Comments regarding Direct Gardening

I ordered $200 in plants August 18. To date, Oct. 7, 2008, still no plants. On Sept. 22 I saw on my credit card statment the order had been charged when I placed the order. I called to cancel the order and for a credit to be issued on the 22nd, said I couldn't do via phone - must email. Emailed and received a reply 2 days later thanking me for the order. Emailed back saying - absolutely not..... I called. There customer service is the most despicable ever! I could not speak with a supervisor, I could not speak with anyone about the credit to my card. I could only write a letter. They said my credit would be issued in 1 -2 weeks. As of Oct. 7, still no credit. Called again. Very rude customer service. Your order was shipped on Sept. 29. I just about fell over. I said I cancelled the order on Sept. 22. I was told it took longer that 7 days to cancel an order in house and the order got shipped. When it comes I can send it back for a credit. Can you imagine what that process will be. Needless to say, I have contacted the Illinois Attorney General's Office and have forwarded a copy to Direct Gardening. They have not heard the last of me, this is the most deplorable company I have ever dealt with and I have owned a gift shop for 10 years dealing with hundreds of vendors. I wish I would have seen this site before ordering.

I ordered 7 bareroot tea roses from this company. 1 arrived with rotted roots but I figured that it was par for the course.

Then, when the roses labeled, Tropicana, bloomed in an ugly shade of lavender, I contacted the company to say that they had sent me mislabeled items.

They asked me to return the shipping label and proof of the error. I wrote back that it was unreasonable to expect me to retain a shipping label from live plants and besides, they already had my order info.

They wrote that they would make an exception once in my case and replace the roses if I sent them my credit card statement and proof. This was getting to be too much work especially as I shred my card statements and they already had the info. I just gave up.

Direct Gardening is nothing more than a rip off. By advertising low prices for supposedly great products they get you to order. What they do not tell you is that you will receive dead plants that they claim are just hibernating. I ordered some roses and ground cover in early summer. all the plants arrived at the height of summer in AZ looking dead. The plants were left at my front door in plastic bags and it was unclear whether they had been transported in an airconditioned truck. i contacted the company and was told not very politley that the plants were just dormant and that I should go a ahead and plant them( which I had done the day after receipt). Two weeks later they still looked dead. I called and was told to give it 6 weeks before giving up. The 2 weeks for a refund were by then and all I could get was a new batch of plants if there was no growth in 6 weeks. I gave it eight weeks watering faithfully every day and they looked as dead as ever. I contacted their deplorable customer service dept. and was told to send in the shipping label and they would send me new ones. I did so and nothing happend for three weeks so I e-mailed them. I received an e-mail stating that the plants were being shipped. They arrived stuffed into my large item postal block which reaches 120 degrees in the summer in Px. 3 of the replacement rose bushes were 5 inch high twigs stuck into 2 inch pots with a few leaves which were dead. Two of the plants were bare root but the stems looked dead. I planted everything anyway and so far there is no sign of life. I am giving up on getting back $70 worth of merchandis from them and dont plan to waste any more of my time planting dead plants and arguing with rude customer service staff. I hope no one else falls into this trap. I am trying to find a way to alert consumer watchdog orgs. so that they can try to put a stop to this scam. Gwen

I ordered a Weeping Pussy Willow Tree from Direct Gardening in June. The tree arrived, in a plastic bag, about 2.5 feet tall, with 7-8 leaves that were withered and grey but not dead. I read the directions that came with the tree. I scratched the tree at its base to make sure it was alive; it was green under the bark.

I had the tree in the ground within 2 hours of having received it. My son (not so helpfully) threw away the bag with the shipping lable. They recommended watering every day. I faithfully watered the tree every day. After 2 weeks, the tree still looked dead. I scratched the base again and this time there was no green. The tree was dead.

I contacted the customer service department. I was told that sometimes the trees take 6 weeks to come out of hibernation; maybe I hadn't given it enough time. When I told them that the tree wasn't green underneath anymore, they agreed that the tree was dead. I asked about receiving my money back. They informed me that I could only receive a refund within 2 weeks of the tree being shipped. That dealine had already passed. I asked about receiving a replacement tree. They informed me that I needed my shipping label. I told them that I no longer had my shipping label. They said that the shipping label was the only proof of me having paid for the tree. I raised a bit of a fuss and they agreed that I could use a copy of my credit card statement to prove that I paid. I'm sorry, but don't they have a record of the transaction to prove that I paid for the tree before they shipped it?

