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Comments regarding Plant Delights Nursery

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306 positives
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Negative oscarkat01
(26 reviews)
On Aug 6, 2021, oscarkat01 (Zone 6b) wrote:

This spring I ordered some plants from Plant Delights. None were inexpensive but two were quite pricey. I’m okay with paying a bit more for a rare plant. I was so disappointed to receive a tiny sprig of leaves with two tiny, barely visible strands for roots on both of the most expensive plants. These plants were absolutely not rooted enough to shipped out. I’m a fairly advanced gardener so I gave them the best care. Of course one failed. Every gardener loses some plants but too many from them over the years have failed for me. Some of those failures are due to the poor quality of the plants shipped.

I’d sworn off Plant Delights for this very same issue several years ago. Their selection was so enticing that I decided to give them another try. The inconsistency of the quality of plants is so frustrating. The inconsistent quality is unfortunately quite consistent. I’ve had this on and off with Plant Delights since I’ve ordered from them. Not all the plants are poorly rooted. I’ve had plenty that were good too. The fact is too many plants from them have had almost zero root structure. I admire their selection and the greater cause but I just cannot trust the quality of their fairly expensive plants. I’ll be avoiding ordering from them again. That being said, I’d still consider a donation to the organization that their plant sales support. I just don’t want another disappointment over a poor quality expensive plant.


On Aug 6, 2021, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"On Jan 18, 2023 4:32 PM, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

We try to reach out to anyone having an issue directly and hope you have received our message. At Plant Delights Nursery we strive to help everyone enjoy their plant purchase. As a small specialty nursery at Juniper Level Botanic Garden, we put lots of care into our plants before they leave our premises, ensuring the highest quality. When a plant leaves our premises, we are unable to control its environment, so we offer a small window to replace the plants should something has occurred during the delivery process. We hope you understand and let us know if we can do anything to help make your garden a success. We are available Monday through Friday via email or phone; sales@plantdelights.com or 919-772-4794"


Negative sunsprite
(3 reviews)
On Oct 10, 2020, sunsprite Downers Grove, IL wrote:

I ordered six Veronica plants, and received just a few green leaves with practically no root system at all. I did not mind paying their quite steep price because I believe a quality plant is worth it. This was a complete rip off, the plants obviously were seeded a couple of weeks before my order. Instead of honestly stating Out of Stock, they lie and send you pots full of soil with a few green leaves tucked in.

Negative Frances60
(4 reviews)
On Jun 29, 2020, Frances60 Santa Cruz, CA wrote:

I wish I had heeded the many negative reviews on this company, but I went ahead and placed a large order because they carry some selections of plants not available elsewhere. I paid over $100 in shipping, for less than $300 worth of plants, which is an unconscionable upcharge on their actual shipping cost. Their plants are very expensive — twice the price, or more, that you would pay in a local nursery or at other online sellers. So I expected quality. Quality is not what I received.

When you buy potted perennials, what you are paying for is healthy roots. After all, it’s best to cut back the top growth when you plant them out. But all of the plants Plant Delights sent me have underdeveloped root systems, and one had almost no roots at all! All but two of my plants had (obviously) been propagated from cuttings. A good grower will not send out a rooted cutting until the roots fill the pot. But Plant Delights sent out specimens that were not ready to be shipped. The planting information they include with the shipment says you should knock off — or even wash off — all the (soil-free) growing medium from the roots before planting out. But if I did that on any of my plants the tiny, underdeveloped roots would crumble.

They include a paragraph about pot-bound plants being healthy plants because “the more root you have, the healthier the plant.” Yet they sent out barely rooted cuttings.

Oddly, they also state that they believe no plant in the ground should ever be fertilized! Ridiculous. I believe that they say that to cover themselves if a customer says a plant died (Did you fertilize the plant? Yes. We told you not to...).

Apparently, Customer Service does not exist at Plant Delights. I have emailed and phoned, notifying them of problems with the plants, but they do not respond. Calls go to a message service. Customers have seven days, from the day the shipment arrived, to resolve any order issues. I believe that it’s a strategy for Plant Delights to avoid customers for those seven days. Charlatans.

Avoid this company. They send out poor quality plants, priced way above market. They charge you double the shipping rate you will find at other nurseries. And they do not back their product. They will not help you with your plants. They give crazy growing advice in their literature. They have no ethics.


On Jun 29, 2020, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"On Mar 9, 2021 2:15 PM, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

We respond to all customer specific inquires directly though 2020 was an unprecedented year as covid created a strain on our staff and resources as so many gardeners were staying at home. We'll reach out again.

We do value our customers and the plants we grow in the Nursery. We are available Monday through Friday via email or phone; sales@plantdelights.com or 919-772-4794."


Negative trilliumfan
(1 review)
On May 19, 2019, trilliumfan Olympia, WA wrote:

I have been a long term (over 10 years) customer of this company, My experiences with them had been positive until two years ago when my order arrived poorly packed, more dirt loose in package than in pots, plants floating free out of pots etc. I wrote them about this, never received any reply to letters. Noticed here others with similar experiences at that time. Didn't order last year. This year I decided I would give them another chance - order arrived when requested (mid April) and well packed. All plants in good shape except 2 trillium, (one additional trillium was dormant, still hasn't appeared) One of the two had bloomed and already drying up which was probably okay, the other was very wilted. I have numerous different trillium and have never seen a wilted on before! I emailed them immediately (April 17), enclosing pictures. Received an auto reply that I would get a response within the next 72 business hours. No response came, emailed them again, same auto reply, still no response. Since they obviously have no interest in me as a customer, I no longer will consider purchasing from them.


On May 19, 2019, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"On May 21, 2019 9:27 AM, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

We respond to all customer inquires directly and hope you have received our private message. We value our customers and the plants we grow in the Nursery. We are available Monday through Friday via email or phone; sales@plantdelights.com or 919-772-4794."


Negative VC_Palms
(1 review)
On Sep 11, 2018, VC_Palms Valley Center, CA wrote:

We have purchased many expensive plants from Plant Delights over the years and we have never been "delighted" at all. Our last purchase was over $1,000 USD. The only reason why we buy--- or rather, used to buy, is because of the rare species. We have made a commitment never to buy from Plant Delights again. The reason is the plants are never really that great to begin with. We have never received a plant that was not damaged in some form. This is terrible because we buy plants to give as gifts and they show up with broken leaves, smashed leaf tips, and they have been trimmed asymmetrically so the plant looks weird. Also, the shipping prices are astronomically high. I can understand high shipping and perfect plants but it has never been that way. Plants are shipped in very narrow boxes that are narrower than the plants are so they are all damaged. We tried communicating these problems but basically gave up because we felt it all fell on deaf ears. We also ordered plants, and paid for them in full, only to be told we would have to wait an additional 6 months. After waiting an additional 6 months we were told would have to wait an additional 6 months ( a total of one year later) to get the plants, if they were even going to be available at that time. I can understand one or two plants being damaged or delayed but it has consistently been the norm for us. Another thing is the catalogs all have some political message to them and are covered with cartoon images. We are interested in buying PLANTS - NOT POLITICS. The whole point of growing plants is to get away from the nonsense of the world yet the catalog makes it the centerpiece. A picture of a new variety or species of plant would be an appropriate picture for the cover of a plant catalog. In my opinion, cartoon images are appropriate for the covers of comic books which are appropriate for children. We believe our multiple experiences of which all have had the same results lend credibility to our review and our decision to post this review.

Negative wmbusch
(2 reviews)
On Jul 24, 2018, wmbusch Marshfield, MO wrote:

I have ordered several times from this nursery and spent hundreds of dollars. I love their selection and catalog. I think the prices are high and so is the shipping, so I expect the best of success with their plants. I worked for over 5 years in a nursery potting up thousands of bare root plants, splitting plants, nursing sick plants, etc. and I love to garden and plant perennials first and foremost. I say this because I don't just plant my mail order plants and hope for the best. I prepare the soil, water them in, make sure they are adequately watered but not drowned in the first few vital weeks, and check them every few days thereafter because I want them to survive and thrive. Unfortunately, I have lost a lot of their plants. It almost always seems to be the plants that come in quite small and not looking like they are thriving. The last order was
Achillea Sassy Summer Taffy - doing well
Buddleia Pink Cascades - doing well
Heuchera Pretty Pistachio - doing well
Polygonatum odoratum Angel Wing - looked good. Planted with some trillium that have done well but it never grew at all and recently died over a few day period. A $29 plant.
Polygonatum odoratum Fireworks - First one came in and was broken at the base. I reported it and sent pics as requested and it was replaced with another that, without any support for it's upright nature, was also broken at the base. I staked it and planted it and hoped for the best but it died as well. A $29 plant.
Tiarella Pink Skyrocket - Loved the picture of this. It came in with about 2 or 3 very tiny leaves and looking poorly. It sat in the ground and did nothing and and died with about 45 days. For gosh sakes, it's a Tiarella.
Bottom line, I have lost 3 out of 5 of my expensive order.
As I understand it, plant are only guaranteed to arrive alive, so I will admit to not pursuing reimbursement a second time for the Fireworks Solomon's Seal, the variagated Solomon's seal, or the Tiarella.
Let's look at other orders:
Baptisia Blue Towers - Planted it and it did nothing and then died. Planted in full sun wildflower bed where I have 5 other Baptisias growing and doing well.
Agastache Rosie Posie - survived from Sept. until winter. Never returned
Acanthus Summer Beauty - sat without growing and didn't survive winter
Baptisia Pink Truffles - lived and grew to about 10" tall this year.
Baptisia Yellow Towers - lived and grew to about 10"
Baptisia Ivory Towers - lived and grew to about 12"
Baptisia Blue Towers - out of stock. Got later (see above).
So I lost 50% of this order that was also over $100.
This order of one item for $31:
Arisaema sikokianum - order in Feb, arrived in June. This may have been a replacement of a previously order (see below) Planted the "bulb" and it never came up. Ordered one from White's Flower Farm this year and it came up shortly after planting and bloomed. Leaves still look great even in our 90+ weather.
And this first order:
Kniphofia Lola - large plant. It grew but didn't survive the winter.
Arisaema serratum var mayebarae - never came up. Over $30 for a "bub"
Arisaema sikokianum - Over $30 and never came up. I had these Solomon's seals planted in soil typically covered in oak leaves at the edge of the forest.
Paeonia japonica - never got any bigger and it died off at the end of summer. It did come back but only grew to about the same size it was last year. Hoping it will begin to thrive next spring. No blooms.
In conclusion, only one plant of this $145 order survived.
I haven't not had this little success with any other of the 10+ online nurseries I have ordered from (except bareroot plants from Brecks which have about a 100% chance of not surviving even when I've tried potting them in professional growing medium before planting them). My advice--get the largest plants you can buy. I have found some nurseries, even through Amazon!?, selling 1 gallon and quart sized perennials and and I've had much better luck with the survival rate and the prices have been as good or better than the much smaller sold by Plant Delights and others.





On Jul 24, 2018, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"On Aug 3, 2018 4:26 PM, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

We try to reach out to customers directly, and hope you have received our private message. We can better troubleshoot situations insuring quality for the plants in our greenhouses and our customers' gardens with direct communication. Once a plant ships we are unable to control its environment, however we do try to work with every customer and when appropriate replace the plants should something have occurred during the shipping process. We hope you understand and let us know if we can do anything to help make your garden a success. We are available Monday through Friday via email or phone; sales@plantdelights.com or 919-772-4794."


Negative jdlcav
(4 reviews)
On Jul 15, 2018, jdlcav Huntsville, AL wrote:

I will be the first to admit that I am, at best, an intermediate gardener. Even at my level, I do know how follow planting instructions and I am careful to purchase only plants that work in my hardiness zone and can stand up to my blisteringly hot summers. I water according to the instructions on each plant and plant in the season I am supposed to do so.

I am a firm believer in buying from small businesses. I purchase all of my plants from two local nurseries and a few online sources. About five years ago, I started making notes on how plants from various nurseries were doing. I generally wait at least two, and sometimes three, years before I write a plant off entirely. I try to measure success in specific plants. Where that is not possible, for example when I do not have a sufficient amount of a given plant, I measure them against the best metric I can find.

Over the last three years, I have had a low success rate - - 27% - - with items from Plant Delights Nursery. My success rates with the other companies range from high to average - - 100%, 96%, 90%, 88%, 80%, 55%, and 38%. And, certainly, three companies have scored so low that I never purchased from them again.

