Comments regarding Living Gardens

To keep this in context, I have raised amaryllis plants for a few years, some as indoor plants some as outdoor plants. I have successfully split off sets into new pots and they are nearing blooming size. I also grow phalaenopsis orchids, gerber daisies, plumerias and a number of other picky things with no trouble.

Placed my first order in Late October for 6 bare amaryllis bulbs as this company offered great selection and reasonable prices and reasonable shipping. One started with two flower stalks right out of the box, but the second one started to rot immediately. I figured, ok, shipping happens, the plant is otherwise fine. The other plants were developing fine, so I placed another order the last day of December for 2 amaryllis trios, 1 potted amaryllis, and 1 bare bulb. The next day, I saw that the second flower stalk on one of my late developers was again rotting at the base. Argh! I emailed the company, and they agreed I should get two flower stalks out of each jumbo bulb and send a replacement with my second order.

My second order arrived smashed to heck and back, which I am sure is the fault of the shipping company. HOWEVER the gardens were not well enough protected to handle rough shipping conditions, and given their hefty weight that surprised me. It was like they were asking for the plants to arrive damaged...and the garden in the most damage section of the box contained 3 crushed bulb tops (they were starting to grow prior to the abuse). Not sure if someone was that clueless when packing or if this is a general problem as my first order was just bare bulbs. Obviously they have not heard of the box within a box technique for giving the box more resistance to crushing. I emailed the company as soon as the box arrived Friday night, it is now Sunday, we will see.

The final insult occurred tonight (Sunday). The bulb I was most excited about, and was most expensive, was finally opening its first flower (from the first order). Wouldn't you know it was NOT what it should have been? I just emailed the company, again we will see.

I will update/edit my review when I hear back, but I have never had to contact customer service over so many issues for amaryllis bulbs! It seems like they do stand behind their 100% guarantee, but if you don't have the time to keep firing off emails (no phone number I could find), don't get your bulbs from here.

"On Jan 14, 2016 2:37 PM, Living Gardens responded with:

Dear KDboodo,
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We’re very sorry that we’ve disappointed you. We are committed to making this situation right for you through replacement or refund, whichever you’d prefer.
We at Living Gardens take customer feedback seriously and use this information to improve our processes. As I wrote to you separately, we’re working on better protecting our larger shipments (possibly with a box in a box arrangement) to prevent damage in transit.
We are committed to the quality of our bulbs and go to great lengths to correctly identify and segregate each bulb variety. We source from reliable growers and inspect every bulb before potting and/or shipment. Unfortunately, occasional mix-ups by suppliers, shippers and in order picking do happen. We have reached out to other customers who purchased the same amaryllis variety to ensure that this mix-up was a one-time occurrence rather than one that impacts the entire variety. We’ve also potted one of this amaryllis variety here in our office to ensure the identity.
Living Gardens employs a 24/7 New England call center to handle phone orders and the relaying of messages. This toll free number, 1-855-417-3367, is published in our website’s ‘Contact Us’ section. We don’t publish the phone number of our New Hampshire operations center but we do share it with customers on an individual basis.
Be assured that your complaints have not fallen on deaf ears. At Living Gardens, every order and every customer matters. We strive for 100% satisfaction for every Living Gardens customer. We share customer feedback with our entire team in order to improve continuously. We are working to solve your issues to your complete satisfaction.
Sincerely, Meg HS / Living Gardens Customer Care
"

I ordered 24 Amaryllis bulbs from this company at the end of February. I was disappointed because some of the bulbs are 4-6 inches smaller than stated on the websites. For instance, the Baby Dolls was advertised to be 18-20 inches and what I got was 14 inches.

In general, I expect the bulb to be 1-2 inches smaller than what the company advertised, because it's very common that most if not all of the on-line companies advertised. But to get them 4 inches smaller is very disappointing to me. I emailed the company but no one bothered to email me back. I called and got a lady with an accent as if she's a Spanish-speaking person. She couldn't give me an answer and told me that she will have someone to call me.

The ones that bloomed are OK but smaller in sizes than what they are supposed to be. I ordered a White Nymph but the flower doesn't look like what they have on their websites. My have pink at the tip of each petal and green in the center. It's still pretty though!

Most haven't bloomed yet.

I also ordered lots of fall bulbs last years from them, tulips, daffodils and double hyacinth bulbs. They all come up and I can't wait to see the flowers.

I just hope that they have better customer service. I can't give them a positive review at this time. Will wait for all of those bulbs to bloom. However, I do agree the bigger the bulbs, the larger the flowers. I do like Brent and Becky- all of the amaryllis bulbs I got from them gave large beautiful flowers.

"On Mar 31, 2015 10:57 AM, Living Gardens responded with:

Dear Love4garden,

Thank you for your comments – they help us become a better company. We are so sorry that your initial contact with Living Gardens did not receive a reply. You’ll be hearing from our Customer Service Manager shortly to be sure that your individual concerns are addressed! We do employ an off-site call center to take orders around the clock, but they are unable to answer some product questions.

Bulb diameters are measured in centimeter (cm) ranges. Our bulb experts measure the bulbs when we first receive them to ensure that the sizes we advertise are accurate. It is possible that in the course of the cool winter storage they experienced some shrinkage. It is normal for bulbs to lose a certain amount of moisture to the air while in storage. Some of the shrinkage can be due to the nutrient stores in the older, outer scales having been transferred to developing scape deep within the bulb. This to be expected over time and is not a cause for worry.

Our owners just returned from a photo shoot in Holland, and they observed the same pinkish areas near the tips of White Nymph. The growers explained that this is typical when the bulbs are forced later in the season (sometime post-Christmas).

Here in NH, since our remaining snow cover still prevents our bulbs from putting on their spring show. We hope you’ll share photos of your spring-flowering bulbs when they bloom.

Thanks again for taking the time to comment. We value your input!

Sincerely, Meg @LG
"