Comments regarding NewGardenPlants.com (New Garden Plants)

I've been looking absolutely everywhere for a specific variety of geranium ("Kelly Anne", which is a pink version of the popular "Rozanne" variety) and this website was the only place I could find it for sale! The pricing and shipping costs were reasonable. During checkout, you have the option to choose your desired shipping week and to leave a note, which is very helpful. The plants arrived quickly and were well-packaged. They are large and healthy, settling in happily in my garden. My expectations were pleasantly surpassed. I'm debating ordering more of them!

I wish I had found this site containing feedback on the company before ordering as the comments here show a consistent hit or miss record of performance and I'm afraid I'm in the same predicament. Ordered multiple units of two types of plants. Received a shipment containing one of the plant types which also contained a handwritten note stating the rest would be sent in 2-3 weeks. Now a month later the rest of the plants have not been delivered and the company does not respond to emails. Buyers beware.

"On Apr 26, 2023 9:29 PM, NewGardenPlants.com (New Garden Plants) responded with:

We do respond to emails usually within 24hrs. sorry if we missed you some how. If some plants are still not ready to ship, once they become ready we will ship them to you at our expense. Growing and shipping over 1,000 varieties not everything is ready when we want it to be. If you emailed me prior to today you should have gotten an email letting you know they are not quite ready to ship or when we expect them to ship. "

I ordered 3 coneflower plants about a month ago. One was great. One was the wrong color, & they reimbursed me. The last one was barely a plant, & I told them the day I got it. I sent them a picture, but they said give it time. Well, I gave it time & emailed them & sent another picture, & they are ignoring my emails. It is only about 3" tall with no blooms. I don't even know if it will be the right color. Never ordering from them again.

To All,
I ordered from New Garden Plants in April (2022) as they had some great Plants, excellent prices, and very positive reviews on their websites to be delivered during the week of May 1st.

However, I was overly concern about the many negative reviews on other sites (including this site) and wondered if I made a mistake as I ordered 15 perennial plants.

My plants came on May 5th, and they were bigger and healthier than when I ordered from other big name companies.

The plants were packed very well and came within 2-days via FEDEX (tracking number was emailed when shipped). I feel that even the shipping rate of $10.95 (for all 15 plants) plus $0.39 handling per plant was a great price as well.

I have emailed Pete, the owner, several times and he responded within two days. I do not feel that response time was bad at all.

Overall, my experience have been incredibly positive. I plan to reorder from this company as I do enjoy supporting small businesses that delivers quality products at excellent/competitive prices.

Paul J.
Yonkers, New York

First off, I'd like to say that I've order from them for the past 5 years and have only had a good experience - good quality, fast shipments, and they don't put restrictions on the time of year they will ship plants out. However, this last shipment was a disaster. The first shipment went to the wrong location and I never got it. They sent a replacement without sending me a tracking number which was odd, and would not tell me when it would arrive. When it did come, the plants were in such bad shape I do not think a majority will make it. My poor butterfly bushes had maybe one green, wilted leaf on them. I've been giving them TLC, but it's really upsetting because I really liked New Garden Plants. Pete seemed very responsive at first, but now has gone silent. I doubt they will make this right. Not only have I lost in these plants, I've also lost what I thought was a trusted source. Unfortunately, after researching reviews, I see this same scenario has happened to others. It looks like a hit or miss with them.

I've been desperately trying to find a company that could fulfill a bulk order of 30 of one type of heuchera. After exhausting most online leads and local ones I decided to try at New Garden. I'm glad I did, the order arrived well-packaged 5 days after I placed the order. I was a little worried since I have seen some mixed reviews, but I would order from them again with no hesitation.

I was really worried about my order being shipped coast to coast and then having to sit over the weekend because of the holiday. However everything arrived with still wet soil and we'll supported. The heuchera was especially healthy and big and the butterfly bush though it's leaves didn't appear to like travel had a good root system and is recovering nicely so far. I would definitely buy again considering the low shipping cost and quality of plants I received as well as good packaging.

My plants arrived in poorly packaged paper bags with dirt all over the box. The box was the wrong size for the order, and the plants were not separated from each other, so that some plants were on top of others, crushing the stems of lupines and heliopsis. Some of the plastic pots were crushed, so that the root balls were pushed out of the top. The soil was dry, and no attempt was made to keep the soil contained or moist for travel. The heliopsis have few leaves and appear unlikely to survive. The lupines are also fragile and questionable.
Four of the plants were missing from the order, and although there was a notation on the enclosed paperwork that I would be refunded, I received no notice via email prior to shipment and no refund to date. I will update with any refund info.
Having relied on the many positive reviews from this site prior to ordering, I suggest anyone who plans to order from this company do a wider on-line search for reviews, and you will see a long history of poor quality and poor customer service.

