Comments regarding Burgess Seed

As a first time buyer I only bought 6 supposedly Blue Spruce seedlings, color and needles didn't look like blue spruce to me, was told by customer servive to use nitrogen fert. to bring out the blue color. Have planted blue spruce seedlings before and I didn't have to use nitrogen fert.
Anyway, took awhile for order to arrive. Seedlings were shipped in big plastic bag and looked to have winter burn, very few green needles, most were brown . Other companies I have ordered seedlings from other suppliers and seedling were shipped in boxes for protection and roots were wrapped to keep them moist, shipping was also arranged so you knew the shipment was coming. Water and planted, 5 weeks later no buds budding all needles falling off!! Was going to ask for replacements but after reading all these negative feedbacks I am not going to waste time and postage pursuing replacements. Chalking this up to experience, you get what you pay for, only out alittle over $20. Anybody considering ordering from these folks, save your time and money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"On Jul 3, 2012 9:18 AM, Burgess Seed responded with:

We are sorry to hear that some of the trees did not survive. Many of our trees are bare root and dormant when shipped as this allows them to be transplanted with much higher degrees of success. If the leaves have turned brown and are all falling off, then we do not believe they will survive and replacements will be needed. Nitrogen fertilizer will bring out blue color on some items such as hydrangea, but this will not work on blue spruce, so we are sorry if the customer was told this. Blue Spruce do vary in color however from green to blue, with the truest blue coloring guaranteed only through grafted seedlings which we do not carry. We have sent a Dmail to this customer to try to get more information, but have not received a response.



"

Posted on March 6, 2012, updated June 13, 2012
I received my order in similar condition as mentioned in most other posts; the trees plants looked dead and a bit beaten. However, I read/followed the instructions that came with the order; such as first putting them (the twigs) in a bucket of water. I think it helps mitigate some of the "shock" received by the tree/plant due to transport (temp. changes, elevation, humidity, dryness, etc.) I don't know, but they appeared to be in better condition after a day or so soaking in a bucket in my bathtub. Also, there was a plant missing from my order (Chinese Wisteria)--Lisa made sure to send it out as soon as she received the original shipping label back. There was no hassle or problem in doing so and she was very polite. I ordered a couple of hundred dollars worth of trees and plants from them, and although a few of them did not survive--I am SO pleased with the ones that did, that I would not hesitate to order from them again. All of my trees (dwarfs) and plants are in buckets. As far as the ones that didn't make it-I waited until 10 months had gone by (and I did the scratch test) before calling for replacements. They (Lisa again)were pleasant and prompt in handling the matter. Now, because they already HAD my original shipping order on file (because of the Chinese Wisteria), the phone call was all that was necessary in order to get replacements :) I am a repeat customer (I have ordered from them twice before with similar results/service each time)...and will continue to do so in the future as they have kept their end of the deal by replacing any plants/trees that do not make it within the 365 day guarantee.

I ordered two jostaberry plants and two honeyberry plants, only one of the jostaberry plants made it, the other three plants that were sent were not healthy looking at all, but i wanted to hope for the best, unfortunately they did not make it.....I called up customer service and I needed my packing slip....my order form was not enough and I have to wait six weeks so I am sure when I wait the six weeks, they will be out of stock and I will miss out on a year of having the bushes grow. Plus the person I spoke with at customers service blamed ME and essentially said it wasn't her problem, but rather mine!!!!!! I will NEVER order from this company again, BEWARE!!!!!!!!!

On Feb.4th, I placed an order & received part of it at the end of the month.I called twice in March & twice in April, only to be told empty promises of arrival of the rest of my order "next week". The last cust. rep. I talked to said that it was being held up because they didn't have the pussywillows. So I told them just to send me my plants NOW & send the pussywillows separately. I sent 2 e-mails after that & still got nowhere. In the last week of April, I received the remainder if my order,minus the pusywillows & got a substitution,instead, with no description or directions of the plant (pink flowering waters spirea). Never again will I order from Burgess & I told them to remove me from their mailing list & I promptly deleted them from my e-mail.

"On Sep 5, 2012 12:20 PM, Burgess Seed responded with:

We are sorry to hear that the customer was unsatisfied with the substitution. We do have more pussy willows available in the fall, after we are able to dig. We were able to contact the customer by Dmail and a replacement of the pussy willows is scheduled for this fall.

"

I should have read reviews before I ordered! After waiting 4 weeks to get my trees and mosquito bushes, I got sticks stapled to the top of the bag shoved in between my mail box and my neighbors because of course there was no marking saying fragile. The mosquito bushes were moldy and dead. When I wanted to complain about this I got an email telling me the return policy not sorry that I had a problem. Don't ever order from this place unless you want to waste your money!!!

"On Jul 3, 2012 9:19 AM, Burgess Seed responded with:

We are sorry to hear of the problem with plants and we would of course be happy to issue replacement as per our guarantee. We have tried to contact this customer via Dmail, but have not received a response. We hope they will take advantage of the guarantee if they haven’t already.

"

SCAM!!!!! Crooks!!!!! I ordered strawberry plants on March 13, 2012 for spring delivery. The plants were delivered April 4, 2012 and of course couldn't be planted here before early May without danger of frost. The plants are all dead and when I asked for a full refund I was reminded of the 14 day refund policy. If they were delivered May 1st this would have worked out fine but I think they knew the plants were dead and thats why they sent them so early unless they were frozen in transit of subject to radiation.
Martha at the company told me "go ahead and report it to your credit card company, you won't get anywhere with the claim" as if she gets these claims everyday! I don't want the plants replaced next year as I want to grow them now and am out $53 that they stole from me as well as the cost of buying established plants from the local garden center which I should have done in the first place! I had good luck with these strawberrys when I bought them a few year back from them and they were delivered on time but I guess times change. I say its a scam but if it was an accident that the plants were dead Burgess customer service stinks and anyone would be crazy to business with this company. Go to your local garden center for more money but be eating strawberrys rather then dealing with crooks!!!!!!

