Gardens Alive
reviews and complaints

I ordered a ton of flowers from here on 3/1 and still haven't got anything. They keep changing the shipping date to another week out.shipping is now saying the end of may.i understand weather and all that but... I called and the lady said she couldn't tell me anything other than they'll be shipped when they get shipped.i told her I'd like to have them before season ends.the weather has been really nice here so im ready to get them in the ground. She said she forwarded my order over to someone for shipping asap but thats the only thing she could do. I will NEVER order from here again. Customer service wasn't very good and she was quite rude before I even explained everything! 0 stars if I could!

I ordered roots, sets and bulbs that needed to be planted before April. They did not have the correct dates for planting and were delaying my shipment until the 15th of April. They ended up cancelling the order except for the bare root stock I had already received. The bare root stock still has no signs of life. The other bare root stock I got from another source is already growing leaves. Theirs still looks dead. I had prepared three beds for my order I was told I would receive by 3/28 and all three beds are now empt. ( I ordered strawberries, asparagus, onion sets and garlic). They could have still shipped the strawberries but cancelled the whole order. They are not a good company to do business with.

I placed an order 6/13. The money was drafted from my account on 7/8. No shipping notification was ever sent. I contacted them via email 6 different times requesting status and eventually asking for a full refund. The response is always "we are working on your request but may be unable to cancel since your order is in process" yet it has never shipped. I placed a call to Dutch Gardens and spoke with *** who wasn't able to tell me anything more than half of my order will not ship until next Spring. When I placed the order - the item showed available. He could do nothing about correcting the billing or answer when the remaining item will ship. I see multiple people have had very similar experiences.

I placed two orders on April 28th. I was told it would take 2-3 weeks to process. I was able to cancel one order but the other arrived on June 20th. The plants were dead, just bulbs, and two twigs that died in less than 2 weeks. Nothing that was ordered arrived as I expected. I had requested my money back via phone messages and emails on several occasions and finally turned to my credit card company to file complaint. This is a scam! I finally spoke with someone today on the phone and they are from a call center, and were unable to explain why it took so long and why one order was cancelled and the other wasn't. The address is a PO BOX and I can only imagine this is for money laundering of some sort. Stay away.

I thought I was buying from Ohio, or at least in the U.S. somewhere. I called customer service today because I ordered almost 2 weeks ago and have not received any shipping information. It sounds like I called China, the representative had a difficult time with the English language, stating it will be shipped at the end of the month, the 20th. I explained the 20th is today not the end of the month. We went back and forth for a while until I asked for a supervisor. I was denied, saying she was too busy. I asked to cancel my order, she said it has been shipped but yet said just prior that it wouldn't go out until the end of the month?!? Thank goodness for American credit card companies. First and last order from this company.

In mid-May I ordered three plants from a Dutch Gardens "clearance sale" posted online. The total cost was $56.12. After providing my credit card information and concluding the transaction, I was told that delivery would be in 2 to 4 weeks. Four weeks later I tried to telephone to enquire about the order and discovered that the customer service number is permanently engaged. When I sent an email inquiry I was told that the order was "being processed" with no indication of when I might receive the plants. It is now July -- half way through the growing season --and I have still not received the plants. Other nurseries seem to be fulfilling orders during the pandemic. Why is Dutch Gardens having months-long delays in filling orders?

I placed an order March 10 and they charged my account the same day. I had asked them to ship earlier and was told they would. When I had not yet received by April 6th, I called and was told they will not ship early. I asked to speak to supervisor and was told that a supervisor would NOT be calling me back. I said I wanted order cancelled and was told I had to email my cancellation request. When I advised the man that I was speaking with that my previous emails were never responded to , his only response was they are backed up. I started looking at reviews and quickly recognized that I was being scammed. I immediately opened up a dispute with my credit card company and also went on trust pilot to investigate and put a review up regarding my own experience.

Poor communications, bad substitutions, and half dead plants are what you can expect from Dutch Gardens.We ordered plants in early February and never heard from the grower. In March they said they would be shipping later in March or early April. In April they said they were still pulling plants from the field. In mid May, I asked to cancel the order and was told it had been handled; my request had been forwarded to the correct department.This week, I unexpectedly received my shipment. Half the plant are almost dead, and they substituted a mandevilla for a passion fruit vine.I called customer service and was told that unfortunately the paper work didn't make it to the right people to cancel the order. Two weeks and they couldn't cancel the order?I asked for a refund for the mandevilla and was told I would have to pay to ship it if I wanted a refund.

I was extremely disappointed in this whole transaction. In short, I ordered Iris bulbs, waiting several months for them to ship. the *** answers were not helpful when inquiring about my order...they were vague and unapologetic. When the order comes, it's not what I ordered. They said my bulbs were out of stock and they wanted to send me something instead of nothing. To get a refund, I had to send the unwanted bulbs back. So after several weeks, I get a refund of the cost of the bulbs ONLY...not the shipping to me or sending the unwanted bulbs back. And now I see they have a substitution clause in the confirmation email. What a sham! I can't believe the *** Attorney General lets them continue to operate. I wish I had read the reviews before I got scammed. Sure smacks of "Bait and Switch" to me! I'll never say a good word about this company.

