Comments regarding Jackson & Perkins

I am a 2nd generation, 30+year JP customer who will never buy from them again. Ordered online a package deal for 4 roses (a buy 2 Cinnamon twist roses get 2 free) in early May. Card charged immediately, of course. (order#36574) A month later a tiny box landed on my porch with a single sad-looking bare root in it. No packaging, just the box. Their customer service, with major 'talk to the hand' attitude, tried to convince me it was my fault, (not so: husband did the order and I watched over his shoulder. We both double-checked everything before completing order) and tried her best to convince me it was totally normal to end up paying more than $40 for a single rose. Refused to connect me to a superior. I hung up and went out and kicked a few trees and dogs, then came back and called again. This time got a trainee cust. service man, who was immediately cut off by the person who was overseeing his training. This person told me it was a clerical error on JP's end, apparently one he'd dealt with repeatedly, he said, claimed it all had something to do with the Park Seeds take-over, and told me to keep the single rose, and promised the charge would be removed. Still waiting for that, and for the rose to wake up and grow(not too sanguine about that, still looking pretty sad). Will probably contact card and dispute charge after writing this, as I am no longer convinced of the good will of JP. This is my last JP order. I will never recommend them to anyone again. The old JP is apparently dead.

Bought 4 J&P roses. One died the other 3 give no blooms and have reverted back to rootstock. I babied these things. My $5 Walmart roses are thriving and these overpriced hybrids are worthless. Save your money and buy elsewhere...

I'm giving J&P a positive, but everyone reading this should know this is based on an order from last year when I believe they were still in Oregon and hadn't yet sold out to Park. Order of 10 roses arrived promptly and packed reasonably well. It has taken them about a year to really thrive, but that is mostly my doing as we moved and I took them with me - lol. Can't recommend the new version of J&P sadly, as I have had negative experiences with Park in the past. Too bad, as this was a great, great company for the best roses.

I have ordered repeatedly from Jackson and Perkins for the last few years. I have found them to be prompt and fair. They have replaced any rose which did not thrive.

I wish I had room to accommodate more roses which are on sale on their red tag sale because the prices are so very good.

I ordered 4 rose plants for the first time ever and asked that they deliver them May 1st. They came right around then and I planted them several days later. They started leafing out immediately and all four have buds on them now. One is significantly smaller than the others since some of the branches were dead and I cut them off, but other than that I'm 100% satisfied.

I have bought roses from JP for the last 3 years and the experience has been positive until this year. My first order placed 4/17 arrived in good time and all the roses were in good shape except for the Beloved one which didn't do anything at all. I emailed them and they said that they would send me a replacement to be received by June 13th.

Then I got their end of season tag sale notices and decided to order another Outrageous and Fragrant Cloud as both of those have done very well for me in the past.

This is when my problems with them started. Their new website is annoying in the extreme. I was unable to check the status of my second order because I kept getting error msgs. I called Cust Svc and they said "oh it's just a new server issue, it will be fine in a couple of days" so I attempted to be patient. I waited for a week and tried ordering again. Same thing. No notice of both orders placed, no logging into the site. Over and over again. I was getting frustrated as heck with them and this is when I did a search and found this site. To say that I am dismayed about them selling out to Park Seed is putting it mildly. I have had nothing but problems with anything that I ordered from that company.

To make a long story short, I placed my order for the Outrageous and Fragrant Cloud a 3rd time and this time I got an invoice from them but was still unable to check my order status. I am now on my 3rd email address with them and still cannot log into the site. I had to call them about my order again and to ask about the Beloved rose they promised to replace in early May. Cust Svc said they had no record of that promise but will send me one anyway. Oh and yes, I did finally get my Outrageous and Fragrant Cloud yesterday but the whole experience of this year's ordering process has left me reluctant to deal with them again.

I ordered quite a few roses from J&P through a sale they had, they arrived in a box, no protection, just like they were thrown in there. Within 2 months of planting them, most of them died, they replaced the ones I lost but sadly those didn't make it either. This year they rang trying to get me to buy into the sale again, but I told them what bad luck I'd had with their roses so they offered to send 2 more roses, but only 1 arrived and is struggling. It came with canes crossed over and 1 cane cracked. It already has dieback and I'm not holding my breath for this one to pull through either. I'll never buy from them again, they have left a sour taste in my mouth.

