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I have ordered from Pinetree Garden Seeds for many years and have always been pleased by their prices, hardy varieties for my northern garden, ability to buy small amounts of seeds for my small garden, and their timely delivery. Last year however, they were very slow. I ordered some seeds that need to be planted inside in mid-winter to be ready for transplant in early spring. The order did not come when I needed it. After a couple of months had passed, I wrote to them and to their credit, my order arrived immediately, but it was already too late to plant some of the seeds, and they did not do well in the garden, as we have a short growing season.
I will order from them again, because after years of good service, they deserve another chance. I ordered very early last year, and that didn't expedite my order as I had hoped. I hope they will do better this year.
Placed two orders, late in the season and despite the warning message on their homepage (and before seeing the issues here)
Order 1: 03/23/09
Order 2: 04/03/09
Have not received either. My rating is neutral because I've been a customer of Pinetree Garden Seeds since high school (18 years ago!). I haven't ordered in a few years, and this is the first time I've had such a negative experience. I'm hoping to receive my seeds soon.
They should make an effort to respond to their customer's concerns, either posting here or updating messaging on their site daily. I understand that creating an online order status system is time-consuming and possibly expensive. Even if they manually updated the homepage message to show status, maybe saying: 'We've filled xx of yy orders this season' or 'Shipping Delays: zzz backorders' it would give me a sense that they are making progress and understand the daily inconvenience their backlog is causing.
On Apr 8, 2009, greenhouse_gal Port Elizabeth, NJ (Zone 7a) wrote:
I have been ordering from Pinetree for many years, too. I like the fact that their seed packets don't hold as much and therefore they don't charge as much. I often have a lot of seeds left over from other companies and there's no point in spending more money if I don't need that quantity.
I placed my order on the internet on February 5th. I had the same problem as an earlier poster - I had made up a list and accidentally clicked out of the cart page, and when I went back my virtual cart was empty. As a result, when I tried to recreate my order I realized afterwards that I had forgotten to include some things I needed. That was very frustrating.
My order came quickly; the previous year I hadn't ordered that early so my seeds came almost too late to plant, and I learned my lesson! However, I have always had occasional problems with Pinetree seeds not germinating, and this time I have planted my Marconi Red Peppers twice in my flats and only have one sprout to show for it. So all in all I'm not sure whether I'll order from them again. You can't beat their prices, though, so maybe it's worth it.
On Mar 14, 2009, lettucelaw Woodinville, WA wrote:
I experienced the same delay as several others before me. Ordered on February 16th, did not receive the package until March 12th. I usually send out my orders in January, so the delay was really my own fault; hence the "neutral" rather than "negative" rating. However, I do find fault with the packaging: Everything, including a giant bag of seed starting mix, was crammed into a small box. When I lifted the bag of mix from the top of the box, I could see it had split and left a fine dusting of "dirt" over everything. Also, they were out of the Wall O' Water repair kit and gave no clear indication of when I can expect receipt of the same.
I have purchased from Pinetree many times in the past, but only seeds and only in January. Will order again in the future but will stick to seeds and an early order date to avoid disappointment.
On Mar 11, 2009, evelynopsis Putnam Valley, NY wrote:
I ordered vegetable and flower seeds Feb 12 from Pinetree. I have not received them yet and today is March 11th. I have been trying to call them since yesterday and their phone is always busy. I have sent them an email but haven't received a reply yet. Some of the seeds that I ordered should be planted this week and even that they maybe a little late. If I don't get some satisfaction this week I will not be ordering from them next year. I have been their customer for a few years now and they have always been very slow but not this slow.
On March 16th, 2009, evelynopsis changed the rating from negative to neutral and added the following:
Adding to my comments: I received my seeds March 14th. Pinetree called to tell me they had sent them March 5th and because it was sent parcel post it took 9 more days. This means that I would need to order aproximately 5 weeks before I want them next year!
Last year I ordered Rouge D Etampes pumpkin seeds. The plant grew beautifully, but the fruit was clearly NOT a rouge d' etampes, it was wrong shape and wrong color. Clearly a hybrid of some sort. I have ordered there a couple of years in a row, and the seeds arrive slowly but they DO have to cross the continent......
On Apr 28, 2008, littlebrook15 Rock Tavern, NY wrote:
I found that the selection was great, but the germination rate for some of the plants was very low, though it was an easy to grow plant. I am giving the Neutral rating because I had some problems communicating with this company. I have ordered some plants from them (haven't received them yet), and needed a better time frame for their arrival other than April-June. I sent them an email and heard nothing. I called several times, and got a busy signal. I did finally get a short email a week later, informing me the plants would be shipped today. I will have to see.
