Ge1836, I mostly agree about Van Bourgundien especially for plants, except that they are one of the few, if only one, that carry one of my favorite Tulip bulbs, so I usually pad my order with a few Narcissus and lilies and other bulbs when ordering them. But this fall McClure and Zimmerman had my beloved, must have, Tulipa 'Eye Catcher ' so I may be able to avoid Van Bourgundien in the future, though their bulbs have always been way better than their plants. Plus they do have a wholesale division with good prices for bulk buying.
I almost never do replacements, I should, but I hate the hassle. I do ask for refunds for shortage, or wrong plants. I have gotten a few moldy bulbs as well as some that where just sad examples of what I should have gotten, and for those vendors, I just don't go back for more from the offenders. I post reviews in the Garden Watch Dog.
That brings up another can of worms. I have always felt that some of the way it was done does not helpful. Like allowing a lame brain to give Buggy Crazy a bad review because her site was showing that things were unavailable. Duh. I think many of us complained that an order must be submitted before a review could be given. It would be like writing a nasty negative restaurant review for a Cape Cod Clam Shack in Dec because they were closed. Double Duh!
I do like that you can click on the negatives and go read just those to see if they seem valid. But there are so many vendors listed that have been gone for years that it needs a serious update. I also wish they would code them for which have no website, or only do wholesale. Maybe a better search will be done for it by the new folks. However it is something I will continue to use and report my experiences on as I thrust many of the reporters.
I do notice that some vendors must give out something as a bonus for a good review, as many times reviews are all clustered together by folks who have just joined all at the same time and who have never reviewed any one else. That reads to me as if "Something smells rotten in Denmark" One time, I emailed admin in DG and they caught one who sent random great reviews from their own site, but with all different addresses. Dave busted them. Triple Duh! Patti
