Comments regarding Wayside Gardens

I am absolutely dumbfounded by the overwhelming number of people who had the same bad experience that I have just had with Wayside. I had ordered a magnolia and dogwood - both on sale as well as an iris and viola. The arrival was prompt - so, the condition of the plants that was revealed upon opening the 2 boxes couldn't have been due to shipping.

However, the 2 trees (=sticks) looked as though they had been dragged to my house dangling from the back of a truck. The magnolia was wilted and had many black and moldy leaves. The dogwood was crumpled/crushed and leafless. Iris - slimeball in a bag...the viola - pale.

While I did plant the 2 small perennials immediately, I have been hesistant to invest any time in digging a proper hole (or should I say, providing a proper burial) for the 2 alledged trees. They are both in containers with excellent soil - hoping for a miracle.

I let their customer service know about the condition and was assured that they will replace any and all (after a year)...
-------------
The dogwood is slowly coming to life while the magnolia is slowly losing all its leaves.

I love this company and their customer service. If you're looking for BIG plants (trees) this is not the place to look as they are, of course, limited to what they can send. They have a great selection of plants that are difficult to locate locally.

I have been buying from Wayside Gardens for the past five years and have received excellent plants. The plants are small but what do you expect from a mail order company. They certainly can't ship full-sized plants. Anyone who expects LARGE plants should to go to their local nursery and even there you will not get MATURE PLANTS. They have the best guarantee in the industry and will gladly replace a plant if necessary or refund if it is not available to replace. The reps are the most well mannered women I have had the pleasure of talking to. I just love their Southern accent and could talk to them all day. I am moving soon and can't wait to start my new gardens with Wayside plants.

My first time buying im very happy with my order! I got the roses that were on discounted sales and they were huge and had all kinds of growth already growing. They are taking right off!
I just placed a second order and I sure hope its as nice!

although i have received their seductive catalogs for years, i never ordered til a friend forwarded a sale email notice to me. well, the prices were just too good! and the merchandise was not! the casa blanca lily bulbs were no better than bagged stuff from home depot, the sedum was a stick (has some growth now), and generally the stuff was barely worth the sale price, never mind the full price! a one-time experience.

Oh! If only we'd had this site 11 years ago.......My first purchase from Wayside (in '92)was 3 Old Pink Moss roses and an Austin "Heritage" The mosses have been moved twice and continue to thrive (all three together) in a back corner of my small yard, blooming their hearts out once every year. The Heritage continues to get 8' tall every year with hundreds of flowers through the season. Then I ordered 3 Red Royal Velvet roses, they were covered with cankar. I was pretty dumb then and figured they knew what they sent me and didn't call to complain. 5 yrs after that I, a lot smarter, and mesmerized by that catalog, tried again, ordered 4 teas and 5 english roses, and an Edith Bogue Magnolia, They could not have been more perfect (bare root) and are still growing very well. The Mag. is in a 20gal pot now and has bloomed since the 2nd yr. (It was 4' tall and had a lot of healthy leaves on arrival) 3 yrs ago I ordered 3 gunnera when they appeared in the catalog @ 20. ea. They arrived packed very well but moldy and died right away. That time I had the good sense to complain and got an immediate credit with no problems. This year I bought a dozen more roses, 3 daisies, 2 Solomon Seal, 2 Angelica, and they are all of excellent quality. Some Lady I was chatting with at a local garden center told me that the larger mail order places hire a lot of low paid seasonal help to get the orders out and that they sometimes don't know a rose from a brick, In a perfect world, the companies would only have perfect stock so that would not be a problem.

I am happy to say that my roses arrived in beautiful condition. All the people I had contact with on the phone and by email were very helpful infomative and couteous. I took advantage of an internet special and I feel that I wasn't treated with any less respect than someone who paid full price. I have 18 roses for 107 dollars.

I ordered some quite expensive arisaema's from Wayside and found that some of the bulbs were not the correct ones ordered. I called and they could not have been more helpful. They quickly sent me the right bulbs and told me to keep those sent by mistake with their complements. Great service. I have purchased from many mail order outfits and know that it's easy to be disappointed. My impression is that Wayside is trying to do it right.