I recognize that the company's plants are often rare, though I do have other rare plants that have done just fine. Some of Plant Delight Nursery's plants have not made it past the initial planting and many have not come up after the first year.

I cannot say with certainty why I have not had success with this company's plants. And I have loved the plants with which I have had success. In some cases, I have planted a dozen or more of those plants (albeit, often purchased from different companies with higher success rates).

So, the question is, will I continue to order from Plant Delights Nursery? In light of the company's high prices and my low rates of success, the answer to that is "probably not." I do not believe the company represents a worthwhile value proposition.


On Jul 15, 2018, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"On Aug 3, 2018 4:13 PM, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

We try to reach out to customers directly with any cultivation issues and hope you have received our message. At Plant Delights Nursery we strive to help everyone enjoy their plant purchase. As a small specialty nursery at Juniper Level Botanic Garden, we put lots of care into our plants before they leave our premises, ensuring the highest quality. Once a plant ships we are unable to control its environment, so we offer a small window to replace the plants should something have occurred during the shipping process. We hope you understand and let us know if we can do anything to help make your garden a success. We are available Monday through Friday via email or phone; sales@plantdelights.com or 919-772-4794."


Negative wannabe7
(4 reviews)
On Jul 31, 2017, wannabe7 Columbia, MO (Zone 6a) wrote:

I ordered 5 plants this spring, and they were received when promised. they did seem to be a little small for the price, but they were all planted promptly. two of them are doing well, and two are surviving. the cardiocrinum giganteum appears to have died. it arrived with 2 leaves and third leaf forming. they have all now turned yellow.

when the leaves first started to turn yellow I emailed, explained my problem, and asked for advice. the plant was placed in a bright location in rich well drained soil. according to the plant info on the website the plant should be hardy in my zone and survive high humidity.

I did not ask for another plant or a credit, just advise. I never even received an acknowledgement of my email. pretty disappointing customer service


On Jul 31, 2017, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"On Aug 4, 2017 3:58 PM, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

We try to reach out to anyone having an issue directly and hope you have received our message. At Plant Delights Nursery we strive to help everyone enjoy their plant purchase. As a small specialty nursery at Juniper Level Botanic Garden, we put lots of care into our plants before they leave our premises, ensuring the highest quality. When a plant leaves our premises we are unable to control its environment, so we offer a small window to replace the plants should something have occurred during the delivery process. We hope you understand and let us know if we can do anything to help make your garden a success. We are available Monday through Friday via email or phone; office@plantdelights.com or 919-772-4794."


Negative knoxgal
(5 reviews)
On May 21, 2017, knoxgal Knoxville, TN wrote:

I ordered 7 plants at an average price of $18 per plant. Of these 7 plants only 4 were in average to good condition, the other 3 looked diseased.

I contacted them and told them about my problem. They did get back to me quickly but said I should plant them and then contact them again if the plants didn't recover.

I told their Customer Service agent that their plants were expensive and if I had known the poor quality of plants I would receive, I would never have purchased them.

As instructed, I planted them to see if they will recover. However, I planted them in large containers because if they are diseased I don't want to pass the problem on to my other plants.

I will update this if the plants recover and are healthy, but the fact remains their prices are much too high to send such low quality plants.


On May 21, 2017, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"On Oct 3, 2017 11:12 AM, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

We try to reach out to anyone having an issue directly and hope you have received our message. We value our customers and the plants we grow in the Nursery. In conjunction with our experts and Juniper Level Botanic Garden we strive to ensure our plants are of the highest quality. We are available Monday through Friday at sales@plantdelights.com or 919-772-4794 and hope to hear from you."


Negative Tiaramisu
(4 reviews)
On May 15, 2017, Tiaramisu West Hatfield, MA wrote:

First time ordering from them, Didn't ship one of the plants I'd ordered three of in the winter and now in May I will not be able to source them. An apology or advance notice would have been nice, but the only communication I got was a brief refund notice with no explanation. I had outstanding products I was waiting for from them, and additionally had just ordered another item before I realized that order with the three plants was inexplicably cancelled. I asked them to cancel all open orders. Not only did they not respond, they promptly charged my card and shipped anyway. Won't buy from them again.

Negative haika
(14 reviews)
On May 9, 2017, haika Snohomish, WA wrote:

I admit that some of the plants on offer are difficult or impossible to locate elsewhere, which can lead the plant addict down the path of despair if they receive the type of package I received on 4/27/17. I've ordered roughly 18 times or so over the years, and results have been mixed. To start the tally of bad-things-happening-from-Plant-Delights, I received a package containing Trilliums etc in 2016 that was packed in a way that allowed most of the soil and labels to jostle out of the pots. I opened the box to a mess but could re-ID most of the plants except for 2 Trilliums. I immediately contacted Plant Delights and was told that they were experimenting with packaging strategies and that I should wait until the Trilliums bloomed to re-ID. Based on the rhizome size, that could have taken years, so I was not comfortable with that answer. We ended up coming to a mutually agreeable solution and I moved on. I made several more orders after that without problem. Then, on 4/27/17 I received another order in a similar state....unlabeled plants upended in a mess of soil and labels. This time I ended up with 2 Asarums I could not match up with the appropriate label. I also ended up with an unlabeled Trillium but, because I'd only ordered ONE Trillium, I could re-ID it. However, it was basically unpotted (I could see the dormant rhizome in the pot) in a mess of very wet, mucky substrate. I cleaned it off since I was afraid it had started to rot in the muck, but it was firm so I repotted it in a substrate more suitable for my condition. I have another T. underwoodii in tight bud so I was surprised at the dormant stage of this rhizome. But, I can deal with that if it's not a rotted mess. Another worry. I immediately contacted Plant Delights by e-mailing them using the plant order e-mail address on their website. No response. I e-mailed them again on 5/3/17 using the address on the invoice for plant order problems. No response to date. Luckily, I uploaded the photos of the mystery Asarums with 2 potential IDs to FB Planet Asarum and got some useful hints to matching up the plant with the loose labels....but no guarantees till they bloom (sound familiar??). Plant Delights has not provided any response to the ID problem OR the packaging issues. The other issue preventing me from further orders is the recent increase in shipping charges. In 2016 I was able to order 3 plants with shipping $28.75. Now the price breakdown for my area is $40.50 for 1-6 plants. I cannot justify further purchases from a nursery that does not provide adequate customer service, does not respond in a reasonable time (at least last time they DID) to problems, charges very high prices for both plants and shipping, even though I see plants I feel I can't live without. I'll just wait until local collectors or specialty nurseries bring in similar plants (sigh). By the way, when the $50+ plants I received in dormancy never appear and I e-mail them asking what to look for etc, I've rarely gotten any response. And if you look at their fine print about replacements etc. for problems reported AFTER 7 days, they indicate that if the same plant is doing well in THEIR nurseries, it's the buyers fault even though the nursery plants have not gone through a potentially disruptive shipping process. Yep....I really think I'm DONE with them.

Negative Marleneboegli
(2 reviews)
On May 3, 2017, Marleneboegli Loveland, OH wrote:

I splurged and ordered two flowering gingers from Plant Delights. Gingers are slightly difficult, and twice I have bought plants that turned out to be the wrong cultivar, and deeply disappointing. So I spent a bunch of money to a company I trusted to send me the correct cultivar. They were listed as being in three quart pots, so it seemed I would get fairly large plants. I did not. One was the smallest possible division, the other only slightly larger. They had been freshly shaved from a parent plant, potted in a huge pot, wrapped and shipped. Shipping must have been brutal, because both plants were shaken until almost all the soil was loose in the box, and both the plants have broken stems. I have emailed PD, and so far have not had any sort of response. I believe the plants were obscenely over priced, there is NO justification for up potting to that size, let alone what must have been the day of shipping. I paid more for shipping two big pots of soil than for either plant. I do not believe either plant will bloom this year, they are so small. So for close to eighty dollars I have two huge pots of soil, and two fresh divisions with broken stems. They will probably live, but I am deeply dissatisfied, and after reading the comments I am wondering if I will even get a response. If I do I will update this review.

Negative pterostyrax
(10 reviews)
On Apr 25, 2017, pterostyrax Seattle, WA wrote:

Posted on April 13, 2017, updated April 25, 2017
Great plant selection, and I would be willing to pay their premium prices if the plants were premium quality. But very disappointed in quality and customer service. One of my half-dozen plants arrived completely decapitated. Two were tiny and both had their single stems broken, in one case by a piece of cardboad packing that was supposed to be a divider but had been pressed down on the tiny plant's neck (!). I wrote to complain but more than a week later have heard nothing from them.


On April 25th, 2017, pterostyrax added the following:

It is now three weeks since I complained, and I still have heard nothing. The two puny little plants did not make it. I doubt the one with the broken-off foliage will bloom this year.
Negative Fimiano
(1 review)
On Apr 17, 2017, Fimiano Minneapolis, MN wrote:

I really wanted to like this place: good catalog, great selection of plants...BUT I spent > $700.00 on plants, and hardly any of them are still alive.Oh, I called and complained, and they offered to replace a couple and give me a small credit, but I still feel I got screwed. 1.) plants sent are puny-little teeny starter plants 2.) culture and zone info are not accurate- plants listed for my zone 10 couldn't take the heat. 3.) WAY overpriced. The reason I shopped with them was to obtain varieties not available at local nurseries, but what a waste of my money. And, by the way, I have a huge, thriving garden... with the exception of Plant Delights stock.

Negative MikeRath
(1 review)
On Dec 3, 2016, MikeRath Austin, TX wrote:

Posted on August 16, 2016, updated December 3, 2016
I made my first order with Plant Delights (PD) about 2 months ago. I am happy that they have a wide selection of hard to find plants. I am disappointed however that the plants depicted on PD's website and their catalogs are fully grown and the ones you actually receive are very small in comparison. There is no indication of the plants' sizes other than that the ones I ordered were coming in 3 1/2" pots.

I am happy with the 7-8" across Agave ovatifolia 'Vanzie' and Agave nickelsiae plants I received in terms of health and size. However the most expensive plant purchased -- a $35 rare Agave 'Shark Bite' -- is only a 3" across pup. Also the Echinacea 'Pixie Meadowbrite' flower plant I received is only a 4" juvenile plant that may take a year or more to mature and flower. I would not have purchased the latter 2 plants for the prices I paid if I had known they were baby to juvenile plants.

I also purchased a Yucca curnea -- which was larger than I expected (12" leaves) -- but within a week its center leaves died which killed the plant. PD did send me a replacement though after i sent them pictures. Where I work they have dozens of these same yucca plants and they are very hit and miss -- some die and some flourish in the exact same soil and sunlight conditions.

I just received a Fall 2016 PD catalog and on page 5 there is a 3/4ths of a page large picture of a 18" tall Agave lophantha 'Quadricolor'. The plant description also describes an 18" tall x 2' wide plant. I know the plant you actually receive will not be that large -- which is misleading. PD should describe accurate plant sizes and show inset pictures of an example of the actual size plants you will be receiving like most sellers do on EBay and other websites. Just showing professional pictures of mature plants gives buyers no idea what size plant they will be.

Overall I am very happy with some of my plants and less so with others. They all arrived healthy and neatly packaged by FedEx. Accurate pictures of what size plants you will be receiving and buyer reviews (as Yucca Do Nursery allows on their website) would let buyers make more informed buying decisions and know what they are actually going to get.