I ordered plants from Burgess on 4/1/12, having been lured by their low prices. Their website says to allow 1 to 2 weeks for processing. On 4/17, after the 2 week processing period, having heard nothing from them regarding a possible shipping date I inquired via email. Being impatient, I also inquired via their website the next day. On 4/18 and 4/26 they gave me the exact same email responses with no information specific to my order: "Thank you for your e-mail regarding your order. We have checked on your order and found that it is currently in our shipping department and scheduled to ship at any time. Please allow time for delivery once the order has been shipped." Sound familiar?

That seemed odd to me so I searched the internet and found the reviews on this website and immediately cancelled the order. To make the story short, I'm still waiting on my refund two weeks after having cancelled the order. They said today it might be another week or 2. I just recently placed the charge in dispute with my credit card company and that's where it stands.

They have had my $$ for over 6 weeks, and I still don't have any plants. When I talked to their customer service department, they simply replied that it takes that long. I am very disappointed. Spring is nearly gone, and I have nothing to show for it but an empty bank account.

Posted on March 30, 2012, updated May 9, 2012
drastically scaled back my first order with this company based on reviews. it is with extreme regret that i can't check positive because our order arrived yesterday and our plants are amazing. fresh, moist and green despite being on a truck for several days. yes the trees look like sticks but they're sitting in a bucket of water and i'm sure they will be just fine. My only problem is that my order is short by one plant (only two prime-ark blackberries when i ordered three). i called this morning and jeff was very polite but in order to get my third blackberry i now must mail a detailed letter and my original shipping label, you know the one i need to keep for the one year warranty, back to the company. why can't they just say "we're sorry there is another blackberry on the way"? seems like it would require very little effort on their part to get an outstanding review from me and a lot of effort on my part just to get the dang $7.00 blackberry that i ordered. not sure if I'll bother trying to get the plant or ordering from this company again, I don't have the time for BS.

I am new to ordering online and my dad expressed that he did most of his ordering from burgess most his life so I followed his direction and boy was I amazed at the kind, pleasant people I had dealt with, My order was shipped when they said they would, they shipped when it was time for me to plant and all of my plants we are stated when ordered, sealed, wet with plenty of soil, but the time I got he plants I had buds all over all of them and I bought, roses, 3 of them, they come with directions how to plant and today they are all green and budding like crazy..One bad plant does make a company bad. I would definately encourage others to buy there products from this company. I am very pleased and amazed at how many buds were already on them all.

Buyer beware---under NO circumstances should you order from this company. Your credit card will be charged immediately but you will have to wait 60-90 days until you finally receive a bag of DEAD sticks. They take the term "bare root" to a new level that should be called "dead root". They make no effort to provide any moisture to the so-called roots to enable them to survive the shipment. You have been warned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

I am new to this life, not new to life, but new to the pleasure of sinking my hands in to that backyard black gold.

I found Burgess online and found a few of their plants to be on the more interesting side. I placed the order, which was for more than a few of their plants, and after waiting 50 days for my order the order was wrong and several of the plants were dead or missing. And when I say missing, I don’t mean they forgot to put the plants in the shipment - they forgot to put the plants in the pots!?!? They just sent me 3 empty pots with dirt with no plants.

So I called their customer service and yes they were very nice and pleasant, but their solution was for me to pay to have the "dirt" returned to them. I am sorry, but I did not order "dirt" nor should I have to pay to have the "dirt" returned for a replacement of most likely “dirt”.

I am not sure how this company stays in business with service like this.

I ordered for the first time from Burgess this year. I have much experience with other catalog/online plant suppliers. When reading reviews of this or any other catalog company, please be aware that some of the reviewers posting negative reviews have never ordered plants before, and are not aware of the way it works (plants are typically bare-root, cuttings, etc and aren't "pretty" on arrival; also typically shipping is when the company feels appropriate planting for your area is).

My plants arrived in good shape, with the exception of one butterfly bush that the root appeared moldy (I'm still going to see whether it grows). They arrived in several shipments (expected) and at an appropriate planting time (mid-April).

The ordering was easy, shipment as expected, and the plants arrived healthy. I cannot comment on customer service, but many of the issues other reviewers ran into are not issues most would be likely to encounter (calling them to have a shipment moved up, calling to check on an order, etc). Possibly that's because I just ordered and relaxed, trusting that my order would arrive, and that if there's a problem it can be rectified at the WORST case by stopping payment on my credit card. And lo and behold - it did arrive, and in good condition!

I would order from Burgess again!

Approximately 3 weeks after placing my order, and nearly 2 weeks after having gotten my first shipment, I contacted Burgess to find out the status of 7 items that had not been received. After NUMEROUS busy signals, and finally a ring through which was picked up and hung up with out Burgess saying a word, I finally reached a human. Although pleasant, she said that she could not tell me which item(s) was holding up the shipment of the balance of my order. After she talked with a "supervisor", she came back on the line and stated that the items that she thought were on back order were not, and that my order just had not been processed.

When pressed about a date to ship, she said it would be good to wait at least another week before I should look for my order.

