I've never had a problem. The plants are small but do well. I've bought seeds, bareroot plants, individual potted plants, and their plug trays. All have been fine. Including the shipment from Richters that UPS *JUST* dropped off.

FataMorgana

Been doing business with them for years and have no issues with seeds or plants. They are probably have the biggest selection of herb plants of anyone. You can see any possible negative info from the garden watchdog web site.

Got seeds in Feb and the plants I ordered at the same time arrived about two weeks ago. Hardened off and planted out already. Love the selection of herbs and flowers.

Mine came later as they don't ship until it warms up enough to ship out of Canada. If you ordered now I'm sure they'd arrive right away. I'm in VA and go my plants two days after the email saying they were shipped. I was very impressed w/ the packing method they used to keep them safe.

I checked the garden watch dog website and they have QUITE alot of negative ratings. Should I start to regret ordering from them?

I was not aware of the negatives for Richters. I wouldn't be concerned that much. In all the instances I had with the potted stuff, I only had a single set of two plants die soon after getting them. Contacted them and was given a choice of either replacements or a credit. I took the latter choice as it was a bit later in the season and I didn't feel it would grow very much.

The Watchdog site is quite a thing though, as the people who post there (myself as well) have some really bad situations. House of Westley (Plantron) was one that took months to ship plants. Once they finally arrived, the plants were totally dead, and not even fit to put in a compost pile. Any plants that d survive are very weak and small. The shipping date of the order, and my receive date were almost 2 months apart, its no wonder the stuff was all dead. The worst thing was they always wanted the original shipping papers and will not accept copies when trying to do replacements or refunds. Their customer service people are nearly non existant too. That doesn't do me much good if its lost someplace. I still see catalogs in the mail from House of Westley and some other names they go by, and just toss them in the trash.

I've ordered from many different companies over the years and there's only a couple that I've ordered from as long as Richters. Any place that I felt did not give good service as well as good product didn't get another order from me.

Occasionally things can and do happen in transit, or orders are lost, or what have you. It is how the company handles it once you've contacted them that makes all the difference. I haven't had to contact Richters. But I have contacted others and most places are willing to work with you. Those that don't or won't, their catalogs end up in the recycling bin.

I read the WatchDog listing once for Richters. It was some time ago but many of the complaints seemed to be either that the plants were small or people lived in warm places expecting their shipments on their growing cycle rather than accounting for Canadian climates. Richters can't ship while they are still having freezing temp's.

I take such customer reviews with cum grano salis.

FataMorgana

Thanks you guys!!! I will take your advice and give them a try. If I have a bad experience, I'll see how they handle it. I LOVE their selection and I'm gonna order. Thanks again!!

oh no! not RICHTERS! We're in CA and our plants arrived dead and dying. We've been getting the run around for over 3 weeks and still haven't gotten a resolution. The next step is taking this up with the credit card. Very disappointing. Hope you have a better experience. Good luck!

Been their customer 10 years now and never had anything come DOA from them.

I would suggest two things for you to keep in mind when ordering in the future, 1.) ordering from places that are on the other side continent from you can be tough on plants. There has to be herb places in California or much closer to you. Shorter travel time will decrease shipping stresses.

And 2.) Richters is near Toronto that's north of me and only my most cold-hardy plants (kale, peas, broccoli, etc.) are not shutting down yet for the season. Order live garden plants from nurseries in cold zones for Spring shipments, not when they are going into Winter.

FataMorgana