Comments regarding Real Flora (aka Botanical Growers)

Unfortunately my experience with this company is not lós. I ordered the Anthurium Ace of Spades a few months ago and received it covered in ants. I wasn’t upset about this and just simply emailed them to let them know. After that incident I decided to keep the plant on its own for longer than I normally do with new plants just to make sure everything was ok. I kept noticing the plant didn’t seem to be doing the best and so today when I went I clean the leaves I noticed it has scale. Now most people are familiar with mealybugs being a type of scale and they are fairly easy to catch compared to the extremely flat ones with the light brown coating. Also considering the color of the plant it makes it even harder. Luckily I didn’t have this plant touching or anywhere near my other plants but for me to pay $65 for a plant and shipping on top of that. These days I feel like since plants are now “trendy” the integrity has become lost. While I’m sure they probably overlooked it just as I did. I would have been able to catch on sooner if the plant wasn’t covered in ants when I received it. I tend to inspect my plants fairly closely but the ants kind of psyched me out and I stayed away. Such an expensive plant and now I have to decide if I should just throw it away or spend even more money to treat this plant. Not to mention I have over a dozen expensive/rare plants that have been in my care for 7+ years. If I had lost them to scale due to this incident (sigh...) please be careful with purchasing online. Also be suspicious when online garden sites use words like “premium”. A healthy plant is a healthy plant. A plant with pests is a plant with pests. Don’t be fooled by the glamor. Totally not worth it

For Kens Philodendrons (part of Botanical Growers) I ordered an anthurium superbum on Sept 20. when they reopened their site, was charged immediately on PayPal. 10 days later I emailed to find out where was receipt and plant, next day got response (30th) here's copy of your receipt did you check your trash (yes daily and there was no receipt) so at least I had receipt - and they said it was shipping that week. 2 weeks later I emailed again WHERE is my plant? was 60 some bucks plug 36 shipping, they don't have many of these unusual plants so if they were swamped - hire temp help. Get response that it is scheduled to ship the NEXT week as they "ship in October". I replied, you told me that TWO weeks ago (also all October days) and that I wanted a shipping confirmation promptly this week or I would contact PayPal! So then what happened? The next day, no response but a refund to my PayPal with no email explaining why they cancelled my order. I'm happy to get my money back since I don't even know if they had my plant or oversold, but the customer service is sloppy. No phone, receipts only when you ask. If it's 5 different companies under one roof then it's 5 different groups packing and shipping, the hurricane was AFTER all of this so that wasn't an excuse. In the modern world, customer service is everything. I only knew about the refund because PAYPAL emailed me. And I hadn't asked to cancel the order, but they decided. And if you get busy seasonally then hire temp help like every agricultural and seasonal industry instead of excuses. And when you cancel an order? Please inform the customer! They have such interesting plants, nice web pictures and long offline months of unavailability, so this was very frustrating experience.

I never write reviews but I felt compelled to as I feel like I was ripped off. I spent over 250.00 bucks with a combined two orders and received small seedling looking plants (5 in total). The root system on all plants were indeed well established but plants were tiny. I just opened my second order containing two aloe vanbalenii's and so very disappointed. I wish I could show pictures. Anyhow, I could probably return but don't have the time to deal with re packing, shipping back etc.. I learned my lesson to never buy plants site unseen. I ordered the same plants from cacti.com and they were 15x the size and same price. Shipping is very high at cacti.com but this is still my resource of choice. No more real flora or shall I say," real small a." I really feel like they took me to the cleaners. :-(

I ordered 2 pineapple plants on 7/8/14. I received an email confirming the order, but have received nothing since. Tried numerous times to email them back to ask when I would receive them to no avail. No phone to call either. They hit my credit card the day I ordered, which is odd. Dont think they should charge you until your order ships. I have no idea when I will receive my plants, or even if I will. At the very least, they should give you some tracking info as to what the order status is. There is no contact info on their website, nor any place to put a review, or ask a question. Very strange way to do business. If I dont get an answer soon, I will dispute the charge on my card.

"On Jul 27, 2014 1:07 PM, Real Flora (aka Botanical Growers) responded with:

We spoke with you via Email on July 20th and explained that our email servers had gone down and we were unable to communicate. We received a nice reply back from you - Thank you.

Your order for the 2 Sugarloaf Pineapple shipped on the 23rd with UPS. We hope they have arrived in good condition. :)

Please feel free to contact us if you require anything further."

I placed an order June 26th that was backordered until sometime in July. I have sent three emails canceling the order with absolutely no response. I can find no phone number for them. I called my credit card company and discovered they charged my card the same day I placed the order even though the item is not available to ship. Makes me think they are not real. At the very least they are not running the company in a very customer service oriented manner.

"On Jul 27, 2014 1:10 PM, Real Flora (aka Botanical Growers) responded with:

Sorry for your frustration - your order was refunded and cancelled as soon as we read your email. Unfortunately we are rarely in our offices, as we spend 95% of our time in the nursery, tending to plants, prepping and shipping orders.

Please let us know if you require further assistance. We are happy to help. :)"

I have placed an order with this company on 6/14/2013. I have not been able to check on the order. There website doesn't give any place to login when it tells you on your receipt to login in to your account page. No contact information. I have requested several times information to reset my password which there has been no response. Contact us doesn't work either. I am very disappointed when I have placed an order of $60.00 and there is no way to track it or get an update, or even verify it was received. They have not sent any emails to me. I only was able to print my receipt from my order. There website states that it has been updated as early as today. It also states they are online 24/7. I should have done my homework a little more. Given this experience, unless they update their post sale service, I will be less likely to order again. I haven't even recieved the plants yet so I am little concerned about what I will recieve or if it will be received. I was able to locate a phone number but is a fax, which I sent a request for an update by email or phone with no response. This is to alert your readers about this company or growers in this network.