Comments regarding Plant Delights Nursery

I haven't ordered very often from PDN but have always received excellent plants...large,healthy and thriving.

Great place to find something a bit out of the ordinary.

I ordered several plants and they all arrived in great shape. I like the choices of unusual plants. I will buy from them again.

Ordered 2 Blue Mammoth hostas from PDN and very pleased w/the order. Personally spoke w/ Dianne Austin because I wanted to use a gift certificate & she was most helpful. The plants arrived in perfect condition & will be added to my collection of over 100 other hostas. PDN - Thanks for good products & good service.

this bulb of mine i received should thrive here at the john galt arboretum. it is a. titanum.

I place an order every year with Plant Delights and every year I am thrilled with my order. This year is no exception. Beautiful beautiful plants shipp exactly on time and packed very well. I wish more nurseries could achieve 1/2 of what Plant Delights does.
I had one problem this year with one plant. I e mailed the office and the the problem was resolved within 12 hours.
Exceptional company!!

VERY POSITIVE! I have ordered from them and visited their gardens during Open House. Their plants seem a bit pricey, but the size and quality is so far beyond what I have found other places, so I understand why. (If I wanted Wal-mart quality, I could get them cheaper.) Anybody who lives within driving distance of Raleigh should visit their gardens during Open House and plan to spend several hours. The gardens are an education as well as breath-takingly beautiful, and the staff were there to answer questions. After many experiences of ordering and receiving tiny half-dead plants from OTHER mail-order nurseries, I will order from PDN any time they have what I want.

Just bought 3 clumping bamboo to block my new neighbors in the McMansion! The one confusion I had was their website asked when you wanted shipment, so I said ASAP. I got an email suggesting that it was too early and that they would keep them safe in their climate controlled greenhouse. I guess they didn't like the idea of me putting them in the garage. Anyway, they seem happy and are leafing out well. Hope they put on about 6 feet in the next week though!

I finally placed my first order with Plant Delights Nursery. My order was received promptly, and was well packed and in excellent condition. I ordered a hard to find crinum, and was pleased not only with the size and obvious health of the plant I received, by was excited to see that it had an offset as well. Like receiving a bonus. Other bulbs I received also appear to be healthy. I was very pleased with the entire transaction.

In the words of Bart Simpson, Aye Caramba! This was my first time ordering with PDN, and I have no idea why I have NOT ordered with them before! The plants that I received were abundantly healthy, had HUGE root systems, and are some of the best packaged plants I have received so far this year!!! I ordered 2 Colocasias, and 2 Canna. The Colocasias were "new this year" plants, and I thought I would get small plants, do to the fact that this is their first year being offered, and COULD NOT have been more wrong...they are HUGE!!!
Customer satisfaction-OUTSTANDING!
Plant material-OUT OF THIS WORLD!
I will definitely need to be a repeat customer, I need to be...lol!

Just received my shipment in the mail and even though this is my first time using a mail order nursery, the plants look good. I actually cancelled a shipment from another nursery due to the negative reviews. Plant Delight's customer service has been great from the beginning by helping me select the perennial verbena color I was looking for. The website photos looked different from the description so I called and asked about certain ones and what they looked like. The rep. even called the grower to confirm which ones were pastel colors that I wanted to avoid. I also ordered two pixie meadowbrite (shorter) echinacea which were smaller than I expected but I realize that this is the time when they are just starting to emerge so I will plant now and hope for big growth as the warmer weather comes. I would definitely order from them again.

I bought 2 blooming size Bartzella peonies from Plant Delights Nursery(PDN). The peonies were grown in 2-gallon pots and were shipped without soil and properly wrapped in moist newspaper wrap and sandwich wrap. The plants were healthy and arrived properly packaged. For $150 per plant they were not cheap, but they were the cheapest I could find anywhere for blooming size Bartzellas. One plant easily had 20+ eyes while the other had maybe 15 eyes. Compared to those immature 1-eye divisions at Wayside selling for $40 or those 3-5 eye divisions selling for $90 everywhere else, these mature blooming size Bartzellas from PDN were a real steal. I had a pleasant shopping experience with PDN.

