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mowmowgreen

Direct gardening site

mowmowgreen
18 years ago

Hey, I ran across this website, directgardening.com, that has several plants I'm looking for. What stood out is that their prices are extremely low compared to other online nurseries. I'm wondering if it's too good to be true. Does anyone have any experience dealing with them?

Kevin

Comments (28)

  • mowmowgreen
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Thanks for the heads up.

  • bigshovel
    18 years ago

    I would take the ratings posted on sites like The Garden Watchdog with a very large grain of salt as they take no responsibility in verifying the comments posted (especially given recent events with this particular site). I have purchased from directgardening with repeatedly satisfactory results.

  • disappointedgardnenj
    17 years ago

    I spent over $100 from direct gardening and recieved mostly dead plants and, tiny, tiny I mean tiny bulbs that were supposed to be tulips, hyacinths, lilies and more (when I called to question the size, they said "oh, bulbs don't have to be large to produce large flowers". This was last fall, now its spring and I have nothing but alot of wasted money and time. Sure, they say you can return the merchandise within a year (IF YOU CAN FIGURE OUT WHERE YOU PUT IT IN YOUR GARDEN AND IF YOU HAVE THE LUXURY OF TIME. AND OF COURSE, YOU MUST HAVE THE ORIGINAL PACKAGE AND SLIP THAT EVERYTHING CAME WITH). Don't use this company, they are not interested in your satisfaction. Home Depot does a better job!!!

  • sugarhill
    17 years ago

    If you want good plants at good prices, try Bluestone Perennials. Their plants are fairly small, but they are healthy and grow well. You can check them out on GardenWatchdog.com too. Given a choice between a nursery with negative reviews when one with positive reviews is available, I'd go with the positive.

  • grumpy01
    13 years ago

    I ordered plants from this company. They go by a lot of different names.

    They wasted no time charging my credit card. After 3 weeks, I contacted them to see if my order had shipped and was told it had not been shipped. I told them to just cancel my order and refund my money. They said they would, but the refund never came. Twice more, I contacted them and asked that my money be refunded. Each time they said the refund was being processed. It's been weeks now since they agreed to refund my money and I still haven't gotten the refund and don't expect to ever get it if I wait on them to do it. I'm now having to file a dispute with my credit card company to get my money back.

  • 123_hotmail_com
    12 years ago

    Never ever buy anything from them! They are just waste your money and time and feelings.You can get nothing!!!!!!!!!!!

  • ruth2begin
    12 years ago

    Hello. We finally made it to our new property in Tennessee after going way around to avoid the floods. I have two questions for the lacal gardeners. There are little strawberry looking things with no flavor to them all over my land. Will they cross breed with the everbearing strawberries that I started and carefully nurtured and produce other tasteless berries? Also can anyone tell me what to do about the baby termites that are all over the neighbors undeveloped land and are crossing the driveway to my place? We have some mature apple and pecan trees here and I am afraid we will lose those and anything else we plant due to this. We can't afford to spray their place too so if there is anything I can do I will be forever gratefull for some answers. Since you all gave me good advice about the heat and rocklike ground here I am hoping for some help.

  • rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
    12 years ago

    The 'strawberries' are called Mock Strawberries and will NOT cross with real strawberries. They are considered a true pest in some location.

    As for the termites...I'm having a hard time believing that ID. Perhaps you should scoop some up and take them to your local extension office for identification. OR, if you can get some good images, post them here.

  • KatyaKatya
    12 years ago

    I think I said that before: the Direct Gardening sell plants with wrong identification, that's my biggest problem with them. I bought an "almond" that grew into a peach and a "Chinese chestnut" that grew into a Lithocarpus. In both cases the leaves are very similar to what you think you are buying so years pass before you figure out what it really is. I wonder how many people out there are caring for plants they hope will one day grow into what they want not realizing it is a scam. Sad.