If you want your order, and need what you order, there are other suppliers who are eager for business, and would rather provide service than a run around.

Overall ordering from burgess seed co. was very positive...they were consistent with thier web site and sent the seeds I ordered two weeks after the payment was processed....I orderd garlic sets, and potatos from them and they arrived in great shape and are growing well....the bare root trees came exactly as described on thier website. They were dormant with many healthy roots, and even some buds...they seem healthy and strong....they were shipped lightning fast via fedex and arrived in a very thick sturdy plastic bag,NOT a flimsy garbage bag as some described...they arrived at the end of March exactly when they shoud arrive in my growing zone.....now for the negative (though there is not much to complain about I do have one complaint that may cause me to consider other nuseries in the future)....BURGESS PLEASE, PLEASE, adequately train your telephone operators....while they are all american (which I like) they are very argumentative and quick to LIE TO CUSTOMERS....i called about 5 times in six weeks to check on my order status (to see if i could have them move up the shipping date due to warm weather,) every time I called they said, "oh it just shipped today you'll have it in a week" based on thier responses I am assuming that your opperators either don't know how to use computers, naturally lie to customers, or have been trianed to lie to customers to get us off the phone quickly....I could give more exampls but this isnt a hit piece...I just would like some one from Burgess to explain why tso many of thier customer service reps are either unable to access information or lying....we are adults, if they don't know exactly when something will ship, or can't change the shipping date they should just say so...that is the only thing that might keep me from doing business with them again.....too bad, really are fantastic products, and this is comming from someone who worked ten years on a tree farm.

I regret that I must post a negative review based on my shopping experience, in order to prevent this from happening to other potential customers. I just received my order with an unwanted substitution for what I did order. I also have concerns about the freshness of seed from Burgess.

I suggest implementing the following quality control improvements:

1. Implement an inventory control system that disables sales of sold-out merchandise.
2. Explicitly solicit permission from the customer to substitute, if that is your policy. I suggest implementing improvement #1 above, and only substituting in extraordinary circumstances, with explicit customer buy-in. I also suggest substituting only items likely to make up for the disappointment. You want your customers to have a positive shopping experience.
3. Maintain fresh seed stocks, and if seed must be stored, store it for optimal longevity. If Burgess is in fact a liquidator of old seed stock, then be up-front about this and discount it appropriately.

I'm rating the company as a neutral. I bought a variety of trees last year and did have the three multi-fruit tree types all survive. It will be a long time before I see them reach a productive size and can verify that they were as advertised but I'm in no hurry, just glad they've made it so far.

A cherry I bought was an irritating disappointment as it had obviously been been snapped and rammed in to fit, and arrived too far gone to recover. The "Lisa" noted as being responsible for that shipment should have been ashamed. Smaller bareroot tree's were more likely to be damaged and/or dry due to the lack of protective packaging, a few pulled through.

I am ordering the four multi-fruit trees again this year based on the fact that they were a bit sturdier and seemed to come through their handling and shipping better, a key there is that they don't really have branches which also helps I think. This year I'm passing on all of the additional items I thought were interesting.

Like other reviews, I am mystified as to why they don't put their tree bags in protective boxes with a little moistened newspaper around the roots like other online nurseries. I'd be willing to pay the extra few bucks for actually getting the products to me in better shape.

The adage "You get what you pay for" certainly applies. My orders for things that didn't come in good shape from them last year are definitely going elsewhere but my experience wasn't so terrible I'm not willing to give them one more shot.

This is the first year that I purchased anything from Burgess, but the shipment came in 2 orders, the first one came fine and by Fedex. the 2nd came with USPS, which I hope they never send with them again, the shipment was shoved in my mailbox even tho it was too big to fit in. The plants all looked like they were dead but after inspecting them a little bit more you could tell that they were just dormant. I ordered 10-12 different Roses, 4 Weeping Willows and assortment of other plants. They are all in the ground and you can see that they are starting to bud. So far I am happy with my purchase. Burgess gets a positive review from me for speed of shipment, ease, and the price of the items. I'm hooked on the buy one get one for a cent. :)

I have just ordered a LOT of plants from Burgess and now I am reading so many negative comments about them and the quality of their products. I have only received 2 little packets of seed so far but I can tell you, I paid $6.19 for 12 cucumber seed!!!!! That is outrageous. I don't care if the cucumbers are lined in gold as they grow this is terrible so I am wondering if the remaining part of the two orders I have placed will have similar 'surprises' for me? I will keep you all posted.

Fool me once...
Well, it's shame on me at this point in time. I have ordered from them a few times and had a headache every time. When i contacted them they were prompt in responding but my first order that contained some plants that were dry as a bone and dead was replaced with a shipment of some lovely moldy plants, one of which was actually bent & snapped in half to fit in the box they shipped them in. Well, i placed another order and in it ordered lily of the valleys. I got some tree looking things, let them know and they said they would reship the correct plant. Well, i received another package a few weeks later with the same dormant tree things in it! I looked around online and i don't think i am crazy but lily of the valley plants are NOT trees. I gave up trying to get the to correct that. Then i ordered 50 strawberry plants. 25 were fantastic, 25 were rotten (they were bundled into two bags of 25). I never let them know at this point in time i don't feel like wasting my energy with them, i just wish i hadn't wasted my money too.

