In article , John McGaw
wrote:

I just received a catalog from this company and they seem to have quite
a few interesting items but I've never heard of them before. Does anyone
have experience, good or bad or indifferent, with them?

While I'm asking, how about Pinetree Garden Seeds?

There are reports at davesgarden.com that M&Z that are very mixed, with a
74% positive ratings (of a dozen reporting) which is a surprisingly poor
showing. This compares to my favorites John Scheepers with a 99% positive
rating (of 42 people reporting), bulbmeister.com with 100% positive rating
(10 people reporting) & oddyseybulbs.com at 100% postives (though a scant
4 reporting for this small but most interesting company). Also highly
rated but not a place I order from is Brents (96% positive).

Checking why M&Z gets the most complaints & among the worst ratings, some
say their orders are filled with large first-rate bulbs, others say they
get smaller than average bulbs for a higher price than elsewhere. Shipping
bulbs other than what was actually ordered seems to be quite common with
them, a recurring complaint, & when forced to give refunds they do so, but
never with a smile or an apology so people come away with a feeling that
they did make it right, but did so grudgingly. While one HAPPY customer
said he was miss-shipped bulbs that sold for more money than the ones he'd
ordered & paid for, a much less happy customer said she gave what were
supposed to be peony tulips a prominant place in the garden & what grew
were plain pink tulips. Even people who give them generally positive
ratings mention the sloppiness in filling orders with the wrong bulbs,
though in most cases they liked what they didn't order well enough to not
gripe to the company. One VERY unhappy customer ordered three kinds of
bulbs of which one variety never grew at all, a second was different from
what she ordered, & the third produced well & remained hardy thereafter.

The company's inability to apologize for even their biggest screw-ups was
remarked upon by a fourth disgruntled customer who waited three months to
FINALLY be told the bulbs she ordered were out of stock, throughout which
time her phone calls & e-mails got her reassurances that the bulbs would
be shipped within a week. Because they waited until December to inform her
they would not be shipped after all, it was too late to order autumn bulbs
elsewhere. I've never heard of any other bulb company pulling such a
stunt.

Taking the complainers with the grain of salt, when I make my spring
orders, I always assume there will be a couple of things that will never
grow, because I have a tendency to at least TRY odd fritillaries or rare
corydalises that are either delicate or marginal for my climate, & I don't
blame the company if something fails unless the bulbs were rotten when
they arrived (as happened only once from some long-forgotten company). I
have also gotten the wrong bulbs shipped from time to time, but all I ever
demanded was that the company inform me what it was I got instead, yet
they replace orders without being asked & apologize for the mistake
without my even needing an apology. M&Z should instruct whoever answers
the phone to be readier with apologies, & I suspect fewer people would be
unforgiving of the occasional miss-shipment.

Once oddyseybulbs.com realized the Dutch source had sent him a yellow
crocus that wasn't the one he listed, & when he found out he wrote to his
customers correcting the error, then sent the other yellow bulbs without
charge the following autumn. I doubt many would've known the difference if
not informed. John Scheepers has never yet sent me the wrong bulbs, & both
Scheepers & Odyssey have very quickly informed me when a bulb was either
out of stock or (in Scheeper's case) when something they had expected to
be selling was not going to be in stock that year after all. I don't make
big spring purchases, my big orders are always for autumn, so can't judge
whose best for asiatic lilies or dahlias & the like.

Many people do praise M&Z's selection, but I'm less impressed. I order
from a number of places for autumn bulbs, but the places I return to year
after year are odysseybulbs.com for unusual species bulbs some of which
I've never seen offered anywhere else; johnscheepers.com for the widest
possible selection of the best cultivars affordably priced; vanengelen.com
when I need to buy in bulk for a big planting job not in my own garden; &
bulbmeister.com if I can afford one more big order in a flush year, they
have a very wide selection of unusual species bulbs & tubers. I would not
be inclined to order from M&Z's regular catalog even if their customer
rating got above 74% positives someday, but if there was a big sale who
knows, maybe I would.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com


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