I ordered 3 Don Juan's back in early Jan and received them 1 week ahead of time. One had 2 green canes and one black one, one had only two canes that were severely crossed and the third had four very nice canes and all were hollowed out by a borer. When I called they replaced all three and I discarded the first three. The next shipment arrived on time about the first week of Feb and two of the three had split canes and the third was fine. I planted one and got the other 2 replaced. Order 3 arrives with 2 bare root Don Juan's, and both had small canes that were semi crossed and I called again and complained and was told to plant them and if they didn't leaf out within 3 weeks call them again. Both failed to leaf out and I got 2 more this time they were decent. The sad part was I was way past the ideal planting time and literally watered twice a day and misted as many as ten times a day.

I now have 3 Don Juans but dug 7 holes (mostly re-dug) and am totally frustrated with this company. My dad when he was alive would only buy roses from J&P, I know he would be very disappointed.

The moral of this story - I will never again buy from them. Had I known that a local nursery had about 20 of these potted in 5 gallon containers for $5 less per plant!

Clearly things have not improved in the three weeks since they took over the company. I placed an order on May 18 and the earliest ship dates I was given were June 9-13. So far, nothing has shipped and as of the call to customer service a few minutes ago, they have no idea when it will ship. When asked if it would be in the next week or a month from now, she had no answer, not even a lame answer to placate an angry customer. Apparently all they can offer is an apology and seemed unconcerned when I threatened to cancel my order. Anybody else would be offering refunds, credits, or gift certificates. At this point, I wonder if it would have made any difference if I had requested delivery "guranteed" by Father's Day. Since my delivery dates were then, and even a few days beforehand, I thought it was unnecessary.

I don't suppose I should be surprised that this is the direction their service is going if Park is taking them over. Every other Park affiliated company gives me absolutely abysmal service, especially Wayside, which reminds me that they are due for another round of "where's my order" as well. I suppose this now means that all of my J&P orders will will come with even more syrofoam peanuts and that nasty straw stuff.

Customer Service is abysmal!

The plants are pretty good.

I ordered the 150 lily package and have had a decent turn out. Problem is I contacted J&P as per the guarantee and have not heard bunk back. I too am waiting on a shipment of roses from them. I was told they shipped Monday...

My order from David Austin has been in the ground and flourishing for two months already!

The chapter is not closed, but the story is not going so well...

If you do order, use a coupon.

I have been ordering from J&P for years and have never had any issue and have actually been very happy with their customer service - in the past. This year, I ordered 3 Sweet Autumn Clematis back in April- credit card was of course charged immediately. I called several times and was at first told that it was "in processing" and would be out and of course they would call and advise if it wouldnt be shipping. Well, I got trapped in the same problem everyone seems to be having. They are in the middle of their "merger" or whatever they are calling it. After promising to call me back and advise me when my refund would be coming (several times) and not getting either a call or a refund, I of course called them back. Now they have some nebulous list (for real? Can you see this huge company with a yellow notebook listing frustrated peoples' names?) and they will call me to let me know when to expect my refund (that was three weeks ago, still waiting). I did order David Austin Roses this year and they were absolutely beautiful, but , I have to tell you, I will not order from them again. This latest debacle was just too much. A company cannot underestimate the importance of customer service.

I have tried to be patient with this company and I'm now at the end of my rope. I have ordered from Jackson and Perkins for the last 4 years with mostly good results. Not this year though. I placed my order with them on Jan 21. The credit card that I used at the time I later closed. They called me on May 12 or thereabouts regarding this. As part of their company policy, if you call them on the phone then they usually give you 20% off an item. I ordered an avocado tree. I asked them not to send the tree until May 31. I got it on May 16. OK a little early, but the weather had improved so no biggie. My original order was supposed to be here on May 22. I ordered 2 rose trees and 2 rose bushes. As of June 5, I have 1 rose tree. When I called to enquire about the rest of my order, the young lady said that she couldn't find the order, so please call back on Monday. I called on Monday and now I'm being told that the rest of the plants are in packaging. WHAT!!!!!!!! " Why was I sent 1 item and not the rest? I don't know ma'am. Can I speak to your supervisor? She's not here right now. "
All I have to say now is that they will never have to worry about sending anything else to me. I will never order from them again. BTW the avocado tree had some bug issue while at their nursery cuz the leaves were all eaten up. Not a good way to practice business.

