Comments regarding Gurney's Seed & Nursery

A so-so place, like Jung, possible out of its time and place.

no complants or specific comments but it needs to get with the times and it's not. Almost archaic in catalog presentation.

On a 1-10 scale I rate it 5+

Today I received 6 out of 6 bush cherries that I ordered. They were all in very good shape and larger than the 18"-24" I bought. The customer service has been great this year. I have emailed customer service several times this year asking on the status of my order because of the poor service last year. Each time I have received a helpful and informative reply quickly. These bush cherries arrived at the time I was told in the emails. The service this year is so much better than last!

But I may have spoken too soon. The rest of my order is scheduled to be sent out at the beginning of April. I hope the second 3/4 is as good as the first part.

Gurney's get a "positive" from me.

I should have headed the advice on this site but the $20 coupon was too tempting. So far half of my order has never arrived even though they marked it as shipped on the invoice. This is about the worst case scenario possible.
I contacted customer service and they told me items were shipped back in Feb...thye told me that the would re-ship but the customer service rep didn't seem very knowledgeable so right now I'm waiting. Of the plants that I have recieved they were very small. The blueberry sampler that cost $22 had plants in it that were smaller and sadder than the $9.99 package at lowes. I am very dissapointed and probably would not order plants again from them. I will post another message to let everyone know how this was resolved

I also tried the new management and was very very upset!
I ordered in mid Feburary and was shipped my potatoes mid May. Needless to say the hot Kansas wind isn't pleasant for potatoes planted that late in the season.

My order was broken up into three shipments over a period of 12 weeks...I also ordered a tree to replace one that I had bought in 2001 that died and they never shipped it. I had to call and request my refund in July.! Each time I called to complain the gal claimed that the wholesaler wasn't coming through for them...Gee maybe they ought to get their ducks in a row before sending out a catalog each season. Good marketing, poor retailing is my view.

Stand far, far, away from Gruney's...They stink!

Gurney's is now totally new & improved, those older comments have to do with when they were owned by Foster & Gallagher. So don't be afraid to try them now- they have changed their ways, and are now owned by Gardens Alive!. I ordered from them this year (2003) and recieved everything in A+ condition about a little over one week later, even with organic starch-based packing peanuts (you can put them on the compost)! I used the 20 dollar coupon, what a deal! They sent I kind letter with my order too. I heard last year they had a little trouble trying to get the company back together again, but this year they are better than ever, and others & I feel very comfrotable ordering from Gurney's again.

After reading so many negative comments I was very hesitant about ordering. Gurneys was the only place I could find Tayberries so I only ordered 2. I recieved them about 2 weeks later and much to my suprise the berries were perfect. I hope they grow as good as they look. I ordered more berries. I hope I have such good luck the second time around. I was very pleased.

I ordered from Gurney's last spring and had no problem. They did tell me some items were out of stock and did not
bill me for them until they shipped. I really think they
are trying to regain their good name. I have fond memories of living near Gurney's when they were in Yankton, South Dakota, and it was always a treat to visit their nursery in
person every spring.

Has anyone tried Gurney since being bought out? I got a $20 voucher from the Gardens Alive Gurney - having had good results with GA I sent them an order a couple of weeks ago.

Even before the company "takeover", I've had problems with nursery stock DOA. The replacements were sent dead also. Seeds are ok, just don't EVER order anything that's supposed to be alive. I think they must have shelves of dead trees and plants somewhere waiting to ship to hopeful customers!

I ordered over 100 dollars of fruit trees last spring and they are doing fine, But one of the trees has never came The Nectarine. I also ordered gardening seeds from them during 1999 and the seeds grew wonderfully all but the giant squash but that was because of aphids. I ordered some seeds from them this year too 1/2 lbs of golden bantam corn seed and it shipped on Sept 20 when it was supposed to. But the other half of my order 2 Lbs of popcorn has not come to this date. Wonderful fruit trees though