I realize that every company has their own policies, but this just sounded ridiculous to me! I decided to wait for the heat to pass and send in my credit card statement for a replacement tree later. I will be mailing it tomorrow; we'll see how it goes.

On a side note, the customer service representative that I spoke with was very rude. He informed me that they did not have a responsibility to ensure that plants coming from them lived. He said that their responsibility was to make sure that the plants arrived alive and that if they died within 2 weeks, that it was not their problem. They did their job because the tree arrived barely holding on to life. Sounds like shadey business to me, but at this point, I can either jump through their hoops or be out the $40+ dollars for the tree!

Direct Gardening is quite possibly the worst on-line company I have dealt with. On Aug. 6, 2008 I placed an order for 40 asparagus roots. After 2 1/2 weeks the order arrived but with a shortage of 30 roots. I contactaed customer service and was told to ship back the shipping label with a note indicating the shortage. I sent the information back as requested. After more than four weeks and numerous inquiries to customer service all I got was "please wait, we haven't received your request yet". So now I wait. You would think that at least they would send a refund for the amount not shipped. But, no response so far.
This company is the most disorganized and disconnected I have ever dealt with.

Owen Laug, Barnesville MD

This company sent me canna lilies that I had ordered, they took a little while to bloom but I had bought them in bulk and had a 75% success rate with them. I would rate them pretty high though, not as high as Easy to Grow, where I was really 100% pleased with their service and the fact that everything they sent bloomed beautifully. Still, 75% isn't bad right?
joy112854

I bought 24 rose of sharon bushes end of June 2008, planted the same day they arrived. Only 6 of 24 are alive and growing the rest are dead and brittle. I didn't have shipping label when I called company. They were extremely rude and hung up on me. So now I have dead plants and most likely I misplaced the shipping label. SO BUYER BEWARE!! GUARD THAT SHIPPING LABEL YOU WILL NEED IT BECAUSE YOU WILL GET DEAD PLANTS. Hopefully I can post with POSITIVE or NEUTRAL comment in the next few days.

I placed an order at the end of April and it took almost an entire month for my order to even ship. I emailed the company asking for a status and it took them about a week to get back.

I, too, was drawn in with the cheap prices, but the survival of the plants I ordered was about 50/50. I got 2 spirea that were DOA (didn't realize this until I tried to get them to grow, since they only sent dormant root plants). The Red Robin Hood Rose I got is doing very good. The Azalea I ordered is struggling, but was an ok looking plant when it arrived. I wanted to send back the spirea but didn't realize you need to have the shipping receipt, which I had thrown away.

I was mostly not happy with the amount of time it took to fill this small order, especially since it was placed right at the beginning of spring, where they should have all these plants ready to ship.

I won't be ordering from them again because I don't want to wait a month for the plants to arrive. It could be winter by the time I get them!

I would not order again from them. I ordered smoke trees and Norway spruces. Two smoke trees are fine, one arrived
broken in half. The Norway spruces arrived DEAD. Sent back mailing label and was told on 7/8/08 new Norway spruces were being mailed that day. They did send a new smoke tree also. They arrived 28 DAYS LATER! And I do believe they were in the mail 28 days as the spruces are dead also. The people at direct gardening do respond to emails promptly, and try to be helpful, but being told to plant the dead Norway spruces, as they are dormant, when I have planted easily over 100 trees in my lifetime, is simply an insult. Yes, I was told to plant them and give it six weeks, and they would happily replace them, but this is going on too long already, and I have lost confidence. I live only 2 hours max from them, and they can't get those spruces to me any quicker? I suppose they can't be held responsible for the postal service, but I have order alot of trees thru the mail, from much further away, and have NEVER had something arrive 28 days later.

I received my order from Direct Gardening this past spring. Less than half is alive today. They come in a green bag... looking pretty sad and tiny. With the exception of the cherry tree and blackberry bushes, they were a pretty good size but still sad looking. (They came bareroot with nothing on the roots.)