My experience with Plant Delights has been *wonderful!* Their customer service is superb. In fact, I made an error in my email address when I ordered online, and sent an email to PDN to ask that they fix my typo. They rectified my error right away, and were gracious in their email response.

My plants arrived last week, and as always, they were a pleasure to see. I so appreciate their attention to heat zones in the catalog, and their healthy, true-to-name plants. Now, let me be clear- I'm commenting on their product and service, not the owner's sanity. There is something *cough* different about the owner. (He's not like us...he's different....*laughing* confused? ...just read the catalog entries!!! This fellow has a plant obsession, and there are no treatment programs available for a cure!))
*smile*

PDN has the right kind of crazy- they are crazy about plants, and it shows in the product they deliver. The hostas are HUGE, and my plants have actually GROWN in the few days since their delivery! *smile* I'm a lifelong customer of this nursery.

Thanks, PDN!!

I order a lot of plants on line and decided to place an order with PDN. I do not know if I would be placing a negative remark if my e-mails had been answered. I ordered some rain lilies and 2 of the 3 pots came with only one bulb. I was very disappointed when I received my order because of this. I know that a friend also ordered some and she received nice size clumps. If they had stated only one bulb for almost 15.00 I probably would not have ordered them.

I did order a couple of other plants that I would say were in good shape maybe a little small but nice and healthy.

I sent 2 e-mails to PDN and got no response over a weeks time. I then went and tried to e-mail the other address listed in a previous negative below and had it bounce back at me 4 times.

"

As customer service manager, I am writing in hopes that marieortiz will read our rebuttal to (her?) negative posting. First, I would like to respectfully address the topic of unanswered email. Since I am solely responsible for the disposition of all company email, I would like to clarify how our email is handled. We make every effort to answer all email received within 24 hours from the date of receipt (excluding weekends). On any given day during our busy season, we could easily receive 200 + spam-related emails. Those must be eliminated prior to responding to each individual customer correspondence. I am sure that I have, on occasion, inadvertently deleted a customer email while filtering through all of the junk mail. However, it would be highly unlikely the same customer email would meet the same fate twice. Could our spam filter block a legitimate email from the same customer more than once? I don't know, but perhaps one of our computer-savvy customers could answer such a question. Whatever may have happened in this particular case, all I am left to do is apologize and extend an invitation to marieortiz to try again. Perhaps the email address used to contact us was miss-spelled or sent to [e-mail:sales@plantdelights.com] The sales address is used for web confirmations only. The email address that we read and respond to is [email:office@plantdelights.com]

Kind regards,

Dianne Austin
Customer Service & Shipping Manager
Plant Delights Nursery, Inc.
(919) 772-4794 - Office
http://www.plantdelights.com

"

I have placed multiple orders from PDN over the past two years and have received strong, large and healthy plants which have flourished in my garden. They have rare and unusual but also many popular varieties, although PDN plants are healthier than many others and it is thus worth buying even some of the popular cultivars from them.

My e-mail inquiries, regarding the particulars of growing some plants that I was unfamiliar with, or about the prospects of a Texas-native Salvia surviving a Zone 6 winter, were answered quickly, one at about 8:30 at night -- demonstrating the work ethic and dedication of the PDN staff -- and in a detailed and friendly manner by professional research horticulturalists. The business office and customer service side of PDN is also a pleasure to deal with and has been very helpful.

This is a first rate, independently owned nursery where you get to deal with human beings who love plants and gardening and who even have a sense of humor. Great plants and staff, and a Tony Avent written catalog worthy of collecting. Highly recommended.

I've ordered from Plant Delights over the past 10 years. The plants grew well and were quite unusual. (If the plants started small, they ended up growing well.) One of the canna lillies even won a blue ribbon at the county fair!

If you live in NC, you may want to visit PDN when they have their open house. (I assume they still have it!) As for ordering and customer service, whenever I've called to ask questions about certain plants, they've always been helpful.

I have been happy with the plants I have ordered from PDN. I love every page of the catalogue. Many of their offerings won't do well in my zone, but I like to read about them, anyway.

