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The rose was delivered in good shape with adequate size, but was delivered six weeks after my requested ship date. The company did respond quickly to all of my e-mails and apologized for the late shipment.
On Dec 21, 2005, hortensia Langley, BC, BC (Zone 8b) wrote:
Having in the past had very bad experience with this company, I am now delighted to report some of the best experience I have had in many years of mailorder buying. I placed an order early this month which is now on its way to me, an astonishing fact in itself, since most eastern companies force you to wait for their shipping schedules convenience. In the course of processing my order, Hortico sent me several emails and two phone calls to clarify various issues involving out of stock material and shipping.
Every single person I dealt with was friendly and helpful and ALSO efficient. It actually was fun to deal with them --- I could almost feel the past bad experience washing away email by email.
The rose list is now one of the best anywhere, a lot of new "modern oldfashioned" that I haven't seen anywhere else, a good supply of Kordes, various Australian breeders and prairie hardy roses as well as some teas. Alas, I can imagine spending all too much time there! I will post again when the roses arrive to tell of their condition.
On January 25th, 2006, hortensia added the following:
Since posting the above, I have received my roses. They are nice and healthy and of very good size. I have posted a picture of some of them on the rose forum.
I have ordered more roses from Hortico, and my opinion of the company just continues to rise. Their plants are superb, the selection unparalleled and their service level is really exemplary.
Additionally, btw, they keep their website up to date; since December, when I ordered, many roses have gone from the site but others have been added. On December 1st, 2006, hortensia added the following:
November 2006
My good experience with this company continues to sprout roots and branches. I have a large standing order and from time to time they send me a group of plants as they become available. The plants continue to be healthy, the service excellent -- frequent communication, prompt replies and speedy action. the website clearly states WHEN roses will be available -- I think people forget rare roses can't be picked up like cheerios. I'm delighted to have some of them available to me within a few years in Canada. Never forget if speed is the most important thing, you can always order roses in from Britain or europe at about 40 bucks a pop!!!
On December 7th, 2007, hortensia changed the rating from positive to neutral and added the following:
December 2007
It appears that the wonderful Diana Baylis has left Hortico; and I am afraid that the improvement in service has gone with her. In November I received an answer to an October query about an order from a new person with a list of the roses that were available to be shipped in November. Later I received a phone call from the same person asking (as if the prior communication had never taken place) if I would like some of my roses shipped now when they were available or the whole order shipped in spring. ( I had stressed repeatedly that I DID NOT WANT orders shipped in spring) I phoned, talked to this lamentably scatter brained and wholly unconcerned "new" person who said she would check on my order and see what was currently available. She then sent me that list __ the same one she had sent in October. I emailed back that yes, I would like those roses ASAP, saying this hasn't changed in a month!!! So here it is December. Still no roses, still no more communication.....who knows what is up.
I am very afraid that this neutral revieiw is shortly to be changed back to Negative and Hortico will depart from my life again, but this time forever.
As a former employee of Hortico I have to say this.
The company is very disorganized. The employees do try very hard to provide good service but the majority of complaints I have read about are the result of poor organization.
The company does have a giant selection of hard to find plants. And the managers know more about plants than many other nursery managers.
Because of their selection and price a lot of the nurseries around Hortico are selling plants that they bought from Hortico at an inflated price.
I would definately buy plants from Hortico.
On Aug 2, 2003, loisc Toronto, Canada Canada wrote:
I too have just recently had a very bad experience with this company.
I ordered a huge order of plants that I had had difficulty olocating elsewhere (bog plants and woodland plants, including lady-slippers, and stepable plants). I also bought a Milky-way flowering dogwood, 2 azaleas and a pieris mountain fire.
My pre-order emails communications were very nice, however, going to pick up the plants and most post-visit experiences have been very bad.
wrong variety of pieris
wrong variety of cardinal flower
The following were very healthy and surprise me given the other's conditions:
pitcher plants (but I would order from niagra exotics next time)
ladyslippers (big plants looking decent! for half price)
jack in the pulpits
However, more than half my order was unavailble (and I wasn't told until after I got there). But, probably a good thing in the end!
I wrote a letter to ask a question on how to help my plants (not demanding a refund!) and got no response, wrote another asking if the dogwood was mislabelled (far, far, far, too pale a set of leaves) and got no response. Phoned and got hung up on!
Anyways, never never do business with these people.
On August 11th, 2003, loisc changed the rating from negative to neutral and added the following:
I have just spent the last 2 days reviewing my experiences with Hortico with their new coordinator and am happy to report that I would feel confortable doing
business with them again and plan to in fact do so.
However, I would go in person and look at the plants carefully before I bought them and I would not consider Hortico a great deal or discount source. The prices
here may be cheap, but the plants are smaller and weeker.
Furthermore, although I have seen quick recoveries of many plants I bought that were ill when given the correct treatments, I do not feel it should be a consumers
resonsibilty to have to immediately identify and treat plants with, say, iron defiency when they are freshly purchased.
Hortico is a good source for hard to find plants and for plants at very good prices -- just expect to nurture them a little longer. If you are a novice gardener consider
paying the premiums for bigger, healthier plants elsewhere.
However, given carfeull review of my recent experiences I must say that I have had very little but pleasent experiences with staff at Hortico (even if they did seem a
little overrun with work).
If you visited their greenhouses, you'd understand why the negative comments.
I was going to place a mail order last year, but instead drove to their place for a visit as I was very impressed with their selections of hard to find trees and plants in their catalog.
When I got to their nursery I was dismayed. The greenhouses were completely disorganized, many pots were full of weeds and many were mislabeled. Many were just dead.
But..i did find a lot of what I was looking for, but it was only because i got to hand pick what I wanted. As for the ephemerals, I just didn't take a chance if it wasn't already poking up in the pot. We did get a lot of wonderful trillium species and a few hard to find clematis.
On Jun 15, 2002, uroboros Montreal, QC (Zone 5b) wrote:
I am a repeat customer, they can't be all that bad.
I've had several experiences with mis-labelling from Hortico. However, the selection of plants is unmatched; that keeps me returning. And their prices are really, really reasonable. A big plus. You take your chances, but they're not robbing you blind.
Many of the best-loved plants in my garden have come from them: Japanese Maples, magnolias, poppies...
This is a hit and miss nursery as sometimes the order is not mixed up and okay but many times you get a poorly packaged, mislabeled and very low quality plants.
From two orders they have send shipments which required 3 weeks in transit - some plants withered, others ok, all sprouting. One plant I requested replacement was replaced. All in all: expensive, chancy, good variety though. Management seem both positive and behind times at same time.