  • svetlana7e_msn_om
    12 years ago

    Ordering from Direct Gardening you need to understand:
    1. It takes time because of WEATHER condition. Plants can be shipped only in fall and spring, depending where it comes from and where. It can be 100 on west coast and snow on east coast.
    2. They send plants in DORMANT condition, which means that it is a stick with bare roots. It takes time to plant to bounce back to life.
    3. They require ORIGINAL SHIPPING LABLE for replacement of dead plants. It stated on their website, order form, e-mail order confirmation and invoice. It is their POLICY. What is the big deal to save this green bag with shipping labels on them?
    4. They send some planted plants in pots, they are small usually 1-2 years old and it is clearly disclosed on their website, but people tend to overlook the description focusing on picture of adult plant. If you want big tree, buy at local nursery for lots more money.
    Plants dies from good and bad nurseries, it is nature of the business. Same with seeds, no one gives you 100% germination rate.

  • grumpy01
    12 years ago

    Maybe you should look at the Illinois BBB website and see what others think of Direct Gardening and all it's other aliases. If you are happy with them, that's great for you, but there are a lot of people who feel they were scammed.

  • CasaVerdeEcho
    11 years ago

    Direct Gardening. com Moved to new property last fall.. wanted to get head start with roses and lily. Ordered from Direct Gardening as they were only ones with fall delivery. Order came... should have returned it at that time! Lilies in plastic bag literally were rotting. Been planting roses for 40 years. Never seen such poor quality roses... like a sucker I planted them and prayed. Guess what-- all ten dead as a door nail this spring... ALL of them. Appears that other folks have had negative experiences with this operation. The bureaucracy of their "guarantee" is enough for one to say "forget it" ... my time is more valuable than the receipt of a new order of roses from DIRECT GARDENING... appears this is a shady operation from 2006.... "let the consumer beware" .... This company needs a -ZZZ rating by the Better Business Bureau.

  • mygarden410
    11 years ago

    The worse company ever!! A scam!!
    I ordered some bougainvillea's and I got 4 little twigs (for $ 8 more I could have bought them at Lows). I planted following their directions and they never developed , not one leave.!!. A few months ago I requested a replacement and still waiting.
    I had another order of plants, I called them to find out why I didn't get a delivery and I was told I had to wait another 2 weeks. I requested to cancel the order. I was told they couldn't do it because the system would not allow that I will have to wait to receive the package and then follow their procedure for returning merchandise.
    This cost me another $10 for sending the plastic bad back. I'm waiting to see if they refund the money. They are a bunch of crooks!! Never again will buy from Direct Gardening.

  • alex400
    9 years ago

    DANGER!!!!!!
    I urge you people! Do not buy any plants from Direct Gardening!!!
    All their plants that they sale will be extremely weak or dead. I purchased bunch of plants for amount of $180 and nothing was good in my order. During one year warranty period I requested to replace me entire order. That process took so much time (about 3 month). Finally, I received my replacement yesterday and again - nothing was good. All bulbs are dead and roses with broken branches and dry roots. I received my replacement in the much worth condition.
    I will never use them again!!!
    People, don't make a mistake as I did !!!!
    If you need a plants - go to the store and by from LOWES or The Home Depot. At least you will see what you are buying.

  • titusvilleking
    8 years ago

    Yes, it is too good to be true. All the plants are like dried up sticks and 3/4 of them died. You can't contact them by phone, the phone is always busy and I sent an email to get a replacement was told to send in my original packing slip, so I did that to get a replacement, I still haven't gotten a replacement or contacted ! Run the other way. Also, it took months to get my plants originally by the time I got them the planting season was almost over.

  • Kelly Sheneman
    7 years ago

    I have been ordering from them for years they have great prices and most of there flowers do great. But if you do have problem wrong plant, plant died, its know problem from them they always make it right with most important, no hassle.

  • Kelly Sheneman
    7 years ago

    I agree with you svetlana7e I've bought plants from many gardening sites and have always lost a least one plant even though direct gardening wants you to send them your invoice ect. When I have called them because one of there plants died they've always replaced and I have never had to send then an invoice, dead plant ect. Just one phone call and done.

  • titusvilleking
    7 years ago

    Yes it is too good to be true

  • titusvilleking
    7 years ago

    No, they made me send back the original invoice

  • Maryanna Boardway
    6 years ago

    WARNING do not buy from this Co. For those of you who have had good luck BRAVO but most have not had that luck. We waited over 6 weeks for our poor dried up buggy plants to arrive. We are Master Gardeners and know the routine. The bulbs were moldy and rotten and very very small. The begonias were the size of a pea. We have learned our lesson....read the reviews first.....

