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What a disaster. I ordered 12 hedychiums advertised as being heavily fragrant. The small rhizomes came in satisfactory condition, but when they bloomed, over half were not hedychiums but were the shampoo ginger instead. To make matters worse, the gingers I ordered and paid for were nearly double in price from what these shampoo gingers cost......I lost a lot of money here. I cannot tell by looking at a rhizome what the variety is. I expect the owner of a company to be honest enough to send the correct plants. Apparently this owner sends the least expensive thing he has regardless of what you order, then pockets the excess amount. Look elsewhere.....there are too many honest nursery folks out there to have to put up with people like this.
On Dec 7, 2009, ptooming Titusville, FL (Zone 9a) wrote:
*WARNING* Last year I ordered several plants from this company, most didn't make it poor packaging unrooted plants ect. I ordered a Mucuna Bennettii "Red Jade Vine" VERY EXPENSIVE at $29.95 + S&H and a Strongylon Macrobotrys "Blue jade vine" also VERY EXPENSIVE at $27.95 + S&H. The Red Jade vine was recieved dead, a mear twig stuck in an expensive plastic pot. I tried as I could to revive the poor leafless twig to no avail. The Blue jade vine came in the same condition a small leafless twig with a name tag, now 9 months later I have finally revived it enough to find "IT IS NOT" a Blue jade vine I paid $27.95 for but rather a "Thungbergia Mysorensis" which in there catalog sells for $16.95!!!
This year I explained to them again about the problems I had with my last order and mentioned to them there poor rating on "Daves garden watch dog" expecting better than I had received from my last order, wouldn't you know it seem they think I enjoy collecting there plastic pots!!! Yet another dead "RED JADE VINE TWIG" no leaves just a twig after all efforts were exhausted and I announced official time of death I exhumed the buried portion to examine why...NO ROOTS!!!
Just a lifeless, leafless twig of unknown origin stuck in the dirt.
If you purchase from these people this is what you get...what they want you to have, but not exactly what you paid for...EVER!!!
On Jun 10, 2009, pamalicious Sacramento, CA wrote:
i placed an order for a rangoon creeper in feb09 and received an email late mar09 saying my order has been delayed due to slow growth.it's now mid JUNE 09 and i'm still waiting.an email update would be niceor something.
I have ordered twice from alohatropicals, I ordered and paid for 2 items. I received 1 in 3weeks and the other item that is paid for(shipping included) and it has been almost 3 months and no word on what I had originally order It's always not availible. My concern is how can they sell you something that they don't have. I mean the item was $26.00 it may not be much to them but,it is to me. I gaved them a second chance and ordered 1 more item from them 3 weeks it's been I finally sent a matter a fact email and was told we forgot to ship it. If I get the 2 items I paid for no more chances for these guys Thanks for allowing me to sound off Bobby
I order a couple hundred worth of tropical fruit trees from this company. The plants were very small (6" to 8") and came from seeding. The sizes of the plants are not mentioned on the website but they do put pictures of a much healthier plants on the shopping pages. ALL die after one season. I will not buy from this company again.
In september last year I got from Aloha Tropicals a Heliconia regalis @ $ 65.95, a H. xantovillosa @ $135.95, a H.chartacea and a H. pogonatha. The last two are doing o.k., but the H. regalis and the H. xantovillosa where small rizomes, badly cut, one with a broken plantlet. Even after I bathed them with captan, they rotted right away.
These where not cheap plants, and I have a lot of experience growing Heliconias. I send them pictures of them both rigth after I got them, and they e-mail me back saying that they will be o.k... Then never heard from them again.
I spend a lot of money in plants, but I will never buy again from this company.
I am very disappointed, having read all of the negative comments about this company. If I had checked this website before, I may have made a different decision...
I had ordered three plants from Aloha Tropicals, sometime last year. I received them all in the time frame given, and all three plants were well packaged and in great health. The Gardenia I had ordered bloomed two days after it's arrival here in Connecticut!!!!!
Two of the plants continue to thrive. I accidentally broke the main stem of the Gardenia I had ordered, and I will definitely reorder this variety when the weather permits. I will have faith!
On June 17th, 2008, Jeelli changed the rating from positive to negative and added the following:
I ordered plants back in April. On their website and in the email confirmation they state that they will ship within two to three weeks. Four weeks later I sent an email inquiring about my order. An "Andrew Z" emails me back stating that they will ship my plants at the end of that week. That was May 21. It is now June 16th. I had emailed them three times in this past week. SURPRISE!!! NO RESPONSE TO MY EMAIL!!!!
They had PROMPTLY TAKEN MY MONEY- BUT I HAVE NO PLANTS!!!
