The scoop on 'Woodlanders Inc.'

I have really wanted to go more "native" in my yard/garden, but there just aren't any good sources in my city. I thought it would be best to look for a native plant source in my planting zone. I looked at several websites and was amazed at the large selection at Woodlanders. Though I was reluctant to order given the expense and the fact that I have never had success with mail order plants, I decided to try again. The dormant plants arrived at the right planting time, well packed, in great shape, better than I expected and with excellent roots. It is now a month later and they are coming out and look like they are going to do well.

Plants arrived in good condition and of the expected size or better. The company was easy to deal with and respond to e-mail promptly. Will order from them again in a heartbeat.

Placed an order on line but then cancelled 1 of the 5 plants I ordered. Received prompt email confirming the cancelled plant. Received the plants in beautiful condition 4 days after placing order. Very happy with size and condition of plant

It's been a little while since I ordered from them, but somehow I managed to forget to write a review! I've placed 2 orders with them, one was either in fall '06 or spring '07 and the other about a year earlier, and I was very happy with the plants on both occasions. They have some rare plants that I hadn't seen anywhere else and I will definitely continue to browse their site and won't hesitate to order from them again.

After having my heart set on a Quercus suber and being unable to find this variety available elsewhere I was delighted to find that Woodlanders not only supplied this variety but that they did so at a more than reasonable price.

They shipped promptly and the tree arrived well packaged. It was large enough to only barely fit in the box but they positioned it so that it still fit without pruning the leader back, which I greatly appreciate.

It arrived in perfect condition with moist roots and very healthy leaves. While I was initially concerned about ordering an evergreen from a warmer area so late in the season it’s a gorgeous little tree that has so far weathered the winter weather well.

Many thanks to Woodlanders for offering this wonderful and hard to find variety.

After receiving Woodlanders' post card by mail announcing the on-line catalog, I ordered through their site on Sept. 5, 2007. A reply came in the same date from [e-mail:info@Woodlanders.net] thanking me for my order. A charge of $ 197 appeared Sept. 26th on my credit card statement. Shipping was to begin on Oct. 1st.

On Oct. 16, 2007 I emailed Woodlanders about the shipping date since nothing had arrived. The next day I received a reply that " bad news", I would not be receiving any plants. Their customers on site picked up plants and they ran out of stock of all items I had ordered!

To date, Oct. 25th, I have not received a credit to my charges or a refund and there was no attempt made to retain me as a customer. It appears as though Woodlanders does not value or want mail-order customers.

I first ordered from Woodlanders in Nov., 2006. I ordered a second time from them in Oct., 2007. New owners took over this nursery sometime in 2007, but they had previously worked at the nursery. The new owners have raised prices. The plants arrived in good health before and after the ownership changed. I would recommend this nursery.

I recently (12/3) ordered six ferns from Woodlanders. The plants were well priced and arrived today in good shape.

(I would have appreciated an e-mail letting me know that they had shipped).

I have ordered plants from Woodlander's for many years. The plants I have received have all been good size for the price (NOT true from all mail order nurseries I have patronized) and were also shipped promptly.

I ordered 15-20 plants and made arrangements to pick them up at the nursery. The plants that they selected were in good condition, and, considering the rarity of them, a good value. The staff was very knowledgeable and helpful.

I've now ordered from Woodlanders every year for 5 years without a single bad experience. Have all survived and thrived? Of course not; that's par for the course when dealing with the hard-to-find natives and exotics that Woodlanders specializes in. But every plant I've ordered has arrived in good condition, and every interaction I've had with the folks at Woodlanders --- whether by phone or email, has been friendly and professional. Receiving a package from Woodlanders is the closest thing to Christmas for the serious plant geek.

I had mailed them a check for their catalog and was told I would recieve it in time for the next planting season. I never got it. They never responded to my e-mail about this problem and I have yet to recieve a catalog.

Plants arrived in great condition. They handled a last-week change in my order and the ship date via e-mail with no problems. Will order from them again in the fall.

I have ordered from this nursery since the early 1990s. I have always been pleased with the quality of the plants. This is not a place for amateur gardeners to order from. If other people have had problems with the descriptions or hardiness information given for some plant, they should check a reference book before ordering. Their hardiness ratings are generally accurate but no specialist nursery should be held to a standard of perfection in this area. Some kinds of plants, like ferns and leguminous shrubs, are hard to establish. In this case it is not always the nursery's fault if a plant fails.
If there is one thing I could fault them for, I wish they used their website to update what is sold out, since they do not operate on a reservation system - what is available is shipped at the time you request shipment.

I ordered a Woodlanders catalog, then sat back and waited. The catalog didn't come, and their shipping season was beginning. I called them and they said they had mailed the catalogs out the week before. I was told that if I didn't get it, I should call back in a week.

I called back a week later and I was told my catalog should be coming "any day now."

I called again a week later and I was told the same thing.

Finally I called them and asked for a refund of the catalog price. I told them that while I really had wanted to order from them (they are pretty close to me, for one thing - but too far to drive easily) I now had no confidence in them. I told them that if they couldn't even get a catalog to me, I had no faith in their ability to send plants.

A refund check for the catalog arrived. Then the catalog itself arrived. I was still eager to look at it, because it was very thick and yummy-looking. But when I read the plant descriptions, I was disappointed. Some of the descriptions talk about height and width of plant, what conditions it likes, etc. But most of the descriptions are just wordy nothings, talking about who brought the plant to their attention, etc. The catalog is full of typos and misspellings. All in all, these people just didn't strike me as being very professional.

This is the second time I have ordered from Woodlander's. When I can't find something anywhere else, I can usually get it from Woodlander's. All plants I received arrived in good condition. This fall I sent my order in the day after I received the catalog, and I think my plants were much bigger than in my late-season order last spring. Also, I was able to get everything I ordered. But, in either case, the plants were healthy when they arrived.