"On Aug 12, 2021 10:01 PM, NewGardenPlants.com (New Garden Plants) responded with:

My apologies on the arrival of your plants. If you have any issues with them growing on just let us know we will replace or refund. We will definitely get your refund for the plants you did not receive. If you have any further issues email me at pete@newgardenplants.com. thank you we appreciate your business!"

This company is definitely one of the first I check now before buying plants anywhere. Very reasonable prices and no troubles whatsoever so far.

I received my first order (ever) yesterday. My order was shipped when I asked for it to be. Despite being in shipping for a week, all the plants arrived in great shape. Each plant was individually wrapped and placed in the box, so none could shift during shipping. I am very pleased with the size of the plants. I will most definitely be ordering again, maybe another order this spring!

I ordered from here in the early spring when our local nurseries were closed due to COVID-19. Plants arrived in great condition and have been thriving all summer.

We have great experience - we order spring plants - especially Supertunia plants - they always arrive in great shape. We have been ordering from them - on and off depending of what we want in our garden, since 2012.

I ordered nearly $300 worth of Heuchera from NewGardenPlants. When I received them they were in very bad shape. To be honest, it was probably the fault of FedEx but nevertheless I have written New Garden Plants three times about five plants that did not make it. I have never even received an acknowledgement from them. I will not do business with them again.

I had a wonderful box of plants come yesterday! The order came super fast, the packaging was superb, and the plants are top notch. I could not be more pleased! What a great experience. I am so glad I took a chance and made this first order. Thank you so much!

Received an incrediball hydrangea from them. It arrives mostly dead. It really was shipped prematurely. there isn't much chance it had been rooted nearly long enough to ship. It was one single small stem with one dead leaf. Emailed the company twice with no response. I don't mind starter plants but I do expect them to be well-rooted. Appears ordering from these folks is a crapshoot and with shipping it is not a great deal.

I was leery about this company from the # of negative reviews. But I figured if I wasn't satisfied, I;'d just have my CC company reverse the charges. Let me tell you how amazed I am ! I ordered 11 different coneflower varieties. They arrived today. Very professionally wrapped and boxed and so tall and green ! I highly recommend this site.

Despite having some concern with a fair number of negative reviews for New Garden Plants, I chose to place an order with them. This vendor was one of the few places I could find the specific heuchera varieties I was looking for, and had a great price. My order was shipped the following day (Tuesday) and arrived two days later (Thursday). 5 heuchera and an ice plant all arrived healthy, safe, and with good top growth. I am extremely satisfied with my purchase and would not hesitate to order again.

I recently tried to order several plants from this site. They started to charge my credit card, and then didn't....so I tried to re-order the plants I wanted. I have called 3 times and left messages. I have emailed them more than 3 times, and I get absolutely NO response. Now I don't know if I'm going to get the plants I wanted, or if I'm getting the wrong ones, or what!?! I will not buy from them again and I will not recommend them. Sorry, but they need to answer their emails and phone messages within a few days!!!

My order from New Garden Plants arrived on time and in great shape. Every plant that I chose was packaged very well, with moist soil, great root systems, and lush, healthy top growth. One of the things that I believe made my order so successful, especially this year with the COVID-19 pandemic, was that I ordered very early. I placed my order in February with a May shipping date. I believe that when ordering plants from online vendors, early ordering is key. You are most assuredly guaranteed to get the best plants, unlike the late orders that may get filled with what's left or substitute plants that you really don't want. Also, it's important to periodically check on your order, to make sure everything is still going as planned. When I emailed Pete in early April asking if the pandemic was going to effect my order, Pete replied back the same day. When it comes to ordering plants online, the early bird truly does get the worm.