I have informed them that I now want a REFUND. Let's see if I get a response now. I already have the paper work for the Better Business Bureau complaint with copies of all correspondences, and my bank statement from April- ready to file!! They suggested I give Aloha Tropicals a little more time. Huh! We'll see.
BTW- I had ordered from Kartuz that same night back in April. They ONLY took my money when they shipped. They sent me an email to let me know the plants were on the way. I received them within the two to three weeks as promised. That's who you do business with!!!
Please listen to the posts- my first WAS positive- now I'm just mad-I wish I had listened to all the others.
(I will update)
Ordered 1 heliconia rhizome. Dwarf rostata. Paid over 28 bucks with shipping included. I got a very small , very badly cut rhizome. So badly cut that it rotted in 2 weeks. I've grown heliconas for 10 years now,and this by far was the worest rhizome i have ever recived. For as much money as they charge for their plants, i would think you would get a nice fat rhizome with at least 1 root growing out of it. geessshh!
On Jul 19, 2006, vch Isabela, PR (Zone 10a) wrote:
I ordered 5 heliconia's rhizomes from the company. The rhizomes were VERY small (I paid an average of $25 per rhizome) and two of them looked rotten (the packing was too wet) and unhealthy . After 3 weeks those two have not break to the surface. I am an experienced heliconist who lives in a tropical island so I am confident that I planted them correctly. I gave the company a second chance (two years ago I had a similar experience with them), but not any more.
On Jun 8, 2006, escrawford2602 Mansfield, OH wrote:
I ordered Jasmine (Duke of Tuscany) on the first week of May. They sent me a confirmation of my order thru email. Then they sent me another email with the invoice but the invoice is supposedly for somebody else. However, the credit card number was indicated in the invoice. I emailed them back and copy furnished the person who really owns the invoice. I had to email them again since I have not received my order. I received my order last week of May but I was so frustrated of the plant they sent me. It is about 4 inches tall and the leaves are not healthy. I am trying to do my best to bring it back so that it may survive. My experience with them was very frustrating and I won't do business with them again.
Just over one year ago I spent several hundred dollars at this store. Most of my orders were placed online and all but one order were sent to me by mail (I picked up the other one in person). All plants arrived in great condition and I was satisfied at the time. However, once the plants started to bloom, I realized that several were not even plants that I ordered (even though I was told that all those I ordered were in stock and when each plant arrived they were labeled according to what I purchased).
I ordered a canna 'cupid' and was sent a canna 'ellen gallow.'
I ordered and paid for 2 costus spiralis @ $10.95 each and was sent 2 Costus Spicatus(Indianhead) which were priced @ $8.95 each.
I ordered and paid for a Costus 'Peruvian Pineapple' @ $27.95 and received a Costus Laevis priced @ $8.95.
I'm still waiting to see what heliconias will look like compared to the ones I ordered and paid for.
I was never made aware that substitutions were made and was never refunded the difference(s) in price.
I feel completely ripped off by this company. When substitutions must be made, the company should not mislabel the plants or charge $27.95 for a $8.95 plant, etc.
On Aug 17, 2005, adam7twiddle San Antonio, TX wrote:
any company that does not respond to reapeated emails, telephone calls, and answering machine messages over a four month period is not worth dealing with. after having received only half of my order, which was mediocre at best, and being charged for the shipping and cost for both, i attempted to contact them in order to at the very least recieve a delivery estimate, or discuss possible refunds. however, all of my attempts (at least 5 emails, 10 calls, and 5 voice message over a 4 month period) at contacting them proved futile. even if they do recitify this situation, i would warn anyone about even thinking of doing business with such an unprofessional and negligent company. caveat emptor.
Last year I bought several tropical plants from few online nurseries and the only negative experience I had was with Aloha tropicals(in my home town)! First, They did not allow me to pick up my plants although I was less than an hour away. Then after I paid for the plants, they did not arrive for over a month. Only after my repeated inquiries via email and phone(which were never answered) finally one of my plants arrived with a receipt telling me they did not have the second one(supposed to be in stock). No adjustment was made to the shipping cost(one instead of two) and I the amount I paid for shipping was more than double the amount actually cost them for shipping(as per the shipping label). The plant was unhealthy and did not survive for long(all seven of my other plants survived, despite being shipped from Hawaii, Florida etc.). I would NOT recommend anyone buying from them.
I recently placed my first order with Aloha Tropicals. I ordered five plants. One was a live plant with five leaves and looked pretty healthy. One was a rhizome (actually, two rhizomes). The other three were brown sticks with minimal roots).
Of the five, only the live plant made it so far (the rhizomes MIGHT still appear I suppose, though they've been planted for more than eight weeks without breaking the surface of the soil).