Bummed out about the result I only wanted one more thing from the company. A replacement for my treasure orange rose that died because I have been searching and wanting a true orange rose bush. I requested a replacement and they do keep to their guarantee. Sadly my new rose bush had rotted really badly in that green bag they shipped it in. I had to heavy prune the poor thing. Today it is alive but... just kinda sitting there. Hasn't grown at all.

I personally would not recommend Direct Gardening. I dont mind the small starter plants... its the packaging that is really bringing this company down. If they would take the extra effort in packaging and shipping, I could see this company having a lot more happy customers. Not to mention A LOT more plants alive and thriving today for their past, present and future customers. Lots of us trade plants and would never send a plant to another trader in just a plastic bag with no cushioning and nothing to wrap the roots. Why is a professional company doing it? I hope they learn...just my opinion.

Prices are pretty good, quality is hit and miss but they do send replacements. Over all I have had about 50/50 success rate.

This is the worst company to deal with. I bought $350 worth of plants and trees and 99% died. I have dealt since February/08 for replacements and all you find is rude people, they loose the original labels so they do not have to replace, they request over and over again details of the same info. Every correspondence has been registered mail and still do are not truthful about the replacement warranty. I contacted the BBB of Illinois and hopeful they do something about it. Their practices are deceptive and awful and do not understand how they continue to be open for business. Do not do business with Direct Gardening, you will find yourself a heache and frustration, even the supervisors are very rude and not willing to help you.

Because this is a discount gardening center, I didn't expect much. I ordered 5 Hansen's Bush Cherries, and a fig tree. I was nervous that there was no moisture wrapping around the roots, but all of the cherry bushes are alive and were well-rooted, some of them had several 2-3 ft. branches as well. I'm not sure whether or not the fig tree is alive. It was only about a foot tall, and few roots. I dipped it in rooting hormone and will water it along with the cherry bushes and see what happens. I have kept the original shipping label should anything need to be replaced. In addition, I got my "free gifts," the flowering shamrock and exotica bulbs. My main complaint is that they taped the plant labels so tight around the branches that I couldn't remove some of them without damaging the branches. What can I say, great prices and if these plants actually grow, I will be quite pleased, despite all of the other negative reviews.

The prices of plants on this site are unbelievably low. I ordered 250 privet shrubs and shipped to me for about $185. Suprisingly the plants that I got were much larger than anticipated averaging over 2 ft tall. They were shipped bareroot and upon reciept I soaked them for 24 hrs in water before planting. Again, at a quantity that large I expected numerous dead plants, but instead was suprised with very quick budding growing plants. After only 5 days I am seeing visible growth on 99% of the plants. Not only did the quality and price suprise me on how great a deal this was, but the speed at which they were shipped and recieved. The site said it would take about 2 weeks to process and then mailed out, but I placed my order and recieved them in 9 days. I will be definately ordering from them again.

Do NOT use this company or any of its affiliates!

Yes, they are dirt cheap, but what you get is worth less than the dirt you plant it in. If you do not keep the shipping label your guarantee is void!

My ENTIRE order from last fall died. I kept the shipping label, sent it in and have been given nothing but grief from them. No plants, no refund, just lots of run around.

Stay away from them, they want your money not your business...

So June has arrived & my plants have all had 4 to 6 weeks to get settled & growing. Here's the break down of successful per quantity ordered....
I have mixed feelings with this company right now. They have assured me via telephone that per their gaurentee, all I have to do is request replacements & they'll send them out free & keep sending them out until I have a living plant for every plant paid for ...... I really wonder about that, though I guess it's worth a try.
I'll give everything the course of the summer before I request replacements - every opportunity.