I ordered bare root roses and a potted hydrangea from Wayside this year.

The roses were slow to break dormancy, but once they started, they are all healthy and strong. The hydrangea looked terrible when we received it. We planted it immediately, but the little bare twigs with two leaves popping out looked pathetic for two days. Then, the leaves shrivelled up and fell off.

When I contacted Wayside about it by email, I recieved an email saying that they had refunded my credit card for it.

I replaced the hydrangea with a vigorous specimen from a local nursery, and it is doing well.

I wouldn't buy anything from this company but roses, but they have a great selection and good prices on those, and the plants are healthy when they arrive.

My son gave me a gift certificate to Wayside Gardens for $100 for Christmas, so in January I placed my order for a "Corallinum" Japanese maple, a standard forsythia, and some other things. When it arrived I was puzzled by the "stick" that was the Japanese maple. And I was disappointed that the only apposing branch on the forsythia had been broken off in the box. The Japanese maple wasn't even potted! Let alone packed with cedar shavings. And it had no graft and no branches.

When I sent them a photo of my "stick" (together with a photo from a friend of mine in Denver who purchased the "Corallinum" from Greer Gardens in Oregon, and received a beautiful plant), their customer service was totally inadequate. They didn't offer to ship one right off to me to replace it, but said they could get one to me in two weeks, or they suggested I could return it to get my money back. I wanted to know what happened to the tree! Their senior horticulturist told me I should have received a well branched seedling (seedling! at $49.95! My friend bought his for $32) with the named variety "Corallinum" above a graft, and it was supposed to be packed in a gallon container. Well, there was no gallon container attached to the tree, and no empty gallon container in the packaging at all!

Needless to say, I won't be buying from Wayside again! I have bought plants from them in the past, and they were very well packaged, but not this order. And the price I paid for the maple was very high.

I have placed two orders from Wayside and have had good experiences both times; once last year and once this year. In total I have ordered 4 clematis, a climbing rose, and a raspberry. My experience is similar to a lot of other posts:

- the bare root plants are on the small side. I don't care if they are small since I ordered vines and they fill in quickly. The climbing rose I received was much bigger than I expected.
- they are expensive, but I am willing to pay since local nurserys don't always carry the varieties I am looking for and I don't want to drive around looking for them. I don't order more common plants or annuals via mail order.
- their catalogs are very nice with good info, but a bit too much hype for my liking.
- customer service was excellent. My raspberries died (probably my fault in hind-sight) and since it was too late in the year to re-order, I was given a credit to order them next year.
- the plants have arrived healthy and in good shape with good roots
- the plants arrived promptly after ordering and they were well packaged

That said, my rating is neutral since the clematis I ordered last year didn't grow a whole lot during the year. This may be a result of the location and/or my inexperience. The clematis are doing better this spring and the vines I ordered this year are doing well already. (It seems to be important to get them in the ground as soon as you receive them. I may have waited too long last year). I will upgrade Wayside to a positive if my plants have a good summer.

In the past I have placed several orders with Wayside, the last being fall of 2002. I ordered 6 hard-to-find hostas, 3 ferns, and an apricot trumpet vine exclusive to Wayside. The order came to well over $120 + shipping, and I was shocked when the order arrived. Everything was small and looked awful; very few items had any leaves, and most items were broken. The trumpet vine was a leafless stick, and the hostas were wilted and tiny. I really didn't expect anything to live.

I am giving Wayside a positive because this spring everything has come up (even the trumpet vine stick is budding) and because their customer service department is terrific, and would have replaced anything that failed to grow. On the downside, their quality doesn't seem to be as good as it once was, and their prices are quite high for what you get.

Wayside has a gorgeous catalog and many hard to find plants. I have ordered from them for years. The plants were sometimes small for the price but always the correct variety and they always grew. This year I ordered a serviceberry. It was shipped at the right time, is starting to bud out and is a good size.

