Comments regarding Van Bourgondien Dutch Bulbs (dutchbulbs.com)

Avoid this company at all costs...they are not to be trusted. I recently took advandage of one of the 50% savings offers they run and ordered nine items. The invoice clearly had the 50% deducted from the order. The shipping charges for these 9 items totaled a ridiculous $19.18, but I overlooked this obscene charge because I was getting the items on sale. They started shipping items in late April, and I noticed they were charging my credit card for the FULL PRICE for the 5 items shipped. The tree peony had no roots, was dried up and dead. The Lilium only contained two plants instead of the ordered three...only one survived, and the other items were bulbs which were barely adequate. Then they informed me in early May that three items were no longer available, although they had already charged my credit card for the majority ($17.44) of the shipping charges. I have made four attempts to get them to correct the overcharge of over $35 due to their charging full price instead of 50% off, and have been met by silence and complete indifference on their part. Order at your own risk. Van Bourgondien and their alias Van Dyck completely lack integrity and need to be put out of business immediately...they give mail order gardening a bad reputation!!

My Arisaema Specisum was rotten. I did not even bother to call. I new better but I wanted it so much that I went against what DG said . Never do it again.

I ordered from VB for the first time this year, ordering 3 Lady ferns, 2 Pandora's Box daylilies, 1 Blueberry Sundae daylily and 1 You-Angel-You daylily. All but one Pandora's box is growing decently, the one that isn't is very small, but I am patient and will give it some time. I hope that they all come true to flower. The ferns, on the other hand, came as three little dried up sticks without any signs of life, so I planted them each in four inch pots in dirt from the spot of which they will be planted in, mixed with sphagnum peat. As of right now, one has three fronds, one has two and the third has one. I'm going to continue babying them until I feel they are large enough to survive in my garden. I have bought bulbs from them through retail stores and had good luck with those, but I won't order from these guys again unless they have something I really, really want and can't find elsewhere.

Please consider this report as a serious F minus. These folks sure play up their wares with glossy photos and flowery language in their catalogs but boy did I get cheated with dead or dying material and some things just never showed up. I could never in good conscious ever send a friend......or even an enemy to these unscrupulous operators of a plant clearing house. Terrible......just terrible.

Most of the plants sent me didn't live - many were so dead their branches and roots snapped off. Customer service wasn't interested, and was abusive, saying the plants were fine and I was responsible if they died. I send faxes to Debbie van Bourgondien who didn't bother to reply. Not a company I will ever deal with again. A total scam. Avoid. They also sell through Walmart so I would avoid anything that has their name on their plants. I will notify Walmart to drop them as a supplier. They have various pseudonyms so avoid them too.

Did business with the sister company, and despite the order being late, was pretty pleased with the quality. Mind you, I'm basically a beginner and just learning to discern this stuff.

The order through Van B. arrived in a timely manner, and everything looked OK when it arrived. Results in the spring were mixed, but I am willing to conceded this could have been due to weather conditions and the local squirrel population. The corydalis and Cum Laude tulips did very well and made it through a late frost swimmingly. The English bluebells sprouted but never flowered. The species tulip violacea never came up at all. There is a possibility I received crocuses instead, but since I couldn't remember exactly where I planted everything I might be wrong. Since I was looking forward to the species tulips most, this was a big disappointment.

Worth taking a chance with the $25 off, but also worth being cautious. I may or may not order from these companies again.

I ordered eight begonias among other items. Order was split into three separate shipments. However the second shipment, four of the begonias, clearly shown along with the shipment dates, never arrived. When I contacted VanB about this, there was no hesitation. They immediately sent a replacement. All bulbs received appeared to be in great shape. I was very happy with their customer service.

Even though I knew of their reputation from reading the feedback here at Dave's Garden, I gave them a shot because of their prices and the coupon. I ordered the obligatory amount in order to use the coupon (only daffodil and tulip bulbs) and every one came up and bloomed true to type - my yard was gorgeous. I can't vouch for the live plants they offer, but I won't hesistate to order bulbs again. I'm already looking through the catalog.

I placed an order with VB last fall and was marginally satisfied with what I received. The bulbs were on the small side but with the exception of one daylilly and 3 oxalis versicolor which appeared dead on arrival, most of the plant stock looked OK. So I placed another order this spring for some dahlias and siberian iris. 2 iris just rotted in place ( I have never had this happen before!) and who knows what the dahlias are doing but they are not up yet. The oxalis versicolor all failed to sprout and one of the muscadet oriental lilies appears to have a virus as the leaves are discolored and it is growing in a contorted fashion. The daylilies are growing, but several are so small they look like weedy blades of grass. Top this off with the hassle of calling their customer service folks 4 times this spring to correct the shipping information they had right last fall and couldn't seem to get straight this spring. I have not contacted VB on the dead plants as their guarantee is only for replacement of defective material and I have no desire to end up with more of the same garbage. I am chalking this up to experience and will not order from VB again.