I received my seeds in a cardboard like envelope. There was no padding or bubble wrap to protect the seeds. When I went to the post office to pick up my package I was dissapointed when I saw that it was in one of the damaged package envelopes. I went ahead and took it home to open up. The envelope looked like it had been crushed in a postal machine and part of the end of the envelope was opened. I was missing several packages of seeds and the ones that I did receive were either open and loose in the envelope or crushed. I have contacted pinetree garden seeds and am hoping to get this matter resolved and be able to change my review to a positive one.
Pinetree has excellent prices on certified seed potatoes and stocks some old New England favorites such as Kennebec and Green Mountain. Last year's delivery was good for this area (North Shore, Massachusetts) but this year's delivery seems to have been delayed about two weeks A phone call April 30 yielded info that potatoes would be shipped "within a week or so"; however, in response to an e-mail, I was told potatoes had shipped that day.
I will not order plants again from this company. Shipping took 7 days between ME & NH. Strawberries arrived wilted and full of tiny orange spiders. Ordered replacements which also arrived in poor condition with more orange spiders. Zero germination with their Last Chance seeds.
Regular seed packets had good germination and were priced and sized just right. I will order seeds again from this company but not live (barely) plants.
On April 22nd, 2007, seedbeads added the following:
Thank you for the company response. The strawberry plants were from a prior year's order but I didn't feel it fair to comment until I had given them ample time to recover & grow. As my review commented on germination for a prior year's seed order, I thought it would be o.k. to included comments on a prior year's plant order as well. Perhaps your strawberry stock is healthier this year. In any case, I will continue to order seeds and have recently placed a new seed order with you.On Mar 31, 2007, Pinetree Garden Seeds responded with:
"Note from Pinetree rep...... We only received our strawberry shipment the week of March 26th and not only have we not sent any to New Hampshire, we have certainly not shipped any replacements, therefore we respectfully contend that this defective shipment was from another supplier."
On Jan 31, 2007, cannaqueen Mantua, OH (Zone 5a) wrote:
I have ordered from this company for serveral years.
This includes seeds and soap making products. This year,
I received my order, with one packet that had no seeds.
I sent them the empty packet and requested another packet
of these seeds. I received the seeds with no problem.
Prices are reasonable compared to others. Germination rate
is about average.
On January 27th, 2008, cannaqueen changed the rating from positive to neutral and added the following:
This year, 2007, I sent in a small order for seeds. Received my seeds
in a reasonable length of time. I was sent one seed packet I did not
order. I was missing one I did order. I sent back the seed packet I
did not order and requested the missing seed packet. It came within
a reasonable length of time. I am happy with that response from this
company. Their prices are reasonable, but the amount of seeds you
receive are as not generous as other companies. Who knows why!!
Would never order a big order from this company because of the
negatives. Hopefully, people who own this company do read the
comments people put on this website. If it is important to them, they
will try to weed out the employees who make poor decisions with
their customers........
Pinetree's web site is really sketchy. I have a high speed cable connection and it still took MINUTES to load various sections.
I've used mail to order from them in the past and guess I will have to again.
Their seeds are fine so I will put up with their quirky web site (and catalog).
On Jun 30, 2006, Revnrose Clinton, NY (Zone 5a) wrote:
I want to support Pinetree, in part because I believe in supporting Maine-based businesses. I appreciate much of what they do extremely well: seeds (every vegetable I've sown is fabulous), gardening accessories, books, and bottles. Where I've been less thrilled is in the woodland plants dept. They arrived tossed partially out of their containers, and often, because of this, broken in stem. Nursing brought most of them back, but it was disappointing. I encourage Pinetree to look into improved packaging for their plants. Hint: the best pkgs I rec'd had bamboo stakes to hold up container wrapping and stabilizing cardboard with only one layer o' plants per pkg. I encourage folks to work with the co. in improving this one smaller area of their business.
On Jun 8, 2006, mochaexpress Young America, MN wrote:
Good variety of seeds and plants.
Seeds were shipped promptly, though I did place my order very early (Feb) to avoid the spring rush. Seeds germinated well.
Potted plants (blueberry, cranberry, lingonberry) were shipped just now-- about a month or so later than I expected, but since they are lovely and healthy, bigger than expected, and were very inexpensive, the good attributes balance out the lateness for an overall neutral rating. Had I received the plants in early May, the overall rating woulf have been firmly in the positive category. If they were smaller plants or bareroot stock and I received them now I would be upset as our short growing season is not forgiving to late transplants, but these plants should do fine.
No experience with customer service so no comment there.
I recently ordered from Pinetree Garden Seeds and received my order promptly. My minor beefs would be the small amount of seed you get in each packet and they don't give customers free packet of seeds just a $2 voucher. But I'll still order from them in the future.