After seeing the negative reviews here it's my own fault for ordering from this company. I really wanted a plant only they seemed to have. The only other place I saw it was occasionally on ebay and I kept missing the closing dates for sales. I did end up getting the plant I wanted plus another I ordered on sale, sent on the dates expected. They were both a little gnawed on by bugs but luckily the bugs didn't seem to come with the plants. Another plant I ordered two of was to be sent a few days later. Well after a week I never got it so I emailed the company with my order number. Well over another week later I was emailed a boilerplate reply saying "if I could not provide my order number, they would need more info to track my order". I then called the 800# and was told "the order number was wrong" & the plant was not scheduled to send until Fall (even though they had already charged me for it). I asked why I had never been notified of this & was told "they did not have my email address". Well all other communication was through email before, why did they not have it now? I was told Park Seed just bought them out and the company is in "conversion" so they have not gotten updated order info from J&P. Oh, and because of this "conversion" they could not possibly refund my money until at least the end of the month. They're keeping my money & it's interest, and probably hundreds of other people's, to use as part of their conversion as instant liquid assets! This seems criminal to me. The representative, Crystal, told me I obviously didn't understand business and I would get my money back eventually so I should just be understanding. So they've just lost yet another customer.

April 13, 2008 I placed an order for a tree from Jackson Perkins. My charge card was billed IMMEDIATELY.
It is June 2. 2008, and after numerous phone calls, the plant is still not here. Each time I was told it was going to shipping, and was even given a date that it should arrive. That was three days ago.

The links to find out delivery do not work. Watch what you order on the web site!

I made a 3 calls today, going as high as the president who was not available. Surprised?
At any rate, it's interesting that they can charge and get money before it is even shipped. Think they are using my money.
OH, I WAS TOLD THE COMPANY WAS SOLD....IN TRANSITION, YOU KNOW.

Jackson Perkins just lost another customer.

I ordered some sale roses on 5/1 by telephone and was given a delivery date of 5/19. When nothing had arrived by 5/22, I tried to check the order status on the Website and learned they had no records of orders placed prior to 5/20. I called the customer service number and was told the records of earlier orders might show up in a week or two. Yesterday I checked again and learned my order had been cancelled. Why? Who knows? I never cancelled it. I tried to re-order, but I wanted to pay with a J&P gift card, and they have no records of the gift cards issued by the previous owners.

Is this a joke? Who does business this way, without any advance planning whatsoever? The rest of us have known for months and months that J&P would be changing hands, so why are the new owners acting as though they won J&P in a poker game last weekend?

This is the worst online ordering experience I've ever had. The customer service department is completely worthless and I cannot find out where my delayed order even is or when it might be delivered.

I ordered 29 rose bushes and 3 rose trees on May 11. I ordered online. The website promised delivery in 7 business days. That would be May 21. When I looked at the status of my online order about a week after ordering, it showed delivery for May 28. That wasn't what I was promised, so I emailed customer service. Three days later, they finally responded, and said that they were in the process of being sold and that the sale would become official on May 20 and that I should call back on that date and they'd have info on my order. That until then, they couldn't access any order histories.

On May 20, I called customer service. The woman who answered said that they had no access to computer files and that they couldn't tell me anything about my order and to call back in a "couple of days."

I emailed the company that same day, expressing my frustration, and didn't hear back. I called them on May 22, two days later, and asked about my order. They still had no record of my order and no one could give me any information. I emailed customer service again. Finally, four days later, on May 26, and six days since my other, unanswered email, they emailed me back. They said that, as I had been told (which wasn't what I was told) that they wouldn't be mailing anything until May 20. And that I'd get my order shortly and that the delay was because they'd been sold and they were busy processing orders.

That didn't answer any of the questions in my email, so I responded and told them to cancel my order. I haven't heard back from them and I have no idea whether my order is cancelled or not.

It's already too late to plant bareroot roses in my area, so I have no interest in this order. It's extremely frustrating, because I spent several days preparing a large rose bed for the roses before they were to be delivered and I didn't buy any roses at local stores, planning on planting the ones I ordered. Now the local stores are sold out of the potted roses I wanted and it's too late for me to plant bare root or potted roses in my area.