I learned of Plant Delights by reading a book written by the owner, Tony Avent. I have received 2 orders now and they greatly exceeded my expectations. On time, in full and fabulous. I could have used one of the hostas as a doorstop it was so big and I only paid a couple dollars more than I would have to get a 3 inch pot from alot of other companies. I could have divided it into 4 or 5 plants if I really wanted to.
They also propagate all of the plants they sell themselves. I have found this usually makes a huge difference in plant quality. Many well know companies buy flats of plugs from a grower, pot them up and then sell them shortly after with inferior root systems. If you have ever unpotted a plant and had all the dirt fall away leaving a small coil of roots in your hand, you know what I mean.
As for the sense of humor, I really appreciate it. The catalogs are not only informative but more entertaining than Letterman. My husband could give a whit about plants but he always reads Plant Delights catalog when it arrives. The website is a hoot too, with alot of great advise. I highly recommend the article on planting technique. It saved a couple of plants from other companies that had been struggling. I dug them up and replanted according to the advice, and they sprang to life.
Now if they could only open a Plant Delights North.

I have ordered from Plant Delights for a number of years. Their plants are always beautifully grown and arrive in very good condition. The people who package their plants do a great job at ensuring that the trip is as easy on them as possible.

I order plants from quite a few mail order companies and Plant Delights ranks at the top of my list for selection and quality.

This place, in my opinion, is wonderful. I ordered hosta and asters in July. We are having a horrible drought in this area and I was hesitant, however, I decided to live dangerously. It is October and the asters are just blooming like crazy. To my shock, the hosta bloomed and is doing quite well. The packaging and shipping were superior.

Once again this company shipped growing plants across the country and they arrived in great shape in the time frame promised. They have a lot of cool plants that are not available anywhere else, mon. Grow on Bro's.

Over the years, I have always been very pleased with the various plants purchased from Plant Delights Nursery. Last month, I was grateful that they chose not to ship my plants while the temperatures were in the mid-upper '90s. When the weather was cooler, the plants arrived neatly packed, healthy, and without heat stress.

My order with PDN was enitrely successful. The switch grasses were in excellent conditiion. The calla lily is doing wonderfully and has lots of new growth. Plants were all well-packed and shipping was speedy. Thanks!

My plants arrived from PDN in fine form, later than initially promised, but I respect any company that is concerned enough about quality to tell their customer "it's not ready yet." They offered me a refund -- I wanted the plants. :)

I waited. I was not disappointed.

-Joe G.

I ordered several plants in early summer, expecting them to arrive in September. The company called and asked if it would be OK to send them early -- I said sure and they arrived two days later in great condition. They've all flourished -- including the herbertia lahue which was dormant (as advertised) on arrival and is now sprouting! I will definitely order from Plant Delights Nursery again and love their quirky catalog!

I just wanted to weigh in on your company and its products. I recently received five (5) Acanthus hungaricus (Bear's Breeches) and I couldn't be more pleased. They were packed with great care and arrived in perfect condition. I am so excited! I couldn't find them anywhere else - on line or around here at local nurseries (and I work at a nursery...even our vendors didn't have them!) My only quibble: isn't there ANY alternative to ESP (Evil Styrofoam Peanuts)? Thank you Plant Delights...I was delighted.

I was very pleased that Plant Delights keep me informed on the shipping status.I was surprised to find that FedEx had delivered the plants to my office-instead of at my wife's office (the shipping address) on the opposite end of campus-the delivery man knows us by name-and must also know that my wife is not a gardener!The plants came in fine condition -the Aloe striatula is huge! I can hardly believe that they were able to get it in the box! I will be ordering more cool plants for steamy 8b from them in the future!

I am new to ordering plants on the internet, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was very happy with my order. My plants arrived happy and healthy with moist soil. Had I see them at a store, I would have bought them. The plants I chose were ones that I have read about in books but couldn't find locally. I have another order in already! Wish my plants luck now that they are in my hands :o)

I ordered a Bartzella Peony from the company and received a well packaged bare root peony from them in early May 2007. I was pleased by the size of the plant, its condition and the speed in which it arrived. Its untraditional to ship peonies in the spring but its nice they offer to nuts like me who cant wait until fall. The Peony has been establishing well and looking great.