On December 3rd, 2016, MikeRath changed the rating from neutral to negative and added the following:

Plant Delights plant sizes and pictures listed are false and misleading. My $18 Echinacea Pixie Meadowbrite advertised as 34" and pictured with blooming flowers was actually about 3" tall with no flowers and died within 4 months in part shade. My $14 Sempervivum 'Unicorn' died within 4 months in part shade. My $35 Agave 'Shark Bite' advertised as being 11" tall and pictured as a fully grown plant is in reality a fragile 3 1/2" pup (baby plant). It has lost 2 of it's 5 tiny leaves and hasn't grown at all since I purchased 6 plants which arrived July 3, 2016. My $19 Agave ovatifolia 'Vanzie' and $19 Agave nickelsiae have each lost about 5 of their 12 leaves have barely grown and are much smaller than the advertised pictured plants. My 1st $19 Yucca cernua was dead on arrival and was replaced by Plant Delights but the replacement plant does not look healthy. Going into Austin's comparatively mild winter I'm not confident that any of the remaining 4 of my 6 plants purchased at Plant Delights will survive. Buyers beware: Plant Delights sells plants that are much smaller than advertised and not suited for hot climates such as Texas. I will be buying locally from now on.
Negative ala58
(1 review)
On Jun 30, 2015, ala58 Allentown, PA wrote:

I was so excited last year to find and place an order for not 1 but 3 Clematis glaucophylla 'Panhandler'. Arrived timely 2 out of 3 looked poor (strike one) was told it's a vive not to worry new shoots from base will come but they never did on the two. Mulched for the winter in case of a bad weather as we had the year before. Now Spring arrives and the 1 that was in good condition came up just fine and is beautiful. The other 2 never came up. I called and they said give it sometimes, after another couple weeks nothing, called back and (strike two) I was told "Tony only guarantees they will get to you in good condition (which was not the case anyway). They put a big Hoopla about there customer satisfaction!! It's simply not there from my experience, I am a very experienced gardener and g found them to be a company who toots there own horn and does not stand at all behind there product. At high price, higher shipping and absolutely NO caring. I would have been happy if they extended an olive branch and offered me a reduced price on a replacement, ANYTHING. I would NOT recommend them to anyone. Also I did state to the woman answering phone that I would appreciate how deeply upset I am with their lack of Guarantee Directly to Tony. Never heard a peep back (strike three) It was very clear I was not a happy customer and my concerns were are are still legitimate. I don't normally leave anyone negatives reviews but this company really deserves it from me. I will share my story throughout internet land and among fellow gardeners. I almost ordered another series of vines but my husband reminded me of the problems and as much as I would love the vines I cancelled. If you cannot count on customer satisfaction guaranteed what can you count on after all we are blind to picking our specific plants...


On Jun 30, 2015, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"On Jul 8, 2015 1:43 PM, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

Dear ala58,

I'm very sorry to hear that not all of your Clematis came back from this past winter. We've talked with many gardeners this year (and last) who have experienced losses in their garden as winters were harsher than years past. Plant loss over winter usually has little or nothing to do with the quality of a plant or whether the plant makes it through a winter as advertised. Plant death of zone appropriate plants can be influenced by many different winter conditions, not just temperatures. For instance, It can be too little rain in the fall, too much rain in the winter, ice vs. snow, warm-ups in January or February and the list of conditions and combinations – well, you can see the variables are many.

We understand how our limited guarantee policy can be puzzling given the extended guarantees that are prevalent in the green industry today. A customer can forget to water, plant in poor soil, neglect to provide winter protection to mention a few, and large garden centers/big box stores will replace or refund with no questions asked. Plants are our only source of income which is why we cannot compete with these long-term guarantees.

If we ship a plant that left with undiagnosed problems, we will gladly replace it, even beyond the initial 7 day period. We check our nursery notes in cases such as yours to see if we have experienced any failures here that might indicate a problem with the crop. In this case we have not lost any of this clematis from 2 months before your order was shipped all the way through this spring.

We want to be fair, and in every case we want to replace or refund any plant loss that is our fault. We guarantee our quality, but we do not guarantee that everyone will be successful gardeners. We have killed our fair share due to improper drainage, too much sun, not enough sun, neighborhood dogs, insects, vermin, improper plants for our zone and a myriad of other reasons including quirks of mother nature that no one has control over.

I apologize for the lengthy note, but it is important to us that our horticultural friends around the circle understand our logic when questions arise about our limited guarantee policy. I do hope you find this information helpful. I'm sorry to hear that you have decided to cancel your newest order. Please let us know if we can be of assistance in the future.

Kind regards,
Virginia Meehan
Manager of Customer Service & Shipping



"


Negative garden_ny
(1 review)
On Jun 1, 2015, garden_ny New York City, NY wrote:

Posted on May 26, 2015, updated June 1, 2015
I ordered 10 Echinaceas “Fatal Attraction” from Plant Delights last July 2014 (I am a big fan of Piet Outdolf). Two of the plants came in horrible shape, perhaps due to transit damage. I called the nursery, and while they were initially almost rudely questioning my ability to identify a “damaged plant” (i.e. it will eventually recover, so just go ahead and plant it), after I provided photographs showing the state of the two specimens they agreed to graciously replace them. They were nice and apologetic.

It is now almost June 2015, a year later, and NONE of the 10 plants grew back. I have a large terrace garden in NYC, and have been growing plants for a long time… this is the first time that I plant 10 perennials and zero make it. I just called the nursery to ask what is their policy in such cases. All other places I have dealt with (Romence Gardens, Santa Rosa gardens, Joycreek, Lazy S’S farm, and Bluestone Perennial) have always found a way to solve problems with fair solutions. Regrettably, Plant Delights just brushed me off: in essence “this is no longer our problem”. Too bad, this is about the joy of caring for our plants and gardens, and a big part of the mail-order side is the relationship between gardeners and providers.


On June 1st, 2015, garden_ny added the following:

I am afraid the response is not quite correct. I called, explained in the nicest way what the issue was, described the facts (left out that it took me 3 calls and 2 sets of photographs last year to have them agree to replaced the two echinaceas), and was told matter of factly " it is no longer our problem". There was never an offer to discuss it further, to talk to their growers, to explore options or solutions, or to even suggest other plants. I would be happy to engage. I strongly believe that growers should be supported for their efforts.
On Jun 1, 2015, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"On May 30, 2015 1:21 PM, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

Dear garden_ny,

As you stated we did replace the 2 Echinacea last year that arrived damaged. Since we did not hear from you further last year, we can only assume they performed for you the remainder of the season. Our guarantee policy does not make provision for plants that fail to emerge due to the many cultural factors that are generally the cause of a plants failure to thrive. Plant loss over winter usually has little or nothing to do with the quality of a plant or whether the plant makes it through a winter as advertised. Plant death of zone appropriate plants can be influenced by many different winter conditions, not just temperatures. For instance, too little rain in the fall, too much rain in the winter, ice vs. snow, warm-ups in January/February followed by colder temperatures and you can see the variables are many. Growing in a terrace situation at a higher elevation presents its own set of challenges such as more variable soil temperatures, increased wind exposure, etc. We do not sell plants as a loss leader as the big box stores do and offer a 1 year guarantee no questions asked.

We are always available to discuss plants with you. It is about the relationship as you stated which requires a two way conversation. I’m sorry that you did not have a desire to discuss further with our horticulture staff to help learn what may have occurred. Instead you quickly hung up and posted here instead. While we can’t replace every plant on every occasion, we will continue to offer exciting plants and top notch cultural advice. The offer still stands if you have some time to speak with our garden supervisor to help with your future growing seasons.

Kind regards,
Virginia Meehan
Manger of Customer Serivce
Plant Delights Nursery, Inc.
"


Negative ToddStevenson
(1 review)
On May 30, 2014, ToddStevenson Rochester, NY wrote:

This spring I was excited to place my 1st order with Plant Delights as they have a great selection of rare plants. Unfortunately one of the plants was damaged in transit. Three emails to customer service were all ignored. Very disappointing. I purchase a lot of plants by mail order and have never had this experience.

Negative AJNYC
(2 reviews)
On Aug 22, 2013, AJNYC Astoria, NY wrote:

Absolutely dreadful experience. 2 out of the three plants I ordered arrived in OK but not in perfect condition. According to their most condescending return policy, these plants were not deserving of a phone call to them within the 5 day window they provide in order to complain about an order so as to be guaranteed a replacement. The plants deteriorated thereafter and are both now dead. The third plant I ordered was so small in size it was shocking. It was basically a very poorly rooted leaf growing in a loosely packed container of "soil". Although this plant is still hanging on and arrived over 2 months ago it is not even close to being even half way grown and can't possibly flower this season. The company never bothered to respond to an email I sent them expressing my dissatisfaction with the plants I ordered and with their return policy.


On Aug 22, 2013, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"On Aug 22, 2013 12:21 PM, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

Dear AJNYC,

I'm very sorry to hear that you have had a bad experience with our plants. While our guarantee policy is very limited, especially in light of larger big box companies which offer no questions asked, 1 year guarantees, you may have missed the sentence that reads "Of course, if a dormant plant fails to emerge, or if there is a problem related to a cultural factor here at the nursery, we will guarantee against such problems outside of the 5-day time frame."

I'm glad to you took the time to reach out to us by email and I must apologize that your email was not responded to. We've had a very overactive spam filter in place which has cause many delays in correspondence this season. Thankfully just this week we have a new, different spam filter in place and trust this will help resolve most of those issues. I would ask that you email me at office@plantdelights.com and I'd be happy to review the particulars of your order and check our spam folder for your original email sent. I will follow up with a D-mail as well and hope that we can make a better impression. It is certainly never our intent to ignore customer correspondence and we want you to be sucessful with your plants.

Kind regards,
Virginia Meehan
Manager of Customer Service & Shipping
Plant Delights Nursery, Inc.
919-772-4794
office@plantdelights.com"


Negative FlaFlower
(7 reviews)
On May 17, 2013, FlaFlower Titusville, FL (Zone 9b) wrote:

Well... I ordered 3 plants that were "In stock".
Paid for them via there website and waited.
I got a package with "2" reasonably sized plants and a note that says!!!
"Sorry to report we do not have your "THIRD" plant available to ship with your order...You have a credit of $$ for future use"
A CREDIT???
So I guess I am not going to get it at all, I have to reorder again and pay another shipping fee?

I don't want a credit, I either want my plant or my $$ back.
How dare you sell me a plant you don't actually have THEN ALSO KEEP MY MONEY!!


On May 17, 2013, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"On May 20, 2013 9:26 AM, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

Greetings floridaheat,

A plant can become not availabe for shipment for many different reasons such as crop loss, lack of root developement, etc. Additionally our current website is not "live" when it comes to inventory management (although our new site later this year will be!), so at the time your order was taken, we may have had only 1-3 plants left while someone was purchasing on site.
We clearly state in our catalog and on our website that if substitutes are not listed, we will post a credit to your account, unless you specify otherwise. Not knowing the details of your order, I cannot address that until getting some additional information from you. If you would prefer a refund, we will be happy to refund your credit card. If you will please call the office or contact me at office@plantdelights.com, we'd be happy to issue a refund to your credit card.

Kind regards,
Virginia Meehan
Manager of Customer Service and Shipping
Plant Delights Nursery, Inc.
"


Negative raven998
(1 review)
On Jun 2, 2012, raven998 wrote:

I purchased a number of plants from Plant Delights Nursery recently. This will have been the 3rd time I have purchased from them. While many plants were of an expected size, several were poorly rooted in their containers. Considering these are very small containers to begin with, and the price point of Plant Delights plants are considerable especially when you add in the shipping cost, I was disappointed with several I received this time around. In the worst case i received a solomon seal that consisted of a 2 inch tall stem with 4 tiny bug eaten leaves, and almost no roots filling it's container. If a nursery like this expects people to pay a premium for its rare and hard to find perennials(which I am happy to do), consistency and quality control needs to be exceptional. In the case where they send less than an adequate product out to a repeat customer Plant Delights may want to consider other options other than telling the customer they can mail it back. I personally do not feel it is worth my time to mail these questionable plants back. I will just spend my plant dollars elsewhere in the future.


On Jun 2, 2012, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"On Jun 11, 2012 11:12 AM, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

Dear raven998:

I am very sorry to hear that you received any plant from us in the condition you have described. The plant you received should have never been assessable to our shipping staff to pull for your order. I agree that our plants should be exceptional but not just because of price, but rather a matter of pride and principal. With so many plants under our constant care it is inevitable that an occasional bad plant will slip past the watchful eyes of our horticultural staff. When that happens, we appreciate the opportunity to correct our mistake. I hope you will give us a chance to set the matter right by emailing me directly at office@plantdelights.com.


Kind Regards,

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


Negative Kimcoco33
(5 reviews)
On Jul 21, 2011, Kimcoco33 Milwaukee, WI (Zone 5b) wrote:

Posted on July 8, 2011, updated July 21, 2011
Posted on June 28, 2011, updated July 8, 2011
I placed a first time order online with this company on June 19th, 2011. I submitted specific instructions that the order cannot be DELIVERED between July 1st throught the 4th, as I will not be available for the delivery.