I cannot believe that the customer service dept was so completely ineffective and worthless. They used the "we were sold" argument way too many times. I looked up the details on the sale and the company was sold last year in April with the final transition to take place this year. That gave them 12 months to plan for a seamless merger. But instead, they did anything but a seamless merger. They dropped the ball and lost orders and hired rude customer service reps who can't answer simple questions.

I will NEVER order from Jackson & Perkins again.

I have purchased roses from Jackson Perkins for about 15 years with good results. If the items didn't grow they always replaced them. Not any more.

I placed an Internet order with Jackson Perkins on Sept. 13, 2007 from their fall catalog.

The order included a daylily romulus,
Crackling Fire Miniature rose,
Lavender loddon Anna, set of 3,
Delphinium Blushing Brides, set of 3, .

None of the above items grew this spring. When I called their customer service number, May 28th, I was told that their guarantee was only for 60 days. So late last Nov. I was to go out and dig through the snow and uncover them to see if these items were growing. Get real!

So at the very least don't order from Jackson & Perkins fall catalog.

Ordered roses online from their sale in April. I received email confirming my order, giving me a shipping date. Roses came when promised, in excellent condition. This is an excellent company.

I ordered roses from the sale about 3 weeks ago. The website kept throwing me for a loop, very annoying.
Next they didn't send me an email confirmation of my order because the website said my email address is not working. ( This is not true!)
When I tried to sign back in, the website didn't recognize my name and password.
I emailed them via DG, no reply. I called and they said to sign up again. I did, but my order history cannot be retrieved, " pardon our dust".
I have called 3 times so far, and every time the lady is nice, but she knows nothing.
The answer is always "your roses are on the packing floor, ready to be shipped." When they will ship they don't know, who the carrier is they don't know, and a shipping confirmation number is impossible. They don't even know where my roses are; obviously they have roses in warehouses in Texas and California.
These roses are bareroot, and for them to be sitting in a box for this long without cooling doesn't seem to be a good sign. It is also getting REALLY late in the season to plant bareroot roses, so I am afraid I am wasting my money here.
It was a sales special, but none the less I had high hopes.

I have ordered roses from J&P for the past 20 years. During that time I have moved into several new homes and bought most of my roses from them. I have always gotten great bare root roses, shipped when stated and the roses have always done great in my area--roses love NM! This year I ordered and received as expected, but one died. This was a first for me, I emailed their customer service and they emailed within 24 hours that a replacement was being sent. It arrived when they said and is now blooming. I have recommended them to numerous friends and relatives and they have always told me positive things about the roses they received.

My husband ordered various plants on March 8th for me for our anniversary. As of May 21, one of the items still has not shown. We were never alerted that the item was on back order - just given the run-around over the course of several phone calls. Various excuses include: "It hasn't shipped yet." "It will ship the last week of April or the first week of May." "We are having trouble with one of our suppliers". At that point I asked my husband to cancel the order. So he tried and they said "We are in the process of being sold, call back on Tuesday when the new system is up." So on Tuesday, he reached a new customer service department that didn't know what they were doing, and when they finally talked to someone in the know, alerted us that the order appeared to be canceled. But of course, we have not been refunded the money to our credit card. In fact there appeared to be an outstanding balace of a few pennies. Absurd!!! You can bet that I will NOT be using Jackson Perkins again, and if our money is not returned promptly, I will be filing a complaint with the BBB.

well, I ordered several roses from them last year! and this year too...

Rose trees - 3 are dying. but I live in MA, and wintered them in my garage.. until March they were all doing great, but once they went outside not all are doing great... but, 1 Outrageous, Scentsational and 1 Lady of Guadalupe is doing well!

I have called to ask for a replacement and they were very nice... so for me so far it has been a great experience! The new owners take charge today...well, I hope for the best...what a loss if not...

I ordered six roses from J&P this spring; it was the first time in several years I had ordered from them. I ran into a hitch trying to order via their website, but a toll-free call to their customer service was handled by a very professional and polite representative who finished the transaction quickly and easily. Everything was shipped promptly and arrived in good condition.

