I love ordering from garden catalogs, but I've had more than one bad
experience where I ordered, say, a tree and received a little twig
that was half-dead before it even reached me. There's one especially
rotten outfit that falls into that category and sends out several
catalogs under different names.

A while back I stumbled on the Garden Watchdog site, where people send
in their experiences and they're put into a big database, and it's
been very helpful in avoiding those disappointing orders. Thought I'd
share it here, as I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been sold a box
of future compost.

MAC

--

Take out Chinese to reply.

In article ,
MAC wrote:
A while back I stumbled on the Garden Watchdog site, where people send

And that URL is?....

Cheers
KJ
--
---
Gonzo: I had that weird dream again. || http://www.ibiblio.org/kelly
Rizzo: You mean the one with the goat and the dwarf and the jar of peanut butter?

Garden Watchdog is at: http://gardenwatchdog.com/

Anne Lurie
NE Raleigh

"Kelly Garner" wrote in message
...
In article ,
MAC wrote:
A while back I stumbled on the Garden Watchdog site, where people send

And that URL is?....

Cheers
KJ
--
---
Gonzo: I had that weird dream again. ||
http://www.ibiblio.org/kelly
Rizzo: You mean the one with the goat and the dwarf and the jar of peanut
butter?

And that URL is?....
That woulda been nice, wouldn't it? Thanks for picking up the slack,
Anne. The senior moments are gaining on me...

MAC
--
Take out Chinese to reply.

So far, aside from my *horrible* first -- and last! -- purchase from
Jackson & Perkins, I have not ordered many plants from catalogs (mostly
because I didn't garden that much when I lived in NJ, and when I lived in
VT, it was downright iffy to order anything very far in advance because I
never knew what weather to expect!) However, last April a friend visited me
and ordered up an azalea for me from (I *think*) Wayside Gardens after I
mentioned wishing that there was a yellow azalea -- as it turned out, the
plant was a bare-root that had been in cold storage, so it was *way* behind
the other azaleas that had been planted that month.

Back to the subject of Garden Watchdog http://www.gardenwatchdog.com --
even if you pay no attention to the "satisfaction" ratings (and a lot of the
listings are not rated), it's fun to be able to search by category or region
or whatever. I suggest that anyone interested in specialty gardening, such
as water gardens, rock gardens, etc. might find it an interesting website.
(You can also search by zip code, which is probably irrelevant to most of
you in the Triangle, but would have amusing to me when I lived in the
"smallest town in VT"!)

Hmmmm......maybe this is why I haven't yet placed my seed order with
Burpee's -- I've been spending too much darned time on the computer!

Anne Lurie
NE Raleigh

"MAC" wrote in message
...
I love ordering from garden catalogs, but I've had more than one bad
experience where I ordered, say, a tree and received a little twig
that was half-dead before it even reached me. There's one especially
rotten outfit that falls into that category and sends out several
catalogs under different names.

A while back I stumbled on the Garden Watchdog site, where people send
in their experiences and they're put into a big database, and it's
been very helpful in avoiding those disappointing orders. Thought I'd
share it here, as I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been sold a box
of future compost.

MAC

--

Take out Chinese to reply.

I just placed orders with Wayside and Bluestone, so I'll let you know
how it goes.

MAC

Thanks again, MAC, for posting about the Garden Watchdog website at
http://www.gardenwatch.dog.com !!! To my surprise, I received a reply from
Jackson & Perkins after they saw my post to GardenWatchdog a mere 3 days ago
(I was in a rather sad/bad mood Saturday night). According to the email,
they'll be happy to offer a replacement collection (no mention of price
and/or shipping, but we'll see). I think it helped my case that I was not
simply complaining about a plant I ordered that did not grow; anyone in J&P
Customer Service could check on the back-and-forth for that order (actually
the only order on my J&P account).

We shall see......

Anne Lurie
NE Raleigh

(barely able to type after wielding heavy loppers yesterday!)
_____________

"MAC" wrote in message
...
I love ordering from garden catalogs, but I've had more than one bad
experience where I ordered, say, a tree and received a little twig
that was half-dead before it even reached me. There's one especially
rotten outfit that falls into that category and sends out several
catalogs under different names.

A while back I stumbled on the Garden Watchdog site, where people send
in their experiences and they're put into a big database, and it's
been very helpful in avoiding those disappointing orders. Thought I'd
share it here, as I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been sold a box
of future compost.