I received a notification yesterday from FedEx indicating that my order shipped 6/27/2011, and the ESTIMATED delivery date is 6/30/2011. Concerned that this is NOT a guaranteed delivery date and that the package MAY NOT arrive in time, I contacted customer service at Plant Delights Nursery and spoke with Virginia. This is a long distance phone call that I have to pay for because they don't provide a toll free number.

In speaking with Virginia, I got the "passing the buck" attitude throughout the entire conversation. I explained I submitted specific instructions that the order CANNOT be delivered after June 30th, and my growing concerns that the plants will die if they are delivered after this date. She tells me that I should talk to neighbors and see if they can pick up the package if it is delivered after June 30th, and that I am supposed to ask them to open the package as well. This is NOT my neighbors responsibility, and I explained to Virginia I am not involving my neighbors in this matter, especially over a holiday weekend, in which my neighbors will not be available in the first place.

Virginia then went on to pass the buck with excuses that they can't be responsible that "Fed Ex has no guarantee" and then began chastising me that I didn't respond to the nurseries email (that I don't recall receiving), and proceeded to tell me that I was supposed to call them after I got THEIR email. I told her I don't recall seeing their email, and why should I have to call them after I've already given EXPLICIT instructions with my initial order at the time of placement, and then take time out of my day to call them at a long distance phone number, at my expense, to repeat the information I'd already given them with my order? So, it's the customers responsibility to keep contacting them to ensure they "get it right" the first time? Not my responsibility to micromanage the company with which I am giving my business to.

I explained that I AM contacting them, as soon as I received the email confirmation from Fed Ex, which is why I'm calling today. She made some comment that they can't be responsible, and that they couldn't ship last week because they were doing inventory. If they couldn't ship last week, why risk delivery so close to the date with which I specifically explained I would not be available, instead of waiting to ship after those dates? It is evident to me that this is a very poorly run operation.

At this point I'm upset and told her if these plants die because of THEIR error in following my explicit instructions, that I will dispute it with my credit card company. If you tell a nursery that you will not be here for the delivery, and they ship so close to the date that it's questionable whether it will arrive in time and then pass the buck that "fed ex has no guarantees" and "we can't be responsible if there is a problem with their delivery", and "we couldn't ship last week because of inventory" and "you should ask your neighbors to pick up the package and open it for you" ---- it's a clear indication to me that their internal operations are incompetent.

In a condescending manner, she now tells me that I'm getting ahead of myself and that I should just 'wait and see' what happens. "Maybe you'll get the delivery at 8:00 am on June 30th". Yes, perhaps I will. But maybe it won't. Am I being chastised for being proactive? Perhaps they should have contacted me to ask whether I'd like my order shipped after July 4th, but they never did. They shipped anyway, obviously knowing that THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES WITH FED EX.

I explained if the order is not received by June 30th, I'll have to call them long distance again, at my expense, and obviously listen to them tell me how this is the customers fault that Plant Delights can't follow explicit instructions that were provided with my order placement. In a condescending manner, which is commonplace at this point in the conversation, Virginia proceeds to tell me in a very sarcastic tone that "since you have email" then you can email us. I'm supposed to email them regarding a matter that is timely, and expect to receive a prompt reply and have this matter resolved over email? I suppose it's the customers responsibility to sit by their computer all day awaiting a response to a "timely" concern that came to be through no fault of their own.

I will NEVER order from this company again. This is a really poor excuse for 'customer service'. The 'passing the buck' attitude for their own incompetence is unacceptable. Why would any company ship so close to a date that I explained I would be unavailable for delivery, knowing in advance that there are no shipping guarantees with Fed Ex????? Extremely poor business operations.


On July 8th, 2011, Kimcoco33 added the following:

I looked back on my records. I had placed a couple orders with two different online vendors at the same time. When speaking with Virginia, I was told that I should have called after receiving their email with the ship date. Unsure of which vendor I had spoken with previously, I did not retort her comment in our conversation. Subsequently, I looked back in my records, and found that I did contact PDN immediately upon receiving that email. I have the phone call logged on my cell phone records. At that time, I called customer service and asked why they are shipping the order risking the delivery so close to the date I will not be here for the arrival. The response I received was, "Well THAT'S why we send you an email". A very snotty response. I asked that they ship it July 5th instead, and was told they would do so. So, to put this in proper perspective, they overlooked my original shipping request that was placed with my order, and also the second verbal request via a phone call to their staff.

I'd also like to make a point that I understand mistakes do happen, but the fact is this goes beyond a shipping error. The simple fact that the demeaner of this "customer service" staff is brash, I'd opt to never give them my business again. Their rude behavior towards a paying customer is outright unacceptable. I should have heeded the warnings and other negative reviews on this website -- had I read them prior to submitting my order, I wouldn't be posting here today.

Not pointing the finger at anyone, but I will say I have doubts about the validity of many "positive" reviews on this website. They come across in my eyes as somewhat 'hokey pokey' and given my own experience and interaction with PDN staff, I'm less inclined to believe they are legitimate. 100% of my interaction with PDN customer service staff was outright unpleasant. Let that speak for itself.
On July 21st, 2011, Kimcoco33 added the following:

In response to PDN's unprofessional and flagrant response by Dianne, the "manager" no less, I will retort.

First, I will let the reader formulate their own conclusions based on Dianne's written response. Refer back to my original post and complaint about PDN and how pass the buck and blame the customer. What does Dianne respond with? Blaming the customer AGAIN. Is anyone surprised?

Dianne Austin responds in an attempt to "play the role of the victim" -- blaming the customer for trying to sabotage the reputation of an employee of PDN. She actually ends her post with, "shame on you". Really? Shame on the customer for communicating a valid complaint? And this is the end result? WOW. Is that what you call 'customer service' or 'customer satisfaction'? I think not. I think believe it reinforces what I've said about this company and their demeaner towards paying customers in my posts.

Dianne states, "Aside from these two posts, you have emailed me twice in an effort to damage Virginia’s employee status with PDN. My reply to your first email reads as follows..."

Dianne accuses the customer of trying to "damage Virginia's employee status." Communicating a legitmate complaint to management regarding a rude employee is the customer's fault, and then Dianne, the manager, proceeds to accuse the customer of having ulterior motives. Need I say any more?

Let's establish the facts:

A. I am not a ranting and raving customer, as PDN would like the reader to believe. PDN blames the customer.

B. Viriginia never, at any time, offered to "cover the loss" of any plants that were being shipped. This contradicts the entire premise of my initial post. Yet again, PDN blames the customer for not "listening" to something that was never said to begin with, and is not willing to take accountability for their unprofessional behavior. I am not an irrational, ranting and raving customer, and for any business to post such slanderous accusations is both unethical and unprofessional and a very poor business practice. But, be my guest PDN. You posts do nothing more than exemplify your true colors, your lack of emphasis on customer satisfaction, your lack of respect towards a paying customer, and further corroborates all the facts I've presented here about PDN's brash behavior and passing the buck attitude.

C. Dianne's claim that she was "listening" in on this conversation is what the rest of the world calls "hogwash".

D. I did not send "two" emails to Dianne in an attempt to "sabotage" Virginia's reputation or employee status. In fact, my first email never mentioned a thing about how Virginia treated me, it stated nothing more than blatant facts. My second email explained exactly why I choose not to give them my business again.

Below are email correspondence between myself and Dianne.

In response to the order confirmation and shipping notice received from the company, I replied with the following:

Tuesday, June 28, 2011 11:21 AM
From: "Kim"
To: office@plantdelights.

I spoke with Virginia within the past hour about this order due to a shipment notification I received from Fed Ex indicating that my order shipped yesterday, with an ESTIMATED delivery date of 6/30/2011. Explicit instructions were placed with my online order on June 19, 2011 expressing that I will not be available for any delivery after June 30th. Obviously, the delivery date being so close to that date, coupled with the fact that Fed Ex offers no shipping guarantee, I became concerned and contacted Plant Delights. In the ensuing conversation with Virginia, I was told that I should have called when I received the email from Plant Delights Nursery with the estimated delivery date, even though I had already given explicit delivery instructions at the time I placed my order.

After speaking with Virginia today, I checked back on my records, as I've ordered from two online companies around the same time and wanted to verify which company I spoke with previously by phone.

I received the email confirmation of my order from Plant Delights Nursery on June 20th, 2011. I very prompty contacted customer service by phone on June 20th, 2011 at 3:24 pm. I spoke with customer service about the estimated shipping date of June 30th, as per the email, expressing my concerns with the ship date being too close to the date I made very clear I will be unavailable for delivery (no deliveries after June 30th). The person on the phone at that time told me, "well, that's why we send you an email", at which point I explained that I'd like the order delivered AFTER July 4th. I was told that would be taken care of. The phone call is documented in my phone records with my phone carrier.

I am unclear why the order shipped anyway, in spite of my explicit instructions with the intial order and the prompt phone call to your customer service department after receiving your email confirmation, and my second set of instructions, as per a verbal phone conversation, to ship the order after July 4th.

-Kim
**********************************************
Exactly how is this email a communication an attempt to "sabotage" an employee's status by communicating the facts to PDN?

--- On Fri, 7/1/11, Dianne Austin wrote: (see Dianne's post above in which she responded to my email above)

My response to Dianne is as follows:

RE: Confirmation of Order & Shipping Date
Friday, July 8, 2011 11:21 AM
From: "Kim"
To: "Dianne Austin"

I have to say, regardless of the shipping situation, your staff is the most unprofessional I've had to deal with, with any online vendor. For that reason alone, I'd never give my business to your company again.

The entire conversation was aimed at blaming the customer when I called to inquire why the order shipped risking the arrival after my departure date. The response to this was that PDN cannot be responsible for FedEx shipping. Huh? It was your choice to ship, I expressed my concerns, and this is the response I received from your staff. No apology whatsoever, no resolutions were presented to me. I was told to search out neighbors who can be here for the potential delivery, over a holiday weekend. I was told that I should have called after I received the original email, and looking back on my records after the conversation took place, I found that I did call after the first email notification of the scheduled shipping date. I immediately called upon receipt of that email and requested at that time to not ship until July 5th. The phone call to your customer service staff is logged on my phone records. I was told they would withhold shipment until that time, but failed to do so. I gave written instructions with my order placement, and verbal instructions after the receipt of the shipping confirmation. Mistakes do happen, I realize that, but this goes beyond a shipping matter. Blaming the customer and treating the customer with such disregard and the outright nasty demeaner that Virginia has towards paying customers is just unacceptable. The first phone call was similar. I asked why the order was shipping out risking delivery close to the date I will not be available, and the response I received at that time, again in a very unpleasant tone, was "well THAT'S why we send you the email". If Virginia were an employee at my company, she'd never be allowed to interact with any customer.

Her demeaner throughout the entire conversation was brash and completely unacceptable for anyone in "customer service". Passing the buck, blaming the customer, and not accepting responsibility is not what I consider appropriate behavior towards any paying customer.

It is quite simply and unwise decision to employ such an unpleasant person who risks the loss of potential business each time she takes a call from a customer. 100% of my conversations with your customer service staff was unpleasant.

Regards,
Kim
*********************************
BOTTOM LINE:

PDN makes no attempt to "resolve" any situation to customer satisfaction. They want to blame the customer and continually exert their energy on focusing the attention on the customer in an attempt to portray what the customer did wrong, how the customer reacted, etc. and it is obvious based on Dianne's responses that this "passing the buck" attitude trickles down from upper management.

This company places no emphasis whatsoever on customer satisfaction. Attempt to portray the customer as a crazy ranting and raving lunatic, so PDN doesn't have to take accountability for their actions, or lack thereof.

Refer to my original post. Blame the customer.

Buyer Beware.

















On Jul 21, 2011, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"On Jul 8, 2011 3:06 PM, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

Here are the facts pertaining to this negative post:

On June 20th, we downloaded an order for two hosta from Kimcoco33 along with this customer note: “NO substitutes please. "NO DELIVERY between July 1st thru 5th. Shipping any other time at your discretion for my zone."

Due to multiple heat delays, many orders including Kimcoco33's could not be shipped during the week it was received. With a break in temperatures, we shipped Kim's order on 6/27 with a Fed Ex delivery scheduled on 6/30. This was cutting it close, based on our customer's request for no delivery July 1st - 5th. Unfortunately, Fed Ex uses the term "estimated delivery" which prompted an angry call from the customer to our office.

