Problems with Gurney's

aidenbaby

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Has anyone else had problems with Gurney's? So far, not ONE of my bare rooted plants have survived. Nor have the ones from Henry Fields (I think they are related as they have identical phone numbers except for the last number). I ordered 2 sets of raspberries, 1 set of blackberries, 1 set of boysenberries, 100 strawberries (buy one get one) and they are ALL dieing. The only things that are surviving are 2 native plums. I don't get it. I just received my Beauregard sweet potatoes. Not 1 drop of moisture remained in the box and they are all wilted and look dead. I'm going to plant them and hope for the best but this is ridiculous. They kept pushing back the shipping dates so much that it ended up shipping on 2 90 degree days. :barnie :he I'm SO frustrated. I sent them an email asking about my boysenberries (I thought it was a set of 3 and I only received 1) and NO ONE has responded.
 

HiDelight

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I am so sorry this happened to you I had the same issue with another company ..tossed a complete fit and they tossed one back at me ..timing is everything when you are gardening and it is just not right if they can not do a good job they should not be doing it!

anyway I persisted and ended up with a LOT of free seeds but still

it was too late for me to plant some so what is the point


good luck I hope you get some resolve they have been around forever so they should come good on their deal but darn for the time it took!
 

farmerlor

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aidenbaby said:
Has anyone else had problems with Gurney's? So far, not ONE of my bare rooted plants have survived. Nor have the ones from Henry Fields (I think they are related as they have identical phone numbers except for the last number). I ordered 2 sets of raspberries, 1 set of blackberries, 1 set of boysenberries, 100 strawberries (buy one get one) and they are ALL dieing. The only things that are surviving are 2 native plums. I don't get it. I just received my Beauregard sweet potatoes. Not 1 drop of moisture remained in the box and they are all wilted and look dead. I'm going to plant them and hope for the best but this is ridiculous. They kept pushing back the shipping dates so much that it ended up shipping on 2 90 degree days. :barnie :he I'm SO frustrated. I sent them an email asking about my boysenberries (I thought it was a set of 3 and I only received 1) and NO ONE has responded.
Ooooh, I'm sorry. The Garden watchdog site lists Gurney's and their affiliates very poorly. I dealt with them a couple of years when we first moved here as I remembered them from when I was a kid. The plants I got were either sick or dying or dead. Generally speaking the seeds didn't have great germination and their customer service is their weakest point. I don't deal with them anymore.
 

aidenbaby

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That is what i thought was weird. My seeds are all great! It's just the live plants that are all crashing. At this point, I just want a refund (which I doubt they'll give) for all the dead ones so that I can get new plants from the local nurseries.
 

curly_kate

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Gurney's, Henry Fields, Garden's Alive, Breck's Bulbs, Michigan Bulb, and Spring Hill Nursery are all part of the same company (they're all the ones that offer the $25 off a $50 purchase coupons). So far, the only one that I've had any success with is Garden's Alive, and that's because I don't buy any plants from them. They sell gardening supplies.
 

aidenbaby

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Ok, so I called the company. I had great success (or so I felt) because they are reshipping almost all of my bare rooted plants. I found out that my blackberries were indeed alive (I did bark scrapings to find out) and that one is starting to put out leaf buds at the base. For my raspberries, one out of three of the heritage was dead and they are shipping a whole new SET. I have to wait until next year for my Anne's (all 3 dead), my boysenberry and replacement everbearing strawberries (of the 50 ordered 2 survived). I have had the WORST luck and am so relieved that they are going to amend the situation. Oh, and it turns out that 1 of the two "dead" plums is actually alive after all but she said if anything happens and one of the others dies that they have some kind of warranty that i can get either replacements or credits to my account. Overall, I am pleased with the telephone customer service. I did let her know that their email service sucks as I never did receive a response.
 

laurenlulu

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I had the same problem with Gurney's this spring - I ordered grapevines and potatoes and strawberries. Half the strawberries were dead, the potatoes were rotting, and the grapevine was the wrong kind (and dry and dying)

They did ship all new things to me, and told me about their warranty, which I appreciate. I did buy blueberry plants from them too (b1g1) and they are the teeniest scrawniest things. I dont have much hope for them- I saw much nicer, bigger, older plants locally- for much less.
 

digitS'

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The wholesale outfits not the catalog companies are the sources for seed, for the most part. This would have to especially true with hybrids since they are the ones with the parent stock and doing the hybridizing. Therefore, getting hybrid seeds from one retailer or another shouldn't make much difference.

Of course, storage and packaging (maybe even age of seed) could be different.

If you want to have some fun looking a HUGE selection of ornamentals take a look at Benary Seed. They are just one of these international outfits. But, if you buy something like Music Box Sunflower seed, that's the source.

There are huge veggie seed outfits also like Rogers/Syngenta. They say they employ over 21,000 people in over 90 countries!!

Sheesh!

Steve
 

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