I ordered only a package of 5 Cote d'azur pinks in January. The box arrived in April, 10 days after supposedly being shipped, and contained only 4 shriveled and dried out roots that I did plant (no signs of life as yet). I spoke with Cassandra in customer service who informed me they were sold out and that it would be a waste of time to credit me for 1 plant. She'd put a note on my order and if there were problems "Maybe next year" they could help. Last order I will place with this company. Poor quality and worse customer service.

Last fall I ordered Daylilies and Oriental lillies from this company. I used my debit card and was duly charged over $100.00. I never received the plants. The incredible thing was the difficulty I had in reaching these people to get my money back. I have no clue why but these people have multiple phone numbers in several states. When I finally roused someone out of the stupor that these people operate under, no one would take responsibility for the error. The money was finally credited back to the account. But I received no apology of any kind and of course was left without bulbs or plants for the planting season. I would never deal with these people again and asked to have my name removed from their mailing list.

I ordered close to 100$ worth of plants. When the box came I opened it and it was full of fungus gnats. They were even crawling on the paper work. One of the plants was very very dead. Not as if it died in shipment, but had dead for a long time.

I called and they offered to replace the dead plant but for the fungus gnats they said they do not do refunds, only credits. I said now that they fungus gnats were in my house I would have to treat all my house plants and the new plants from them. The best they said the would do was give me 25$ credit.

also FYI the plants where tiny. My issue was how poor quality these plants were and now they have given me an insect problem I have to deal with now.

I've been generally satisfied with this company; however, upon reading many of the comments here I'm starting to get worried! I placed two orders from VB this season. I received one of them yesterday -- a dahlia tuber and some non-stop begonia tubers. Everything looked great. The balance of my order is to be shipped after May 19. This concerns me since the original ship date was to be after April 16. Perhaps something's on back order. I'm expecting red tenor phlox, some more begonias, another dahlia and some achimenes. I'll update this comment when I receive the balance of my order.

I received my $127.65 order for Dahlinovas Dahlias and two Agapanthus. I would absolutely been ashamed to sent out such tiny scrawny Dahlia tuberous roots. Never again will I order from this company.

First I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to inform us of the scam practices of this company. I placed an order with coupon for $ 25 off of a purchase of $50 or more. At the time I was unaware of their decietfull practice. Just as stated in previos e-mails a couple of months after my order I get a call from a Isabel asking if all was good with my order. I told her I hadn't recieved it yet as it was still a couple of weeks early for zone 4. She then said that I still had an outstanding bal. on my account. She said the coupon was for $5 dollars off not $25. I told her I was well aware of this scam they were using as it is well documented here at Dave's garden. She then told me that it must have been a mistake and she did not know why they would've put down $5, but she would look into it.
I contacted the attorney general here in Minnesota and I also filed a complaint with the Virginia consumer affairs division. That contact number is 804-786 2042. Please take the time to file a complaint and put this company out of buisness. They give the mail order buisness a huge black eye. Thank you

Same thing happened to me. 2 months after placing the order, they emailed me to let me know they wouldnt honor the 25.00 off 25.00 purchase. They told me they would be happy to honor 25.00 off a 50.00 order however. I told them to forget it, and to stop wasting my time sending me catalogs and emails under all their company names present and future.

False advertising -- also got one of those $25 off coupons
for $25 or more -- two months later was told the coupons
would not be honored.

We ahead and ordered some bulbs because my
mother-in-law really wanted some plants in their
catalog. When she called to get info on planting
the bulbs, a brisk person at their company told her
to look up the info herself.

I've ordered from VB quite a few times, although not for a couple of years. I've been satisfied with the quality of their products and don't recall any special problems. It sounds like they may have gone downhill, though but since it's been two years and all went well I can't offer any negatives.