I ordered a lot of plants my first time out ordering from Burgess, I only did so because my grandmother used to. I did not have good luck when e-mailing to ck on a shipment which I began to worry about after they had billed me 2 months prior-I finally got an email saying they were in the shipping Dept-but it still took another 3 weeks. I did not expect the twigs, sticks and dry grass-I ordered seeds too-some I could plant in late fall, not according to their package but what I read on-line-I did not realize I would be getting 'dormant' plants-but used the instructions and planted all anyways-my weeping willow started gettting leaves right away, which fell off once winter set in, but I can see it is growing a bit anyways. Same with 2 lilac twigs-they are all sticks right now-I did ck one tree that had no leaves that looks dead but a light fingernail scrape shows green in the trunk so I am sure it is fine-the grasses still look dead, blue fescue-but all arrived for planting at a time when growth is not number one priority as being visible. Now my burning bushes on the other hand started to get masses of green leaves shortly after our first cold freezes-same with my winter hardy roses. I am giving them a good rating based on the prices and instructions-I do see even dormant that there is life of some sort-and I did additionally add root growth liquid to all just in case. I have heard that even a year is not enough to know with some plants so have all planted in good locations for them and plan to plant around them because high patience with verything is not my strong point!-I have seen my grandmothers from Burgess take 2-3 yrs to really take off and am willing to wait on certain plants in the belief that overall these may end up being my sturdiest plants in the future because they were bare root. I am not thrilled with my own yet-but can say that my grandmothers-which are only purchased (she is very loyal to this company) over the years from Burgess and the Dutch sounding line they are affiliated with-are outstandingly healthy plants, and she has a yard full- so I know what possibilities may be in store for my own. The only negative was email responses and my own not understanding their shipping dates, which I do know now! I will definitely order again.

I have to admit that I was a little shocked when I recieved my hydranea treas-looked like sticks. They were dormant-followed the instructions and to my delight they came to life and flowered. I ordered a variety of plants and a few trees.
Not everything survived but most of it did. I have been ordering for several years now and will order again. The prices are great. If something does not make it I don't feel to bad. I have tried a lot of companies, paid more, felt bad when plant/tree did not come back. I am ordering again this year!

"On Jan 12, 2012 3:56 PM, Burgess Seed responded with:

I wanted to thank you for your kind posting on Garden Watchdog. Your experience is more typical of our normal customers as we do ship hundreds of thousands of packages to satisfied customers each year. I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to post your comments.

Bailey
Burgess
Customer Service--Email Division"

beware - do not buy from Burgess.... sent me bad plants. ( dead black and moldy when they arrived ) much complaining later agreed to refund $200 of it - about 1/4 of the order with me spending another almost $50 to mail the dead stuff back. . 4 years ago! I finally just got a stale dated check this past summer. I politely informed them the PO messed giving them a chance to weasel out. since then the excuses/lies. they can not find the original order - have no record of me. they will not take an email attachment of the check. - did not like copy I sent to BBB when they were contacted. I sent them a copy registered mail. they are insisting I send original back to them... they did not like a letter from my bank stating check was not cashable. got a letter from them demanding the check since it was cashable 4 years later - yet another lie proving they have no intentions of honoring the check. if I give them the original I have nothing to give a judge - told them so... they have ignored me since. I am contacting the IL state attorney as well as the Bloomington city/count atty office over this also. note this place goes under many names... out of bloomington IL
among the names they use Burgess Seed
Direct Gardening Dutch Gardens
Farmer Seed and Nursery Four Seasons Nursery
Honeycreek Nurserie House of Wesley
Inter-State Nurseries Kelly Nurseries
Richard Owen Nursery / Exciting Gardens
Royal Dutch

Posted on August 15, 2011, updated November 13, 2011
Do not order from Burgess. They do bad business. I grow fruits and vegetables to sell at farmer's markets and have planted over 50 raspberry/blackberry plants from various vendors. I decided to order 168 plants from Burgess. Many of the plants arrived completly dried up or soft and moldy. All the dead plants were not "bare root," they had no root at all. I wrote them an email asking for replacements and they told me to just plant them. I have already done so without them telling me to, however, I do not think they are dormant plants. I recieved dead plants. I don't like to have to go through all the work and hassle of having to ask and wait for a refund or replacements. I would like to be able to pay for and receive a quality product. I will give the plants some time to see if any of the dead plants are salvagable but will not order from them again. Here is the email that I sent them and the reply I recieved.

I sent them:
Hello Burgess,
I placed an order with you on July 20, 2011 for some plants. The order number is 33508760. It consisted of 42 Amber Raspberry plants, 42 Thornless Canby Raspberry plants, 42 Brandywine Raspberry plants, and 40 Black Satin Thornless Blackberry plants. Many of the plants arrived dead. They were brown, dried up, withered, and moldy. Of the plants sent, 41 Amber Raspberry, 32 Brandywine, 6 Thornless Canby, and 30 Blackberry were dead. Iam requesting for replacements all of the dead plants. Thankyou

The reply I received:
Thank you for your email regarding the plants you received from us. You stated that some of your plants appear "dead" or have not yet started to bud and leaf-out. Please keep in mind that much of our nursery stock is shipped in a dormant, bare root condition or in starter pots that require transplanting. Also your plants may be stressed by shipment. Therefore,the plants may look "dead," be droopy upon arrival, have lost leaves in shipment, or may leaf-out later than an established plant. If you have not already done so, please plant all plants immediately following the instructions in our planting booklet. Water them regularly.Give them a chance. In nearly every instance the plants will grow and thrive. If after six weeks of planting, your plants do not leaf out or if you are certain they are not alive, return the original shipping label from the package as required by our guarantee. Upon receipt a replacement order will be scheduled for you. Please include a full explanation of the problem by item and quantity. Thank You
Customer Care Department

"On Oct 20, 2011 1:24 PM, Burgess Seed responded with:

The items received in this order were are all shipped bare root and dormant as this allows them to be transplanted with much higher degrees of success. Since they are dormant, and not leafed out, they may be mistaken for dead. We suggest soaking in water overnight or for a few hours before planting. We were able to contact the customer via Dmail and did ask that they allow some time for the plants to break dormancy and show signs of life since they had just been received and planted. At this time, we have not heard back from the customer by dmail, so hopefully all have survived. If they do not survive, the plants are covered under our one year guarantee.