I am so disappointed in this order with New Garden Plants. I have emailed them about 3 times now and have gotten no response. I placed a rather large order with them, and have ordered from them in the past. They were out of a certain Verbena I wanted, so they sent a substitute without even asking me if I wanted it. I had ordered 3 Verbena and the one they sent to me was more expensive. The only ugly Verbena I have seen, which I am sure that is why they sent that one. I have absolutely nothing that will go with the Verbena they sent. It's nothing I would have ordered. I started looking at the Supertunias I ordered from them and saw nothing special about them. They look like something I could have bought from my local Walmart or Lowes. I looked on the order and sure enough, they sent me Supertunia White and not the 22 award winning Supertunia Snowdrift I had planned to order for a year now and could not wait to plant and watch it grow. I definitely would have never ordered the Supertunia White. I notice others have had a hard time getting a response from these people, too. It's a shame, because the plants were sent well packed and I was pleased with the ones I actually ordered. Now practically everyone I know online I could buy the Supertunia Snowdrift from are sold out of them. I could have ordered them from one of the other online garden sites if they had just told me at the time. I am really angry about this. I did find a place called flowerbudsgreenhouse.com who has them, after searching for hours online. I will check for reviews and the BBB before I order from them. Now I have about $35.00 worth of flowers I cannot use. I have spent about $300.00 on flowers this year and really cannot afford to spend money on flowers I should have gotten in the first place. I will be making a complaint with their Attorney General, and may even sue them. I work in a law office. If you cannot be professional, you have no right to have a store, in my opinion. People count on receiving what they actually order because they have plans for these flowers. With all of that being said, it is taking a big chance when you order from this company. You may get what you want and you may get a lot of flowers you would have never purchased, but you will certainly not get professionalism from them after you have placed the order. I emailed them a question before I placed the order and got a response then, of course. Buyers beware of New Garden Plants. They are criminals, in my opinion.

"On May 17, 2020 11:00 PM, NewGardenPlants.com (New Garden Plants) responded with:

Sorry it has been hard trying to keep up this year with the covid19 surge. My apologies we could not supply exactly what you ordered. We issued you a refund for them."

This year was my first year ordering from New Garden Plants. All of my shrubs shipped when I requested (week of 05/04/2020) and the all arrived in wonderful condition. They were each in one quart pots with well developed roots and a lot of top growth that was healthy and lush. One of the things that really amazes me about this company is how inexpensive their shipping is. I don't know if they are taking a hit on less expensive shipping through FedEx or if other companies with more expensive shipping are making a profit from high s&h charges. At any rate, I'm sending a big "thank you" out to Pete and his entire family for such wonderful plants at a reasonable price with good inexpensive shipping, and you did it all while coping with this corona virus pandemic in a state (MI) that had been all but shut down due to it. Great job!!!!

I ordered two plants, a hosta and an astilbe, for under $8.00 and under $9.00. I didn't expect much, as I was mostly doing an experiment to try this company. I was pleasantly surprised to receive very healthy plants. Both were much fuller than the $5.00 starter plugs I recently purchased from another, reputable nursery, despite a similar price. They were very securely packed, and shipped when I requested. I'm really happy with this purchase, and look forward to ordering from them again.

Posted on May 10, 2015, updated May 6, 2020
Posted on May 18, 2013, updated May 10, 2015
Posted on May 9, 2013, updated May 18, 2013
Posted on May 6, 2012, updated May 9, 2013
I ordered two penstemon, two coneflower & one helenium.
One penstemon was had the top almost completely broken off so they included another free one and added a bonus plant of a coreopsis . All the other plants were in good condition and very well packaged.

I ordered over $100 worth of plants from this business. All plants arrived as promised and very carefully packed. They were all very healthy except for two, which were very small and I was worried about them. I emailed Pete and he responded with a suggestion to help them along, and they are doing fine now. All the other plants are growing quite vigorously and I am very pleased with that. I would recommend this site to any experienced gardener because he has a larger variety of perennials than any of my local 4 garden centers and at good prices. No lie.

Was looking for a specific hosta (Krossa regal) for years without luck. Found it on NewGardenPlants.com and ordered it, plus a few more plants (24+). This week my order came in and I was blown away. I have ordered from a lot of different companies over the years and by far, this order was the best quality and size plants and best packed. No small rooted cuttings with barely any roots, but good top growth and excellent root systems. These are plants I won't have to baby for months to come. Could not be more pleased and will be ordering from them in the future!

I have emailed Pete this company 3 TIMES in 2 WEEKS and there was NO response. One of the plants I received, a heuchera came with wilted leaves on the dirt and a couple ragged leaves still attached. I said it was alright to get a replacement of same plant or maybe a "spellbound". NO response. I was totally ignored.

VERY upset with this company.