I ordered about $80 worth of seeds and plants. Nothing arrived at the promised time. A very few things arrived in time (the last possible minute) to plant. The seeds barely grew, the plants all died. Most of my order never arrived.I had to pay someone to turn my garden twice because it grew over while I waited. Finally, I broke down and bought a tiller and did it myself 2 more times. All of this because Gurneys kept telling me that everything had been shipped and was "on it's way." Then, I even got a charge for things supposedly shipped in JULY for things that I didn't order and that didn't come. The ship date for these phantom things was after the last delivery date for anything in my zone! All I got from customer service was the run around. I never got my refunds, and Gurney's dropped off the face of the planet. They never returned e-mails, I spent around $15 on long distance calls which resulted in getting disconnected after who knows how long on hold. I made online requests to be taken off of their mailing list on several occasions yet I still get spam and today i got this year's catalog! The NERVE! If there was a rating worse than negative I would certainly give it. By the way, I had a very succesful 3000 sq ft garden with seed from my local nursery and Wal-Mart.

I ordered from them last in 2000 when I lived in Minnesota (2003 will be the first time I'll be gardening in my new state...Oklahoma). My husband has one rule for my hobby of gardening...it must be CHEAP.

Gurneys is that....dirt cheap. For dirt cheap, you have some trade-offs. Where else can you get 3 seedless grape vines for under $10? I was only momentarily suprised when I opened the package and found dormant twigs (after all, I ordered from Spring Hill in '92). The grapes did beautifully and had wonderful fruit. The second batch I ordered resulted in one plant that did not sprout. Because they had no replacements in stock, they promptly issued me a refund (my choice). Granted, dealing with bare root distributers requires patience, but is the best option if you own your own land, and have more time than money. I've also ordered my seeds and sweet potato starts from them. The sweet potatoes did as well as any in Minnesota (requires plastic mulch to heat up the frozen tundra ground MN is known for). I am curious to see how they'll do in my upper south ground. This year I'm gardening on a shoestring, and Gurney's is still on my list.

In summary, if you're "po'" like me, Gurneys is worth a try. If you have more money than time, then save your money for the more expensive, higher-rated companies.

I too took advantage of their $20 coupon last year by ordering seeds, plants and bulbs. Although the items arrived in separate shipments, they all arrived by planting time here in zone 4b. The plants and bulbs arrived in good condition and everything grew including the carrots and ornamental corn seeds. Maybe I was just lucky but I have no complaints with this company.

Just about everything I have purchased from this company has died. Will never order from them again.

For years I have ordered from Gurneys and had good luck; however, since the bankruptsy and new management my orders have been very unsatisfactory and I can't get anyone to respond to my questions. I wonder if the replacement coupons sent (which were not of the correct amount) will be honored next spring when I re-order? A shame that a reputable name has been sold to another company which has lower standards!

The items ordered were DOA (no packing material), not of the variety I'd ordered and one order not shipped at all.

I have had a soft spot for Gurney's from the age of ten when I was given a lemon tree for my birthday. I still have the tree 30 years later. I miss the days when it was a South Dakota-based company--before the Foster & Gallagher mess.

My experience with the rejuvenated company is mixed. I figure the road is a bit bumpy for them. Most of my spring order came at the end of June when St. Louis had very hot weather. One plant arrived uprooted and withered--DOA. Its replacement won't come until next spring.

Much of the root stock (like Monk's hood, Johnson's Blue Geranium, and bleeding heart) has not taken a peek above ground. I'm hoping they are simply waiting for spring to roll around (I had that experience with some rhubarb a year or two ago). If not, I'll be very disappointed and will be contacting them.

I'd like to see the company recover and be a better operation. I hope that will happen in the near future.

This past early spring I ordered 75 strawberries (3 kinds; 25 of each), 3 roses, and 18 raspberries (2 kinds; 9 of each) from Gurney's. I had read some bad reports on them, but like a number of other people figured I'd give the new management a shot. The strawberries came in a realistic timeframe, the raspberries a little later, and the roses much later. All items arrived looking pretty dead, except the strawberries had a few straggly leaves on them. Approximately 95% of one kind of strawberry died, all 3 roses died, and 11 of the raspberries died. Since the other strawberries were filling in the space where the dead ones were, I left that alone. I requested replacements for the roses and raspberries and was happy to find that they were promptly sent out. The replacements looked better than the originals, so I was hopeful. I planted them and shortly after 2 more roses died, and ALL but 2 raspberries died (including the original ones that had made it!).