I ordered a Paper Bark maple that was advertised on their website as a 2-3' tree. When the package arived the tree (not counting the roots) was only 8-9". I called them and they placed another order for me at no charge and they told me to keep the original tree. I am giving this company a Neutral rating since they are shipping me a new tree, but will have to wait and see what they ship me the second time around. The speed at which they process the orders is not the quickest either. I have been waiting over 1 week since I called them for the second order and they still have not shipped my order.

although the phone reps were pleasant and helpful, the plants arrived in poor condition.....poorly packed; some root rot. I will not order from them again

I just received the shipment of the first order that I have placed with Wayside Gardens. I was very impressed with their catalog and the website as well as the selection of some more hard to find items that I was looking for. The box arrived today in perfect shape so I expected to open it to find my plants I had been anxiously awaiting. When I opened the box, I found that the Ben Franklin Tree had been too large to fit in the box with the other items so they simply snapped the top third of it off and bent it back. I carefully removed the tree to get to the other items and found the native azalea had at least one third of the growth broken and wilted. I can deal with dormant perenials but these other poorly packed (and very small) items have made me decide NEVER to order from this outfit again. I am sorry that I had a bad experience as they really seemed to have some great and hard to find plants.

I have ordered from Wayside several different times. This past occasion I order several shrub rose bushes and they sent very generous sized bare root roses. At about the same time I ordered some other rose bushes from another company, and there was no comparison. Wayside's roses were much bigger and older and I expect just as good results from their roses as I have had in the past with other plants from them.

I was surprised to see so many negative comments about Wayside Gardens. I've used them for years... look forward to the catalogue and their offerings and have been satisfied with their plants. I don't regard them as the least expensive, of course, but I'm willing to pay a little extra for the reference-type catalogue. Sometimes there are glitches, but I've found the customer service to be just fine.

Three years ago I installed brick planters and oversize ceramic pots in my zone 8 desert patio. My goal was to find high quality plants that were unique yet appropriate for my area. One of my sources was Wayside Gardens. I encountered minor glitches with their on-line system and I found phone personnel occasionally inaccurate in their presentation of timelines. However, the plants always arrived in very good condition and their packing was great. All of their plants have done well for me and have contributed to the pleasure that I receive from my garden. I would not hesitate to order from them again.

I have ordered from Wayside for 3 years and always been impressed by their big, healthy plants and excellent customer service. I had a problem with one plant and it was promptly refunded. I will continue to order from them, their plants always do the best of any mail order catalog.

I ordered over $200 from Wayside (my very first order). the plants arrived promptly, and looked just awful! Many of the bareroot plants were black and slimy with mold. The hosta was pathetic. No top growth and very poor roots. The elephant ear's leaves were severly damaged. No new growth on the hostas, or elephant ear, or the molded perennials. The only thing in this entire order that looked good was the helleborus and the ice plant (although small). I contacted Wayside right away (via E-mail) and complained. I told them that I was planting all this stuff in containers and was very concerned about the poor quality and small size of the plants. The customer service rep's reply was "we don't recomend that you put these plants into containers and we are making a note in your order that you did that and so if they don't survive, they won't be replaced. Have a nice day". NOTHING in their literature or planting instructions said that continers were outlawed. Another rep has since contacted me and said that their horticulturist said that most of what I got would be OK in containers for a short while, but she never said if they plan to stand behind their guarantee.

The prices are VERY high for the size of the plants, most of the plants are available elseware, and the customer service is horrible.

I have ordered from Wayside for years and have always been extremely satisfied with their merchandise. It has arrived in good shape and was exceptional in form and quality. Especially I have ordered many own root roses from them and all have thrived and done exceedingly well and continue to do so to this day. The size especially puts these roses in a class by themselves. Nothing puny and sickly at all; everything exceeded expectation and proved more than satisfactory. I recommend Wayside to anyone who wants a garden above the norm!

Ordered a bicolor buddleia from Wayside on 1/28/03, received notice the product was supposed to ship after 3/20. I e-mailed them yesterday (4/16) asking where the order was, having heard nothing from them. Reply today (the only good thing) stating that the product is delayed and not expected to be received by them until the first week in May. I am doubtful I will ever get it, and am seriously concerned about the condition it may arrive in, if it comes. Too bad I found this great site AFTER I placed my order.

Of the bare-root plants I orderd- half were dead, some were moldy. All were shiped late. Of the ones that were shiped live, most didn't survive the winter-even with mulch. All the roses were of very poor quality. They died as well.