50/80 Asparagus Roots have sent up shoots
13/50 Blazing Stars poking thru the dirt
1/10 Eye Of Tiger Dutch iris
5/90 Mixed Dutch Iris
3/4 Rhubarb
3/6 Perenial Sweet Pea
0/2 Red Gooseberry
0/2 Jostaberry
1/2 Pink Weigelia
2/4 Mancharin Apricots
About half of the 2 lbs of Jerusalem Artichokes
3/10 Pussy Willows (most appeared to have dried wilted root systems on receipt)
2/4 Forsythia
2/6 Red Lake Currant (all were sealed in plastic bags & moldy!)
0/4 Gooseberry (again, sealed in plastic bacgs & moldy!)
0/3 Mtn Ash
4/12 Lombardy Poplar (all had sent out growing tips long before I received them - those growing tips long ago died off & molded)
0/2 White Spirea
0/4 Hardy Roses (all 4 had lots of dead sticks on them like they had been pulled from the ground last fall beforer the new growth had a chance to harden into solid wood. Less then 3 inches of good solid woody portions existed on each bush)
5/10 Hybrid Willows (these were in bundles of 5. Ironically the 5 that are growing were all in 1 bundle & the 5 that appear dead & are dried twigs were all bundled together)
2/4 Weeping Willow (2 bundles of 2. 1 large well rooted tree & 1 small poorly rooted tree in each bundle. The 2 small poorly rooted trees have done nothing!)
SEEDS: About 60% germination in the soil. Tested like we do native grass & forbes seeds, & the seeds from Direct Gardening ran about 65% germination .... bit disappointed.

I'm not some novice gardener. My degree is in Botany & Forestry & have many years working with the parks department rooting tree cuttings for reforestation projects. I'd think if there was the possibility of life in these plants, I likely would have gotten them to live!
They claim they send out the plants at the correct planting time for your area. My experience in my area is that the best success requires having them in the ground before daily temps routinely reach above 60 degrees. The heat & the wind & the dry air of late spring all the way thru to September can not be overcome in my neck of the woods regardless of how well you water the dormat dry root plants!!

We'll make our requets for replacements in the fall after temps have cooled a bt & after giving everything lots of water all summer long & ample opportunity to grow.
We'll see how the replacement thing goes & if they really do as they stated via telephone - keep replacing until I have the number originally ordered in live plants.

Ordered approximately 14 plants, 5 arrived dead, and all but 3 were in terrible shape and died quickly thereafter. I still have the 3, and one's in great shape, the other 2 are still struggling. I've ordered mail order for gardening seeds and plants for years and previous have never had a single thing die on me. Ever. This was my first and only experience with them. Definitely not recommended. Do not be tempted by the low prices - they cut corners by not taking proper or even mediocre care of the plants!

Strangely, I ordered from this company again this year. Here's the trick: treat an order like a slot pull at a casino; you don't know what you're going to get, so don't put more money in than you can easily lose.
Last year I ordered about thirty bucks worth of all kinds of ultra-cheap stuff. Right now, my Shell Vine and Silver Lace Vine from last spring's order are covering my front fence, looking beautiful. Yes, they arrived about two inches tall, but they took off, and I can't get either from local nurseries. My Angel's Trumpet from last year is now about six feet tall--but it's yellow-orange, and I ordered white. Some Arum Italicum came up nicely, but no blooms. Everything else was either DOA or died sometime after.
This year I ordered in January, was promptly charged on my credit card, and then I forgot about it. I got my order yesterday (the third week in May!). Here in San Diego, it was 89 degrees out when I got home from work, to a plastic bag of more plastic bags inside. You can figure out that everything inside was cooked.
But, the Butterfly Bush looks alive (yes, it's two inches tall in a one inch pot, but hey), and the Blazing Star bulbs look fine. A few things in my order were replaced, with a little notation of "crop failure." Amusingly, they sent stuff like Trillium, which couldn't survive zone 10 under the best of circumstances, never mind being planted in a heat wave.
Anyways, recently half of my spring seedlings were struck down by a mob of marauding caterpillars and a hellishly dry and hot weekend--and isn't that what gardening's about? The surprise? OK, maybe I'm just trying to justify my cheapskate ways. :)