This spring I ordered some hostas from Plant Delights. Their shipping is high and most of their plants are higher priced. However when I received my hostas they were huge. You are getting full sized mature plants from them! I would recommend them to anyone who is looking for unusual hostas!

"

To our DGW readers,

We always regret to discover that efforts to resolve customer disappointment remains unresolved.

I respectfully remind our customer that as stated in our July 23rd email, a replacement Lilium was approved.

If there is any promise or service we have not lived up to, please let us know so we have an opportunity to resolve those as well.

Regards,

Dianne Austin
Customer Service Manager
Plant Delights Nursery, Inc."

Have both ordered from and visited Plant Delights. Each experience has been a pleasant one! Very good place to go for rare and unusual plants. Orders are shipped promptly and well packaged; plants have been very healthy and are thriving in my garden.

I came to check out Brent and Becky's Bulb's ratings, as I've ordered from them for the first time and was moderately surprised to see Plant Delights Nursery (PDN) in the "Watchdog 30". Based on my experience with PDN, I would deem them highly overrated.

To put it concisely: arrogant, condescending, and overpriced.

PDN is definitely not much of a value, particularly if you live in the West. It amazes me that someone can have such seeming contempt for his customers, charge them high end prices for avarage quality, yet have them adore him all the more.

There are half a dozen nurseries that have lower ratings here that I would happily recommend over PDN, including Big Dipper Farm, Digging Dog and Kartuz. All have provided me with better quality plants at more reasonable prices. They send orders without an attitude and don’t try to impose their politics on their customers via their catalog.

My best advice is to spend 10 minutes on a search engine to a) make sure that nobody else has the plant you want and b) compare prices, especially if you're going to be induced into buying several more spendy plants to justify the big minimum shipping fee.

In some cases, you'll be truely shocked. For instance, last month I was able to get Crinum amoenum for less than $3.00 per two inch bulb. PDN? $25!

"

Dear dubhloaich,

We have carefully checked our customer database and to the best of our knowledge, we have never sold a Crinum (for any amount) to a customer residing in Scappoose, OR. If we are in error, we would love to know what service or promise we have not lived up to that would prompt such a scathing note about our owner, our catalog, plants or service. If you receive our catalog, please let us know who you are so we can remove you from our mailing list.

If you have not had first-hand experience with our company, we view this post as an abuse of this forum and an intentional act to do us harm. This forum is a place where gardener's can post about their first-hand purchasing experiences (good or bad), not a place to launch a smear campaign. Posting unfounded negative or neutral posts about a company unjustly damages ratings and compromises the value and integrity of this forum.

In closing, we would like to say that we welcome all forum comments from our customers' who can describe their experiences with our nursery. If you have an "axe to grind" with us regarding our catalog, costs or other general non-purchase related topics, please feel free to email us at office@plantdelights.com.

Respectfully,

Dianne Austin
Customer Service & Shipping Manager
Plant Delights Nursery, Inc.
http://www.plantdelights.com

We are uncertain why any customer who had a bad experience 5 years ago would suddenly find the need to disparage us this long after the fact, especially since we have none of the same shipping and customer service staff that was here five years ago when this alleged problem occurred.
During the last five years, we have continued to improve in both plant quality and customer service, which has allowed our business to continue to grow, based solely on the word of mouth of our customers.

I applaud that you have been able to find a plant cheaper than we offer it, which may often be the case when dealing with nurseries which for various reasons don't need to or know how to be profitable. Sadly, if more nurseries understood the basics of business economics, we wouldn't have lost so many wonderful (non-profitable) nurseries over the last few years. Sadly, there are people such as you, who try to make nurseries feel ashamed for covering their costs and charging what they must to stay in business. As a result, many owners simply choose to close their doors and consequently the availability of interesting plants continues to diminish.