During the time Kimcoco33 was on the line, I was listening to Virginia's side of the conversation. I have listened to 1000's of conversations between Customer Service Representatives and customers' over the years and what draws my undivided attention faster than anything else is a CSR who is not being allowed to finish a complete sentence. I immediately tuned into this particular conversation. I can say without hesitation that the rude and angry person was not on this end of the telephone. Virginia has 100's of customers to who have been the recipients of her exemplary service during her 7 1/2 years tenure and not once have I ever heard her raise her voice. Additionally, Virginia receives more commendations for her excellent customer service than anyone else at Plant Delights and is the recipient of many gifts of gratitude for her above and beyond service.

I heard Virginia's attempt to assure you that should the plants arrive after the you left town we would take care of the loss. I also heard her tell you not to jump the gun and assume the worst. Because you were so busy ranting, I'm not sure you heard her because you have not mentioned any of these details in either post nor in the two emails I have received from you to date. The plants were in route; there was nothing Virginia could do to change that fact. She offered you all she could by offering you the assurance that should your plant arrive after you left town that we would take care of your loss. Frankly, I don't know what else anyone could ask for.

Aside from these two posts, you have emailed me twice in an effort to damage Virginia’s employee status with PDN. My reply to your first email reads as follows:


From: Dianne Austin
Subject: RE: Confirmation of Order & Shipping Date
To: "Kimcoco33(address omitted for customer privacy>
Date: Friday, July 1, 2011, 7:21 AM

Dear Kim:

I am very sorry that your ordering experience with Plant Delights Nursery did not set well with you.

I have reviewed your concerns and in hindsight, I agree we should have rescheduled your order to ship after you returned from your trip. This would have been a more conservative approach to managing your order and less stress on your end as well. I apologize for any misunderstanding on our part.

In our own defense, I will say that we have been pressured by many weeks of heat delays to ship orders just as soon as we see a window of opportunity to do so. When temperatures rise above 92F in our area, we are forced to delay shipments regardless of the order destination. Damage occurs when the boxed (damp) plants sit in 93F and above temperatures on a hot tarmac waiting to be loaded on trucks or planes at the Raleigh airport. Our Customer Service Representatives simply saw an opportunity to get your plants to you prior to your departure and took it.

Fed Ex tracking shows that your order did deliver on time for which I am grateful to see; and I hope that your two plants arrived in good condition. If they didn't, please let me know.

If there is any service or promise we have not lived up to please email me and I will help you in any way possible.

Kind regards,

Dianne Austin
Manager, Customer Service & Shipping
9241 Sauls Road
Raleigh, NC
Ph: 919-772-4794
http://www.plantdelights.com
Plant Delights Nursery, Inc.

In closing, I will say that this rebuttal will be the only response to your outrageous accusations and post. There is a saying "Let the punishment fit the crime". Our crime? Getting plants shipped between heat delays and accepting full responsibility for plant death should Fed Ex deliver late. My crime as a manager? Allowing an exemplary employee to endure your shouting and verbal abuse along with being called "incompetent" and not intervening on her behalf. Based on your phone etiquette, you were fortunate to have a calm and rational person such as Virginia handling your call. The owner’s of Plant Delights support Virginia and her continued efforts to provide excellent Customer Service to all of our gardening friends and customers. You have gone to extraordinary lengths to sabotage a very nice person’s reputation. Shame on you!
"


Negative smurfwv
(5 reviews)
On Jul 17, 2011, smurfwv Cabin Creek, WV (Zone 6a) wrote:

I placed my first order around April 2011, for Amorphophallus Henryii, and Amorphophallus Kuisanus. I am an aroid collector and wanted to add these to my collection. Although the cost of tubers are extremely high, I went ahead and ordered them. Both cost $20 (later on seen them on ebay for $5, I about had a heart attack!). So I got them and the henryii was nice and big 4-5 inches across, but kuisianus was about 1 inch across (I almost cried) and complained. But they both grew wonderfully and are still nice looking. 17.00 to ship them, both less than a pound. Shipping is rediculous. I think its because their boxes have their name on them. Has anyone told them USPS has free boxes they can order online for FREE? Yes PD you can get free priority mail and flat rate boxes at no cost to you! Blah

A few weeks later we ordered a Helicodiceros muscivorus ($20 for one very tiny tuber less than 1 inch across) Which arrived rotted and soaking wet, but was replaced, the new one was also very tiny and soaking wet, but I didn't complain as there were lots of baby tubers. And we ordered an Amorphophallus ochroleucus (Which was soaking wet as well and the tuber was on top of the soil/wood chips and not down in the pot. The leaf was broken in half but a new one grew 6 weeks later. Again another high shipping cost, but still with the water logged pots should have been less than 17.00 if they used usps boxes which is cheaper in shipping and saves the customer money.

We again placed another order for an amorphophallus and an arum. Amorphophallus yunnanensis, and Arum cyrenaicum x concinnatum. We accidently ordered the wrong amorph, so I sent it back and got another ochroleucus plant. The arum tuber (main bulbs) were rotted completely, yes the pots were once again soaking wet, however even with the 2 huge rotted tubers I got about 30 babies from that one pot so I was happy. The 2nd Amorphophallus ochroleucus I recieved to replace the returned Amorphophallus yunnanensis also had a broken leaf, however it too grew another one after I threw out the nasty wood chips it was potted in and planted it deeper in real soil. It has a new leaf growing on it also.

While their plants are less than satisfactory, I can say I did get nice people on the phone and got prompt replacement.
I want to hit myself in the head as some of the items we bought from PD we seen on Ebay 50% cheaper.

I did ask about the wood chips used to grow their plants in and was told that its very good medium for growing plants, and while the bulbs were rotted they told me (Dianne) that the person who did the watering probably overwatered some things causing them to die, and my reply was to hire someone who knew what they were doing.

When I think of PD, it reminds me of the half dead plants you often see at walmart and kmart, Its just awful. I had no issue with PD customer service as they were very helpful and polite, but I will only buy from them again if they have something I absolutely cannot find anywhere else in the world.

Oh and if I do purchase something from them i'll send them a box myself to pack the plants in so I won't have to pay those rediculous shipping charges.


On Jul 17, 2011, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"On Jul 18, 2011 12:41 PM, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

Smurfwv:

You are 100% right! We agree with the following points you are making:
1- Our plants are more expensive than you find on Ebay. The plant exploration and the research that goes into acquiring our plant collection; along with years of trialing and then the propagation of our rare plant collection comes at a higher price than the average overhead of most EBay growers.
2 - We agree that shipping is expensive, but the carrier charged us $11.63 for your box of three plants and that was our contracted price. Anyone shipping to your address from Raleigh, NC or further away would be losing money if they charged you less. The plants have to be pulled and packed as well; therefore the difference for what you were charged ($17.50) pays for labor, supplies and overhead.
3 - As conscientious as our staff are, when watering many thousand of plants with many diverse requirements, we do over-water, under-water and as a result kill plants as we attempt to care for them appropriately. That is the reality of owning and managing a nursery - at least here at PDN.
4 - We agree that we do have very nice people here and appreciate and thank you for acknowledging that.

Based on an earlier email, you requested to be removed from our mailing list. We have respected your decision not to order from us again and have removed you from our mailing list. We realize that we have been unable to provide you with plants that meet your expectations and hope you will find another nursery that better meets your needs and your budget.


"


Negative Speckled_Hen
(3 reviews)
On Jun 9, 2011, Speckled_Hen San Antonio, TX (Zone 8b) wrote:

Posted on May 29, 2011, updated June 9, 2011
I've been following this company for years and have always appreciated their diverse catalog. However, I've also noted their poor customer service, especially in the way they've responded to complaints on this site, and their strange infusion of politics with plants and questionable comments in the plant descriptions. What this all adds up to is unprofessionalism, which has been evident especially in the snarky email replies from the company, in which the representative in several cases actually made personal attacks toward the customer. The fact that they entitle a section on their website "Hate Mail" that includes critical correspondence demonstrates their childish sarcastic attitude. I've never seen another company do this - who stayed in business. I am glad that some people have had luck with this company but I will continue to be wary and avoid them until I know they have a more serious dedication to customer service and quality over sarcastic humor and rudness.


On June 9th, 2011, Speckled_Hen added the following:

Update after response from company. This is just the sort of response I've come to expect from this company, and the way I've seen them respond to every problem in this forum - with personal attacks, unprofessionalism and sarcasm. What a way to attract and retain customers. This interaction has been a customer service experience and with their response, they've guaranteed that I won't be a future customer. There are just too many other good nurseries out there folks who won't treat you like this. Incidentally, I do appreciate and share your sense of humour sir - I just think it could use some refinement. ;)
On Jun 9, 2011, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"On Jun 1, 2011 12:12 PM, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

Speckled_Hen:

You sound like someone with an axe to grind. Let's see, you've never ordered from us and have no first hand experience with our customer service. You don't like our truth in advertising when we post our hate mail on our website without any editorial comments. You didn't bother to mention our good mail, which extols our excellent customer service...hmmm...sure sounds like an axe grinding episode to me. It goes without saying that you obviously don't share our sense of humor. That's fine, and if you don't want to order from us, that's fine also, but why can't you just keep your negative thoughts to yourself? I'm reminded of the old saying, better to remain silent and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt."

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"


Negative dave12122
(83 reviews)
On Dec 29, 2009, dave12122 East Haddam, CT wrote:

Posted on February 10, 2003, updated December 29, 2009
I continue to order from Plant Delights because they have many species and cultivars not offered elsewhere. However, the condition of their plants varies from excellent to barely alive, most items are badly pot bound, and the prices are best described as high to very high, especially for new hostas that tend to drop in price after a few years. Moreover, the nursery has a "bump on itself", never failing to sing its praises, even when it is not warranted (does anyone really care how many species the Juniper Level Display Garden has?) The notes on How To Be A Good Customer are unbelieveably patronizing and not funny in the least. As a matter of fact, what passes for humor in this catalog sounds like leftover material from the Johnny Carson show. The zone hardiness ratings are so inaccurate as to be laughable...about the only truely funny thing in the catalog. Raleigh, North Carolina rarely gets below 15 degrees, maybe for a day or two. Just because something survives zero degrees in Raleigh every 10 years does NOT mean it will survive a typical zone 7 winter! I would add 1 or 2 zones to each of the hardiness ratings...the so called hardy Agaves and their relatives MUST be absolutely dry in the winter or they will rot. Many of the other succulent plants offered are not adapted to Eastern winters and cannot take frozen soil and alternate freezing and thawing. None of this is mentioned in the catalog, which would have you believe each of its offerings is on a level with Mother Teresa. So, basically this is a pipe dream catalog, some very good plants, some untested junk, a lot of glowing descriptions and perfect plants. When Plant Delights embraces "real life" I plan or ordering from them more.


On June 6th, 2007, dave12122 changed the rating from neutral to negative and added the following:

It is with reluctance that I need to change my rating of Plant Delights Nursery to negative. I sent an email in mid May outlining my disappointment with two plants ordered the previous season, in late August. Both the Saruma henryi and Tricyrtis "Imperial Banner" looked like they had seen better days when they arrived, but I figured it was the end of the season and the plants would emerge healthy and vigorous the following Spring. Well, it here it is, June 5th, and there is absolutely NO top growth on either plant. They clearly succumbed over a weird yet generally mild winter (lowest temperature 4 degrees, which would theoretically be zone 7). This shouldn't be an issue of hardiness....unless PDN is being dishonest in its presentation of these two species. When I dug up the plants, I was surprised to see a puny root system on both. Clearly, this size was probably only appropriate for Spring planting, but there is nothing in the catalogue to that effect.

My initial email was completely ignored, so I sent another one a week later. That, too was not replied to, a completely unacceptable level of customer service. In the second email, I outlined an additional problem I was having with Arisaema triphyllum "Black Jack". The original tiny corm sent last Spring never came up, so PD sent a new plant with foliage in the summer. Unfortunately, this second plant has not emerged in 2007, while countless other triphyllums around it have bloomed and prospered beautifully.

I predict that "Blackjack" will emerge as a poor doer in the north due to lack of hardiness much north of Washington DC. PD did not do its homework on this plant, and now I'm out $35.00. It does not mean much that a plant is hardy in a Raleigh zone 7, even if the temperature goes to 5 degrees or lower on rare occasions. February and March in Connecticut were largely below freezing, and "Blackjack" appears to be a plant that cannot take prolonged freezing soil and cold.

