"I ordered 4 butterfly bushes on April 29th and 3 arrived May 20th. If you could call it that. A green plastic bag with 3 bags of dirt and a few broken dead sticks in it. THE PLANTS WERE DEAD! I planted them anyway as per their instructions..there's nothing left but the root.The sticks fell off dead. I received the one they shorted me on 6/16/2017. Worse condition if there is such a thing. The sticks (2) were in the bottom of the green bag. The clear plastic bag had a small amount of dry dirt and a dead root.
I'm just going to cut my losses here. I can't understand how they stay in business! Read on if you want to read their reply.
"(Thank you for your correspondence regarding the plants you received from us. You stated that some of your plants appear "dead" or have not yet started to bud and leaf-out. Much of our nursery stock is shipped in a dormant, bare root condition or in starter pots that require transplanting. Also, your plants may be stressed by shipment. Therefore, the plants may look "dead," be droopy upon arrival, have lost leaves in shipment, or may leaf-out later than an established plant.
If you have not already done so, please plant all plants immediately following the instructions in our planting booklet. Water regularly. Give them a chance. In nearly every instance the plants will grow and thrive.
If after six weeks of planting, your plants do not leaf out or if you are certain they are not alive,we are willing to make a single exception of our original shipping label requirement and send a replacement order if you will mail us a COPY OF YOU CANCELLED CHECK or CHARGE CARD STATEMENT as proof of payment. You will need to send this information via mail. Please include a letter that states you no longer have the shipping label and are therefore sending the proof of payment in its place. Also include a full list, by item and quantity, of what item(s) need to be replaced.
This is a single exception and applies only to nursery stock and not replacement orders.
The information on the missing plant has been forwarded.
"
"This company has terrible reviews and I wish I would have read them. I ordered some plants that took over a month to be delivered. When they arrived half of them were dead. I contacted the company and they want ME to pay for return shipping. Yet they were the ones to ship dead plants. It seems that it is quite common for them to do this.
DO NOT SHOP THERE!
I did a scratch test and you can see they are completely dead. So now I am out of my money"
" Ordered three trees and see Chris the trees were shipped in a plastic bag and have snapped in half the cigarettes is brown and dead spent over $50 for these products and it is an absolute ripoff"
"Sent 30 emails to cancel and refused and sent anyway with dead plants no answer on phone or email had to return at my expense had to wait a month until it arrived to me. Don't buy from them a rip off and false advertising "
"My experience was absolute horrible. First I had to pay the original shipping costs, they then selected and sent me the wrong plants. In order to get a refund I had to pay again for shipping the wrong plants they sent me back to them. Then with no explanation whatsoever, they refunded only half the money. You never get to talk to anyone directly affiliated with the company, you only reach a call center where I have gotten several different answers to the same questions I've asked of them. 3 people with 3 different answers??"
"Ordered 16 plants in March. Not shipped till the end of April. I had to send them an email to remind them to ship my order. 5 arrived dead; one covered in mold. Plants that were supposed to be 6-12" were more like 3". Nine days after having these plants, I contacted Direct Gardening for a return/refund. They said after 14 days, they don't issue credit! It wasn't 14 days! VERY disreputable company. Would rate a zero if given the option. Would not order weeds from this company."
"Horrible company to do business with. I placed an order on 12/13/2016 and as of today have not received it yet (3/27/2017). I have contacted them several times and they cannot tell me when order will ship. I contacted them today requesting a refund. I will not do business with them again
"
"I have not begun to fight to get my money back on these pathetic things they call plants. These big beautiful pictures and when you open up the box to yellow plants all on the verge of death; that it took a month to get; the let down is extreme. They want to replace them but who would want to go through the hassle to baby these itty bitty plants enough to get them to live let alone blossom. They violated their entire policy by telling me the order would be processed in two weeks and I got them a month later. There was no correspondence telling me they even got my order or any answer to my complaints for almost a week and then only because I disputed the charge on my credit card. I want a refund not replacement plants. Way too expensive for what you get even if they had lived."
"On one website you have 420 Negative reviews only 156 positive 50 neutrals. That is BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE. I did as was told by waiting and planting only to have them ALL DIE. My MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN !!!! The 2 4.99 were used on new orders for things that arrived CRUSHED. The other plants just DIED after I planted as told. There is something you can do, supply LIVE plants in GOOD condition. The original plants did not appear alive when I received them, but I did as told and waited then the replacements arrived in poor/dead condition and again as i was told planted, now you tell me "We are sorry for the inconvenience. " Not inconvenience it was/is a waste of MY MONEY, so yes you could at least send me LIVE plants in GOOD condition, but you just DO NOT want to. ALMOST $200.00 GONE. "
"Just don't is all I can say. Half the order was never received. The other half was destroyed in shipment since all they use is a plastic bag. No response from customer service until I have a lawyer contact them for me. Wasted my money. DO NOT USE DIRECT GARDENING!"
"real crooks they will send u dead plants then will put such difficult return requirements that u cant return anything also will not cancel your order even if it hasnt shipped "
"Horrible company. Ordered 5 - 3 to 4 foot Quaking Aspens and was sent 5 - 12" to 22" Pink Dogwoods. Immediately sent customer service an email stating I wanted a full refund but instead of doing the right thing and processing the refund like any good online merchant would do they tell me I need to mail the shipping label along with a written request for a refund. I emailed a picture of the shipping label along with my request for a refund but they insist that I need to mail it in. They can charge your credit card online but they can't credit it online. Won't be surprised if it gets "lost" in the mail. Like everyone else is saying I wish I had listened to all the negative reviews that are out there and never placed the order. "
"I placed an order in the begining of April and didn't get it until June!! And everything was dry or dead. Also recieved the wrong rose in the order but was told it was right that I needed to change the soil to acid. Did that and after 4 weeks still the same color rose not the color I ordered. I sent in for replacements on the order for dead plants and wrong rose and I recieved them much quicker but they were all died up again with all the leafs dead and fallen off in the shipper. I order from online nurseries all the time and this has been the worst experience of my life."
"I AGREE WITH ALL THE OTHER COMMENTS. DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY. MY FIRST ORDER WAS RECEIVED WITH ALL PRODUCTS ROTTEN. THE REPLACEMENT ORDER WAS THE SAME WAY ALL PRODUCTS WHERE ROTTEN. WOULD NOT GIVE A REFUND HAD TO SETTLE WITH A VOUCHER WHICH I PROBABLY WILL NEVER GET. THE CUSTOMER SERVICE IS TERRIBLE AND THE PRODUCTS ARE NO BETTER AND I HAVE GARDENED ALL MY LIFE AND YES I KNOW ABOUT PLANTS AND BULBS. WILL NEVER ORDER AGAIN AND WILL TRY TO LET OTHER KNOW NOT TO AS WELL. THIS IS A HURRY AND WAIT COMPANY, NOTHING IS DONE IN A TIMELY MANNER OR COURTESY!!! "
"i purchased in sep 2014 privet hedges and other bushes and trees. Did not receive it until 6 weeks later in October. They're service is not very good. A lot of hedged died. Tried to get a warranty replacement on some hedges and two trees. When they sent me the replacement on the hedges, they did not send me the trees. When I contacted them, they said they would NOT send me the trees without the replacement shipping label, even though I had sent them the original shipping label. My landscapter had tossed the box the replacement hedges came in....So, i never got my replacement trees. Difficult people to deal with. For that reason, will not buy from them again. "