I would have to rate this company both negative and positive. If you are expecting to get large perfect plants, Don’t shop here. I made a few purchases of a variety of plants and will rate them below:
Hedges
100 Privet Hedges….they arrived small to medium size and the shipment was short by 5 pieces. I notified them of the shortage and they sent me 10 new ones. We planted them and all but about 5 are fine.
15 Jumbo Hemlock hedges $23.00….Mostly junk…received plants from 6 inches to 18 inches (and these are JUMBOS LOL. After 2 weeks most of them are dead
100 Hybrid Willows…they arrived small to medium in size. After about a week they started showing life and are growing very fast
Various ground cover…..Periwinkles, Walk on Me, Phlox, and Wintercreeper They are very cheap, but so small you can hardly see them in the bags…definitely not worth the bother.
Various vines….Arrived very small and didn’t think they would grow but planted them anyway. Silver Lace, Trumpet Hummingbird are growing very fast Hall's Honeysuckle, Passion Flower and sweet pea barely alive. Kiwi ….ordered 8 (6 f and 2 M) one female was received dead. The others are growing, but much slower than expected
Trees….
2 Magnolia…receiver 2 mini pots with 3 inch trees….After about 2 weeks they started growing but very slow @ $3.00 each, they could hva e been better but are ok.
10 Weeping Willow Trees… We received 10 sticks. We planted them and they are growing fine. Considering they were $1.00 each we are satisfied.
2 Fig Trees…@ $7.50 each JUNK..received 2 tree’s approximately 3 inches each. After 1 ½ months, still alive, but still 3 inches .
2 Red maple…only $1.43 ea. Received 2 sticks, but they are growing fine

Shrubs
2 Rose of Sharon @ $1.25 ea….received 2 …about 2 foot high well branched.. After 2 weeks growing very nice
10 Red Twig Dogwood total $7.50….received 10 small sticks. After 1 month they are growing ok
4 Hansen Cherry bushes. total $5.80….. Received 4 sticks about 2 foot. They bloomed after a few days and even got a handful of cherries on them.
2 Firethorn…total $4.75 ..received 2 approx 2 inches. After 1 month, growing very slowly, but alive.
2 Mock Orange…only $1.50 for both. Received 2 about 3 ½ ft high well branched. After 1 month, I stone dead, one is just barely showing some sign of life.
9 Hibiscus total $5.75 received 9 about 1 inch. After a month 2 are about an 1 ½ but alive, the remainder show no life at all
3 Arkansas Ansonia total $10.95 Received 3 about 1 inch. After a month, there is nothing left but dirt.
2 Huron Sunrise Grass…..total $9.50 received 2 about 1inch…. After 1 month, growing about 3 inches now so very slow.
Various Roses…. Good price…received nice bushes but was short one. Notified them and they replaced the one missing. After a month growing very nice.
The purchases were made from Burgess Seed, Honeycreek Nurseries, and Direct Gardening. I contacted them by email and got quick response to the e mail; however; it took over a month for me to receive the missing items. It only takes 1 to 2 days to charge your credit card, but well over a month to process your order. I have not contacted them yet about the dead items that I received, so I can’t comment on how they will respond.
To sum it up, There are a lot of better nurseries out there, but not at these bargain prices. If you have the time to wait for these plants to grow, then you are getting a bargain. If they honor there guarantee to replace the dead plants, I will definitely shop there again.

I ordered 4 cherry and 4 forsythia. The package arrived late May after 4 weeks. The forsythia buds had opened and may make it. The cherry were nothing but dried twigs.

I ordered two mulberry trees, one royal empress tree and two tri colored butterfly bushes the beginning of April. They arrived yesterday. The mulberries were dried sticks. One does have a bud on it, so we shall see. The empress tree was broken, there are three buds just above the roots though, so there is some hope. The butterfly bushes were each in a sealed clear bag, dead leaves and rotted roots. How they could honestly mail this to someone and expect it to grow blows my mind.
No more nurseries with so many negatives.

Last year I ordered over $150 worth of Walk on Me Thyme plants through Direct Gardening. They plants arrived in a bare-root, tangled, dried-up mess. I do not recommend this company to anyone!

This is without a doubt the WORST company to do business with. I ordered a ton of plants from them last fall. They arrived packed in a heavy plastic bag. The weather was still pretty warm and the plants looked like steamed spinach when I opened the bag. To make matters worse, the plants were packaged in plastic bags inside the larger bag. I gave it my best shot and spent quite a bit of time planting the remains in hopes they'd live. The only two that survived were 2 Primrose lilacs. I emailed the company and sent them a copy of my invoice for replacements and explained that the poor packaging was most of the problem. Basically they ship the plants in a steamer. The replacement shipment arrived steamed and rotten as well. Again, I planted the remains hoping for the best. Again, all but a couple died. I contacted the company to request a refund since their shipping and plants were useless. I was told that they could only send more replacements. I told them to keep them, since my back wasn't up to planting them all a THIRD time. I would never recommend this company and if I thought it would do any good, I'd report them to the BBB. Please don't waste your money & time here. Look elsewhere, even Mich. Bulb is better than these scammers.