This was THE absolute worst online business experience for me, EVER. I ordered product on April 24th, in hopes that it would be delivered before May 11th, in time for Mother's Day. They said it would be delivered BY May 12th, via UPS, and I decided to settle for the day after Mother's Day. Well, today is May 11th and my mother STILL has not received her Mother's Day gift. When I called customer service, I was told there was nothing they could do and that they couldn't even track my order due to being bought out and being in the middle of transition, AS IF THAT'S MY PROBLEM. They could not give me a tracking number, a date it was shipped, NOTHING, and even informed me that they don't ship via UPS, the new company ships via FedEx (contradictory to their confirmation e-mail). When I asked for a refund, they said they couldn't give me a refund until they got proof of delivery. If you don't even know if it was shipped, how do you know it will ever be delivered?! Does this mean I paid them for NOTHING?! This is an absolutely pathetic excuse for a business, extremely mismanaged and unorganized. In fact, they refused to even look in their shipping log (for UPS or FedEx) to get a tracking number or see when it was shipped. The excuse? They just have too many shipments to try to look it up that way. Way to take care of your customers. Also, I've read some of the other reviews (wish I had read them BEFORE ordering) and it amazes me that they're STILL using the "in transition" excuse. How long does it take to get your business in order to the point that you can at least track shipments? Shameful.

Ordered from J & P with knowledge of Wayside Gardens kinship.Received 3 beautiful Jap Maples ,packed so well nothing could move in shipment.Received a number of items ,small /pricey. Others unexpectedly large for price. Had problems with 3 items,called customer service, quickly resolved . Still waiting for several B O ,will report later on them.Excellent packing , plants and Fed-X service

Do not order from Jackson and Perkins their customer service is horrible. I ordered six rose bushes on 3/20/08 and much to my surprise my credit card was charged prior to the order being shipped. Since Wayside Gardens purchased them I guess that this is now their sop. It appears that Jackson Perkins is falling into the same corporate madate as Wayside Garden with a high negative rating. I was contacted by Jackson Perkins and placed an order on 3/20/08 and requested that the shipment arrive by a specific carrier. The representative stated no problems. Much to my surprise it arrived by another carrier. I contacted Jackson Perkins to inform them of the error and was informed that they gurantee the plants but not the carrier. I asked to speak to a supervisor to request that the rest of the order be shipped differently. I was informed that this request would not be honored. I then instructed the supervisor to cancell the order and credit my credit card. I was informed that they fulfilled their contract obligation in shipping the plants and if the plants are not dead then there would be no credit. I informed the supervisor that I would refuse the rest of the order and once again was informed that they fulfilled their obligation and no credit would be issued. I informed the person that I would need to fill a dispute resloution with the credit card company and asked her if she understood the concept of customer service. The supervisor stated that she would sent this concern to the executive concern dept. but that it would take 3 to 5 days to get a response. Jackson and Perkins has no concept of service recovery. I order 6 rose bushes last year and two died . I did not even tried to recover the bushes, I order roses from Chamblee Rose Co this year also and the roses arrived in wonderful condition.

I ordered from Jackson and Perkins some Coreopsis and a Butterfly bush. They arrived at different times, but were all healthy. After planting the butterfly bush, it simply did not make it. I called customer service and they were very friendly and did not question me regarding planting methods or weather etc... They simply indicated they would replace the butterfly bush. I have to say that is great service. Although I did take care in planting and the plant simply died, you would think a nursery would be concerned with what I did wrong. They did not but understood that plants sometime die as they are planted after being delivered. I received the new plant two days ago and it seems to be doing well where I planted it. Jackson and Perkins has always been very good to me and they have always sent good healthy plants.

I have placed orders with Jackson & Perkins in the past with absolutely no difficulty. This year has been a nightmare. I placed one order on Jan. 3 and a second order on Jan.13. This has been my practice in the past. I thought it would guarantee product availability and timely product shipment.

The Euphorbia Bonfire never shipped. It was "out of stock" according to customer service. The other perennials that I ordered arrived at varying times. Please keep in my that my credit card was charged on March 6 and March 8 respectively for both orders.