If PD "makes good" on these issues, I will be glad to change the rating to positive. However, being ignored for three weeks, even if PD doesn't agree with me, is simply not good business.
On September 4th, 2007, dave12122 added the following:

To respond to Ms. Austin's comments of June 6th:

I definitely used the "office" email rather than the "sales" email. While I could "buy" that an email could get lost once, two emails, sent on different days being lost strains my credulity. Either I am incredibly unlucky or PD is not as organized as it could be.

Yet, this third evaluation DID get to PDN in early June, since Ms. Austin responded to it. As of today, September 3rd, I have received NO response from PDN other than this rebuttal. I do not know how I could have responded earlier than 9 months (not 10....I wrote in May). Sometimes, ratty plants delivered in August DO make it through the winter and I thought it would be fair to see if the two plants did indeed make it. When there appeared to be no sign of life in May, I wrote to PDN immediately. Notifying them earlier would have been like the "boy who cried wolf". I really don't know what I could have done differently. Letting them know in August would have been a little silly since the plants were not dead, just ratty looking. They probably would have said "wait to see if they come through the winter" anyway, which brings us back to square one.

The Arisaema "Black Jack" never came up. I found the bulb, and it had rotted, perhaps as long ago as early winter, I cannot tell. This is the only case out of 100's of Arisaema triphyllums I have grown where a bulb has rotted. Other Arisaemas in the same area....ringens, consanguinea, japonica, flavum, draconitum, etc. all thrived and came up at the proper time, so I find it a bit hard to believe that there is a cultivation problem here. Again, it is important to note that I failed with this form TWICE. The initial bulb was extremely small, one-eighth of an inch at most, and never came up after being planted in early Spring. My prediction is...and I may be wrong, just like Ms. Austin...that smaller bulbs of "Black Jack" are not hardy in zone 6b without snow cover and the plant as a whole is not satisfactory north of Philadelphia. Time will tell who is right!

I find it rather odd that Ms. Austin welcomes zone information from PDN customers, but when I give her this information based on 42 years worth of gardening in Zone 6, she is quick to be defensive and accusatory. Of course, it is I that must be the mediocre gardener and PDN is always on target with its zone ratings. A lower New England Zone 6 and a Zone 6 in southern states such as Kentucky, North Carolina, etc. is an entirely different animal. The length of the cold, daily highs, and moisture in the air/alternating rain and snow are completely different. I repeat: just because a certain plant comes through the winter in central North Carolina means next to nothing for gardeners in New Jersey, Delaware, Rhode Island, Connecticut. I would be happy to give PDN my more thorough zone observations on over 100 of their plants, but as you can see, they are hardly receptive to such material, so why bother?

Little things mean a lot, and Ms. Austin's placement of my word reluctant in parenthesis speaks volumes. Does she mean to imply I enjoy giving negative reviews, that I have nothing better to do when there are over 2,000 species to manage in the greenhouse and 1,000 more in the outside garden? My reviews in Dave's Garden are public, and largely positive. Yes, there are a few strongly negative ones, but I have tried to call things as I see them. And when you call things as you see them with PDN, you are discredited immediately. I really cannot see how that fosters a positive/reciprocal attitude with customers, but I am sure PDN will think of another defensive style response.


Dave12122
On December 29th, 2009, dave12122 added the following:

In early 2009, I felt it was worth the effort to make one more effort to resolve this long standing issue. I decided to write to Tony Avent directly, to avoid the issue of emails not being received. Tony's initial response was encouraging, and he offered to replace both plants on any future order of $50.00 or more. This was important, as it was the first indication of some accountability on PDN's part. Unfortunately, I had long since replaced both plants, and felt a little uncomfortable having to place an additional $50.00 order to receive new plants, a requirement I had never encountered before. So, I wrote back suggesting instead a simple credit for both plants to be used for a future order. I felt this was acknowledging there could indeed be a future order and keeping the door open for additional dealings with PDN.

Well, apparently that was the wrong thing to say. I received a speedy reply from Tony, wholly different in tone, stating "I had a different thought process than all of his other customers, was "spewing venom" and was not contrite enough." He further went on to say "this will be the last communication from us".

Excuse me? What exactly do I need to be contrite about? I planted the 2 specimens immediately, gave them sufficient care, and yet they still died, despite being in a perennial bed where 100 other plants (20 newly planted from other nurseries) came through the winter perfectly. Perhaps Tony is expecting me to be contrite about not reporting the ratty plants within the 5 day window. Well, that indeed was for PDN's benefit. Plants can be ratty but not dead, and to ask for replacements at that point would have been unreasonable. By the way, this 5 day reporting policy is absolutely terrible for gardeners. Like winter damage, the effects of shipping a poorly grown plant in a box for several days does not usually show up immediately. In my experience, such plants usually show distress after 10 days-2 months, and die agonizingly slowly. Of course, this is outside of the PDN replacement period. However, I find it hard to believe that a garderner who plants something in good faith and yet loses it in 10 days, or to make it more ridiculous, 6 days is doing anything wrong.

Stating that my thought processes are unlike any other PDN customer is rather strange. Would not the typical PDN customer expect plants cared for in August and the subsequent Fall to still be alive the following growing season? I should hope they would. Tony stated in his 2nd letter to me that plants sometimes "die for no reason. " I have never found that to be true. Sometimes it is difficult to discern the reason, especially the subtleties of drainage, but there always is a reason, generally related to a problem with under or over watering.

In the infamous "How to be a good customer" essay, Tony is quick to point out that "if you are a mean customer, we would be happy to provide you with a list of companies that deserve
your business." Yet, apparently it is fine for Tony to send an insulting and dismissive email such as the 2nd one he sent me. This makes me doubt his sincerity, as well as his veracity.
On Dec 29, 2009, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"


On Jun 6, 2007 5:10 PM, Plant Delights Nursery added:

As Customer Service Manager, I am writing in hopes that dave12122 will read our rebuttal to his "reluctant" change from neutral to a 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). There are other methods of communication aside from email that could be utilized to investigate your unanswered mail. However, you have elected to use this public forum to accuse us of a negligent level of customer service. Your post is unfair and undeserved. Perhaps something as simple as the email address 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 [e-mail:office@plantdelights.com] We invite you to check your email address on file to make sure you have our correct email address:
office@plantdelights.com If you prefer, you can give us a call at (919) 772-4794.

The next point I would like to address is the condition of the Saruma henryi and Tricyrtis "Imperial Banner upon arrival. All reported concerns are documented as soon as a customer contacts us. We have no documentation regarding your displeasure with plants received in August 2006. It is the customer’s responsibility to notify us if there are any concerns related to plants at the time of receipt rather than ten months later.

I see that we replaced your Arisaema triphyllum ‘Black Jack’ in 2006. Just last week a customer in New York state telephoned to report that her ‘Black Jack’ had not emerged and she was positive it was dead. Today, she called to report that it emerged this week. Perhaps you haven't waited long enough? As noted in the catalog description “…For us it emerges slightly later (mid-May) than most A. triphyllum.” Since you are north of us, I would not count it out yet. The zone information is accurate; perhaps you might investigate by searching for your tuber. You may consider speaking with one of our horticulturist’s on staff to discuss the cause of your problems, but these problems are not related to the plants ability to withstand your temperatures.

As for our Zone ratings, we respectfully disagree. The fact is that Raleigh, NC has had two consecutive warm winters in a row where our low was 15 degrees F for many nights. Other than these abnormal winters, we regularly drop into the single digits. If a plant has not been through a Zone 7 winter, it does not get a Zone 7 rating. You will notice many new listings that are probably Zone 7 hardy, but we still list them as Zone 8 until we can verify that they can stand colder weather. We would appreciate examples of plants that the customer feels are miss-zoned, so we can explain or investigate. There are many factors that influence hardiness other than minimum cold and we encourage the customer to read our article on this subject before claming that the hardiness zones are incorrect.

I don’t even know how to reply to your “unless PDN is being dishonest” comment, so we will not dignify this remark with a response.

With regard to your earlier comment, having never seen the Johnny Carson Show, but knowing it to be one of the most respected shows in television history, we consider this a compliment.

Regards,

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


Negative kudrick
(4 reviews)
On Sep 10, 2009, kudrick Fallston, MD (Zone 6b) wrote:

In the past 5 years, I have spent over $2,000 with PDN and in the past few years, their plants have one of the highest mortality rates of all ( compared to at least 20 other nurseries that I deal with ). I have this year sent 3 or 4 emails asking for help with plants that I have purchased, and have never received a single reply. They used to package their plants with shredded newspaper but now are using styrofoam peanuts, the environmental impact of which is unquestionably negative.


On Sep 10, 2009, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"On Sep 10, 2009 12:04 PM, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

Dear Kudrick,

I am very sorry to hear that your emails went unanswered. Because of spam filters and a variety of other cyber-snafus, email correspondence is not a reliable form of communication. When your emails remain unswered by us, you can be assured with 100% certainty that we did not receive it. Please give us a call or D-Mail me here on Dave's Garden with your telephone number and I will be happy to discuss any problems you have experienced with our plants. As our catalog states, if we have played any part in the demise of our customers' plants we want to replace them.

Kind regards,

Dianne Austin
office@plantdelights.com
(919) 772-4794 "


Negative KarenPhanco
(2 reviews)
On May 19, 2009, KarenPhanco Canton, GA wrote:

I also have ordered from PDN for a couple of years. Most of the time I have been happy with their plants. This year I was not as happy. Last year I had ordered 5 Cardoon plants and several miniature pitcher plants. None of the 5 cardoon came up this spring and one of the pitcher plants died. I was informed by PDN that my cardoons were not replaceable as I lived in Zone 7a rather than a 7b. I have always felt that zones were to be used as a general guide in planting. Many sites only list me as a 7. To add to that, my area did not have any temperatures as low as the 5-0 temperatures listed for Zone 7b, so my plants should have survived given this criteria. I was also informed that my pitcher plant would no doubt grow upon warmer temperatures. Excuse me, I've been a gardener long enough to recognize a DEAD plant. Even though their prices are relatively high, I have been willing to pay them if I felt their plants were healthy and out of the ordinary. Not anymore.


On May 19, 2009, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"On May 27, 2009 11:06 AM, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

To Karen and Garden Watchdog readers:

We understand how our policy can be puzzling given the extended guarantees that are prevalent in the green industry today. A customer can forget to water, plant in poor soil, neglect to provide winter protection to mention a few, and large garden centers/big box stores will replace or refund with no questions asked. Plants are our only source of income which is why we cannot compete with these long-term guarantees.

Previous to our grower's email reply to you, she reviewed our Cynara cardunculus historical crop data to see whether we had any evidence of plant loss that would coincide with your loss and nothing in our crop history indicated a pathogen that would contribute to your loss. I see that we did replace your Clematis addisonii under our extended dormancy guarantee.

We want to be fair, and in every case we want to replace or refund any plant loss that is our fault. We guarantee our quality, but we do not guarantee that everyone will be successful gardeners. We have killed our fair share due to improper drainage, too much sun, not enough sun, neighborhood dogs, insects, vermin, improper plants for our zone and a myriad of other reasons including quirks of mother nature that no one has control over.

The 5-day policy from a business standpoint also makes good sense if we hope to survive as a company. If a healthy plant is received by a customer and planted, most plants will survive a long list of abuses for a short period of time. Beyond 5 days, the plant is culturally out of our control and scope of responsibility. It is now subject to the care provided by another gardener.

Karen, I apologize for the lengthy rebuttal, but it is important to us that our horticultural friends around the circle understand our logic when questions arise about our limited guarantee policy. I do hope you find this information helpful. Here is a link to our guarantee policy on our website. Our guarantee policy is also attached to the Order Form in the center of each printed catalog.

http://www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/order.html

If there is any service or promise we have not lived up to, please let us know so we can address that as well.

Sincerely,

Dianne Austin
Manager, Customer Service & Shipping
Plant Delights Nursery, Inc.

"


Negative cowpea123
(10 reviews)
On Jan 15, 2009, cowpea123 Coushatta, LA wrote:

My friend ordered me a few plants as gift and when he gave them to me they were tiny!I asked him how much he paid for them and I was shocked.They were plugs stuck in 4" pots.I did some research and talked to some people and found out that PD buys agaves,hostas and other plants as tissue cultured plugs for 1.75-3.95 and sales them for 19.95 and up!From the plants I got it seems they don't keep them very long.They were alive and well but tiny.They cost 19.95 each plus shipping.I had to grow them all summer in pots before I could plant them out.I ordered the same plants from another nursery and got nice quart size plants for the same price.If you like tiny plants that are bought cheap and sold at a huge markup buy from PD.