About 2 months ago I called and requested a refund on the raspberries. The other 2 kinds of strawberries had filled in the deadspace, and the roses were of the $1.95 pot-luck variety...so those items weren't worth the trouble to me. I was told that the refund might go through, and it might not since the items had already been replaced. And that I'd have to wait the 30-40 days that they take to process a refund to find out which!! For some stupid reason I waited...and waited...

So today I called them again and explained what had happened and that I wanted to check on the status of my refund. I was told that they could process it, and that my CC would be credited with $17. The raspberries were $18.75. It was explained to me that they don't refund shipping. I told them that I realize that but that the original cost was $18.75 WITHOUT shipping. It was explained to me that I used a $5 coupon and that a percentage of that coupon was applied to each item I had ordered!! At that point I moved on to a manager, who attempted to feed me the same line.

I'll leave the argument details out. But now, supposedly my CC will be refunded $18.75 in the next 30-40 days. We'll see what happens! If it isn't, I'll be tacking on the strawberries and roses!

Bottom line, I won't be ordering from them again, nor do I recommend to anyone else to take the risk!

I tried to give this company a chance. I really did. I ordered from them twice. Everything went ok until the apple tree didn't do anything but die, the strawberries bit it, and I got dead pansies. I was told they would replace the apple tree in spring. I was told I would get a GC for the $7.45 I paid for the strawberries. That was July. This is October. I have emailed them, harassed them and still no GC. I am waiting for a refund to be issued on my CC for the $7.45. I got a refund for the pansies today after I told them I would dispute it on my CC if they didn't. I am so disappointed and disgusted with this company that if I could give them and ultra negative rating I certainly would. I would not do business with them again. I suggest no one else do business with them either. There are plenty of reputable companies out there who deserve your business. This company does not treat its customers right. They lie to you. They send dead plants. You have to harass them in order to get a refund, contrary to their stated policy. I have run into some bad companies in my time, but this company takes the cake for audacity. If you do business with them you are just throwing your money away. They have cheap prices but I'll tell you, you get what you paid for. Buy cheap, get dead or nearly dead substandard plants. I told these people that word of mouth means alot in gardening circles. I told them that I would blast them from one end of the net to the other. They didn't seem to care. Pass the word along about this company to everyone you know. It's time these companies realized that without customers like us they have no business.

I ordered a clump of 3 birch trees and a choke cherry. The birch trees were about 4 feet long stems only. Two died within a week and the third died within 2 weeks. The choke cherry lived for about a month.

Gurney's is up to their same old tricks. I had high hopes for the "new management", and placed an order at the end of April for 15 shrubs, a tree and groundcover. One month later I called to ask where my order might be and was told that it had been shipped that day. When I had not received my order ten days later I called again, and was told that all but 3 spirea were unavailable. I received the spirea one week later, and instead of the healthy 12-18" plants that I had paid for I received 4-5" plants that had been dead (NOT dormant) for weeks. I called Gurney's and demanded a full refund, as their guarantee states that I would be entitled to a full refund... The customer service rep. told me that there had been a change, and I could receive a credit minus shipping, but no refund. I think I blacked out from rage at that point, but I must have threatened legal action or worse, because when I came to the rep. told me that I would see a credit on my Mastercard statement. I did eventually see a credit.

See comments by elgato as well - when you call Gurney's, the reps. will say anything to shut you up and get you off of the phone. Don't be enticed by the prices - you are better off thowing your $$ out the window than giving it to this company.

I ordered from gurneys, which is owned by four seasons. And I was never more disgusted. Plants were ordered and never available, and they never answer the phone. I wasted two planting seasons messing with them. At my age, "I don't even buy green bananas" I want them to be a decent size now.