"

Posted on November 2, 2011, updated November 3, 2011
I recently ordered some plants from Burgess. The almond tree I ordered was not available. As a substitution, they sent me two chestnut plants. I contacted the customer care department through e-mail and explained that I did not want the chestnut trees. They offered me a refund for the almond tree or the choice of being put on a waiting list for the almond tree. They also allowed me to keep the two chestnut trees. If I find that I like chestnuts as well as I like almonds, I will probably order more. I am very well satisfied with Burgess plants and customer service.

I am still waiting for an order I placed on 8/18. I have communicated several times but still no order...I have orderded before and alot of items did not grow but I did not want to hassle with the replacement. I was not going to order again but the catalouge looked inviting...Now I throw out the catalouges soon as I receive them and do not look at them. If I ever get my order I will never knowingly make the same mistake again....some of these nursery's are affilliated so I am going to be more careful....

"On Dec 5, 2011 8:08 AM, Burgess Seed responded with:

We have tried to contact the customer via Dmail and have received no response. The current order had already been shipped at the time the post was made and delivery shows it was received shortly. We are sorry to hear that plants from previous orders did not survive, and hope the customer chooses to take advantage of our one year guarantee. "

Letter about Kelly's and Burgess nursery.
>
> I guess I'm a glutton for punishment, because I bought plants from both
> nurseries
>
> The plants from Kelly's were dry beyond recovery upon were arrival, I
> complained by e-mail replacement plants were of no use to me they were also
> dry.
aI had ordered some plants from Burgess, when I found out that two are
> related I e-mailed to stop this order. E-mail after e-mail they said the
> the plants would be sent, I asked for a refund, the excuse was it would be hard
> to stop.
"Thank you for your email. Once an order has been processed, it does become
> very difficult to cancel an order. Please allow more time for your request
> to be processed.:"

My last email I quote
>
> Sirs
> You took money in July 2011 and have had it over 2 months.
> I plan To Send a copy of correspondence to The Attorney General in
> Bloomington, IL Consumer Protection Division and Dave's Garden web site.
> Return my money.
> Donald Privett
>
>
>
>
> Thank You 
Customer Care Departmeny
>

We purchased a new home about a year & a half ago which sits on a little over 2 acres - most of it yard. We decided to plant some fruit and nut trees, not just for our own enjoyment but to increase the value of the property. We ordered quite a bit from Burgess and a few from Four Seasons. The orders arrived right before Memorial Day weekend - when it was already HOT here in Georgia. I didn't expect them to be shipped until fall.

All the plants arrived as dormant bare root in plastic bags. It took me 3 days to get them all planted or potted. As I was about to plant one of them, I realized they had sent me a peach tree instead of the dwarf stanley plum that I'd ordered. Apparently that variety was victim of crop failure, yet when I visited their site, the only plums they were selling were the dwarf stanley variety. I called the company because I didn't want a peach tree at all! I didn't order any, why would they believe that would be a suitable substitute. I was instructed to send the peach tree back to them with the shipping label and a note with my request. I did, and a couple of weeks later, I received a dwarf stanley plum.

As any gardener/farmer will tell you, you're not gonna get 100% of the seeds/seedlings you plant to grow. That's just a part of nature. Of the 14 trees ordered from Burgess and Four Seasons, 5 haven't "survived" (including the dwarf stanley), but the other 9 are growing beautifully. I'm in the process of sending the shipping labels back with requests for replacements right now. Found this discussion while having trouble getting their websites to come up. :(

Overall, I'm very pleased with the quality and service I've received from both Burgess and Four Seasons.

I actually read the reviews here first, but decided to take a chance anyway. I am in the process of converting all of our landscaping to edible choices for my family and livestock. I needed a LOT of plants and I was able to speed up my plans due to the affordable prices at Burgess.

I ordered over $400 of fruit and nut plants this Spring. They arrived in several shipments in the infamous green and red plastic bags. I knew I was buying dormant, bare-root plants and was not surprised to receive the 'dead twigs' that everyone talks about.

It was also no surprise to me that, although most of the plants grew very well, some just didn't make it. There was about a 10% fail rate. But I also bought plants at the same time from some very reputable companies and local nurseries. Some of those didn't make it either. That isn't a reflection on any of the companies I bought from, it's just the nature of delicate young plants.

On August 22, I sent them a letter along with the original shipping labels detailing which plants failed. Today, September 9th, I received the first of two shipments of replacement stock.

I waited to post this review to first see how they would handle the warranty. I am very pleased with my experience with this company and, in fact, am preparing my next order.

BTW, in case you have a skeptical mind like me, I am a real person and I don't work for them in any way!

I purchased and planted 2 sub-zero roses in 09; I did not mulch, cone or tip them prior to our severe, No. MN, zone 4 winter.....they lived. This year I planted 9 more and they are beautiful; I look forward to enlarging my rose garden and ordering another assortment of 9 next spring. The price was very reasonable and I am very pleased with the experience.

