DirectGardeningReviews 399

In the fall of 2017, I ordered 4 live plants. They arrived looking dead. But I planted them hoping the roots would rejuvenate the plants in the spring. Didn't happen. No signs of life. So, I contacted them in the spring of 2018 to ask for replacements. I received the replacements in the fall of 2018. Dead again. I sent them an email saying that my plants were dead AGAIN and that I give up. Got an email back telling me how to plant plants as if it were MY fault. Money thrown away.

I have to take part of the blame for getting ripped off. Rarely do I ever do business without reading online reviews first. I screwed up this time and am now out forty dollars.
I placed an order for three trees and two vines expecting that the order would be shipped in the fall when the weather was cooler and the plants start to go dormant. When I recieved an email informing me that my order was being shipped at the end of August using fedex surepost, I knew something was not right. Now, two weeks later my dead sticks were stuffed in my metal mailbox on another 90 degree day. The dead tree sticks are dried out, brittle, and have no roots whatsoever. It looks like somebody broke them off a month or two ago instead of digging them.
The dried out wisteria vine had one small piece of root attached, but it fell when I removed it from the bag. A potted silverlace vine looked like it was alive when it was placed in the bag, but it is now crushed and slimy from being sealed in a bag for two weeks and being subjected to the usual delicate handling of the post office.
I called direct gardening and asked the woman on the phone how they shipped their product, and she told me twice that they shipped fedex express. When I told her that I was already unfortnately a customer and that I knew that they shipped surepost, she then changed her story. " did I say fed ex express? I meant surepost." I told her that I didn't deal with rinky dink companies that use surepost, she hung up on me.
The six free gladiolus that were supposed to be included were replaced with a packet of garden huckleberry seeds. The package says to boil them before you eat them and cover them in sugar and they may still be bitter. Why would anyone want something like that?
I will do as the instructions state by soaking, planting, and waiting and this spring when my dead sticks are not resurrected by some miracle, I will contact these crooks and have them send me some more dead sticks.
I sincerely wish that I had read the reviews before throwing my money away.

I give them 1 star because 0 stars is not an option. Every year I promise myself never again. This time I will keep my promise. I fell for their advertising of a sun tolerant Fuchsia 4 dead plants were received. I complained to them, - they said that they were "dormant". Yes they were dormant as in the Dodo. I went to the expense of shipping the plants back to them with the required label but no refund was issued. I absolutely promise you that if you order from them you will regret it

I bought 8 climbing roses thinking if you pay as much as they charge 72$ for 8 climbing roses. You'd think something worthy. I received 8 dead dried broken twigs they were between 4-6" long. I called and complained, and way told to return which cost me over 14$ and due to their tricky wording. Since it was 14 days from ordering to returning, they refused to refund my money! And they feel that I should have to reopder then, pay shipping AGAIN AND LOOSE EVEN MORE MONEY FOR MORE TWIGS! SHAME ON THE DISHONEST RUTHLESS PEOPLE!

Waited 5 weeks for order to come in more then half of the flowers were dead the other half crushed in shipping... they ship ur flowers in a garbage bag and expect you to ship it back on your own expense and they will not refund the shipping cost to you. In my case it was a big order it cost me 40.00 usd to ship it back. DO NOT ORDER! The money you will spend at a nursery is well worth it you will get live mature flowers comparing to twigs crushed dead flowers from direct gardening.

Don't order from this company! If you are considering it - this is your warning. I ordered 6 yellow roses and some mosquito plants = $70.00
#1 - never knew when order was going to ship (to FL), I sent two emails asking... they DID NOT send me an email with tracking numbers. It finally showed up almost 2 months after placing the original order
#2 - plants were already half brown and looked like they were dying; I immediately sent them an email letting them know to contact me and the reason I was unhappy AND emailed photos of the plants to them
#3 - I asked for a refund but they stated their 14 day return policy ( but is that from initial order date or date received (I still have NO answer on that) if it was the latter - I was within the 14 day period to be able to get my money back.
#4 - I was told I had to have my original receipt and they could and would not look it up for me even though I had the order number from when I made the original purchase
#5 - They made me request IN WRITING via U.S. Mail with a copy of my bank debit (proving transaction of payment) - OH and they argued this with me via email that that was NOT enough proof.
#6 - I have received a letter back from them ( this included all of what I sent them via mail - my original envelop, letter and such) stating that they would not give me my money back and asked what plants I wanted in return ( MIND YOU THEY DO NOT HAVE THE ROSES OR MOSQUITO PLANTS I ORDERED LISTED ANYMORE)... they are also asking that I send ALL correspondence back with my reply via U.S. Mail... do you really think I am going to pay $2 to send all this paper back and forth when I placed an order ONLINE (not by U.S. Mail) in 2018? My gosh, can someone not pick up a telephone or send an email and handle this already. This has been going on since March 2018! I think it's time to step up customer service. This company wouldn't be in business without CUSTOMERS... but again, I suggest you NOT become one!

I placed an order 4/18 received an email 5/17 it had been shipped (no shipping info tracking # nothing) so when nothing showed up I emailed them 5/30 only to receive a very short BS response I emailed several more times never getting an answer to my question I did finally get tracking# but said it was undeliverable!? And was sent back! They forced a physical address when I placed the order and I have a po box yet they said it was sent to post office... then wanted me to pay more for them to send it back when I refused and said I wanted them to refund my account they refused said it was past time for a refund so I just got screwed out of 150.00$! TOTAL SCAMMERS DONT GIVE THEM YOUR MONEY!

This company has only dead plants to sell... at least that is what I received after waiting 3 weeks to get them. They claim that processing the order takes 1 to 2 weeks. I ordered on June 5th and finally received them Today, July 6th. The are dead and all dried up. Shame on you people, taking advantage of the people on this earth that care about keeping America beautiful. I live in Wisconsin, just a hop skip and a jump from Bloomington, Il. I advise all who are looking for great plants at a bargain a price to not shop here,

I spent over $50 on four clematis. Free did not even come up and I monitored them very closely. I saved the labels from each of the clematis and sent a copy of my computer printout showing my order. They stated that they would not send me new plants or a refund because I did not have the mailing label. I really believe this company sends out very poor quality plants and does not stand by their product at all. Save your money I learned to check reviews first.

I only ordered 2 items. With the order I was supposed to get complimentary gladiolus. When the package came only one of the items was there... and no gladiolus. The one item that did come was half dead. Idk if it'll survive when I 0want it or not. I called customer service. If I wanted to receive the second item I have to cut the invoice off of the package and mail it to them stating that I didn't receive the entire order. I guess contacting their 'customer service's dept isn't sufficient. I'm to allow 2 weeks for processing and another 2 weeks for them to prepare it for shipping. Ridiculous! With customer service like this I don't hold out any hope that I'd receive a refund. I've ordered from other online nurseries before with great luck. Ordered from here because the prices were good. You get what you pay for... or in my case, I didn't even get what I paid for! Stay far, far away from them!

Avoid being scammed by this company. Shipping was unacceptable for survival of the product. Had to request refund for 9 items dead on receipt. Received the following response.

"Thank you for your email. We will certainly issue a refund if you are not satisfied with the order. According to our Refund Policy all you need to do is return the unwanted merchandise within 14 days of receipt along with the original shipping label from the package. Please be sure to include a written request and correct postage for the return. You do not need to return any "unacceptable substitutes". We apologize, but postage as well as shipping and processing fees are non-refundable. Send your return to the address below:
Direct Gardening
1704 Morrissey Drive
Bloomington, IL *******"

I finally responded, "On second thought, keep the $$$. You win.
You obviously need it more than I need the hassle of returning garbage."