Judging by the high number of equally acerbic posts by you on various other sites, you seem to have anger and victimization issues with which we are not medically qualified to address, but we sincerely hope you will get the help needed to enable you to better enjoy the rest of your life.

--
Tony Avent
Plant Delights Nursery @
Juniper Level Botanic Garden
9241 Sauls Road
Raleigh, North Carolina 27603 USA
Minimum Winter Temps 0-5 F
Maximum Summer Temps 95-105F
USDA Hardiness Zone 7b
email tony@plantdelights.com
website http://www.plantdelights.com
phone 919 772-4794
fax 919 772-4752
"I consider every plant hardy until I have killed it myself...at least three times" - Avent"

The first time I ordered from Plant Delights, they called just before my shipment date to say that one of the plants I'd ordered was unavailable. It was a little too late to start looking for it somewhere else, so I have to admit that was annoying. But I've been devouring their catalog and drooling over their tremendous selection of plants for years, so I gave them another try this spring and was highly satisfied. I've found their customer service to be excellent, the plants were great, and arrived exactly when they promised them. I wish I lived closer so I could visit their gardens!

I ordered a few plants from them two months ago, and they seem to be doing ok. I'm eager to see how they flower and survive the winter. What I like about this company is that they have a good selection of rare or unusual plants, and they seem to pay attention in their catalogue copy to how their plants do in heat and humidity. The shipping costs and the packing were ok -- by far not the best I've experienced but certainly not the worst. They certainly were in a hurry to charge my card -- immediately after I placed the order but before I received anything. What I don't really like though (and thus the neutral rating) is the sarcastic tone on the website. It hardly makes one feel like a valued customer. I could do without the 'humor' in the catalogue too. Some of it is harmless and goofy, but some of it verges on the offensive - the cover illustrations are of questionable appropriateness. The covers in the last two years have had a political slant, and even some of the humor inside seems political in nature (and pretty slanted to one side too). In a recent email newsletter there was a fair bit of politically flavored commentary about climate change. I'm all for free speech, but I'd rather not be confronted by a nursery's political opinions.

Highly recommended.

Second time ordering, plants arrived quickly, shipped on the date promised in good condition. One plant from the first order failed (unknown reasons) and eventually died. They offered great personal care advice to try to revive it and upon notification that efforts eventually failed, sent a replacement immediately.

Makes me sometimes wonder why some other nurseries can't give ship dates or ship healthy, well-packed plants.

They will always have my business.

Ray

I ordered several plants from Plant Delights Nursery this spring. The plants were large and healthy and they are doing great in my garden.

I ordered several plants . I was very amazed at the care that was given to the packing of them, they were all in wonderful condition and arrived on date given. Was sent a very nice thank you e-mail, because I sent them one praising the packing care. Will order again. They were in 4" pots, tall, robust, nice.

I sent an email to this company to thank them for the wonderful order and servce I received.. The plants were just beautiful and the size of them, all the better!! I will be ordering from them for years to come or until I run out of zone 6 plants to purchase..

I have ordered from Plant Delights for the last 5 years or so because of the unusual plants they offer. However, I have been disappointed several times because of plants that arrive looking OK but then fail not long after the short notification period during which they will replace the item. (However, when it happens within the notification period, they are good about replacing.) The latest time this happened was about 3 weeks ago with a dwarf dark elephant ears that arrived with 3 weak but seemingly alright stems. After planting (during which I noticed that it had a very meagre root system) and adequate watering, it failed, again just outside the notification period. This has happened to me about 10 times in the last 5 years and always makes me feel robbed. I've noticed that frequently the more unusual the plant, the weaker the root system. I think PD needs to grow some of its stock longer before offering it for sale.

I ordered an assortment of plants from Plant Delights for the first time this year. I am very pleased with the size and quality of the plants I received. Everything was packed carefully and arrived undamaged and on the appointed date. The customer service folks had to call me to clarify some information and they were friendly and helpful. This is a great source of many unusual plants and I wouldn't hesitate to order from them again. I admitt some of the comments I read here gave me pause, but this establishment has such a good reputation I decided to take a chance. I am really glad I did!