I should have checked here first. We ordered two fruit trees. They arrived via USPS in a plastic bag. They looked dead but we read the paper that came with them. We planted them and three months later we have dead sticks planted in our yard. We don't want to return these to get replacements that more than likely will be dead sticks. We are chalking this one up to experience and have found another company with whom to give our business.
My advice to anyone thinking about spending big bucks with this company...DO NOT!!! Use this site to find another company to do business with.

"On Oct 6, 2011 1:16 PM, Burgess Seed responded with:

Most of our trees are shipped in a bare root and dormant condition. Because they are not actively growing, but are dormant like during winter, they do not need sunlight, soil, etc. This allows them to be shipped and transplanted with much higher degrees of success. Since they are dormant, and not leafed out, they may be mistaken for dead. We suggest soaking in water overnight or for a few hours before planting. Make sure any nursery stock planted is water well especially during the first season while getting established. It can take 6 weeks once planted to begin showing signs of life. All of our plants are covered by our one year replacement guarantee for which we do not require the return of the dead plants. We have tried to contact this customer via Dmail but have received no response. "

My experience was similar to a lot of the views shared. The plants arrived dead. The trees snapped like dry twigs and had no sign of life. The price is irrelevant. The company is not honorable. Basically no return or refund policy. Shame on me for not listening to the experiences posted about Burgess. My opinion/advice: Don't make the same mistake. Don't order from Burgess

"On Oct 6, 2011 1:17 PM, Burgess Seed responded with:

We are sorry to hear of the problem with this order. We do have both a refund and a replacement guarantee and stand behind them. We have tried to contact this customer via Dmail and have received no response. "

Posted on August 2, 2011, updated August 4, 2011
Posted on July 31, 2011, updated August 2, 2011
Posted on July 31, 2011, updated July 31, 2011
As a new customer this year of Burgess Seed and Plant Co., I ordered $426.07 worth of plants and seeds. I received their wonderful and colorful catalogue this winter and was excited to buy plants for my new garden. The fatal mistake I made was not googling this company first and reading the reviews they had received by other customers. Of the 386 plants I had ordered, 110 of the plants were dead on arrival. Burgess must spend a lot of money on their advertising catalogue in order to entice customers to purchase their products. And the cheap prices just draw you in even more. As far as I'm concerned, this is just a form of false advertising. You think you are buying good, healthy plants and they send you a bunch of garbage. All the plants they mailed me in 4 separate shipments, were in dark green plastic bags. No protection to the plants whatsoever. All the raspberries and blackberries looked like dead sticks. And half of the sticks were broken because of other mail being laid on them. My wife and I spent over 27 hrs. planting all these sticks and plants just to make sure they weren't dead. Over 3 months later, a third of all the plants still haven't sprouted, rooted, or leafed out. Burgess' refund policy is an absolute joke too!! They only allow you 14 days to ask for a refund. How in the heck is a person suppose to know if a plant will survive in 14 days. I'm sure Burgess purposely institutes this policy, knowing that almost every customer won't be able to get their money back. They say they will send replacements for everything lost, but why would anyone want more garbage plants sent. The following is a letter I sent to Burgess requesting a refund of $118.72 for dead plants. They sent a letter back, saying I didn't request my money back in the 14 day time frame and wouldn't be getting any money back. So I resent this letter to Burgess as an e-mail, telling them that I would be taking them to small claims court and will be suing them for $806.22 for lost plants and for lost time planting them. I think everyone on this site should take the time and sue this company also. The cost is very cheap to do so, and if you win, the expenses you incurred to file will be paid by Burgess to reimburse you for all court costs. I don't think Burgess could afford to defend themselves against multiple lawsuits and that might put them out of business. We could even go as far as filing a class action lawsuit against Burgess. As there are 250 Negative reviews against Burgess (as soon as I send this), I think we would have more than enough proof to provide the courts.

This is the e-mail I sent Burgess today (7-31-11):


Sirs at Burgess,
Just in case you didn't receive my e-mail yesterday (7-30-11), I'm sending you another copy of it today. Only this time I'm going through Dave's Garden website, which reviews all the mail order garden companies through the Garden Watchdog. Your reviews aren't very promising. Your Company has 249 Negative, 42 Neutral, and a paltry 107 Positive reviews. Soon to be 250 negative reviews after I fill one out. I received your letter back to me about not giving me a $118.72 refund for plants that were dead on arrival, because I didn't ask for a refund within 14 days. How would you expect someone to know if a dead plant you mailed would still live or not within 14 days of receiving them? Your refund policy is absolutely ludicrous. Because of your stupidity in not accepting my offer of a refund of $118.72, I will be filing in small claims court against you for a total of $806.22 for the cost of dead plants on arrival and the value of my time in trying to plant these dead plants to see if they would still grow. I hope you realize that if you don't send a representative from Burgess, when the court files against you, I will win by default. Do you have any idea how much it will cost you to represent yourself if you do send someone up here? Far more then the $118.72 I was asking for in the refund I was requesting. If I don't hear from your Company by Monday, Aug. 1st, I will be filing at the Benton County Courthouse on Aug. 2nd. I will also still be sending letters of complaints to the Bloomington Better Business Bureau and to the Illinois Attorney General. Companies that treat customers the way you do should be put out of business due to false advertising. You send out these wonderfully colorful and beautiful brochures and then send nothing but garbage for plants. This is exactly why I didn't want replacements instead of a refund, cause you would just send me more garbage. I expect a call by Monday telling me that you've changed your mind and will be sending me a $118.72 refund or I will be filing for a $806.22 claim in conciliation court.