On January 16th, 2009, cowpea123 added the following:

I do not have a problem with buying liners and plugs at wholesale prices and selling them at higher prices but at least grow them to a good size.I was wrong about the price of the plants they were 18.00 not 19.95 and they were alive and very healthy but so very tiny and you still see the shape of plug.
On Jan 15, 2009, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"


On Jan 16, 2009 8:57 AM, Plant Delights Nursery added:

Dear cowpea 123,

First I would like to express how sorry we are to learn of your disappointment with any plant received from us - especially a plant that was meant as a gift. However, we are a little confused regarding the price you state was paid for your plant. All of the plants we sell are priced even dollars, i.e. $12.00. One of two things could be the case here. Either your purchase was from another company or your friend gave you inaccurate information. Assuming for the moment that you did receive the plant from us, we would appreciate it if you would email us directly and let us know which plant we are discussing so we can look into this on our end. All mail order nurseries world-wide receive liner stock from wholesale companies as well as from tissue-culture facilities. It is not how the plant is propagated that matters, but how well the plant is rooted in and is it of the appropriate size to transplant into its permanant garden home. We guarantee that all of our plants will meet this standard, and if we have failed to live up to this promise, we ask that our customers notify us so we can correct our mistake.
Looking forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

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


Negative celticflower
(1 review)
On Sep 3, 2008, celticflower Chickasha, OK wrote:

My advice is to order from any of the other quality companies. I order all my plants on line and I was tempted to order from PD due to selection of unusual plants.

I received dead plants, they didn't respond to my email since they didn't answer the phone before I went to work.
They have not answered the first email.

What I received was small dead plants in 4" deep pots for $15.00 each. these were not as described.

Customer service would not replace the plants because they blamed their agent for the condition of the plants. I am still waiting on a refund. We are in our second month.

They were slow to ship, no reply to email on delivery and no customer service. Just avoid and order from several companies that specialize in the unusual.

In the past I have ordered the unusual from Native Plants, Tx Natives, Callaways, High Country Gardens, Sun Shine Nursery etc..... Just avoid PD and save your self the money and misery. I wish I had read the reivews here before ordering because the neutrals and negatives would of saved me.


On September 8th, 2008, celticflower added the following:

First it took PD over two weeks to ship. I said that was fine but I need them to arrive before 12 noon or delay them because I had a trip scheduled.

I found them when I returned on Monday on our front step in full sun, THERE is a shade side of the porch or even next to the door would of keep them out of the sun. They were delivered on Friday after 12. The plants were cooked, roots and all. They had been in the sun for 3 days with 107 degree temp. PD had told the agent to leave them and not require signature. I never gave a release to the delivery company.

I called the company immediately and was told it was not there responsibility to replace the plants since they were delivered. You can check the weatherunderground and see that the whole south was under a heat wave. Secondly they knew that I was leaving at 12 noon. I wasn't going to waste my time on plants that were cooked and dead. I felt and still do feel that PD should of file a claim with Fed ex since they left plants in the sun and their box clear has warnings about heat and cold.

They were not going to replace them or refund them. I told them I am sending them back. Since they were dead and I was paying for the shipping I washed all the dirt off and cut the plants back to reduce the weight.) As far as time, I can not control shipping times and it didn't matter if I shipped them express or third class, they were dead.

Cindi won't not even talk to me and I was not unpolite. I was firm that I was not going to waste money on dead plants.
The plants I shipped are the plants that I sent, I sent the complete dead plant less the soil. It is so easy to send out little plants and when you have a complaint go find bigger plants to show how robust your plants are. My plants looked nothing like the plants in the photo. Not in height, color or stem size. I received mere plugs/ liners. For $15 each they should of being large healthy plants.

If there was one ounce of life in the stems or roots I would of planted them, but they were mushy. The photos also show
much nicer looking plants than what I received. Also there is no moisture in the photos on the right so the stems are a lot smaller since they are DEAD.

I only posted here because I want to warn other buyers to not waste their money with PD. I am not the only unsatisfied customer with PD, READ THEIR RATINGS esp the neutrals and negatives. They have a history of not responding, not sent out good plants and sending out small liners.

I just wish I have read the reviews before I had ordered.
42 of their 231 customers had neg/neutral comments that is almost 20% are unsatisfied.

My advice is order from the top 30 on watchdog.
PDelights. As a customer they should stand behind their product and when their agent (fed ex) leaves plants on a door step in the sun because they didn't listen to the customer that told them they had to be their by 12. If their were so unaware of the 12 departure why did they send it second day and why did they choose morning service by noon. IT is on the label.
On September 8th, 2008, celticflower added the following:

I was polite and not angry. I informed them of the condition and they said it was my fault they were delivered 30 minutes after we left and they were not going to replace or refund.

I said that sending out plants without regard to instructions. I had to contact them about a shipping address since the order had my PO because they changed shipping and I told them it had to be there by noon on Friday and they shipped it that way. I find that Fed Ex didn't fulfill they agency delivery since they didn't arrive by 12 as stated on the label. They also left the box out in the sun. I believe that it is Plant delights fault since they released the package and would not file a claim with Fed Ex.

The customer service person said they would not replace or refund. Only when I said that it is their choice but that I would let my friends know how I was treated and that their customer service was lacking. I was not abusive or firm. Cindi never talked to me and then said I would get a refund when I returned the plants. I asked if they were going to send a rma and they said no, it was my responsibility to return them.
I told them If that was the case I would reduce the weight and send back usps.

They have the plants back and and my money.
I am still out the $60+ dollars for three small dead plants.

I tried to work with them, but they were more concern with
keeping my money and not replacing nor refunding so now they blame me. I guess when they rip you off, you are suppose to smile and say thank you .


I would like to emphasize that I was polite. I found PD not willing to do anything to resolve the solution.. I regret that Plants delight chose not to refund or replace, what a great
way to build customer service especially when they have the
return.

As always, I am grateful that DGW offers customers the ability to warn others about companies like Plant Delights where almost 20% of their customers have reported disatisfaction either by placing neturals or negatives.

Plant Delights has had plenty of time to refund or replace.
I have been more than corporative, either send me live plants like you show in your photos or refund my money.
Is that so much to ask?
On Sep 3, 2008, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"


On Sep 8, 2008 11:46 AM, Plant Delights Nursery added:

To celticflowers and DGW forum readers:

As customer service manager, it is my responsibility to respond to customer concerns or complaints when brought to our attention by email, phone or via these forums. I will take this opportunity to share a few more details regarding celticflowers dissatisfaction with our policies and service.

Regrettably, our customer did not notify us of his out of town plans. Our website offers all customers the option to choose a “preferred ship week”. We do not accommodate preferred “ship days” unless the customer advises us of special shipping instructions in advance. Further, the paperwork inside of the box states the date of shipping as “EST. DATE” – meaning estimated day of shipping. At no time prior to shipping were we alerted to out of town plans. Unfortunately, we experienced a heat delay the week of 7/21 and no orders shipped until Wednesday (7/23). Once shipping resumed, we selected transit services for every order that ensures a delivery date no later than Friday. In celticflowers case, we shipped 2-day air service at our expense in order to facilitate a Friday delivery.

Celticflower contacted us after his return home and reported yellowing Hibiscus and loss of leaves. For those of you that are familiar with hardy hibiscus, everyone will agree that these are very tough plants and will re-flush easily after stress damage. celticflower was instructed to plant them but refused; stating it was a “joke” and he would not “waste his time”; took an abusive tone with our representative and threatened the reputation of the nursery. Because he was so adamant about not planting them, I agreed to allow him to return the plants to us in tact for refund with the intention to rehabilitate them on our end. He returned them 21 days later, out of their pots (which was unnecessary since he would not plant them), no ID tags, bare-rooted with no moist media to protect the roots. Unacceptable.

Due to the condition of the returned plant material celticflower was advised in writing that we would not refund for plants in the condition they were returned in. Further, we question whether the material returned were the same Hibiscus we sent. (See attached photos).

I would like to emphasize that a polite demeanor and spirit of cooperation goes a long way. We are always willing to do more than our share to meet our customer’s demands – we only ask for a little cooperation. We regret that celticflower chose a different way of handling his disappointment.

As always, we are grateful that DGW offers companies such as ours the right to defend our reputation by bringing the “rest of the story” to these public forums.

Sincerely,

Dianne Austin
Manager, Customer Service/Shipping
Plant Delights Nursery, Inc.

[IMG]http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo344/daustin9241/174880.jpg[/IMG]
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"


Negative Desertdenial5
(26 reviews)
On Mar 13, 2008, Desertdenial5 Tolleson, AZ (Zone 9a) wrote:

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.


On March 15th, 2008, marieortiz added the following:

I have e-mailed the address given a 3rd time.
On March 24th, 2008, marieortiz added the following:

I received the answer listed below:

I’m sorry that you were disappointed in the quantity of our zephyranthes bulbs. Our zephyranthes from Fadjar Marta are very much in demand. We divided nearly all of those bulbs, resulting in one bulb per pot. ‘Krakatau’ and ‘Batik’ offset very quickly so you should have more bulbs by the end of the growing season. ‘Fantasy Island’ and ‘Moulin Rouge’ are a little slower.

I still feel that they should list on their website that you are purchasing only one bulb and if I do order again I will be sure to check with them first to make sure I am receiving what I am expecting.
On Mar 13, 2008, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"


On Mar 13, 2008 9:23 AM, Plant Delights Nursery added:

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

"


Negative Cretaceous
(32 reviews)
On Mar 22, 2007, Cretaceous El Sobrante, CA (Zone 9b) wrote:

I placed an order with Plant Delights Nursery on December 1st, 2006, for eight ferns and one Spikemoss (Selaginella).

Last week the nursery called me to say that my order would ship soon, but that one of the ferns (Cheilanthes alabamensis) had sold out and would I like to substitute another plant (which I declined to do).

The plants shipped on March 19th via Fedex and arrived on the 21st in good shape.

Overall, I would say that the plants were a little on the expensive side. The Fedex shipping was also costly. My biggest disappointment was not receiving the Alabama lipfern (Cheilanthes alabamensis), which I had originally ordered back on December 1st.......


On March 23rd, 2007, Cretaceous added the following:

By the way, I also received the "Gardening Jihad" catalogue from Plant Delights Nursery, and would have to agree with the previous review. I think it was irresponsible (and ignorant) to use the title/artwork.

As an ex-Londoner living in California, I'm only too aware of the results of the so called "Jihad" which occured last year on the London transport system.
On July 1st, 2007, Cretaceous changed the rating from neutral to negative and added the following:

I recently ordered a further three ferns from Plant Delights Nursery and noticed that I was charged $ 27 for “Air Service” shipping.

The plants were shipped USPS Priority Mail and the package weighed four pounds. There is absolutely no way I can see anyone justifying this cost for shipping these already fairly expensive plants.

I have regularly sold items on eBay and printed my own USPS Priority Mail labels. A four pound package does not cost $ 27 to ship via Priority Mail !
On Mar 22, 2007, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"


On Jul 3, 2007 4:36 PM, Plant Delights Nursery added:

Dear Cretaceous,

Yes, we agree that it is very expensive to ship live plants to our West Coast gardening friends. Our shipping charge also includes the handling expense incurred with each order we process. Though you elected to order three plants, the $27.00 minimum shipping/handling charge facilitates the processing and shipment of six plants. We realize that everyone will not always need or want six plants, but whether an order is for one plant or multiple plants, fixed expenses force us to adopt a minimum shipping charge in order to remain in business.

In addition to the fixed expenses, the State of California Department of Agriculture requires documentation of certification against Gypsy Moth, Witchweed, Imported Fire Ant, Burrowing/reniform nematodes and Japanese beetle. This is a requirement for any nursery transporting live plant material across California state borders. In cooperation with the State of California, each plant must be treated with a low-toxicity pesticide drench prior to leaving the nursery. In order to administer these chemicals, we are required by law to employ a licensed professional. The cost to offer our plants to gardeners on the West Coast is greater than plants shipped to customers in other states. We recoup expenses along with the actual cost of carriage through our shipping/handling fee.