The roses still have not arrived. (Credit card charged on Mar. 8) One CS told me that they ran out of shipping boxes. Another told me the long "transition of companies" story as told by bjunesmith. According to my order history at their website, I should receive them on May 6. Of course, there are no tracking numbers for the order.

Suffice it to say that I have placed my last order with this company.

I received a letter stating that a christmas wreath I ordered as a christmas present back in early Dec.had never been sent . This was very upsetting. My sister in law lives in california who I see once a year and I am just finding out that she never received her gift four months later. I will never order from this company again!!!!!!!.

I ordered 2 bare root roses from Jackson Perkins on 03/13/2008. The roses were to be delivered by 3/31/2008. It is now 4/30/2008 and I still have not received the roses. They made no attempt to contact me. I emailed them twice and phones them once. They responded to the first email and said the plants had been shipped. A week later I still had not received the roses, so I phoned them. I was told the roses had not been shipped as state in their email. I was also told the company was in the process of being bought by private investors and orders had been delayed because of the sale. The representative said the roses would be shipped the next week. Two weeks later I still have not received the roses. I sent them another email. They responded with the new owner info again and said nothing about when the roses would be shipped. In the meantime, I am receiving numerous emails and brochures in the mail to purchase more of their roses. If the company cannot meet their current obligations, they should not be trying to generate more orders. This is not a positive sign of the way the Jackson and Perkins Company will be run in the future. I also live in California. It is a little late here to be planting bare root roses, if and when I do receive them. I will not order from them again.

I ordered 3 'Mother's Rose' for spring planting in 2007. They arrived 3 weeks earlier than requested. I called to complain and was told they would be fine as long as the roots were kept moist and they were kept in a cool place, which I did. I was skeptical, as they had already broken dormancy. When they were planted they were very slow to recover. Just past the guarantee period, one of them finally died, although it was planted right next to the others and received the same care. Out of 70+ roses that I planted last spring this is the only one that died. Their planted are very expensive and I won't be ordering from them again.

I ordered from Jackson Perkins for the first time this year. I ordered an orange (Gibraltar) azalea and a Hydrangea Kardinal.

I have received part of my order, the azalea. It was a very healthy, very well packaged plant. It already had buds on it when it arrived. I actually ordered it for my mother who has been wanting an orange azalea since she almost tackled another customer in the local Lowe's over the last two left. (She didn't win.)

We waited patiently for the azalea to bloom, and I finally got an excited voicemail at work saying the azalea was orange and that I should order one for myself if I want one. (Basically telling me I wasn't getting that one.)

I still haven't received the Hydrangea, on the website it hasn't shipped, and I haven't been charged for it, however it still says estimated arrival by 3-13. I will probably email them and see what is going on with it. But the orange azalea was worth it. It really is a beautiful, healthy plant.

Hmmm, where to start....
Well, I have had mixed success with J&P for the past several years since I first planted roses. In '03 my mom recommended their catalog as the way to get the "best" roses, so I couldn't wait to order Love Potion and French Lace bareroots, which did arrive in healthy condition and grew well for me.

The following year I planted a few more selections from J&P, especially the ones marked as fragrant. One of them apparently arrived dead as it never grew, although I wasn't sure of that at first, so I patiently watered and nurtured it as best I could for more than two months until I was certain it was a dud; after all, some roses seem to take longer to come out of dormancy than others. When I called their customer service to ask for a replacement (although it was getting late in the season for bareroots by then, I still wanted that rose if I could get it). I was just told No, too late, past the 60 day guarantee. No apology or offer to give a discount or anything else that would have told me that they cared for my business.

I was unhappy with that situation, but I still liked their roses and their catalog is enticing and nicely put together, so I continued to order roses here and there from J&P and also picked up a few from a local gardening center that carries their brand name. Mostly, I have been satisfied with the quality of the J&P bareroots I have grown.

I do have one huge peeve however, in that the descriptions in their catalog and on the rose tags if you buy them retail are very deceptive, I would even say deliberately so. I mentioned before that I am biased toward strongly fragrant roses; well, J&P really plays up the amount of fragrance in their listings. I have learned that if J&P claims that a rose is "moderately" fragrant, it really means that I can smell it if I put my nose right up to it and sniff hard. If they say "lightly" fragrant, you can detect a scent only by burying your nostrils deep into the bloom and sucking in air like dear life depends on it. Also, their claims of vigor and disease resistance are *greatly* exaggerated in my experience;for instance, last year's Pope John Paul II planting was the most mildew-prone, sickly rose ever despite the tag boasting about its exceptional disease resistance. It *was* beautifully fragrant, however:).