Here was what I ordered (about $150 total) in mid March and received all in time in April and planted within 2 days of receipt -

12 Indian Currant Coralberry - (Bare root) - Seems dead so far, I'm going to ask for replacements
8 Dwarf Burning Bush - Very small (less than 6 inches) but healthy and came packed with soil around it.
8 Forsythia - (Bare root) - Mostly healthy and most of them are greening up.
6 Pink Honeysuckle - (Bare root) - So far looks like its coming to life.
3 Variegated Weigela - (Bare root) - No greening yet but probably will pull through.
2 Mountain Laurel - Probably the best, came very well packed in a small pot.
6 Hardy Boxwood - DO NOT WASTE money on this, I received plants about 1-2 inches long with soil around them.
2 Royal Purple Smoke tree - (Bare root) - No greening yet.
10 Red Twig Dogwood - (Bare root) - Disappointing in size (thickness of stem is probably 1/6 of an inch) or less, no greening yet but probably will pull through mostly.
4 Pink Weigela - (Bare root) - No greening yet.
2 Pussy willow - (Bare root) - Looks like this will pull through.
2 Forsythia tree - (Bare root) - Greening already
2 Hydrangea tree - (Bare root) - Received one tree and 3 bushes. No greening yet.
2 Pink Mist Smoke tree - (Bare root) - No greening yet but looks like it will pull through.
4 Willow shrub dappled - (Bare root) - 2 of them growing nicely already, other 2 are yet to show growth.
2 Arkansas Amsonia - (Bare root) - Received it today and it looks like its dormant.

All in all based on other reviews here, I received better (plants that are surviving) plants. Mountain Laurel has been delivered in fabulous state which somebody also has mentioned before.

The plants are small but I'm fine with that since my intentions are for long term anyway, so I was specifically looking to spend less and get more. I have about 2500 sq ft of hill in my backyard where I already have about 15 trees and all of the above are for filling bare areas.

Their website indicates they ship using multiple shippers, including US Mail.
Living in a very rural area, US Mail is delivered ONLY to a PO Box & is frequently delayed by 3 to 7 days if both the PO Box 3 & the street address are not on the package.
AFTER we placed our order & stated "prefer no shpping via US Mail", Direct Gardening contacted us saying they ONLY ship via US Mail though if we wish to pay an extra $10 they would ship via DHL.
REALITY: They gaurentee the plants live for 1 year from purchase or they replace them ...... they can ship to the PO Box as long as they understand their risks.
Seems deceptive though to claim the use multiple shippers & then AFTER THE FACT state they us only US Mail & charge extra from alternatives......
Will weigh this information heavily before we order from them or any member nursery again!

I ordered a rose bush, four hydragnia bushes and a couple other items from Directgardening. I received everything except the four hydragnias the first part of March. After a couple of weeks I called about the hydragnia bushes. I was told they aren't sent out until April. Sure enough they came in April. It looked like four little pots, a handful of dirt and four little 2" dead sticks thrown in a plastic bag all shook up. Not the first root on any of them. I thought I was ordering potted plants, not cuttings that were dead. How sad to do that to a customer. I did write them a letter along with the shipping label and told them I wasn't concerned with a refund or replacement. They can keep the $21.00. I also told them they should be ashamed. In the meantime I went to Walmart and picked up four beautiful blue hydragnias for $9.99 a piece. They are about 2' tall and in full bloom, and look wonderful in my yard! Needless to say, I will NEVER do business with Directgardening again.

I ordered six angel trumpets a couple of months ago. When they arrived they were in great shape. They were carefully packaged. All six were green. This is the first time I've ordered from this company. I was very aprehensive due to the negative feedback I've read on this site. However, my experience has been nothing but positive. I have repotted all six plants, they are under grow lights and doing very well. I am very pleased with this company and am placing my second order.