Mark G. O'Riley

"On Nov 18, 2011 8:01 AM, Burgess Seed responded with:

We are sorry to hear that this customer was not satisfied with part of their order.
Our guarantee is clearly posted on the website as well as in all catalogs, and we do stand behind this guarantee. Many of our plants including most raspberries and blackberries are shipped bareroot and dormant which may cause them to appear dead, but allows them to be transplanted with much higher degrees of success. And we work diligently to keep prices down for our customers!

We have been in business since the 1912. The postings on this site have been accumulated during the last 16 years, and represent an extremely small portion of our customers. We are extremely proud of the contribution we have made throughout generations to the beautification of America’s gardens and landscape. We appreciate the feedback from this site, and recognize that typically customers will only take the time to register on this site (of which we are not a member or advertiser) if they are unhappy, and we do attempt to contact posters to resolve issues.
"

Like a lot of the rest of you, I wish I had found this website BEFORE placing an order with this company. I placed an order for just shy of $180, enticed by the wonderful catelog and the low prices. I loved the idea of the "postage stamp orchard" and so a good portion of my order was dwarf fruit trees. The quality of the plants that I received was less than stellar. The "trees" had a couple of sad little stringy roots on them, but mostly looked like dead sticks (they were slightly moist and greenish under the bark), I soaked them in water for a couple of hours, and planted them and hoped for the best. After a couple of months, there were still no leaves or any other signs of life. I was able to just pull the sticks straight out of the ground with no effort at all. Same story with almost everything else I ordered too. So I called the company and they were very condensending and patronizing. They wanted the original shipping lable and refused to give me a refund. (See previous posts about the 14 day $$$ refund policy.) They said that I could get replacement plants (if I jumped thru all the appropriate hoops) but honostly, why would I want another go with the same less than stellar product. An extremely costly lesson learned. You get what you pay for. : (

"On Nov 8, 2011 10:26 AM, Burgess Seed responded with:

We have contacted this customer by dmail and offered either replacements or merchandise credit. We do stand behind our guarantee and hope that the customer takes advantage of this offer."

Posted on July 15, 2011, updated July 16, 2011
I had never ordered from Burgess before and decided to give them a try. Big mistake! I ordered some seeds and a bunch of shrubs and live plants. I received a big box with the live plants and an envelope with the seeds. I ordered 3 types of black raspberries (3 plants each). The Logans were all dead on arrival. I tried to get a replacement and was told to send my original shipping label. I did and they told me it wasn't the right one. Well, I was only sent one box. To make a long story short, customer service had the same person handling my case and she /he started to become really impatient and rude. All I wanted was a replacement on the dead plants and they acted like they were made of gold. I have given up at this point. NEVER will I order from then again!

"On Aug 31, 2011 9:15 AM, Burgess Seed responded with:

The original shipping label is on the outside of the package and lists both the name and address as well as the items inside the package. It also is printed with
“IMPORTANT! SAVE THIS LABEL! You must return this label in order for the guarantee to be valid!”. This customer ordered over 60 plants and has stated that everything else has lived but 3 raspberries. We have contacted this customer by Dmail and offered replacements. We hope that the customer chooses to take advantage of our guarantee.

This website represents a very, very small percentage of our customers. We do not advertise on Dave’s Garden. Very few customers take the time to set up an account just to make a positive posting. We value all of our customers, the vast majority of whom are happy and satisfied and return year after year!
"

My sister in-law and I placed a fairly large order with Burgess.com for the first time around the first week in June - BEFORE I discovered Daves Garden and the warnings about Burgess. But, 2 weeks later our order arrived in 2 shipments. We had ordered Sub-Zero Roses, Ground Cover Roses, a Dainty Double Cushion Rose, 2 Tree Hydrangeas, 2 Butterfly Bushes, 2 Purple d'Oro Daylilies, 12 Creeping Red Sedums, 6 Astilbe, 6 Purple Ice Plants, 40 Blazing Star Liatris, 6 Hardy English Primroses, and Hydrangea. I was pleased with the plants; they were alive and healthy-looking, though small. We soaked the roses in water for a couple hours, then planted them. We also planted the rest of the plants as soon as was possible. I have been amazed by their growth since then! ALL of the plants, except the Purple Ice Plants, are thriving! It has been such a pleasure to watch the plants grow. And with their unbeatable prices, I will be ordering from them again sometime....hopefully my second experience with them will be as good as the first!!!

Posted on June 3, 2011, updated June 29, 2011
Posted on April 29, 2011, updated June 3, 2011
Posted on April 23, 2011, updated April 29, 2011
I've ordered from Burgess many years ago and thought I would try them again this year. Because of their low prices. This year, March 1, 2011, I ordered one red clematis, five Rose of Sharon Hedges, two of the Poplar, Shade Hybrid 3-4' plants, and three of the Hall's honeysuckle plants. After ordering and giving them my card info, online, I watched my card's account and found the money was on "Hold", for several days. I don't know if Burgess did this or if the bank did this because it was an Internet purchase. Finally the money went through to the company, (or Burgess finally processed it).

I received a confirmation of my order, but nothing about when it would be shipped. This came on March 26, 2011.
After waiting awhile, I emailed their "Customer Service" on April 8, 2011 to find out when the order would be shipped. They answered my email on April 11th. "Customer Service" said the order was in the shipping department, "to be shipped immediately." In my email to them, I explained where I live and how the weather was getting hotter, which means our growing season was much sooner than the northern states. I was concerned I was loosing valuable planting time. I waited for an email telling me how and when to expect my order, but didn't receive one.