MAC

--

Take out Chinese to reply.

I moved from the Triangle 4 years ago, but still lurk on this group. When I
learned about Garden Watchdog here, I too posted there about my incredibly
bad Jackson & Perkins experience. I had a really nice email from them today
too and they also offered to send me replacement plants this year free of
charge.

You know, it's nice they're monitoring that Garden Watchdog website and
trying to make it right, but everything was so incredibly *wrong* with my
order from them last year. I can go into more detail if anyone's interested,
but suffice it to say the plants they sent were puny, sickly, and/or dead
and customer service was lacking (although they did refund the price of all
the dead plants after many months and many calls).

We'll see what they send this spring.

Katie (now in the DC area)

"Anne Lurie" wrote in message
...
Thanks again, MAC, for posting about the Garden Watchdog website at
http://www.gardenwatch.dog.com !!! To my surprise, I received a reply
from
Jackson & Perkins after they saw my post to GardenWatchdog a mere 3 days
ago
(I was in a rather sad/bad mood Saturday night). According to the email,
they'll be happy to offer a replacement collection (no mention of price
and/or shipping, but we'll see). I think it helped my case that I was not
simply complaining about a plant I ordered that did not grow; anyone in
J&P
Customer Service could check on the back-and-forth for that order
(actually
the only order on my J&P account).

We shall see......

Anne Lurie
NE Raleigh

(barely able to type after wielding heavy loppers yesterday!)

Instead of mail order, you may want to check your local garden center.
Many carry J&P roses and you can see what you are getting. Both Star and
Weeks Roses are now marketing 'box' roses to independent garden centers
as well.

Katie wrote:

I moved from the Triangle 4 years ago, but still lurk on this group. When I
learned about Garden Watchdog here, I too posted there about my incredibly
bad Jackson & Perkins experience. I had a really nice email from them today
too and they also offered to send me replacement plants this year free of
charge.

You know, it's nice they're monitoring that Garden Watchdog website and
trying to make it right, but everything was so incredibly *wrong* with my
order from them last year. I can go into more detail if anyone's interested,
but suffice it to say the plants they sent were puny, sickly, and/or dead
and customer service was lacking (although they did refund the price of all
the dead plants after many months and many calls).

We'll see what they send this spring.

Katie (now in the DC area)

"Anne Lurie" wrote in message
...

Thanks again, MAC, for posting about the Garden Watchdog website at
http://www.gardenwatch.dog.com !!! To my surprise, I received a reply

from

Jackson & Perkins after they saw my post to GardenWatchdog a mere 3 days

ago

(I was in a rather sad/bad mood Saturday night). According to the email,
they'll be happy to offer a replacement collection (no mention of price
and/or shipping, but we'll see). I think it helped my case that I was not
simply complaining about a plant I ordered that did not grow; anyone in

J&P

Customer Service could check on the back-and-forth for that order

(actually

the only order on my J&P account).

We shall see......

Anne Lurie
NE Raleigh

(barely able to type after wielding heavy loppers yesterday!)




Pat Brothers
The Powell House
Wake Forest, NC
USDA Zone 7b
The Perennials Lady at AAO&GC

I didn't buy J&P roses. I bought a perennial garden and a bunch of annuals.
Never again!

Katie

"Pat Brothers" wrote in message
...
Instead of mail order, you may want to check your local garden center.
Many carry J&P roses and you can see what you are getting. Both Star and
Weeks Roses are now marketing 'box' roses to independent garden centers
as well.

Hey, there, Pat!

As you know, I have been known to frequent my local garden center, prowling
around & asking way too many stupid questions of the staff, who have always
responded admirably, I may add! And yes, I have bought most of my roses
(J&P) nice picture on the box for people like who have no clue about roses,
sigh. It's just that the "Make an Entrance" collection looked so pretty and
represented to me what I thought a "lady's entrance garden" should
esemble -- actually, that should have been the stopper right there, 'cause
I ain't no lady, but that's another story..........

Anne Lurie
NE Raleigh


"Pat Brothers" wrote in message
...
Instead of mail order, you may want to check your local garden center.
Many carry J&P roses and you can see what you are getting. Both Star and
Weeks Roses are now marketing 'box' roses to independent garden centers
as well.