After looking through their catalog I ordered monroe white liriope as the local nursery around here does not offer it. Well let's just say i am happy about one thing "I only made a very small order" Wayside is only one state away from me and I know they were not sitting at the post office over a weekend; but these plants which I opened immediately were moldy! I cleaned the mold off best that I could and planted anyway as it was a small order and a hard variety to find and will hope for the best. I will never order from wayside again. :(

I was shocked to see that this company had such a low rating. They are one of my FAVORITE sources! Over the past 2 years I have ordered in excess of $500 worth of mdse from them. While I purchased mostly roses, my orders did include perenials, bulbs, shrubs, etc. I have always received very healthy plants, packed well. The roses, in particular, tend to be exceptional with such substantial roots that I have difficulty wrestling them into a 5 gallon bucket to be soaked before planting. I have had noting but positive experiences with Wayside Gardens. I look forward to seeing next year's catalog!

I was cautious when i placed my order($120.00 worth) because
of the negative comments on GW. However I took a chance be-
cause they had the plants I needed. Received the plants 3/28
in time for planting in my zone, in good shape packed as
good as my Bluestone orders. Planted them in the ground yes-
terday and so far so good. They even sent me copper markers
as bonus. I sure will be ordering from them again.

I find Wayside Gardens to be an inconsistent company in that Customer Service is very courteous and forthcoming, but some of the errors made by the company should not have been made. My very first order, in 1999, was from Wayside, and consisted of two collections of bulbs. One of the collections of 100 was supposed to be in blue, purple, white and yellow. 98 were yellow. Of the second collection of 30 bulbs, only two appeared. When I called to let them know that the collection was not as pictured and that the other bulbs had failed, the representative promptly credited my account, which I did appreciate.

I have twice ordered Wayside plants to go along with plants I raised from seed (platycodon grandiflorus and malva alcea fastigiata). The fact that I raised these plants successfully from seeds does, I think, indicate some knowledge on my part, but all of the additions from Wayside died. I was given replacements, which also died.

Last year I ordered three Lilium Rose Elegance; there are few sources for this lily. When the bulbs bloomed they were rather small and short, but more importantly they were white. When I called Customer Service the representative was aware of the problem because others had called about the same matter, and offered me a replacement in the same price range. I requested three Olympic Star, which is red (they had no pink bulbs)and received six, which was most generous and appreciated but I had to accomodate 9 red and white bulbs instead of the three pink I had requested. Since each lily takes approximately one foot of garden, and since I really wanted the pink and got it from another company, I had to scramble to find 12 square feet of useful space instead of three.

On the other hand, I received six wonderful Lilium Artistic, one of the pride and joys of my garden. So I would have to say that I might order if there is a bulb item I really want that is available nowhere else, but otherwise I will gaze at the pictures and order perennials from Bluestem, Forest Farm and Munchkin.

OVER THE PAST 2-3 YEARS I HAVE ORDERED A LOT OF DIFFERENT PLANTS FROM WAYSIDE GARDENS. A MAJORITY OF THE PLANTS HAVE PERFORMED WITH GOOD RESULTS. I REALIZE THAT PLANTS THE FIRST YEAR SLEEP, THE SECOND YEAR THEY CREEP, AND THE THIRD YEAR THEY LEAP. THE PLANTS ARE MOSTLY ON THE SMALL SIDE. THEY ARE ALSO PRICY. THEY HAVE EXCELLANT CUSTOMER SERVICE. I'VE HAD SEVERAL PLANTS DIE AFTER BEING IN THE GROUND A FEW MONTHS AND THEY ARE ALWAYS UNDERSTANDING, GIVING ME A REFUND OR SHIPPING ME ANOTHER TO MY DESCRETION. WHEN EVERYTHING IS SAID AND DONE I HAVE ALWAYS HAD GOOD EXPERIENCES WITH THIS COMPANY.

Contrary to most of these comments I have always enjoyed a very positive relationship with Wayside Gardens. I have ordered from them for years, mostly roses and have never had a problem. I did think twice about it this year after having found this great website but took the chance anyway. I received 5 very nice tree roses with the exception of one and it was promptly replaced no questions asked. And the order arrived within a week. They were nicely packed as usual and I had no problems at all. I then ordered more and will let you know if they are'nt ok. I found customer service to be great, cordial and prompt. Maybe they are on the upswing.

