Wayside GardensReviews of waysidegardens.com

bad description, bad plants

The 3 plants I ordered arrived small and in a weakened state. They didn’t survive despite careful monitoring. Will not order again.

My plants arrive in good condition and are thriving

My plants arrived damaged, and the company refused to refund or replace, and tried to convince me to keep them and nurse them back to life. I won't buy here agin.

Up until about 1 1/2 years ago, I would have given Wayside much better ratings. Over the years, I *have* had some problematic experiences with them--mostly involving the arrival of non-viable or even DEAD plants, and the rather poor customer service i met when trying to get replacement plants. But in the past, the Wayside guarantee of their plants was for one year. And I admired their wide variety of offerings, though their prices have always been a bit high for the quality of their plants and their rather careless packaging and shipping. Lately, Wayside's plant guarantee has become much worse for their customers. Fall-shipped plants are only replaced (or their cost replaced with a voucher to buy something else) for 6 months. For those of us gardeners who know that new plants may take longer to poke up in the Spring--and who like to give those plants every chance to show signs of life--this is far too little time. It is not very pleasant to call for a replacement--of a plant for which one has paid a fair amount--to be "stiffed" and told, "nyah, nyah--too late for you! "--after, say 6 1/2 or 7 months.. One does not spend ones money to buy a dead stick which one could have for free, right from the "back 40."! This very thing happened to me this year when I tried to get replacement plants for many "Shaker's Prayer" iris I bought from Wayside in Fall, 2016, NONE OF WHICH came up in the Spring! I live in zone 7, and these plants are supposedly hardy here--and they were planted promptly and in a place where they should have done well (i researched their needs with Google!) I had waited a while for the iris to sprout--in hopes of lovely flowers. When I called Wayside, the customer service person was unhelpful and discourteous. For the dead iris I paid for, I received neither replacement plants nor a voucher for their cost. Shortly before I had this bad experience in trying to get satisfaction for the batch of iris I had planted last Fall, I had ordered some Japanese iris ensata from Wayside. When they arrived, they, too appeared dead (dessicated; brown; brittle). I soaked them for a bit and planted them--but again--NO SIGN OF LIFE! Meanwhile, having learned of Wayside's new, ungenerous replacement policy, I quickly called to ask for new plants or my money back--for Spring shipped plants, the deadline is either 60 or 90 days (forget which) before the guarantee is no longer good. I called within about 30 days. The customer service person told me I would get my cost made good, and I would also get an e-mail confirming this. I never did get that e-mail confirmation, and also nothing else--so once again gypped. Needless to say, I am NO LONGER A WAYSIDE CUSTOMER for myself, or for my many gardening friends and family members for whom I have purchased Wayside gift certificates in past years. So sorry Wayside is not the honorable and good business it was in the past. I had been their customer since about 1974, when (if I remember right) they were located in Ohio. Sayonara, Wayside.

this place was terrible it sent dead plants and would not give credit I had to stop payment on my credit card I would never use them or recommend them to anyone I should have looked at other reviews on line before I ordered

I was not at all pleased with the service on the phone I was provided regarding an item that needed to be replaced as per the listed guarantee. I was told I would be issued a credit and when attempting to use it, was unable as it was not found, eventually finally told it was not properly processed. More time wasted and the item I wanted was on sale and was told it would be honored at that time and then told otherwise. Just a horrible experience with representatives that were faxed the correspondence as proof and still it not properly remedied. I never had issues nor problems with this before, and so many years of a company of this stature, so was very taken aback to make me feel never to want to do business with this firm again.

They sent plants that were over watered. As a result all were either dead on arrival or died shortly thereafter. Of the five ordered, only one survived. My wife is a master gardener, so it wasn't a problem on our end. When I contacted customer service, they offered a credit, but no credit on the shipping. Poor business practice.