They guarantee their products but plants sent by both are small and often DOA. Gurney's went bankrupt last year and I lost guarantee on an expensive cherry tree. The new company replaced it at half price but it died also. Other plants I ordered never arrived and I called and was finally told (end of June) that I would have to wait for next year. I cancelled everything.

we placed an order with gurney's back in early january 2002, utilizing the 20 dollar off coupon. we ordered about 20 items all together, mostly things like lavendar, herbs, sedum, creeping lilyturf, etc. the order totalled around 200 bucks, and they gave us an email that listed all of the items, and their estimated ship dates (april 15). on feb 26th, we received one item, a bittersweet. since it was a warm winter, we planted it, it leafed out and is doing fine. then, on march 15th, we received our silver lace vine. again, planted it, fine. we were optimistic at this point that things would continue to show up. then, april 15th came and went, with no shipment. we called. they said the problem was that one of our promotional items (a sedum) had registered an invalid sku, and was holding up the order. they assured us the order would go out by the end of the week. we were leaving on vacation on may 6th, so called on may 2nd to see if anything was on its way, again were told that the sedum was holding up the order. it would go out that week (ha!!!!). when we got back from vacation, no plants. called. the girl on the phone was excited because our stuff was ready to go. she said we would have it within two weeks. when we reminded her that we had selected expidited shipping, she said, oh one week, sorry. you can guess that nothing showed up, or i wouldn't be writing this! now it was the beginning of june, another phone call, this time, we were told that the catmint we had ordered was out of stock, and was *surprise* holding up the order. it would go out that week. well, here we are, june 25th, and now we have been told that not only will the order NOT go out this week, we will have to wait till next spring for our order. these people suck, big time. the operators must push a button marked 'excuses' when you call, then they read out the random response generated by the 'stupid reasons we took your money and can't ship your product' machine. thank god we used a credit card, and don't have to pay for anything, while i feel bad for anyone who used a check. can't something be done about this? yes, people can refuse to buy from them again. ever.

Had an experience similar to bluespider. Ordered seeds and plants in early January. Received seeds promptly, plants showed expected ship date of 3/24/02. Seeds germinated very poorly, while similar varieties from Park Seed, given same conditions, did quite well. Plants were shipped 6/7/02, arrived dried up and useless. Sent them an email requesting refund - we'll see.

I too tried to take advantage of the $20 coupon. What a mistake! In January I placed an order for several packets of seeds & 3 perennials. The seeds arrived promptly. It is now mid-June and my plants have still not arrived. All 3 are "Back Ordered". I was informed that plants are shipped out by zone, so I guess when they get to the colder zones, they must run out of stock??? Apparently ordering early is no advantage.

The order of $200 only came in bits with some follow up on some items that were said to be on back
order (but mostly no follow up). I had ordered in January so they had five months to prepare so how could they not have the items in stock?
My grand parents who I sent the items to said they felt they couldn't leave the house because the UPS man might bring the items while they were gone. They had been expecting them for weeks and had left places in their garden for them.
What was meant as a nice gift for their garden and my Mother's turned into something that made me look bad. I feel foolish for trusting a company that said in their web site that they would honour none of the obligations of the previous owners of the name Gurneys.
My complaints were met with responces like "thank you for your email" and I found very little little help when I called. These are charlatans masquerading as a seed company!

My order of $200 only came in bits with some follow up on some items that were said to be on back order (but mostly no follow up). I had ordered in January so they had five months to prepare so how could they not have the items in stock? There was very little very little response to my complaints, emails got a "Thank You for Your email" response and the call wasn't much better. My grand parents who I sent the items to said they felt they couldn't leave the house because the UPS man might bring the items while they were gone. They had been expecting them for weeks and had left places in their garden for them. What was meant as a nice gift for their garden and my Mother's turned into something that made me look bad. I feel foolish for trusting a company that said in their web site that they would honour none of the obligations of the previous owners of the name Gurneys.

I placed an order with Gurney's in late March, and just a few days ago I received PART of my order (Shademaster honeylocust), which was badly packaged in a paper mailer (not a box as one might expect). The package had a gash in it, and the roots were only partially protected in a hole-ridden plastic bag of insufficient size. There was no damp packing material around the roots, and many of them were dry.

Now I'm waiting for the rest of the order, and my credit card still hasn't been charged for the other items. I would say these people were ill-prepared to effectively run this business they have purchased and are supposedly trying to save. They apparently don't understand that some planning and a bit of quality control can go a long way toward satisfying customers and sustaining their business. I for one am disappointed.