This company is scamming their customers. I placed an order, it took two months to receive the order that they stated when I ordered two to three weeks. Upon arrival they send one thing I ordered, substituted another as they were sold out of what I did order, and did not send another item. I emailed them to find out where my third item (that I paid for) was and to tell them I was not interested in their substitute that they sent me, they informed me that I could return the unwanted item at my expense and have yet to speak of the item I have yet to receive. Call me crazy, but why I am paying to return something that I didnt order to get a refund for what I did order and they ran out? And where is my other item? I have been back and forth with them and they will not talk about the item received and not take any accountability for the other item that I didnt order and dont want. Now Im out the money sent and the time I have wasted trying to talk some sense into these people.

I ordered plants in April. Plants shipped in June. Two plants were dead on arrival. I planted and cared for them for over two weeks, just in case, but no, they were dead. Contacted the company. Heard nothing. After a month and follow *** was told I could ship the dead plants back and "explain the situation" for a refund or I could get a replacement. I asked for replacements. Three weeks later the company emailed and said the plants would be shipped spring of 2021. I replied that this was unacceptable and I wanted a refund. I also had a third plant (blueberry ***) die on me during this time period (all plants were in proper soil and lighting in a climate controlled sun room and were watered correctly). Once again, I'm being told that I have to mail the dead plants back (sounds like at my expense) to get a refund. I spent $87, and $16 of that was shipping, and I've been having to go back and forth with this company for months, and all I have to show for it right now are two puny, but still living plants (a *** lemon tree and a calamondin orange tree). I just want my money back. This has been one of my worst customer service experiences ever.

Horrible business, Even more horrible customer service. Took months for them to ship my roses then wrote down my email wrong so I never got notice when they shipped my roses. Finally got the *** tracking number. These poor rose living plants have been shipped 11 days ago and gone to 6 states. No one give a hoot that these living beings are being starved to death in some hot warehouse somewhere. We cannot continue to treat Mother Nature like this! FED EX has shipped them to 3 cities around *** which had taken 3 days longer and many miles. *** supposed to get them today and now the tracker says WED. The customer service lady at FED EX now says they should never have been shipped ground. I paid for shipping but Dutch Gardens never asked what shipping I wanted even though I kept asking for expedited. My heart aches that they poor little plants are dying because humans were so heartless. And I am sick and tired of everyone using cover as an excuse for bad service. Covid *** slapped us into seeing how we treat mother nature and each other but these people have not learned a thing. I wish there was a way for people to know about this company before they buy.

This is the worst company I have ever dealt with as far as customer service. I ordered 3 rose bushes from them April 22 due to not being able to get out and shop (COVID). It took forever to receive these roses. By the time they did arrive, they were already dead. I sent several emails asking for my money back. I was told I had to mail (at my expense) the dead rose bushes back, which I did. The package was refused and I had to have it re-delivered. When I emailed again telling them I knew who had signed for the box and asking about my refund, I was then told I had to include the original mailing label that was on the box the roses arrived in. Of course, this had long been sent to the recycle dump. I finally received a letter dated August 12 stating that they would refund my money. It is now September 15 and I have yet to receive my refund. When I sent a recent email, September 8 I got a response that they would forward my email to the appropriate department. I will never do business with this company again. I had ordered six perennial plants online from another company. One of the plants didn't survive. This company wanted no proof of the dead plant. They simply and quickly credited my account for the amount of the one plant. I won't hesitate to do business again with that company.

I wish I could give zero stars! I ordered a set of paw paw trees to be delivered spring of 2020. I expected them in March, but they were delivered to zone 8 as a bareroot plant with no leaves in May. That is extremely late to be delivering plants in that condition to my zone. We plant bareroot here in February or March so the plants have a chance to be established before the summer heat. The plants looked dead to me, but the paperwork in the box urged me to "give us a chance- we take a while to get established." So, I planted them and kept them watered. By August, neither had sprouted any leaves, so I called customer service. They offered to send a one time replacement spring 2021. I explained to them what they should have already known about delivering too late for my zone and asked if they could be shipped much sooner. The agent said they could not as they have to wait for their final frost date in Illinois before they could ship anything. When I said that wasn't going to work for me, we agreed on putting in for a fall shipment of paw paws, although she couldn't guarantee availability. I called back November 1st to check. No availability. She said I could take a credit voucher for something else from the catalog. Okay. She was going to process it and send it to me. A few days later, I got an email from Dutch Gardens saying my paw paw order couldn't be fulfilled for fall 2020 and would be sent spring 2021! I thought we had that straightened out! So, I emailed back explaining everything...again. November 12th was the last time I heard from them that they were "forwarding my email to the appropriate department." Yeah, more like the trash bin! I called today (November 30th) to find out what was going on. This associate said the email was correct that my order was still set for spring 2021! At this point, I was so done with this company and didn't want a credit. I want a refund to my credit card! She told me that was only possible within two weeks of receiving the item. So, that card saying to "be patient" is really a ploy to make you miss the two week return window and have to settle for another inferior product that probably won't live either! I asked to speak to a manager and they "weren't available." Go figure. She's processing the credit voucher (again? for real this time?), but it will take two weeks for them to process at their end and then another week for it to reach me via snail mail. Then, I have to snail mail the voucher back to them with whatever replacement plant I select and hope it isn't out of stock in the meantime. What a stupid way to do business! Get with the times! Send me an email coupon code I can use online! They're just hoping their replacement vouchers get lost in the mail or your junk mail pile or you get so busy you never complete it! What a scam! That ill fated replacement plant will be the last I order from Dutch Gardens!