I have ordered from Wayside Gardens for two years now. I have been nothing but pleased with my plants (mostly roses) and will definitely order from them again next year

Only ordered once and that was MANY years ago. The catalog
is a masterpiece and a source of pictures of many varities
not usually seen and the picture quality is excellent.

My only complaint is they have excessive high prices.

On a scale of 1-10 I rate them an 8+

I have ordered from Wayside many years. They always send me their seasonal catalogs, and like eye candy, I spend more than I should. Usually, I have had good experiences. I ordered two Dogwoods from them this last Fall, Cherokee Chief and Stellar Pink. When the package arrived via UPS, I noticed it was very well prepared. Until I opened the box and found the Cherokee Chief (bareroot) just laid in the box. No plastic wrap, no moist wood shavings, etc. I immediately placed the bareroot in a bucket of water and let it soak overnight. Don't know if the tree survived, will know shortly. Very expensive plants. If you want a good plant at a price less than Wayside, try their sister company, Park Seed. Park Seed offers many trees, shrubs, etc. at a fraction of the Wayside price. I will still order bulbs and occasional specimens from Wayside even after the 'negative' encounter.

I've ordered lots of things from them. Most of the plants arrive in decent shape and thrive. I've had a few that arrived in bad shape, but it's the exception. They have vbery good cutomer service.

I used to order from Wayside regularly 10 or 12 years ago, and had always been happy with their plants. Therefore, I was sorely disappointed when I ordered from them two years ago and received tiny, poor quality perennials that had to be nursed along. The packaging was poor, and many of the plants had been damaged in transit. However, I have never had any problems with the roses and bare root shrubs I have received from them. Unless they have something I can't find elsewhere, I don't think that I'll be ordering from them again.

I have had both good and bad experiences with Wayside. I have a little better than 50% plant survival rate (but that is attributable in part to a horrific vole problem). Every year Wayside offers a discount if you purchase over a certain amount, and every year the discount does not come through in full. Two years ago my sister ordered a gift certificate for me. I placed my order, and part of it was delivered to my sister, another portion to my daughter-in-law, for whom I had ordered a gift certificate. It was months in the unravelling. I too am a sucker for their beautiful catalog and interesting selection, but I wish they'd get their cs act together!

I used Wayside last year for the first time, ordering 2 Japanese maples ( A. palmatum "Waterfall") and about a dozen roses of different kinds- no hybrid teas, because I won't spray w/ pesticides. All products were quite satisfactory. I am delighted with my demure Waterfalls, which settled in nicely even after a baking hot , dry summer. All roses appear to have survived the dreadfully cold winter temps. I pruned them today. I was pleased with the growth of all roses dispite the summers heat. The Mediland varieties worked very well for me. All proved to be disease free this first year. They have beautiful hips lasting into the winter. All plants arrived right on time, very carefully packed and with thorough directions. I will use Wayside confidently. Their specialty catalogs are outstanding- especially the rose one.

I have to agree with the other negative commenters in terms of size and quality of plant material I've gotten from Wayside. I have been so displeased that I did not order from them for about 4 or 5 years, and then, this past winter, decided to see if they were on the web.

Ordered a reasonably (for them) priced Japanese Maple. Got a confirmation e-mail, which stated shipment would be after February 5. By February 20, I was calling to see where my tree was. The blase operator informed me that Wayside had decided to "grow out" the plants they had gotten and ship in the fall. If I hadn't called, I wouldn't have known. I am, again, a former Wayside customer.

So far so good for me. I ordered about $150 worth of plants from them even though I wanted to order more based on their catalog and online site, but I figured with all the negative feedback concerning them I should stay conservative and order just a few special items. I received all of my order at the perfect time for planting here in Houston and everything was packed exceptionally well and there wasn't even dirt to clean up out of the bottom of the box because wet straw held all the dirt in. All the plants look to be in very good shape, much better than I have gotten from several different companies over the last couple of years. I'll report back as to how everything does in a couple of months.