I have ordered from New Garden Plants at least three times, and have always been happy with my order. I love cone flowers and they have an incredible selection at VERY reasonable prices. The plants are usually in pots, and are packed very carefully. I have ordered Cherry Fluff, Green Jewel, Supreme Cantaloupe, Green Twister, and a ton of others, they always look really good on arrival. I also purchased two butterfly bushes, that have really taken off!

Posted on June 4, 2019, updated April 15, 2020
I ordered Paprika Heuchera and Church Mouse Hosta. The plants arrived beautifully packaged and very healthy. I felt like I was unwrapping beautifully wrapped Christmas presents! The plants were less expensive and larger than the same plants I ordered from a WatchDog30 company. I would order from them again without hesitation.

In spring of 2019, I ordered two butterfly bushes, a Royal Red, and a honeycomb butterfly bush.

In July of 2019, I realized that I had a honeycomb bush and a blue bush. Definitely nor red. Not even close.

After 6 months attempting to contact Pete, I received this response, "more than likely the plant is not true to name. My apologies for never responding. I'm guessing I was checked out on vacation when you sent it we must have skipped over your email."

He said that I just need to add a note to my next order.

Fair enough. I was goint to get more red bushes anyway.

However, it has been more than 6 months since I reached out to him, and I didnt want to pay for shipping on a plant that was mis delivered. I was not satisfied.

I offered 50/50 split on shipping.

He complained, "I would prefer not to we are already losing money on shipping and it is a time consuming task to issue a refund or discount."

It is not my problem that correcting an issue takes effort.

I was willing to purchase additional plants based on this quote from his website, "I want you to be completely satisfied with your purchase. For that reason, every plant I ship is 100% Guaranteed. We guarantee that our plants will arrive in good condition and will be packaged and labelled correctly."

I attempted to be reasonable, I know a business has to make money. It was his guarantee, that he wrote of his own accord on the website.

I offered to purchase more plants, and pay 50% of shipping costs.

I now know that the words in that statement are not to be trusted.

I asked if he would honor just the replacement of the Royal Red.

He never responded after I said this.

"On Jan 15, 2020 9:11 AM, NewGardenPlants.com (New Garden Plants) responded with:

If you were not going to purchase another order we would ship your replacement at our cost and still can. However if your going to place another order we would like to to ship the replacement with it. We will take care of you just let me know what you want to do.
--Pete"

My first and last experience with NewGardenPlants. I ordered some of the 'Cha Cha' series of flowering penstemon from this nursery on Nov 20th 2019 becuase they were one of the only places at the time that I could find it and I desperately needed them for a raised bed project. Unfortunetely I did not do more research on this company before ordering, when I ordered the plants it gives you the option of requesting a certain shipping week, the plants arrived much later than my requested shipping week. Prior to receiving the plants I tried a couple of times by both phone and e-mail to reach somebody to ask them the status of my shipment but never received any kind of response. The plants eventually arrived but what I received was awful - literally the worst quality plants I've ever received - they were a little tiny nub or stick cut back almost to the ground in a quart sized pot. No where on their website did it say 'Dormant' or 'Cut back' like most nurseries use to describe the condition of the plants so this was not what I was expecting. Anyways after a quick glance at some of the Davesgarden reviews I started to get really worried becuase it seems like recently they've been getting a lot of bad reviews with similar experiences like mine. I tried many times calling the company but the phone number provided on the website is worthless, just a recorded message telling you to try e-mailing Pete which also did me absolutely no good. So I was in a awkward position and looked more into their return policy online and read their so called 100% guarantee - I followed it exactly and sent the plants back to them at my own cost (Becuase FedEx will not send back a package that's already been opened without an additional charge, well how the heck was I or anyone for that matter suppose to know they sent terrible quality plants without opening it...) l left a note inside the box saying 'Return - Please Refund.' Still NOTHING even after almost a couple of weeks later that I had sent the twigs back I still didn't recieve a refund or gotten any kind of contact from this place. At that point I was done with it and went to my bank to resort to disputing the charges - I've never had to do this before but fortunately my bank helped me out and I got my refund, but it's ridiculous this is what I had to go through to get it. I've never had such a bad experience with any kind of online order like this before, I've been in the Nursery trade for almost 10 years and manage a large retail nursery and this was by far the worst experience in the nursery trade that I've had, so much so that I felt I'd be doing everyone else a disservice by not warning them about my own experience. You know a place is trouble when someone actually takes the time to create an account just to leave a review to warn others about it. Buy at your own risk

"On Jan 5, 2020 6:38 PM, NewGardenPlants.com (New Garden Plants) responded with:

James, My apologies with the holidays your returned package got displaced and never opened. Also we never got emails (from above email) that I can find requesting a refund. We would absolutely with out question issued you a full refund. Your plant order was ordered on 11/20 and shipped on 11/26. Please note plants in Michigan during the fall start going into dormancy- I would have thought this is pretty common knowledge but understand in your climate that may not be as true. We take full responsibility for not issuing you the refund on time that is 100% our fault. Most of our Dave's Negatives are from a few like you that somehow get neglected -- my apologies we never intend for this we try very hard to respond quickly to all email responses.

