size and some of the plants have swelling buds. From the looks of things now, I expect these to do well, if not I will update my post.

I just received three VERY healthy "Green Giant" thujas from this company and the shipping date was exactly when I specified. I've ordered from them in the past and have had nothing but terrific experiences.

I ordered a number of plants with Wayside as part of an email promotion I received. All of my plants arrived quickly and were in beautiful condition. Additionally, all but two of them are doing wonderfully (and the two that didn't make it were because they weren't for my zone -- my bad). I would absolutely order with Wayside again -- I got an excellent price on some wonderful plants!

I am, quite frankly, confused as to whether or not I should place an order with Wayside. Yes, their catalog is amazing and the positive remarks from past customers make it very tempting. There are, however, quite a few (about 40%) disgruntled customers that all seem to have similar complaints. I think what bothers me the most is that Wayside has never bothered to address these complaints. When you have a 40% disapproval rating, I would think that you would make an effort to address some of the issues found here in this forum. I think I'll hold off ordering from this company until either (a) the customer satisfaction rating gets MUCH better than 60 % or (b) a Wayside representative responds to at least some of the complaints listed here. Better safe than sorry.

I have ordered from Wayside for about 4 years now. They are my favorite mail order company. I've only had problems with a few plants and they gave me credit with no questions asked.

I love that they ship many of their plants in pots with sprouts of life already on them, rather than domant roots that take a whole season to come to life. Their packing is great, wet wood shavings, it's unlike most mail order companies.

I worried that their plants may not do well in Minnesota, but I've had very few problems. They now offer a cheap option for a two year warrentee, worth it for an expensive tree, etc.

I ordered a Rose from them last year and it just never did well. This year it looks as if it is dead compared to the other roses I have. I emailed them about it and they are replacing it without any questions or any kind of a hassle.