Direct Gardening

Never again! These guys have an attractive web site. I ordered some stuff. Then some more. And more. Five orders and several hundreds of dollars. Slowly, it began arriving. The rose tree was the crowning jewel. The good news is the blueberries look like they might survive. The rose tree is dead as a door nail. And the Douglas firs. And the thyme. And lots more that I cannot remember, because I can no longer see my orders on their website. Alas, it is all my fault because I did not retain and therefore cannot return the original shipping labels. What, their online records and the order numbers that I provided are insufficient? Why have they denied my access to my order records?

They shipped over two months after I ordered. It was so late I canceled it and still received it over 9 days later. The customer service was rude and WAY out of line. I would NEVER order from them again.

My order took over six weeks to get here. The plants were dead when they got here, "dead", not "dormant" as I planted them up immediately giving them the benefit of the doubt though they were clearly dead. Now over two weeks later, I sent pictures of my clearly dead plants to their customer service and got a reply saying I shouldn't call them "dead" for six weeks, though any idiot can tell from the picture I sent that they are dead. They suggest waiting six weeks and then requesting a replacement if they are still dead. That gets them well beyond having to give me a refund if I send the dead plants back at my expense, as it is after the two week return period. I'm sure they'd be glad to send me more dead plants, but I'm not spending another cent at their company or returning dead plants at my expense. My first clue should have been that their website hasn't got a spot for customer reviews. Wish I had checked their reviews elsewhere prior to ordering as they send dead plants and in no way stand behind their products.

I ordered $168 worth of items from Direct Gardening's online webstore. They claimed a "free item" promotion and did not send the promised free items with my order. Furthermore, a number of items that they sent were DOA or dead shortly after they arrived. They required the original label as proof. I made a copy and sent it. They then required me to wait 6 weeks from the arrival of my plants to make my claim. Then, I was to pull up the original plant and ship it back to them at my own expense. REALLY?

I puchased 3 orange azeleas from these people and when they came all were broken off and 1 was completely dead. I returned the paperwork for the dead one and just today recieved it's replacement. This one is broken off 1/2 above the dirt. Their packaging sucks and unless you want the aggrevation of sending back and forth for plants that are alive, I would shop somewhere else where they know how to package plants and care about their customers!

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.

Terrible company to deal with as most that have place orders with them will concur.
Take your money then ignore frequent emails and other contact media. Weeks overdue allready for the balance of my order and even the part I did receive was nothing like as described on their web page as I order Jumbo/Large plants and received tiny plugs next stage up from seedlings.
Don’t touch them with a barge pole and read others reviews to get the whole picture !

When I received my order the potatoes were a rotten mushy mess on the bottom of the bag. My guess is they cut them and placed in the plastic shipping bag and did not allow them to dry. Other items were missing from the order. I tried on several occasions to contact them and have them rectify the problem. No response on their part. I’ve been gardening for 50 years and have never experienced such poor quality and lack of concern. Will never do business with them again.

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

I placed an order with this company on 4/29/2020 & have complete documentation of transaction.
They have never delivered my shipment & have done nothing other than lie about it from start to finish ever since.
I have contacted these individuals multiple times in regard to my shipment only to receive emails claiming a variety of scenarios..none of which being my shipment is in route with a confirmation number..or that they are refunding my money since they can not deliver shipment as promised.
In fact.. when I told them I either want my shipment or a refund they had the audacity to tell me that I should drive to Bloomington and pick up the shipment myself because they offer "curbside pick up" that being the "quickest option".. & they would "refund the $9.99 standard shipping fee" I was charged.. however I should call ahead if I wanted to do that..which would be quite a feat on my part given the fact that we are talking about an internet catalog business.. and the telephone number listed by them is never responded to or busy each time you attempt to call it.
I told them that is ridiculous and I either want my shipment or a refund and was not interested in driving anyplace.. were I interested in driving anyplace I never would have ordered online in the first place.
Do NOT order from these people under any circumstances.
They will NEVER DELIVER.
The same woman who is listed as the owner of this business is also associated with several other businesses none of which apparently offer any type of behavior which can be even remotely construed as customer service.
In fact this business traces back as "House of Wesley Inc." out of Bloomington Illinois via the B.B.B.
Please feel free to look them up for yourself to verify.
I repeat do NOT ORDER FROM DIRECT GARDENING or any other franchises associated with them or their owner.
Save yourself the time and trouble and take your business someplace else.