I emailed again, on April 15th, asking once again if they were shipped and how they would come, (by mail or what?). I said the weather was becoming more hot and was concerned about when my order would come.
I did not receive an answer but I received my order on April 21st, 2011.
Everything I ordered came, by "Fed Ex", but in a large, orange plastic bag, which was very hot to the touch! When I opened my bag, I found the honeysuckle plants were just tossed in the bag, with no covering on the roots, to keep them moist. They were plants, but dead, with dead and blackened leaves on them.

The red clematis came in a little pot, put in a small plastic bag. The pot was empty because all the soil and the plant were inside the bag, (not the pot). There were some roots to the plant, but I hesitate to use the word "plant" because all there was, was a shredded little quarter inch stick! Shredded into tiny little pieces! I immediately planted the clematis into a pot, keeping it in a southern exposed window, along with all my other house plants. I don't think anything will come of it, but I will remain hopeful.

The Rose of Sharon plants came as bare roots, as did the "Poplar Hybrid" shade trees. There wasn't any covering on these either, to keep the roots moist! So, I put the trees and the hedges into a 5 gallon bucket of water and I put the dead plants of the honeysuckle into an old jelly glass of water, just in case they might come back to life.

The Rose of Sharon hedges had no life showing on them, but the sticks felt moist and when I scratched them, there was just a little white. However, the poplar trees did have leaves sprotted on the sticks, but they were turning into light green/yellow which is a sign that the trees were already experiencing stress.

I emailed "Customer Service," (using a reply email to their email of April 15th), the very next day, April 22nd, (after my order came). I attached pictures of the honeysuckle plants and of the poor, tiny clematis. I wrote about my disappointment with the way they poorly packed the items for shipment, how their "Shipping Department" kept the plants there, without caring for them, (or just keeping them moist), and holding the order there for several days. I wrote describing how I received them. I told them I would not send the shipping label back, as I needed it should any of the other plants not make it. I wanted replacement plants for the honeysuckles and for the clematis. If the Rose of Sharon plants, the trees and the replacements didn't grow or show signs of growth, this month, I fully expect a refund of my monies.

No reply email, however, I'll give them til Tuesday to reply since I just emailed them on Friday, (today is Saturday).

At this point, I'm keeping my rating about "Burgess" as "neutral," hoping I will receive an email from "Customer Service" telling me how they will make good on the rest of my order.

In the meantime, my fiance has just planted one of the trees, (today is April 23), after we allowed them to soak for a day or so. He will plant the second tree either today or the first thing tomorrow, April 24th, in the early morning, before the day becomes hot again.

I will continue to post the results as I get them and hope I will be able to change my rating from neutral to positive. Wish I had checked this site first, but then again, perhaps I'll be as lucky as the folks who gave a "positive" rating.
To be continued....

"On Nov 28, 2011 12:07 PM, Burgess Seed responded with:

Our website does state to allow up to 2 weeks to process an order. The orders are then scheduled to ship based upon availability. This order was placed March 25 and shipped April 16.
Many of our items are shipped bareroot and dormant. Once the plants are planted it does typically take 6 weeks to begin showing signs of life. We are sorry to hear that some of the items from this order did not survive. We do stand behind our guarantee which states: If any item you purchased from us does not live, for a FREE REPLACEMENT just RETURN THE ORIGINAL SHIPPING LABEL along with your written request within 1 year of receipt. We do show that the requested information was received and a replacement processed on 6/21 that shipped 6/23. If the customer received an item in error on this replacement, it must have been an error in fulfillment although that does seem strange as the clematis and redbud trees are kept in different sections. Nonetheless, we do not require that the customer return the incorrect item and have requested that the customer simply return the original replacement label with a note of explanation and we will be happy to send a replacement. We have not heard from the customer.
"

I received an email from Burgess customer-no-service stating that they would make an exception for me since I no longer had the original shipping label to replace some of the dead items they had previously sent me and after following their instructions to a T, they now say they won't honor their previously stated email. What? It's frustrating when you mistakenly order from a company like them to try and save some money, receive completely DEAD items, and then are told they will replace them if you follow their instructions. You follow their instructions (I actually wrote and sent the letter THEY requested - twice) and then they don't contact you in any way, despite including email address, phone number and mailing address in all of the letters. So basically you get shafted with DEAD items (18" sticks for fruit trees) and then they screw you over again by giving you the run around by lieing to you on how to get items replaced, when the apparently had no intentions of honoring their word. Could there be a worse run company in the history of the world? It would be pretty tough to imagine so. I sent around 8 or 9 emails to try and resolve this issue and usually had to do so several times to get any response. VERY FRUSTRATING!!

"On Oct 20, 2011 1:25 PM, Burgess Seed responded with:

We were able to reach this customer via D-mail and have found that the confusion was being caused by the fact that many of the items complained about were not ordered from our company. A replacement order was shipped in June for the items that were from our company.
"

Burgess

I wish I had known about this website sooner,I never would have ordered from them.

My first order from Burgess,they sent the wrong tree,on the shipping label the correct one was listed,and checked off in blue ink by whomever filled the order,yet it was the wrong tree....

From now on,when I want to order something online,I will check Dave's Garden first....

"On Nov 22, 2011 9:47 AM, Burgess Seed responded with:

We are sorry to hear that this customer received the incorrect item. Try as we may sometimes mistakes are made. We did not require that the item be returned, and a replacement order was sent promptly."