Last year I was looking to buy a dwarf lemon tree. Every place was so expensive until I found the Direct Gardening website. For less than it would have cost just to get the lemon tree at other nurseries, I got their 4 citrus collection. It came with Orange, Lime, Lemon &Tangerine trees!! I potted them and put them all out on our deck. Unfortunately I lost one tree due to my negligence but the others are thriving. Now in less than a year I have small fruits setting on already! The clematis I also ordered did very well with an abundance of blooms.
Their prices are unbeatable!

I just received my shipment that I ordered a few months ago, it was my second try with this company & certainly my last. The 1st shipment I received last fall was pitiful at best, horrible packaging, a bunch of roots & bulbs thrown into a bag. The bulbs werent soft or moldy as many complaints I've seen, but they were small, the "shrubs" I received were dead twigs. I planted those 2 dead twigs, one was supposed to be a sweet shrub, the other a Rose of Sharon, now that spring is here, I'm watching bulbs emerge from the ground, buds on all kinds of bushes & trees, and those 2 twigs are still dead, no sign of life at all. I have mid spring blooming bulbs peeking thru, but all the hyacinths from this place havent even begun to peek thru, I dont expect them to.
Now I have a new shipment of dead twigs that were supposed to be hummingbird vines, and am still waiting for my angel trumpet, I'm pretty sure that'll be a dead twig too. I planted these hummingbird vines in small peat pots, they are under grow lights, no sign of life.
If you are looking for cheap plants, you are better off going to Walmart, at least you wont have to pay shipping charges, I've had better luck with plants from there.

I have used direct gardening for the last three years and had good results each time. I just received my third order and was very happy with the looks of everything. The hemlock trees were green and healthy, but small, Everything else was much larger than they have ever sent before. I order a lot from mail order companies, and as long as my experiences are good, will continue to order from direct gardening. Granted the plants are not as large or as rare as from the nurseries in DG' s top thirty, but mine have quickly caught up.

I mailed in an order for 3 varieties of black raspberry plants on March 2nd. I sent an email to their customer service on the 13th, asking if they had recieved my check and when to expect the plants..

They said "We are not yet showing an order placed under the name and address provided. If you did just mail the order on March 2 we have not yet had enough time to receive and process the order. Please allow a little more time for this to occur."

I'm not sure whether this company is just not geared towards checks, or if the order was lost in the mail, or something else.

I asked for shipment ASAP, as roses and brambles are already leafing out here. I'll update when I learn more. They should have received my order/payment in 3-4 days...but who knows??? This could become a problem or it may not be a big deal...wish me luck!

please do not do bussines with this company your plants will arrive doa or at the least wrong culor,dryed out, moldy. their replacement policy you must have shipping label from box and sence plants are shipped from all over the place .thats alot of packing list to lose track of Ive been a gardner for 35 years .The way they package their plants for shipment should be a crime at the least its murder.order#32052055 doa on arrival redwood dawn,creeping flox, never received 2 foxtail lily, ordered angel trumpet collection red yellow white I was able to save these after cutting off rotten and moldy tops down to one inch stubs after waiting for them to grow all summer .guess what color they were ? 2 yellow 1 white no matter how long I looked no red wish I would have found this sight before I ordered from them would have saved me some of my hard earned cash.

As a newbie to online garden ordering I selected this company because of the great deals posted on their website. Excitement turned to consternation and frustration, however, when I received many rotted bulbs, dead bare roots, mislabeled daylilies (some sort of brown spider lily that in no way resembled the purple d'oros ordered), and plantlets that just plain disappeared after planting. I drafted a letter to the company to take advantage of their replacement policy, but held off hoping something might still come up. After reading of others' experiences with this company, though, I doubt it is even worth pursuing. Just chalk it up to naiveté and move on - I hope they thought getting my $49 was worth it. In the long run the lesson may be more expensive for them than for me.

Don't waste your money. The ridiculously low prices should be a tip-off. Their products stink.

When I very first got the gardening bug last summer, I stumbled upon their site. Not knowing what I was doing, I ended up place 2 orders totalling about $150.