I ordered 24 Indian Current Coralberries, 2 Pink flowering almonds, and 24 burning bush from Direct Gardening. I soaked the roots in water and planted all of these as directed in July of 2017. I watered all of these plants every other day. I waited until May of 2018 to see any sign of life. I sent a registered letter to Direct Gardening on May 9th, 2018, first delivery attempt was refused, finally on May 17th, 2018 they accepted the letter requesting replacements for all of the above mentioned plants but 7 burning bushes. With the exception of the 8 bushes, all others did not show any sign of life in 2017 or in 2018. I have emailed them 3 times now to get a follow up on the request for replacements, no response. I have tired to call them 20 times since May 17th, 2018 and receive a busy signal. I have been gardening for 25 years and have experience with growing bare root plants. I am very surprised of the amount of plants that survived. 14% (7 of 50) plants showed any sign of life in 2017 and came back in 2018. This is a very low percentage of survival. I would not recommend Direct Gardening at this point, even if you are an experienced gardener.

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.

like the other reviewers, I have yet to receive my order, 5 weeks after I placed it, and when I was finally able to get through to customer service all they would tell me is that there is no ship date. There are plenty of other nurseries who will ship in a timely manner; I would never deal with this company again.

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

I ordered 2 trees and got 2 dead 4" sticks. They never responded after 3 months of weekly emails and letters. They will take your money and aught all the way to the bank. Stay away!

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.

I ordered my plants and within 15 hours I called to cancel the order. They said that they can’t cancel the order over the phone, I have to send them cancellation request via email. I did so. I remember that it said processing time is around 2 weeks. But all on a sudden, 2 days later I received an email that mentioned my order is been shipped. Surprisingly I received my order within very short time. Both of the plants were tiny dried broken sticks with fragile/brittle roots. They came in a plastic bag without any hard box, without any stick to protect the stem from breaking. I thought their plants are comparatively cheaper than others. But what ever I spent is a total wastage of money and time.

On March 31 2020 I placed a small order of $26.61 including shipping and tax. A week later I read the horrible reviews. Out of 600+ reviews 400+ reviews were NEGATIVE. So I decided to cancel my order by email. This what I sent...
Please cancel my order of $26.61 placed on 03/31/2020 immediately. Order ID #348290.Please send me an email when it is done.....
Thank You
No one ever contacted me and on April 17 2020 my credit card was charged... No response from them at all. They just went ahead continued with the order. I am **** at their poor customer service. I will try my cc company toi reverse the charges.. STAY CLEAR OF DIRECT GARDENING

I placed an order on 6/19/2010 on 6/30/2010 I received a bag of moldy daylilies and hostas. I called them and told them that they looked horrible and moldy and could I get replacements. They said that it was normal for them to look like that and just to plant them. So I did. After about a week I looked up reviews on Direct Gardening. I wish I would have before I ordered. If i had I wouldn't have ordered from them. So I called them up again and said I wanted a refund. I was told that I had to wait 6 weeks to see if the plants would come up first. After almost 6 weeks I called them again and said that all of the plants were dead and that I wanted a refund. They then said I would have had to gotten it within 2 weeks of receiving my order. I asked for one within that time and was told I had to wait 6 weeks to see if the plants would come up first. So they said to even get replacements I had to send in a letter and the packing list. So i sent the packing list and a letter stating that all of the plants were dead. I get a letter back in about a week asking which plants were dead! DUH! I said all. I had put my phone # on the letter to so all they had to do if they were that stupid and could figure out which one all meant all they had to do was call. So I call them up and said I want a refund. They again said it was too late but I could get a replacement if I sent in my packing list and letter asking for replacements. I said I just did and in my letter it said all were dead and I got a letter back asking which ones were dead. The lady said all isn't descriptive enough you have to list out each one that died. I then filed a complaint with the BBB. the company sent me a letter saying to send the packing list in and they will expedite the handling of my replacements. That was on 8/28/2010. the next day I sent them everything they asked for. I still on 9/16/2010 haven't heard anything from them. Every time I call them i get a rude person who has no idea what is going on. I just talked to the IL attorney generals office and they said to submit a report for them to review and if they get enough of them they could take action against the company other then just trying to mediate something for an individual. So everyone who has had a bad experience PLEASE submit a report to the attorney general!

I made an order over a month ago. I did not receive any plants and bought some elsewhere. I contacted them to cancel the order but "they can't" even though it still hasn't shipped. The customer service is extremely poor.