Well, I ordered seeds on March 5 from several companies, and the ones from Pinetree are the only ones that haven't arrived. Since they include the pea and spinach seeds, which should have been in the ground a couple of weeks ago, I'm a bit worried. I decided to email to see what's up, and their website doesn't seem to be working. I got the phone number here at Dave's, and the line's been busy continuously. Grrrrrrrr! I've ordered from Pinetree for years and love their selection and the resultant veggies. This is very frustrating!
On Mar 15, 2006, Flossiemae Salt Lake City, UT wrote:
Ordered Feb. 22, 2006 on Internet, my credit card was charged the very next day, Today is March 15, and three weeks have passed and still no order. To be fair to them, they do advertise in their catalog, that when orders are placed this late in the season, it will take 2-3 weeks. I called them (at my expense) yesterday and they state they sent it Feb. 27th and will replace the order, but will not send first class mail. I have ordered from this company other years and last year (in the spring) had the same problem. And then when the order finally came, they sent it twice.! However when ordering off season, items come in a timely manner. . I think its interesting that they sent me a catalog in January and the same one, but with a different cover this week. How can they keep sending catalogs, but not get their orders out faster?
On March 15th, 2006, Flossiemae added the following:
this morning, I posted the above comments, this afternoon I received my order. It was well packaged and in good order. I have learned when in a hurry to use their $4.50 plus shipping to receive the order in a hurry.
I received excellent plants from this company - these were Lingonberry. Excellent shipping, plant quality excellent. Plants doing good. However, for bigger garden growers, Pinetree Garden seeds do not package sufficent quantities in their packets to warrent ordering seeds from them, even though the small packets are at a reasonable price, the quantities are measured in number of seeds rather than ounces, fractions of pounds, etc. These seed packages are ideal for growers with very small plots or restricted areas.
On Apr 30, 2005, vegenut10 Encinitas, CA (Zone 10a) wrote:
I ordered some seeds about a month ago. They e-mailed me to acknowledge my order and said they would let me know the shipping charges.
I waited - but no e-mail. Then I e-mailed them for the charges - they finally sent me the amount, and said they would add to my order when sent. They did not tell me when to expect my order.
Then I e-mailed them asking when I could expect my order. They then debited my Visa for the amount of the order, but no date for expected arrival.
I asked them to either send me the seeds or refund the amount to my Visa, which they did (credited the amount back to my card).
I can appreciate these companies being very busy - but as long as they acknowledge receiving my order, I do expect some sort of courtesy confirmation as to the specifics such as charges, expected time for arrival, etc.
On Jan 4, 2005, nevadagdn Sparks, NV (Zone 7a) wrote:
I haven't ordered from Pinetree since the mid-1990's, because the order was incredibly slow to arrive then. As in I placed an order in January and didn't receive it until mid-May. However, Pinetree has hopefully improved its order fulfilment since that time, and the prices certainly are the lowest I've found--I did a price comparison with Stokes Seed, who admittedly does offer about double the amount of seed for about twice the price of a Pinetree packet. The question becomes: Do you need 25 seeds or 250 seeds? Pinetree seems to be the best choice if you need only 25 seeds.
Hello:
We have ordered garden seed and cover crop seed from Pinetree Garden Seeds for years
We are a small commerical grower of Heirloom vegies.
Pinetree Garden is getting slower and slower in shipping seeds out so that is one of the reasons why we order them two or three months in advance of when we need them to be shipped to us!
Regards
I ordered some flower seed, asparagus roots, dahlias and some lingonberries this spring. I wanted to give them a try since their seed prices seem reasonable for a small gardener. The seed came quickly, but I seem to have better germination with my Wal-Mart "off the rack" seeds. I had the same problem with the second part of my order as many other people. I thought it wasn't coming, and then it arrived late in May. Surprisingly, the asparagus seems to be growing well even though it should have been started earlier. About half the dahlias came up. They sent a bunch of pieces with no "eyes". Only about half of the tubers had eyes. Even though I didn't think they would grow, I planted everything. It appears I was right. I'm not sure if I'll order again. I may consider their vegetable seed in the spring if I order early.
I have had the same problem with Pinetree as the 2 previous people. I have emailed them TWICE for the status of the second half of an order that I placed in February! The first half of my order came quickly (seeds-were great with good germination). On the invoice the second half said that they would start shipping plants in April. Was told by email that it was shipping out on a Friday - nothing, emailed again and was told "soon". It is now May and I would have liked to have planted already. I would just like an answer as to when they will ship. I even gave them an out saying that if they were backordered, I would like to cancel and to just let me know. At least they have not charged this portion to my credit card. Fantasic for seeds, but so far not for plants, onion sets, or seed potatoes.