I mailed my order on January 22 for 3 trees and some perennial plants. Today I received the 3 trees and they are wonderful, large, budding trees. I'm very pleased with them. The perennial plants are to be shipped in a week or so, and that's just fine with me, because if they ship when it's the right planting time for each zone, they know it's been too cold here to put plants out now.

I used their $20 coupon when ordering, plus took advantage of their buy one get one free fruit tree offer. I think I got a good deal. I'm extremely pleased with the trees and will definitely order from them again.

Thank you Gurney's!

Apparently, the new ownership is not helping. My order was supposed to be here a month ago. I got a canned email and that was all.

I placed my orders back in January (probably) - all were plants, no
seeds. I was told the plants would arrive mid March-mid April
(according to my planting Zone). Well, I obviously got nervous when the
plants didn't arrive by the first of April, then by April 15 so I
dropped them several e-mails.

Lo and behold the plants arrived last Tuesday (April 16) - all in very
good condition - the only thing on backorder was a Blue Girl rose which
is fine, and I subsequently canceled since I think it's probably more
trouble than it's worth. We'll see how the plants survive, but so far,
so good.

In February I ordered from the company for a total purchase of $50. It's now April 16th and I receieved the seeds but NONE of the plants. In the future I'll be making my purchases from Burpee. Gurney is not what it used to be, it sucks.

I ordered from them and after a month I had yet to hear from them, nada, absolutely nothing. Not even an email to confirm my order or to let me know when it was to be delivered. At the same time I had purchased from 4 other companies, one twice, and received every single one of them. Finally I got so fed up I sent them an email stating for them to cancel and refund my order. Their reply a couple of days later was that they had never charged my credit card and they cancelled the order. I have yet to get the bill for the CC to know for sure, but hopefully everything is alright now. Not at all happy with them.

In Feb. 2002 I ordered $65 worth of goods using Gurney's $20 off coupon. Four weeks after ordering my, I still was not billed. I sent an email asking if they received my order. A week later I received an email from customer service stating that my order was shipped and they provided an tracking number and a link to track my shipment. The link worked but stated that there was no packages with that number. I then went to Gurney's website to look at the order form. The next day I received an email from Gurney's website admin. asking for a performance check and concerns. I explained the situation and asked if they could help. Needless to say. I never got a response. I did receive my order several days later. I have ordered from Gurney's in the past and never had a problem.

I have always been a loyal customer and recieved great service and products... This year I ordered my seeds in march three weeks went by nothing. I tried calling but the phone is always busy. I emailed the service dept and a week later the response was: we are back ordered ect.... if you would like to cancel your order we undestand. Two weeks later I tried to find out if some or part of my order had shipped or would ship (seeds and plants) again the phone was always busy so I sent an email. This time it was answered in two days but they said if I get my packages to late for planting just refuse the package and they will refund my money. (I doubt that!) I will never order from Gurneys ever again!! Now I have to scramble for the seeds that I could be planting now (I live in VA zone 7)

I've ordered from Gurney's 3 times in the past 4 years,
all seeds except for 30 asparagus roots. I never had a
problem - seeds germinated well, and 27 of the roots grew,
maybe 5 were very small. Apparently I just got lucky.

I was told last week 4/5/02 from the company, that all orders would be a minimum of 3 weeks late. Could be longer. Not the same ol' Gurneys I use to enjoy.

Really had no quality problems last year (spring 2001). I got all of my orders. This year (spring 2002) is different. The plant qualities just received were terrible. Even though a dead stick (Rhododendrons), they were smaller and of less quality than what they harvested last year when dug. Most everything else seems to be backordered. Only a guess since customer service has not directly responded.

I had used Gurneys off and on over the past few years with good results. This year I placed an order before I had found out about their financial problems. After 5 weeks of not seeing my order I sent an e-mail to Customer Service. Their response gave me no information. I then spent half a morning trying to get through by phone only to find out no orders were going out sooner than 30 days and most of my order was on back order anyway. I think the jury is still out on the new owners. I wouldn't place another order until they get things in order.