Most of the plant by mail are gimmicks. And it is buyer beware as I found by Michigan bulb. But I have had some great success with vB. I had gotten some unusual plants last year and were afraid they may not make it but they are pushing thru. I am awaiting a back order for last fall. I had a confirmation and will give until beginning of May. I am thinking of putting in an order when I found this site..so it has me wondering if they are over achieving.
I prefer shopping by catalog because local nurseries do not have all the new flowers and bulbs. Breck of Holland and VB I have been dealing with for years. And do know that you have a guarantee and the right to file a complaint. It is quite simple. Most companies are decent enough to believe us and do not ask for flowers back. But if you are receiveing dead or damaged bulbs..send them back return receipt. If there is a disease do you really want it..
Another great seed company I have dealt with for 35 years is Thompson and Morgan. This year I am going to try some seeds from Horizon Herb in Oregon..they have native, unusual..plants and seeds. They are not a bulb company.
I wish you all well, but never accept loss of money or plants lightly or they will continue. Happy Planting all.

This was my first order fromt this company, I also used the code which gives $25 off, but to protect myself I only placed a $25 order, so all I would be out was the $8.95 shipping cost. I also wrote a check and mailed the order instead of giving out my credit card number. My order was promptly acknowledged by e-mail, including a separate reply to my request to ship early (before the stated beginning ship date of March 19 if possible). My order arrived March 22. No one tried to convince me to increase my order (other than by sending me more catalogs).

I ordered 2 bags of Chinchincheree (Ornithogalum thyrsoides) purportedly containing 10 bulbs each. More than half were moldy and shriveled or rotted.Those that were not moldy,shriveled or rotten were tiny and already sprouting. One bag contained a small, almost rectangular piece of gravel in lieu of one of the bulbs. I also ordered six narcissus described as "Summer Daffodil Erlicheer" which appear to be plantable, although sprouting already. However, they were not rotted or mushy and except for sprouting, were of average quality.. I suspect they may have been somebody's fall '06 inventory, as the ones in my garden have already bloomed.

I also ordered a Gloriosa Rothschildiana (Climbing Lily) I do not know if what I received was good or bad quality, as I have no experience with what it should look like.

Considering I only paid $8.95, I did not get ripped off, but the quality of the order did not give me the confidence to place additional orders, especially in light of their overall negative rating on this site.

When my order arrived, one package of rhizomes(Tacca) were completely dead and dried out. As a botanist, I could tell these had been dead for at least a month. The other item (Arisarum) were fragments of plants, not "No.1" or even close to anything useful. After calling customer service, they refused to refund the cost of these items. Even by returning the products, they insist on in-store credit. Since 2/3 of my order was garbage and I have paid (once) to ship the garbage to me and (twice) ship the garbage back to them, why would I want more headaches by getting credit for garbage? I will never order from them again and I urge readers not to be misled by their catalog's pictures. They are the worst company I've worked with. I'm a professional mail order company president/owner; Van Bourgondiens should be ashamed. The quality and terrible returns policies make business with them a nightmare.

When I joined Dave's Garden last fall, I had already placed a huge order with VB (wholesale catalog) & was sick to read the neg. reviews & very worried. I had used this company abt. 10 yrs. before at my old house w/ beautiful results, but now I was scared; had they gone bad in the passing years? The order was in, so I waited; I did have to call and ask them to send what was in w/out waiting for backordered items. When I rec'd 1700 daffodil bulbs (b/ord came a week later) I found only 3 bags (150) to be mushy; I called, we went over the order, and they promptly sent replacements. I don't know what to say, except that my spring yard is absolutely awash in the most lucious, beautiful daffodils of every description. I'm in the south, so I can't do tulips. Perhaps I'm alone, but I got wonderful, large daffodil bulbs from this company. I don't know why, when so many reviews are horrible, unless it's something to do with the large qty. I ordered. ? I just didn't have a problem, and my resulting flowers are breathtaking, & I just had to say so.

I have had the same bad experience with this company as so many of your other members have had. I used the code which gives $25 off $25, gave out my credit card number, they confirmed the order. I placed more orders for my friends. A month later they came back and said pay more or we won't honor your order. They replied to my emails very brusquely, when I called to speak to a Supervisor, a woman spoke to me in a cold, hard, bootcamp voice and more or less told me I was out to crook their company. I canceled my orders but I am so upset. I would like someone to guide me on what action I should take, I would like to bring their unfair trade practice to some authority who would look into this. Gardening is supposed to be a pleasurable experience, Van Bourgondien has treated me and probably many more gardening enthusiasts so shabbily, they should not be allowed to continue their crooked trade.