I've made many purchases from Woodlanders - I've always been happy with the plants and the people I've dealt with.

I placed a large order with Woodlander's last March. All the plants arrived in good condition except two. When I called I was told that they could not send replacements at that point since they were at the end of their shipping period. They ship from September through March. I said that was fine and to ship the replacements next March. They sent them in January with no prior notification and unfortunately I was away from home. When I called to ask them to send another replacement since it was their mistake they refused. When I asked why Bob McCartney, who I believe is the owner said "because I don't feel like it".

Woodlander's prices are rock-bottom and they have many, many unusual plants that are not listed anywhere else, or listed for a heckuva lot more money! Every order I have received from them arrived exactly when I requested, and the plants have always been good-sized and healthy. Definitely one of the all-time best mail-order nurseries I have dealt with, and I've ordered from lots of good companies! My only quibble is that they have a pretty minimal website, and the only way to find out what they have is to order their catalog (which is not free).

Wow, what a selection. A catalog that is full of new plant ideas, especially native materials indigenous to the SE United States. Have ordered from their remarkable two acre nursery for over twenty years. Small plants that do well. Be advised, - order as soon as possible in the Fall, since their most desirable plants are packaged in order of request. Very reasonably priced, packaged well, and delivered quickly.

I want to like this nursery because of their great selection and emphasis on native plants for the southeast. However, of the two things I ordered this spring, the first was 'out of stock' despite the fact that I called ahead to be sure they had it and then rushed my order in. The second plant was very small upon arrival and died soon after.

Wish I could share the excitement about Woodlanders. After reading an article in Southern Living a couple of autumns ago, we purchased ferns listed for growth in Zones 6-10 from Woodlanders of Aiken, S.C., much to our chagrin. We experienced 70 percent mortality. When communicating with Mr. McCartney, he said the plants were for the Deep South (Montgomery southward, which I have in writing). Yet his catalog still clearly states that Southern Shield Ferns and Florida Shield Ferns grow in Zones 6 - 10. I have contacted them two years running about this misrepresentation, yet to no avail. He said I didn't know how to grow plants and refused to discuss the issue of growth zones as stated in their catalog. We have many plants from various nurseries with no problems.

Lot's of cool stuff you can't find anywhere else! Plants arrive in great condition.

You have to really know your natives to fully appreciate this catalog, but if you are into them, watch out, this is the ultimate. I take care of an atrium which is supposed to contain only plants native to the Florida panhandle. Without Woodlanders, this would be impossible. They have rare plants that I have never seen listed anywhere else and their selection changes every year. Many of these native plants are not necessarily showy, which may be why most people don't offer them, but if our native flora interests you, you have found Mecca.

My absolute favorite nursery. Don't expect a lot of cultural info or pretty pictures from the catalog (in fact there are no pics at all), its basic nuts and bolts with very short descriptions of each plant species, for that reason I wouldn't recommend it to the novice gardener. But for the rest of you out there who know what you want this nursery is for you. VERY reasonable prices and great quality plants with a lot of hard to find southern specialties as well as recently discovered exotics from China and other parts of Asia. Get your order in early though, since they are a southern nursery, they stop shipping the end of March which means for us northerners you'll have to coddle your plants along indoors or in the greenhouse for a few weeks until its warm enough to plant them out. It's always thrill when the catalog arrives in my mailbox.

I've placed three large orders with them. Absolutely the best: the best selection, the best availability, the most knowledgeable advice, the best service when replacing a plant that is somehow less than perfect.

Woodlanders is my favorite mail order catalog by far. Period. They carry many native plants, new introductions, and exotic items that are hard to find, or cannot be found elsewhere. Like many mail order sources, the trees and shrubs are small; but the 50+ items I have received from them over a 4-5 year period have arrived in great condition and thrived. The extensive catalog is basically a listing (no pictures) with a comment or two about each item and a reference if additional information is needed; so this is a source for gardeners with some experience. Without reservation, I highly recommend Woodlanders for gardeners who are interested in native plants or looking for new or different plant material.

I plant mainly rhododendrons and magnolias and have need for "companion" plants. I have ordered from Woodlanders now for over 20 years with not a single complaint. Their plants are incredibly reasonable in price and always true to description. My basic comment to garden visitors who ask where I found my unusual companion plants is "if it is not in the Woodlander's catalog, I really didn't need the plant." I have contacted the nursery directly for a plant not listed and to my delight they came up with it in a matter of a couple of months (again at a very reasonable price). Woodlanders is simply a delight. Unfortunately when one becomes so dependant on a single source, it will hurt when Woodlanders retires or goes another direction. My suggestion - order quickly before it's too late to be treated to such a fine selection of unusual plants.

I've ordered from Woodlanders for several years and have been very satisfied with the quality, selection and price. My favorite plants from Woodlanders are a hardy palm and a hardy Gardenia. They have both made it through two winters in Arlington, VA with no problem.

I have to add positive comments about the folks at Woodlanders. The catalog is small, but the plants are those that won't normally be found at other sources. This is a great source for people searching for native plants of the southeast region.

Just to let you know that I have ordered from Woodlanders several times in the past few years and I have been very satisfied with the plants they send to me. They arrive in good condition and all of them have survived the season. In fact, I ordered from Woodlanders again in 1998.

Woodlanders native plant catalog is a fantastic resource.

I absolutely have to rave about this nursery. They are an outstanding source of plants, especially those for Southern gardens. I have ordered from them for two years and all plants have been healthy, well-formed specimens that have done very well in my garden. Their prices are very reasonable as well.

Have very good quality plants well shipped. Specialize in east coast natives, but also carry "exotics", meaning non-native. Good company.