Almost everything that arrived was horribly packaged -- dirt and roots and leaves strewn about the package, withered leaves, soggy/rotted leaves, plants dropped into plastic bags with no cushioing or other protection. I know the plants were supposed to arrive dormant, so I gave everything I could salvage a shot. Remember, I was a novice.

I followed their planting instructions to a T (although a lot of what I ordered wasn't covered in their planting guide). I also spoke to my local nursery for advice. I put a great deal of time and effort into tending to these poor plants and hoped against hope that something would fight through.

Of the 60 or 70 plants that I ordered, a grand total of 3 have lasted through the (very mild) California winter. Before I even received the items, I found this web site and didn't expect much, so I didn't even try to get my money back.

Horrible waste of money.

I have been buying plants and trees from Direct Gardening for several years after finding out about them from Burgess and am very happy with my purchases. (I now know they are affiliates.)

I have ordered plants from many different companies whose products were more expensive and the shipments did not look better than those I received from Direct Gardening. I had a problem with one of my Direct Gardening purchases and the customer service person I spoke to was very nice and the replacements sent were in good condition and in a timely manner for my location. After getting burned by a more known company I won't mention, for much more money, I am a satisfied customer of Direct Gardening and will continue to purchase from them in the future. I even intend to place another order next month because my experiences have been good for several years (10 orders) and most of the stuff growing in my yard has come from them.

This place ripped me off two years ago (and continues to do so... as things fail to bloom). I ordered a number of trees and plants, most of which died. Out of an approximately $150 assorted order, only the following survived:

1. Pawlonia tree (really a neat tree- but like a weed, so no thanks to DG for this one pulling through).

2. Asparagus- surprisingly all my asparagus rooted and has survived for two years. Looking forward to harvest in the spring!

Flowering trees all arrived looking like sticks. I soaked them and planted as instructed and they continued to look like sticks. They probably were sticks!

All the other plants either arrived dead or died after planting. The only exception was a fruit cocktail tree which I was excited about. It has grown, but not borne any fruit in two years. The growth seems suspiciously thorny- I'm guessing the grafts were poorly done and the growth is really in the root stock (which is definitely not a fruit tree). I plan to tear this thing up and plant something else.

GOOD LUCK should you take a risk, then try to get them to act on their "money back guarantee" (or "replacement" guarantee). This company knows what they're doing- don't waste your money.

AVOID this company- you're better off shopping your local hardware store than this place. Again- PLEASE don't waste your money (save yourself the aggravation!).

Hello, I recently purchased $67 worth of roses for Direct Gardening and when the items arrived they were moldy and brown. I did a scratch test on the items and they were brown inside. The insides suppose to be green if the item were dormant. I called Direct Gardening they told me to go ahead and soak the items in water so I did and then planted them even though they looked died. Out of 13 roses 13 roses died. I contacted them and was instructed to return the labels for replacements which I did. It took four months for me to receive the replacement and I had to continuously call and they would tell me that they have not receive my label and I had a conformation slip from the post office stating that they did. I reported them to BBB and Direct Gardening final sent me more died and moldy rose. I think they are scam artist and they need to be shut down. Do not buy from them.

Never order from Burgess or any of their affiliated companies. You will more than likely get rotten, moldy, or dried out and dead plant materials. Even when some of the plants survive(apparently by and act of God), it is not worth it given how much you have paid, and given the number of plants that have NOT made it . Replacements are just as likely to be in the same horrible shape as the original shipments. How this multi-headed monster of a company, hiding behind it's multiple-identities, has been allowed to stay in business is beyond me. Also all of the catalogs of the affiliated companies look alike-if you get one and it looks familar, you can be sure it is one of them-and throw it away-under no circumstances should you order ANYTHING!

I recently spent over $100 for merchandise which when arrived was ready for the garbage can. Plants in plastic bags were moldy and some had lost what little packing was around the roots. The sticks were dry and when checked with a thumbnail were brown, not green as should be.
I shouldn't have wasted my time but I planted them anyway in the hopes I am wrong. Time will tell.
Checking this web site for this firm, I found out of 34 reports, 24 were negative. Dividing the 24 by the 34 yields a failure rate of 70%.
Sorry I didn't check on them first, never again. And to confront them is nothing but a big hassle from what I read.
Merry Christmas, Direct Gardening, you got my money.