It's a real pity that their marketing dept is so savvy that it can create such a beautiful and convincing catalog, but their general service and quality control is so spotty that it can't support their overblown claims. I would guess that that comes partly from having gotten away from their "roots" in Horticulture, the parent company being spread out over so many other mail order ventures such as Harry and David (gifts, baked goods, sundries, etc.).

Oh well, my advice is that when ordering from J&P, order early and only the time-tested varieties that you are sure about, because only time will tell if their claims are true.

I ordered three standard "Happy Chappy" roses from J&P last year. The trees had long, healthy roots and the plants are now thriving. I had a good shopping experience with J&P.

This morning I was surprised to receive the two Heaven on Earth, bareroot roses I ordered. This is weeks in advance of the shipdate for my zone, which is listed on their site, and my planting beds are under a sheet of ice. When I called customer service, the rep did not seem particularly concerned. She told me to put them in a closet for a few weeks and keep the roots moist. Okay, odds are that they won't die before I get them in the ground, but for the price you pay at J&P. I should not have to be dealing with this. Also, I had ordered several lily bulbs and a perennial. These are not set, according to J&P to ship until next week. I mentioned again, that it is not yet time to ship to my zone. She replied that she can't do anything about it because the order is "in process." Frustrated I went back to their website. I discovered that their hardiness zone tool pulls my my zipcode as zone 7a. I am no where near 7a -- the closest area in that zone is about 65 miles south in NYC. I am a borderline 5/6. I highly doubt I will order from J&P again unless their customer service provides a satisfactory reply to the e-mail I sent. If so, I'll post the information when received.

Thank God for DG. I bought some of the worst roses ever from Jackson and Perkins 15 years ago at a different home and didn't remember until they sent me a Wayside Gardens catalog--positively the worst plant mail order firms I ever did business with and talk about getting on every plant mail order list--if you like really pretty catalogs(i would give them very high marks on the quality of their catalogs-even back in the day)! they've had 15 years to get it right--i woulda gave 'em a 2nd chance! WG i instantly remembered (call it 90% dissatisfaction with a huge order and a newbie gardener discouraged for years) which prompted me to actually research J&P here. in their credit, i wrote J&P a nasty email which they politely responded to and customer service was very polite when i canceled my order...who has time for crappy plants?

For years I've purchased JP roses as my mother felt they were the standard for high quality. In general those I have purchased from local nurseries have done quite well.

Which is why when it came to landscaping a large area of our property, I chose to order from JP online. This will never happen again.

Their online ordering system is quite frustrating; instead of being able to order multiples and receiving price breaks as your number increases; they allow you to order 1, 3, 6 or 12 or combinations thereof. Their order tracking information is appalling. When a tracking number finally appeared for some of the items on my order, clicking on it sent me to the USPS tracking page, however, the tracking number wasn't recognized by the USPS. Odd.

When I called to inquire, the customer service person said, 'oh, our web site does that -- the tracking number is actually for Fed Ex.' (!) She then indicated my shipment would not arrive for another 4 days.

The large partial shipment arrived this afternoon. As Fed Ex's web site said it would.

Heaven only knows when the rest of my order will arrive.

We have a great deal more landscaping to do. JP is off my approved vendor list after this experience.

Heaven only knows when I will receive the balance of my order; some of which their order history says were due to be received over a week ago.

I have ordered dozens of roses from Jackson and Perkins over the years. Whenever I have had issues with any of them, they have been replaced. I don't have much luck with their perennials. Those two have either been replaced or refunded.

I will remain a loyal customer.

generally the roses have arrived in good shape with an occassional one barely making it alive, but their site doesn't always rate the zone's correctly - being in zone 5, I've learned to check on other sites before trusting their zone rating for the rose. Of the roses I get from them, if they do well, they do wonderfully. Some never grow at all (customer service does replace them if they have another available or refund) and some don't make it through the winter or make it through one winter, but not a second- I think this could be remedied by verify the zone they have listed for that variety is correct.