On January 12th, I placed five individual orders, each taking advantage of their supposed "get $25 off a $25 order" promotional code. I was a bit surprised that each order accepted the code, but then if you don't plan to honor the order as accepted, why not? Nevertheless, today (3/9), I received their "bait and switch" message telling me that I would have to spend $50 now to get $25 off or they would simply cancel my order. Needless to say, this ticked me off. Their little game is a direct violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. I sent them a pdf file I created with all the accepted orders, the original promotional code, and their bait and switch email message. I went ahead and had them cancel all my orders, but informed them I will be filing a formal complaint with the Consumer Fraud Division within the Attorney General's Office in Texas and their state as well. I guess it's better to let go of the orders and get my bulbs locally, but because of their deceptive practices, I simply can't let their behavior go. If you contact your AG's office, Consumer Fraud Division, they will take your complaint and look into it. If they determine that the problem is widespread, they will take action.

I get a code for $25 off of a $25 order. Good deal, right? I place a order on 1/16 and everything goes through and it shows how much I owe. Today 3/9/07 I get a email that states that my code was wrong & they give me a code for $25 off of $50. It would have been fine had this been shortly after I placed my order. My bulbs should of been here by now & i get this. I should have checked this site prior to ordering, seems to be quite a few unhappy people besides me.

My order was placed 2 months ago, and was supposed to be shipped one month ago. I emailed customer service and they said they need to first validate the order. All I'm trying to do is find out where my order is. I need to get these bulbs in the ground now. It sounds like a canned excuse for not shipping my order on time. I'd rather deal locally with honest people than play games with Van Bourgondien. From reading the things on here, I highly doubt my order will even arrive.

I ordered... the hard to find... Black Pearl Amaryllis for a Pirates of the Carribean-themed party from this company. Arrived late and all bloomed white! I was given a credit so I ordered some plants that were due to arrive 2/20 and still haven't seen them. I own a small greenhouse business and mistakes like this could cause me more serious problems. I order from Van Engelen, usually. They are absolutely the best and most reliable bulb company. They have wholesale and retail. The slightly higher price is worth it. For everything else, Park Seed.

Thank you so much for the information. I was considering ordering from this company, but thanks to your warnings, I believe I've been spared considerable grief. I'll stick to companies I know.

Late arrival of order
Poor quality of products
Many items failed to grow
Disappointing results from few plants which did grow
Many ordered items"sold out"
Given credit-eventually-but I wanted what Iwas promised and ordered when I needed it, not substitutes sometime in the future
Van B.can keep the credit-expensive lesson, but more importantly very dissapointing experience
Really impressive catalogue- I'd like to know where they
got the plants pictured in it, obviously not the same source or quality as the ones I received.

Being a bulb grower I have ordered wholesale from many companies, this is the worst, over 50% of the bulbs are the wrong cultivar or species. The last order (I will never order again, credit or not) was one they shipped out when they were frozen at the time of shipping. What didn't arrive dead (most of the order) was again the wrong thing. As a grower I have no time to grub out the garbage, no spare ground to contaminate with the wrong variety, and no time to waste on planting the wrong thing. They have always been good about giving a credit, but after the last order I won't even cash in on it. I cannot believe even they would ship out an order when they were that cold at their own warehouse.

I had received this company's catalog and had written out the
order. The coupon allowing you to deduct $25.00 from your
order was a big influence on my ordering some bulbs.
I decided to check the ratings on this company and was surprised at how many people had not been fairly treated
by this company. I want to thank these people for taking their
time to express their disappointments with this company.
This has influenced me enough to the point that I will not order
from this company. My order has been placed with a company that works hard providing quality plants for its
customers. cannaqueen

Last year I purchased a tuber from Van Bourgondien which was sold and labeled as being that of a tree dahlia (Dahlia imperialis). I raised the tuber in my garden and it indeed grew quite well. However, I was concerned that its growth habit did not resemble what I have read about this species. When it bloomed, the flowers were that of lavender and white informal decorative as opposed to the single maroon flowers inherent of Dahlia imperialis. I sent an e-mail describing the flowers of this plant and expressing my concern. I was basically told by return e-mail that their plant experts said that the informal decorative was indeed a tree dahila. After a couple more e-mails, I gave up and told them to forget it. Now I just received a 2007 Van Bourgondien catalog and what is pictured for the tree dahlia is indeed a tree dahlia, but it looks nothing like what they sold me last year. I understand that plant companies can make mistakes, but they really need to admit it when they do.

I ordered from this company in May 2006, then got a letter from them stating that the flowers i had ordered where "out of stock" and they would issue a refund. Well here it is January 2007 and i am still trying to get my refund from this company Do Not Order from them!