  • Whitney Johnson
    6 years ago

    Horrible company. My heck I should have read the 1000's of reviews on how awful they are. How are they in business?


    Took OVER a month to process even though it said only 1-2 weeks. When item arrived they were dead.... Then the company asked ME to buy the shipping to ship them back.

    I filed a visa dipute lets just say. I am that upset with being taken advantage of.

  • Shepherd Weita
    6 years ago

    This place is a sham and customer service is a nightmare. I bought poplars from them and they arrived bone dry. I've bought poplar saplings before via the Internet so I know how healthy saplings should arrive. These were complete dead. I contacted them. They asked that I please plant them and give them six weeks. I did as I was asked. When they remained dead, I contacted them again and they said I should have returned them within 14days.
    Then I looked them up and now realize this is their scheme.
    This place is a joke.
    DONT BUY FROM THEM!!!

  • mcrossby57
    5 years ago
    I placed an order mid-June 2018. Received order on July 3, 2018. I did not get 5 plants I ordered. I received 6 in error. I called and emailed them. I was told to send the original packing label with ones on what was missing and what I received. I was told I would get my order by July 20, 2018. Today I received my original packing order in the mail for them with a note asking if I received my plants and what the plants they sent me was in placement of. I do not know what they were in place of. . I will call them, again on Monday but worth their customer service and order processing rate (and if they ask me to send back the original packing order), I will not get these plants before fall. August is not the best time to plant in Washington State as it is too hot. I do not have high hopes of this company being able to straighten this order out over email or phone calls since they insist on original packing order. May have to report this to my state attorney. I am pursuing refine option via PayPal.
  • HU-89422903
    4 years ago

    If you have ever had to deal with any horrible company and thought it was the worst, Direct Gardening company is thousand times worse. They sent me dead plants and when I asked to return, they wanted me to send the original package back and to pay for the return shipping cost. What? I cannot believe that there is a company like this exist in America.


    This company not only makes money from products they sell but they also make money from overcharge for shipping. At the end, you will lose money one way or another way. I purchased 24 white strawberry roots; it took them a week to ship the order out and took ten days for me to receive it. The worst thing was all the roots died and the package was a plastic bag. I returned the package by USPS and paid only $4 for two days shipping. So, they made at least $7 to $8 for only the shipping. This is why they love to send dead products. They don't care about their customers, they only care about how to steal your money. They are the scam company.


    Please, do not ever ask for the refund if they didn't issue the cost of shipping. You should call your credit cards to dispute it. If there are many people call and dispute transactions. For a long term it will hurt the company for it and you will get the full refund.


    This is a link you can find it helpful if they overcharge for shipping:

    https://www.attorneystakingaction.com/excessive-shipping-costs

  • Lori Burton
    3 years ago

    If you don't need anything on a timetable, they are probably okay. I placed an order with them on April 11th. I tried calling, couldn't get an answer, so I emailed to find out the status of my order at the end of April and because they hadn't even charged me for the order yet. They basically said that my order wasn't ready and that I would get confirmation once it was. My card was just charged last week for my order, but still no update on when my order will ship. I can say that I will probably never use them again. I was allowing more time due to the pandemic, but I am going on 6 weeks.

  • PRO
    Christie Balow
    3 years ago

    I've had nothing but bad experiences with direct gardening. I ordered 20 seed potatoes, I got tiny potato pieces. I couldn't tell if any had eyes because they were shriveled and hard and coated with mold. I told them the same say received and thier response? Send back the label and we will process it. Since took 2 months to process my order, I can't even imagine how long it will take to make it right. Sweet potatoes came as dried sticks. The customer service department took a long time to respond.

  • Kat Jordan
    3 years ago

    Do NOT buy from this company! Customer service is non existent! Been trying for weeks to resolve my issue. Feel like they are trying to get to the year on the warrantee to deny claim. Spent 160 and almost every died. Sent in original invoice and shipping label and they keep sending it back (8x), asking for proof of purchase and other absurd things. They have spent more money on stamps, never and manpower to do nothing. Apparently they can’t afford to reimburse me for my complete loss. I have never experienced anything like this in my 64 years of life. And I don’t routinely write poor reviews.

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