Pete"

This is a bit late posting, but I ordered six perennials—three echinacea and three delphinium, neither of which I was able to source locally—last spring and was pleased with the whole experience. Shipping was fast, plants were packed well and all were healthy and in good shape. I would definitely order from them again.

I moved to a new state this year and I'm creating a garden from scratch. I am in the process of ordering plants for fall planting and I've placed large orders with 6 companies so far. OMG - I'm completely amazed at the box I received from NewGardenPlants! I received the plants 4 days after I placed the order, every item was lush, healthy and undamaged, and I've never seen such care taken with packing and shipping - not a leaf was disturbed on anything, and these were not tiny starter plants. The shipping cost was very reasonable in comparison with the shipping/handling charges applied by other companies nowadays - that was a big plus in their favor as well. When you have a complete garden to create, high shipping charges can really cut into your plant-buying budget. I found that I was deleting plants I wanted at other companies due to handling charges, but ADDING plants here since shipping didn't increase my costs quite as drastically.

This was my first time to use NewGardenPlants - not only do I highly recommend them, I'm preparing to place the bulk of my Fall and Spring planting orders with them.

Posted on June 28, 2014, updated July 30, 2019
A few weeks ago, I decided to redo the front of my house & I decided to order from this company, because their plants are usually a lot larger & healthier looking and I was not disappointed. I had the plants the next week, they were awesome looking and as usual they gave me a nice free annual, which looked great and worked well in my front yard. I will continue to do business with them. They're one of the best plant companies around, in my books!!!

I ordered nine coleus plants this spring. They were very large and full when they arrived. This may seem like a strange complaint, but they were actually too large. They were so tall that they had to be folded over to fit in the shipping box, resulting in a lot of broken stems. This is not a deal breaker, as coleus regenerate quickly. But I actually wished that they had been a little smaller. Overall, though, I'm happy.

I ordered some Pentas and Supertunias to arrive during a particular week in May, and they were delivered on time, just as requested. The plants were exactly as ordered, healthy, and packed with care. New Garden Plants also included an information sheet regarding caring for the plants before planting as well as how to plant. I couldn't be happier with my experience (my first with this company) and I'll be ordering from them again.

I ordered three Hibiscus from New Garden Plants and only one of the the three came up. Sent three emails over the course of two weeks with no response and tried calling only to constantly get a recording that does not allow you to receive a message. I feel bad leaving a negative rating because I have received nice plants from this vendor in the past with no problems. But if they aren't willing to work with you to solve a problem when you get bad plants, that's a big NEGATIVE in my book.

I ordered several perennials from New Garden. The plants arrived in great shape, securely packaged, wrapped well to retain moisture and were much larger than I expected. Prices are competitive and the variety of available plants is impressive. Communication is a little spotty but other than that a great experience in enabling me to purchase plants that aren't locally available.

I love, love, love! this company. I ordered A LOT of annuals this year and almost all were from here (in 3 separate orders). At 1st I was irritated by being charged a handling fee per plant- I'm not use to that because I have never ordered annuals online. BUT, after shopping around I discovered that even with that surcharge their prices were awesome. Also, the plants I received were healthy and a good size.
The only downside is actually speaking to someone. I attribute that to the time of year. They were however very quick with return emails.
I just looked at my containers and decided I should try to find a few more annuals to fill in here and there. Guess where I'm checking 1st.
Highly recommend.

Just received my very first order from them today. I only order from a few places, but they had a plant I needed. I didn’t know what to expect. When I opened the box of 3 honeycomb buddleia I was very happy. They were packed tightly and healthy as could be. Larger then I expected and look like they are ready to be planted as soon as they get there little travel rest.
I can’t thank Pete enough, as I did pester him here and there as any Nervous Nelly new customer might.
Looks like I have a new place to add to my list. I might add the prices and shipping rates are great, too!
Thanks again, a great find!