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thahalibut

burpee seeds is a joke

thahalibut
14 years ago

I am so mad! With burpee you don't get what you pay for. I bought some sunflowers last year (don't remember the name) they were supposed to be 4-5' tall & dark red. They turned out to be 10' tall & yellow. I bought some rudbeckia goldsturm this spring & have been babying it for months. This was going to be my first blackeyed susan. They just bloomed today at 4" high & its a stupid purple verbena! NEVER again!

Comments (18)

  • marlingardener
    14 years ago

    What a shame! We gardeners anticipate a plant and it is a major disappointment to lose a growing season because seeds were mislabeled.
    I haven't ordered from Burpee for several years--I found the germination rate was less than for seeds from other companies. There are too many good places to order/buy seeds to waste our growing time and money on a company that doesn't come through as promised.

  • domehomedee
    14 years ago

    I ordered all my vegetable seeds from Burpee and have been completely satisfied. Sorry about the sunflowers, there's no excuse for getting the wrong seeds. As for the black-eyed susans, I have tried for years to get a patch going. I've tried seeds, roots, potted plants from the nursery. I'm in zone 9 CA too, I just don't think they do very well here.

  • gardener1908
    14 years ago

    I don't buy from Burpee anymore. I buy about $350.00 - $700.00 dollars worth of seed a year. Two years ago I noticed that just about all the packages (the inside white seed package) had written on the bottom "product of China. NO Thanks. Unless I'm buying a special seed I don't see why they have to be from China.

  • novice_2009
    14 years ago

    You've got to be kidding me!! Made in China? Now that's crazy, can't even get seeds grown in American soil anymore.
    I ordered the "fern package" from Burpee, a set of three. They arrived spilled out of their little containers, one totally destroyed. I called and they replaced them free of charge, but the second batch didn't look much better. No seeds from them though. Made in China, lol. Maybe that was the packaging?

  • carolinagypsy_yahoo_com
    13 years ago

    Received a gift certificate which i had to use at burpee. ordered 4 pkgs of seed for a total of $26.75, including shipping. The seeds combined total weight was 176mg (approx .0063 oz.) Germination rate was 0% on 3 of the items, 16% on the fourth. I called Burpee, was rudely told that i didn't wait long enough (6+ weeks) after starting the seeds, and hung up on. Called back, and this person offered a replacement, but it is too late to start again from seed. Finally offered a refund. Poor quality at approximately $4246/ounce = unacceptable.

  • golfnjo_yahoo_com
    12 years ago

    I'm not a big seed buyer. Yesterday I bought just 2 packeges of seed. When I opened them up there were just enough seeds in each package to see. If your eyesight was poor you would have thought the packages were empty. Seed can't be that valuable.

  • ghorwood61
    11 years ago

    I ordered several varieties of pepper seeds from Burpee. They arrived in the mail in a timely manner, and all seeds sprouted and produced as expected. I will order from them again.

  • ellenrr
    10 years ago

    Ordered for the first time from Burpee.
    2 packets of California poppies-
    one sup'd to have 350 seeds
    the other sup'd to have 100. They cost me 5.00 and 4.00/per packet. Expensive compared to other companies.$6.00 shipping.

    The one had (generously) maybe 100-150 seeds. The other had 30 seeds (I have a seed spreader, and I actually counted how many seeds.)
    I called and they are going to send me more, but I am burning mad.
    1st- my seeding is now another week behind.
    2nd- this must be their standard practice. It isn't logical that I order two packets and both have less than have of the number of seeds, unless this is their usual practice. And the reason they keep doing this is bec. they can. I bet most people don't complain. I'll never order from then, and I'll make sure no one I garden with ever does either.

  • WebChemist
    10 years ago

    This year I ordered from Burpee for the first time and I'm extremely disappointed. The picture you see here is their "Purple Wonder" strawberries, which cost $10.95 EACH and after waiting over 2 months they show up tiny and wilted and immediately die? F.U. Burpee!

    I ordered them in March, and when my order arrived in April the Purple strawberries were missing. I called about them, and was told a cold snap that delayed shipping them, they'd arrive within a week. Called again after 2 weeks and a very rude woman told me I'd already received them, no record of the back order, like I was lying. I called back to speak to someone different, the next guy told me he saw I was on backorder but they weren't shipping out until end of May,

    Oh and lets not forget my refund getting "stuck" and taking WEEKS to be repaid. Even with the satisfaction guarantee, I would never order again just because of the massive amount of my time they wasted! All the various strawberry plants they sent were too weak and tiny to hold up in shipping, and pretty much immediately died after arrival. And 4 of 5 raspberry canes also DOA, so far none of my Razzle Dazzle Tomato seeds have germinated. The only thing that's thriving is 1 of the raspberry canes and a fig tree I overpaid for compared to what I could have gotten at the local nursery for the same money.

  • realebill
    9 years ago

    i purchased 5 packs of Burpee perrenial seeds. 2 Columbines,Gailardia goblin,Butterfly weed and shasta daisy. this was my 1st attempt at starting flowers from seed. i put each individual seed type in a tray. when they germinated and were several inches tall,i transferred the seedlings to individual pots. after the plants were more developed,i planted them in the garden. now after all the plants are at least a foot tall i noticed that ALL the plants are identical.what gives ? i've attached a pic of on of the plants.i would have thought that as the plants mature the leaves would look different,but the butterfly weed both columbines the daisy and the Gailardia look identical. perplexed !

  • w_brouwer
    7 years ago

    I am done with Burpee seeds. I bought all of my seeds in a big box store this year. Sugar snap peas had pathetic germination. I replanted them and I again got pathetic germination. Planted two packages of cucumber seed and a total of 3 cucumber plants have emerged. I will have to replant these also. I am an experienced gardener and we have had good spring weather. I have never had the germination problems that I have experienced this year. Anybody have suggestions on where I can buy high quality seed?

  • Camille Cunningham
    7 years ago

    For years I have bought burpee pickling cuke seeds and have produced awesome picklers. This year bought the same packets and have produced a long, thick skinned cuke. People around here have said their tomato seeds weren't right either. I'm very annoyed, it sucks when you spend that much time and get nothing that you expect. Done

  • KarenPA_6b
    7 years ago

    I don't have good experience with Burpee plants either. Bought 2 Double Fantasy Hellbores and they both died a few months later in 2015. Bought a plum oriental poppy which they sold for $12 came to me as a 2" X 1" plug which I quickly returned. Such a disappointment. I don't bother to look at their catalog anymore.

  • Joe SanFran
    6 years ago

    I agree with this review. I ordered some hellebores and the packet arrived smashed and one plant was totally dry, without any compost in its pot.

  • KarenPA_6b
    6 years ago

    I bought another Double Fantasy Hellebores in 2016 hoping for better results. The plant came really small which my instinct told me to return with the Plum Poppy. But I thought to give it a try because I really wanted it. Well, the hellebore never grew all summer and this year totally MIA.

  • lambbruce1
    6 years ago

    Instead of the fancy flower expected as indicated on the Burpee envelop a very common flower resulted.

  • KarenPA_6b
    6 years ago

    Does anyone know what happened with Burpee? Did they get new management or owner? Why has their quality of plants and seeds consistently declined over the years? This thread started in 2009. You would think that management had noticed customer dissatisfaction and loss of sales over the years.

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