Also, I will mention that we were unaware of your concern surrounding our shipping charge. We would have gladly addressed your concerns had you expressed them while placing either of your two orders this season. We regret that your experiences with us have prompted an array of neutral and negative posts.

While I am here, I would like to extend our sincere apologizes regarding the cancelled Cheilanthes alabamensis. We were very disappointed too. We lost every plant in our crop of 62.

In closing, we would like to go on record saying that it is our desire and preference to always meet customer concerns with professionalism and fairness whether over the phone, by email, in person or on these forums. We appreciate the same and will look forward to new opportunities to serve you in the future.


Kind regards,

Dianne Austin
Customer Service & Shipping Manager
Plant Delights Nursery
"


Negative rwalter
(2 reviews)
On May 24, 2006, rwalter Wamego, KS wrote:

On February 28, 2006 I paid these people by credit card $117.00 to cover $96.00 worth of plants and $21.00 shipping. They were to ship on May 8th, and today was the 23rd, and still no plants, so..... I called in the AM and was told by someone there that they would check to see what happened, and call me back. About 4:15 PM, my time, I finally called THEM back, and was told by the person that answered the phone that they would tell customer service I called about my order, and have them call me back. I told the person that I had heard that statement from them early that morning, and no one had bothered to call back all day, upon which they said they would walk up to customer service and have them pick up. They did, and they told me they really would check on it, this time, and get back to me.... After a while they DID call me back, and told me that they had run out of one of the plants I ordered, and normally they would refer the order to customer service so that they could notify the customer and ask if they would like something else, but in my case they hadn't, they just didn't do anything, and they had no idea why ( I kind of thought to myself that it might be because they already had my 117 bucks). I asked them how they could run out of a plant before filling my order, when I had pre ordered in February. They said, well....that sometimes some plants may not all come out of dormancy and they are short on them. I said I ordered in FEBRUARY, so surely I should have been covered, in even a shortage situation, and they sort of stuttered around and said, well ,,, some people order in January and early February, so maybe I had been too late. Personally, I found it a little insulting sitting there debating a hypothetical situation with someone who admittedly had no idea if that was even what had happened. At that point I told them that I could tell them what they could do for me now, and it wouldn't take 3 months to do it. I asked them to credit my card back the full $117.00, and cancel my order, immediately. We will see how that turns out, and if bad, I will amend this, or put up another evaluation. I made several other early orders this year, to several sites on the internet, and Plant Delights is just one of several that have not sent my orders yet, and unless I really AM the unluckiest person around, I strongly suspect that they get a lot of people that order stuff in the early months of the year, and then forget they ordered, or who they ordered it from, and so they don't ship till you call and confront them about it. I am sorry to say that Plant Delights had the feeblest and least believable excuses of all of them I called. Here's a hint- if you screwed up, just admit you screwed up, don't try to make up reasons it could have happened besides your own monumental incompetence, it goes down badly. My rating- Caveat Emptor, and if you order early, save your copy of the receipt. I also believe that it is somewhat indicative of the ethics of a company when they process your credit card charge before they ship the items ordered, especially when we're talking MONTHS before shipping is even scheduled, but it is, unfortunately not an isolated practice on the web. In all fairness, they might be the victim of a snafu of their own making, but although they have lovely photos, of unusual plants, and it's a great place to dream, I, personally will not know if they are worth the fairly high prices, at least not this year. Might try them again next year, if they refund my money promptly, and I get over being mad by next JANUARY (can I pre order in December and be assured of my order being filled?), I don't know. LOL- in this case means lots of luck.

Negative rsalko
(3 reviews)
On Jul 15, 2005, rsalko Jackson, NJ wrote:

waited over six months for two common trachy palms,they charged my card six moths ago and sent me a seedling with five leaves the other is sickly brown leaves and small as hell.they sell the same palms in hd for half the price and five times the size.over rated i will never buy from again.they did offer a full refund still lost my whole growing season. next time i will just use ebay and support the little guys and gals rob


On Jul 15, 2005, Plant Delights Nursery responded with:

"


On Jul 20, 2005 11:17 AM, Plant Delights Nursery added:

We received “robs” email dated July 14th stating how disappointed he was with the two Trachycarpus wagnerianus he received. This is an excerpt from his complaint email “ …”one wagnerianus is as small as a tissue cultured plug and the other is not healthy at all.” Further he stated “I want to give you a chance to respond before I leave negative feedback on your company…..” Regardless of threats, we take every customer complaint seriously. We responded to his concerns on July 15th. Our email response to him reads as follows:

From: "Dianne Austin"
>Reply-To: "Dianne Austin"
>To: " Omitted " < Omitted >
>Subject: Re: not happy at all
>Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 11:27:20 -0400
>
>Good morning Mr. ,

“Thank you for your patience while I discussed your Trachycarpus wagneriaus purchase with our grower. Looking at our historical database regarding this plant as well as cultural information regarding the growth habit of T. wagnerianus. We have determined that first; the plants you received represent 2-year-old specimens. However, you are correct that they are very small. Unlike other palm such as Sabal or Nannorrhops, these are notoriously slow growers until they develop a trunk. Once they have developed a trunk their growth habit increases. This requires planting in the ground and giving ample amount of time to develop through these stages. Although this information may be interesting, we realize that you are unhappy with your purchase. We will be happy to send a call tag so you can return the plants for a full refund. Please let us know when a pick up date would be convenient and we will arrange for UPS to pick them up. We are very sorry you have had this negative experience. If there is any other service or promise we have not lived up to, please let us know so we can address that as well.” D. Austin, Plant Delights Nursery, Inc.

We responded in the most amicable manner possible yet this customer decided a negative post was appropriate. He did respond to our email that offered a refund with this comment … “You just bought yourself a lifetime of bad advertising…” We are of the opinion that this comment was totally unjustified and mean-spirited. We will let Garden Watchdog subscribers judge for themselves.

As for waiting six months, we advised the customer of the waiting period for this plant when he ordered. Waiting for the plant until it was ready to ship was his choice. Had he changed his mind at any point, we would have gladly refunded him. Our Ordering Policy clearly states that we do not reserve plants unless they are paid for. Because of the high demand of our hard to find plants and given our limited quantities, most customers expect to pay for a plant that is being held for them.

We are a bit puzzled that “rob” did not jump on an opportunity to purchase a T. wagnerianus that was five times the size of ours for half the price that he spotted at Home Depot. Perhaps the Trachycarpus he saw at Home Depot was not actually a T. wagnerianus at all? He did refer to the “common trachy palms” he waited six months for. I don’t believe Home Depot has ever offered this particular selection since it is far from common. He also accused us of just potting these up to “ look bigger right before it was sent…..the roots are still square from the 2.5-3 [sic] pot it was in before it was shipped…..it is not two years old and there was an attempt to decieve [sic] by potting it up before it was sent.” This is absolutely, unequivocally impossible since we grow these palms from seed in large community seed pots. These plants never see the inside of a cell pack or any other container as he describes. The seeds are sowed randomly throughout the pot and those that germinate are later transferred into a 1 qt. (4” x4”) container. These containers are where they grow until the customer receives it and plants it in their own garden. The date on the plant tag was 6/25/04. That was the date the plant came out of the seed pot where it had been growing for a year (or more) prior to being placed in its container.

It is never our preference to publicly bring these matters to an public forum. We prefer to work with our customer one on one to resolve disappointment or other plant related problems. However, we felt this was an unjustified attack on our company and that this was an appropriate time to defend ourselves. We realize that we will never please everyone and that we will continue to face challenges both with our plants and those customers we serve. We would like to go on record by saying that it is our desire and preference to always meet these challenges with professionalism and fairness whether over the phone, by email, in person or on these forums.

Respectfully yours,

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


Negative moretz
(5 reviews)
On Dec 9, 2004, moretz hickory, NC (Zone 7a) wrote:

i went up to their nursery,boy i was so excited i couldnt wait to get there well it was fun until i was leaving and i picked up my plants to take home and i asked the ladys standing there if this one plant was sick or what she said it was fine. well i got it home and the next day a catapillar had eaten all the leaves off of it so i emailed them and they said i should have said something when i was up here and i said i did and they didnt believe me. so i won't be ordering from them any more as much as their plants are i think they need a better guarante on them. there is better and cheeper places to buy from.

Negative victorgardener
(12 reviews)
On Sep 27, 2004, victorgardener Lower Hudson Valley, NY (Zone 6b) wrote:

I would never buy from this place again. Simply put, they are horrible. Here's one example. Two years ago I bought many (12-15?) 'Ann Folkard' geranium in the Spring. Almost immediately a few died. They sent one or two replacements. As soon as the weather heated up, they simply withered away. I had given the proper care, watering etc. I am not a novice gardener. When I emailed, a response was emailed which said that theirs too had kind of wasted away and if they did not return next Spring they would replace them or refund the money. Luckily, I printed and saved that email. When they did not return the next Spring, I emailed. After a few attempts I finally called. I was told that the person that promised me the refund no longer worked there (of course). They resisted and said they could not find their own emails but I faxed them the saved email. They grudgingly decided to refund the money but (get this!) told me that they looked at my order history and noticed that out of five orders I had placed with them over the previous few years, a replacement was requested in three of them, implying (practically stating outright) that I was to blame. The woman telling me this was unbelievably arrogant and obnoxious. When I pointed out that those orders involved dozens of plants costing hundreds of dollars, and that as a percentage of the total number of plants ordered, the replacements (before the geranium order) represented a small percentage, she would not hear it. Then came the kicker. She told me that I should 'consider not ordering from them anymore'! Did I have to bite my tongue! - since the refund was still pending. Needless to say, I did not need that encouragement. Additionally, their plants are not very big - nothing special and their shipping is expensive. Save your money and avoid aggravation - go elsewhere.

Negative ABQPatt
(4 reviews)
On Jul 12, 2004, ABQPatt Albuquerque, NM wrote:

Ordered 6 plants for, about, $80.00 .. 3 were 75% dead
when they arrived; the other 3 (asters) are growing well but I believe asters are hardy?? Would not order from them again.

Negative berrygirl
(15 reviews)
On Apr 16, 2004, berrygirl Braselton, GA (Zone 8a) wrote:

Today I received my order and am shocked as why they charged me 20.00 for s&h. I have had MUCH BETTER packing at MUCH CHEAPER prices from other companies. I rec'd a small box with 3 small plants in it. Box label says it weighs 5 lbs- NO WAY!!
The plants were wrapped in saran wrap and that heavy tissue paper like you find in shoe boxes!!!! If it was hotter weather the hosta would have arrived dead b/c it was already wilting.
I expected much better packaging for my 20.00! My DH has worked in shipping and receiving for many years, so he knows a good packing job when he sees it. He was not impressed at all!!!
I will NOT be ordering from them again- no matter that they have plants that I can't find anywhere else or that they have cute catalog covers!!!!


On May 17th, 2005, berrygirl added the following:

I believe this company should really change their guarantee policy. For the prices they charge- not to mention the exhorbitant shipping fees- they should stand behind their plants for more than a few days. A lot of reliable [and much cheaper] nurseries offer at least 6 months or a year guarantee to their plants.
I will not order from them again, but will instead buy from companies who provide true customer satisfaction.
Negative szygzy
(4 reviews)
On Apr 5, 2004, szygzy Bay Village, OH wrote:

Pretty hit and miss with this company----My first order this year will definately be my last. Plants were inconsistent in quality, some containers actually containing no plants, others were nearly DOA. I'm looking at about 50% survival on some very expensive plants (my order was for over $350.00). Pretty pictures and clever marketing appear to be this company's primary skill set.If you are a risk taker, they do have a great plant list.

Negative pride62
(1 review)
On Jan 26, 2004, pride62 wrote:

The owner of this nursery writes for a major gardening magazine so I figured this was a top notch nursery. Wrong! After requesting their catalog, I placed an order late last winter. First of all, their prices are outrageous! Even plants that are easy to find elsewhere are $10 and up. The shipping is also astronomical. After placing an expensive order ($160 - ouch), my order arrived in early spring. I was a little taken back with the size and quality of the plants - very small sticks at best. I planted a total of 6 plants (yes, 6 plants for $160!!!) and only 2 made it until fall. When I called to complain, I was told that I could only recieve a credit on my next order. Well, I'm not ordering from this company again so I guess I'm on the loosing end!

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