On May 6th, 2004, patruka changed the rating from negative to neutral and added the following:
Well the order came today. The blueberry bushes are nice and well packed along with the onion sets and seed potatoes. I will change my rating to neutral, as I am still not happy about the 2 emails.
On Oct 25, 2003, perennialguy Knoxville, TN (Zone 7a) wrote:
The low prices are reflected in the deliveries. I ordered a collection of daylillies and was disappointed to receive such tiny daylilly roots. If you don't mind waiting a couple of years for a display... I'll definitely go back to ordering from Oakes Daylillies.
I highly recommend their bulbs. I've ordered seeds from Pinetree in the past, but never anything else. This year I decided to add some bulbs to my order. Every single bulb was in great shape, no nicks, no bad spots, and fresh looking. I've ordered bulbs from several different companies in the past and these are the best-looking bulbs I've ever received (by far).
On July 9th, 2005, gwendylena changed the rating from positive to neutral and added the following:
I am very sad to have to change my rating to neutral. I've ordered bulbs, seeds and books and been happy with everything I ordered. This year I decided to try live plants. Big mistake. They came really late and the plants were either tiny or looked dormant (dead?) Dormant is ok with me but it's been weeks and I see no sign of life. Also I ordered some ferns that never arrived and received no explanation from the company. I do not recommend ordering live plants from this company. The reason my rating is neutral instead of negative is that I've been so pleased with everything up to this point.
Really terrific. The best prices of anyone! But a tad less variety. Nice jars and containers, too. I especially love the variety and the VERY reasonable seeds for sprouting.
On April 3rd, 2006, RunnerBean changed the rating from positive to neutral and added the following:
Bit of a downgrade here. Sure are reasonable, but the seeds seem to have a shorter "shelf life" and lower germination rate than others.
On Jun 8, 2003, RubyStar Madison, WI (Zone 5a) wrote:
DH placed the order for my christmas gift, but only half the seeds ordered arrived, and some of them I never got at all ("unavailable"), despite the fact that they were still listed in the next catalog I received. However, I don't think we were charged for them either, so it isn't really a loss, just a minor disappointment.
Germ rate was fine on everything that came in though.
This is a great company for seeds. They are true to statement and germinate well. My asparagus plants were great and am very pleased.
Unfortunately though, I was very disappointed with their plants that arrived by mail. They looked sickly and very poor quality. The hepatica plants did have roots but did not have emerging stems. Overall, I will use this great company again but am hesitant to order any plants. In their favor though, it was a very hard spring on plants in most areas, and I understand the difficulties in this. The company though should not send the plants unless they would
be willing to place them in their own family gardens.
Don't expect much from their catalogue in the way of visuals. The black-and-white, crowded formatting is a bit of a strain and I wish they'd work that out. Good seed at a good price. Getting them to send their catalogue on an annual basis has been somewhat of a chore, so I just did not bother with them this year.
On Jan 22, 2002, Evert Espoo Finland (Zone 4b) wrote:
I thought to buy seeds from this company... The botanical names were wrong many places and in the last form where I could see what I had added to my shopping basket I could only see English names.
The postage would have been 5 $ to here, and I asked can they send it by just normal letter. No way...
Also I said that I would like to buy f.ex. these seeds and they thought I mean Fedex.
Anyway, pretty good seeds they seem to have and others like them so I would give neutral. :)
More praise for Pinetree. Terrific selection of seeds and supplies. Terrific prices. Prompt shipping and good packaging. Haven't had time to evaluate the seed germination yet. [update 7/2000] An update to my early review. Pinetree was my mainstay for several years, because of their prices and selection. But things have changed. My experience with Pinetree this year has been disappointing. Although I am still very happy with their supplies, tools and books, I am not at all happy with the seeds and plants they sent me. I carefully read the seed descriptions to see which would do well in the South. I had great luck with Pinetree in upstate NY. I felt very loyal to them and wanted to stay with them if possible.The veggie seeds were pretty much a disaster. Some never germinated. Some germinated and rusted away (Peas and Lettuce). Others had a very low germination rate. Out of maybe 30 veggies, only 3 were an unqualified success. And the perennials. They were microscopic andpoorly packed. The threadleaf Coreopsis looked like... thread. I am very disappointed that I will not be ordering seed or plants from Pinetree in the future.
I bought several different varieties of Morning glory seeds, as well as moonflower and cardinal climber seeds from Pinetree. To my dismay and Disappointment, I had about a 5% germination rate from these seeds, and I am not inexperienced in growing such plants. I won't promise not to give Pinetree the benefit of the doubt, but forewarned is forearmed. If I buy seeds from them again, I will have back up seeds from another company, too.