One month after placing the order, I e-mailed Aloha Tropicals and described the lack of progress I was having. They responded by saying the warantee period was only 10 days and that time had already passed. I e-mailed back asking what sort of progress I should have noticed from brown sticks in 10 days and whether they truly believed 10 days was sufficient for the types of plants I ordered. I got no response.
I spent $116.91 to get a $25 plant. I won't let that happen again. I only wish I'd seen this website before to see that even those who rated their experience as positive had to contact the company to resolve problems.
Thank you for your website - now that I've found it, I'll use it to locate another source for the many tropicals I have yet to purchase!
I have ordered from Aloha Tropicals twice and each experience had some disappointments. The first time I ordered 4 plants of which one was a Heliconia that cost $16.95. For that price I received a 3 inch potted rhizome that was in decline and never recovered. Two of the other plants (Strophanthus gratus and Cananga odorata) were also received in poor condition and died just a few days later. As many others have already stated, this nursery has plants that are difficult to obtain elsewhere, so I placed a second order in the spring of 2004. One of the plants ordered was a Heliconia griggsiana "Full Moon", which arrived as a large rhizome. I was excited to see such a large rhizome (even though I paid $37.95 for it), but noted that the two new growths didn't look healthy. One growth already looked totally black and the other was starting to look brown. I decided to plant the rhizome and see what happened. Nothing happened! The rhizome went into decline and I emailed Aloha Tropicals explaining the situation, that I ordered twice from them and that I have a botanical background. I can tell you from experience that I have received Heliconia rhizomes from many different sources and they have all done well. Aloha Tropicals didn't need to strip all the growth off the rhizomes (potentially for agricultural inspection purposes) to send them to me, because I only live about 30 miles away from them and in the same county. I never received a response to my email.
I do have a few plants that are still alive that I ordered from Aloha Tropicals. However, I don't feel that this company has good quality control on what they ship out. All the plants that I have received from them have either died or have had major set backs that took months for them to recover. Many other plant mail order companies I have done business with have provided me with large well-grown plants that take adjusting to a new environment well. Because Aloha Tropicals doesn't seem to have good mail order business practices and can't even respond to an email, I think they deserve a negative comment. I would never order from them again!
On Jan 20, 2005, vtwakeboarder Santa Barbara, CA wrote:
I ordered 6 tropical fruit trees from this company two years ago. I was only sent 5, although they billed me for all 6. They were out of stock on the 6th, and my repeated attempts at a refund went unanswered.
Also, I was told that all of the plants are self-fruitful and can be grown in containers. I have found information on one of the plants, an Ice Cream Bean tree that says no known cultivars are self fruitful...and I have doubts that such a large tree can be grown in a container for long.
Also, the trees suffered cold damage during shipping (their shipping policy stated they would wait till weather was forecast to be warm, but they did not).
On the positive side: All of the trees I received were of decent size and health. The sapote lost all of its leaves because of the cold damage, but they grew back. They all remain very healthy.
I ordered two red jade vines for thirty dollars each. What I expected were two healthy plants, well rooted. What I received were two twigs, no more than three inches long, one of which was just about dead on arrival. To their credit, they replaced the dead plant, however, it was with another twig, with a total of two sad leaves. The second plant was very poorly rooted in its pot.
For the price I paid, I would have hoped for better. I would not order anything from Aloha Tropicals again.
Vancouver, July 19.2004. 19 days ago I placed a small order, confirmation and order number (#1544545_17964) was sent to me the same vary day. I waited patiently up to July 17, and then I checked my visa statement ( no charges from Aloha Tropicals), so I sent them an e-mail, asking what's going on. Presently is 5 pm. July 19 and I haven't received any answer. I tried to rich them by phone, but there is only answering machine. Of course I left a message, but again no respond. Today about noon I send three (3) e-mails to Aloha Tropicals. No respond at all. I checked again with my bank, no transacion from Aloha on my visa. Finally I sent them an e-mail with cancelation of my order ,asking for confirmation. Again no respond.
It looks like this company completely ignores some castomers, particularly those placing small orders. I could have my plant at home already, if I pick another company. 20 minutes ago I placed new order (different company) and my plant is on its way.
I strongly advice to stay as far as possible from Aloha Tropicals, to avoid disappointment. If you don't want to lose your time and energy for nothing, please go and FIND ANOTHER COMPANY .
Very long time from ordering until shipment. They do have a nice selection but one of the two gingers I ordered was already dead (tiny to begin with) upon arrival. The second plant was a decent size.
A few years ago I ordered a white Canna from Aloha Tropicals...when the canna bloomed it turned out to be peach...I emailed them 3-4 times to report the mix up but no one would ever reply to my email....this canna cost 12.95 for one. I will not order from them again and do not recommed them to others.
