I have ordered a number of things through Direct Gardening and have not had any trouble. They even shipped me a replacements on a couple items.

DO NOT ORDER FROM DIRECT GARDENING! This company goes by many names and they have numerous complaints against them. Here is a copy of just one posting on the Garden WatchDog:
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On Jul 13, 2005, NC_Gardener6 Wilmington, NC wrote:
DON'T ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY! I would not have ordered from them had I seen this forum first.

I placed an order with Direct Gardening in April 2005. I had to call several times to check on when they would be shipping my order. I could not get a straight answer so I finally told them to cancel my order. Suddenly they said the order was being 'processed' and couldn't be cancelled.

When I finally received the order I was extremely disappointed in the quality of plants I received. They were so tiny it was hard to keep track of where they were once they were in the ground. And it turned out that most of these teeny-tiny plants wouldn't grow.

So I emailed and made more phone calls to Direct Gardening to try to get a refund. They said I wasn't eligible for a refund because I hadn't saved my original shipping label (it never occured to me to save the shipping label). They claimed they would give me an exchange if I sent the plants back along with a detailed letter explaining exactly what happened. They also wanted me to send them a copy of my Visa bill that showed my payment to them.

So I jumped through all the hoops and did exactly as I requested. And I never heard back from them.

So I called them and emailed them several more times to find out what the status was on my exchange. A very rude customer service rep told me they had no record of receiving my returned plants or my letter. She said I probably just needed to wait longer to see if it would eventually get 'processed'.

I emailed the company yet again on July 8, 2005 and told them I was tired of waiting and getting the runaround and that I was going to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I received an email reply from Direct Gardening just today. They claim they never received my letter, my Visa statement or my returned plants and, basically, they didn't plan on doing anything to fix the situation. So I WILL be filing a complaint against this very questionable and most unprofessional company.

There are plenty of great gardening companies doing business on the internet. Why risk doing business with this one?

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On July 13th, 2005, NC_Gardener6 added the following:

By the way, I don't agree with a couple of the people in this forum who are said that maybe some of us who have posted negative comments were 'expecting to much'. I have ordered from numerous gardening mail order companies and have been very happy with their products and their customer service. I wasn't expecting to get fully blooming trees or plants when I opened my package from Direct Gardening. Not at all. But I definitely didn't expect to get tiny little microscopic twigs either. And it's their deceptive customer service practices that are just the last straw.
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On July 25th, 2005, NC_Gardener6 added the following:

July 25, 2005 - An Update:

I am even more aggravated with this Direct Gardening today than I was when I originally wrote my complaint.

After telling them I was filing a complaint with the Better Business Burea, I received a letter from Direct Gardening today stating "Our guarantee specified that a refund of the purchase price of the plants would be made if the order was returned within fourteen days of receipt. . . . etc."

That is outrageous! That statement is a direct contradiction to what they told me when I first called them. I called Direct Gardening when I first opened my package from them and they told me they would not take it back. They told me I HAD to plant it and wait at least six weeks to see if it would grow before they would consider a replacement.

I have sent Direct Gardening an actual link to this forum and told them they might want to see what customers were saying about them. I can't believe this company is still in business with such a poor rating.

Here are the other names this company goes by:
ROYAL DUTCH
BURGESS SEED AND PLANT COMPANY
RICHARD OWEN NURSERY
FOUR SEASONS NURSERY
HOUSE OF WESELY
INTER-STATE NURSERY
KELLY NURSERIES
FARMER SEED AND NURSERY
HONEYCREEK NURSERY

It is my opinion that this company lures people in with cheap prices on desirable plants. Then they engage in fraudulent business practices and then, when word gets out about them on the internet, they start up a brand new off-shoot company under a different name.

Try looking up (on Garden Watchdog) any of the companies listed above. You'll be amazed at the bad experiences people have had with them. Do yourself a favor and order from a reputable company.

I have only ordered from them a few times, guess I have been one of the lucky ones. My plants all came decent size and are growing well. I think this company is ok if you have a lot of time to wait and baby the plants they send. Not even close to one of the best though. Sorry you had such a hard time with them. At least people can read your post and learn from it.

Midnight storm, did you call your credit card co to complain and tell them how you had been scamed? Once I recieved shoddy merchandise and the co would not let me return it without a large "restocking" fee. My credit card co credited my account with the amount of the product plus shipping & handeling

I've ordered from a couple of their "other named" catalogs and plant quality was always extremely poor and most did not survive. I have never ordered their dahlias though.

I also was cheated by this company. Items that was cancelled was shipped anyway. I returned the items but they refused a refund. This company operates under a list of different names and they also have 510 complaints listed with the BBB. Also I was not happy with the plants that I did not return. They were very small and sickly.

Linnea, if you don't want to spend to much try Eagle dahlia farm. I just got my first order and the tubers were GREAT and I only paid 1.50 to 3.00 a tuber. Go to the big list dahlia locator. Cindy