Scam company. I've placed two orders with them, both before i found this site. First order rec'd was third rate quality. Thought I just got end of season junk. But my most recent order, some bulk Daffodils on "clearance" was unilaterally canceled a couple of weeks later because they were "out of stock". But if you go to the website, they are still selling the same items, but now at a higher price.

What a scam of a company. You couldn't pay me to shop with these sleaze bags.

Don't see how these people stay in business On a $170 order, about one third was missing or dead on arrival, even though the packing slip showed everything shipped. Customer service promised quick resolution, but after no service during one followup call I felt like a fraud suspect. Not allowed to talk to surpervisor. Final guy was good. . Major complaints:
Multiple (severely) dead plants (dead, decomposed, gone)
Omission from order
Undelivered promises
No communications when when things change

After a month, I have now been promised refund for missing bulbs, and store credit for dead plants, but the whole thing was not worth the hassle. At the end, I was not a polite customer, and for that I am sorry Would rather buy at WalMart. .

One of my favorite nurseries to order from is Paradise Garden, so you can imagine my dismay when I ordered 4 varieties of tulips from them and received the bulbs via this company. When I called to complain to Paradise, the rep. that I talked to claimed ignorance of VBDB's rating in Garden Watchdog. Paradise Garden states on their website that Oakes Daylilies is their supplier. Not so, at least in my instance. Paradise Garden wants their customers to rate them in The Watchdog, but they were unaware of one of their suppliers rating? Hard to believe, especially with a rating as bad this company. Why would a reputable nursery use a supplier like this?

I actually took the time to register for Garden Watchdog soley to comment on my terrible experience with this company. I am, as most of us are, extremely busy, but if I can save one person from ordering from this company, my time was well spent.

My bad experience began with a confirmed order for sale items. When I called and gave them my confirmation number, they told me the sale price was no longer available because the items had been clearanced. This was despite having an order confirmation with a September order date.

Due to the rude/brusque customer service rep that I spoke with, I told them I was cancelling the other $250 worth of bulbs that I had ordered. I asked for a confirmation of the cancellation. The rep was very short with me assuring me that they "never ship orders that are cancelled".

Long story short, the entire order was shipped and while I had a terrible time getting any responses to my complaints via email, they managed to contact me to tell me my cancelled order was being shipped via that same email.

I do not have the time/energy to deal with them any longer and just planted the bulbs, but will NEVER, NEVER order from this company again.

I would strongly recommend Van Engelen, a company I had ordered from before with great success. I was lured in by the cheap prices at Van Bourgendien but you get even less than you pay for. I may file a complaint with the Business Business Bureau.

Orders? People actually RECEIVED orders from this company? Back in mid-August, I ordered about $100 worth of various bulbs. For my region, I was told they would arrive for planting at the "end of September".
As September was ending, I called customer service on Sept. 28th to find the status of my order. I was told I called the wrong place, but the woman on the other end of the phone told me she could look me up anyway. This can't be true, as when you go to K Van Bourgondien (wholesale) and look up Customer Service online, you get the number I called. It's the only number to call on the site.
The customer service lady was a bit brusque, and acted put-out by my request. She told me they were waiting for my phlox order to come in. As with many other garden centers, who will ship separately if an item is backordered, Van Bourgondien will not. They will wait (and wait... AND wait!) until EVERYTHING is in stock. The customer service woman gave me the impression everything was boxed and ready, but waiting for my phlox. So I asked when it would ship, and she told me the beginning of October.
Today (the 16th of October) I called again, and this time it seemed I came to the right place (same phone number!). My order was called up quickly, and this time not only the phlox, but the tulips were on backorder! It actually felt as if this customer service lady was making excuses. I had to stop her mid-sentence (nicely) and tell her I wished to cancel my order. She put me on hold in order to "write this down", for about 5 minutes. She was courteous throughout the conversation. Theat's the best part of this entire experinece. ONE nice customer service person for a long, drawn-out non-order. I cancelled not only because now it is too late for me (I no longer have time) to plant these almost-200 bulbs (and non-phlox), but also because I was lucky enough to come to thiss website and see the large amount of negative reviews.

i ordered three english lavendar plants from von b, early spring of '06...were to be shipped "bare root". dead twigs in damp packing material arrived accompanied by a sheet explaining that although the plants appeared to be dead, they were not. found that humorous at the time, but alas, they were dead, and in spite of prodigious effort, stayed dead. bought three new plants from a farmers market in nyc at 1/3 of the cost, planted them in almost identical location re sun, soil, drainage, etc., and they are thriving. expect von b includes their dead plant disclaimer in many shipments? wish i had found this feature of dave's garden before wasting time and money. will never use them again.