Wayside GardensReviews of waysidegardens.com

Love ordering from Wayside. Plants packed well and I appreciate they are not tiny container plants as with other unnamed companys.

I ordered several plants to place in a Memorial Garden at a nursing home. One plant was almost snapped off at the base of the plant when unwrapped from packaging and another one was such a small plant, it failed to thrive. When I contacted Wayside asking them if they could replace the damaged plant, they told me they were out of that plant at the current time, but that I needed to contact them after late August. But again they couldn't ship out until late September. They did offer to issue me a credit. I will contact, once again, to see if next year they can rectify the situation. Bottom line...the plants are so small, I probably won't bother ordering from them again. It takes too long to get plants up to normal size.

The products are mostly good but expensive. When they made a shipping error and failed to send me a plant that was on sale, they tried to charge me the full cost to replace it because "it was no longer on sale" despite it being their error that I didn't receive it during the sale period. I found this aggravating and unacceptable. Costumer service in general wasn't the best.

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.

Good quality healthy plants shipped on time.

High quality plants. The only issue that I have had with Wayside has been related to packaging. On a recent shipment, the main stem on a Japanese maple was bent over and broken when I opened the box. It was not a carrier issue as the box arrived in good shape and the contents had not shifted. Whoever packed the tree could have used a larger box but chose a box that required bending the stem 180 degrees back upon itself which broke the stem. This would have been evident before the box was sealed. The plant has survived; however, the form has been altered in a way that I did not desire. As a result, I have been hesitant to order trees, especially Japanese maples from Wayside.

I was happy with my purchase and have recommended you many times to my friends.