I would contact them right away and ask for a full refund, including shipping charges, if that was the only item ordered. Even if they have additional stock for replacement, they are likely in the same condition as the plant you received.
Insist upon a refund, not a credit, which can only be applied to future purchases from them.
It is sad to see a once top line nursery degenerate into a third rate(or worse) plant provider. I stopped ordering from them a few years ago, for exactly the same reason you are now experiencing.
I would recommend that anyone contemplating placing an order with Wayside Gardens/Park Seed, go to Dave's GardenWatchDog and read the current comments about the company, before placing an order.

Here is a link that might be useful: The scoop on Wayside Gardens

Wayside, with its beautiful catalog, has turned into a purveyor of (quite expensive) garbage. After a ridiculous experience with them several years ago, I recommend that the catalog be used only to look at pictures.

Normally I wouldn't weigh in on this topic, but, ironically, my first and LAST plant mail order was with the company in question - 7 years ago now already. Just substandard from the get-go. So now, like laceyvail, I use their catalog only for perusing pleasure.

I'm neutral on mail order in general, preferring to make the rounds of garden centers, greenhouses, farmers markets, plant sales, etc. and actually being able to pick up a plant, look at it and deciding this is the plant for me. But that's just me! Others find that mail order is the only way to go to get desired plants and have great success with it.

When I order online, I prefer to use Bluestone Perennials.

echinacea, I'm surprised with your plant experience you haven't heard of Dave's Garden Watchdog. It rates many, many mail order companies. Wayside's negative comments out weight it's positive about 3 to 1, and 4 to 1, if you include neutral ratings.

Apparently you invest a lot of time, money in your plants, so it would pay to carefully research where you spend your money. Good luck in the future.

1--Wayside/Park's/Jackson and Perkins (all the same company now) have gone downhill considerably in the past 10 years. I got some bulbs at their end-of-season sale last fall, and they were okay, but nothing spectacular. Customer service had improved from incompetent to okay, but that's as far as it went. These companies don't rank high on my recommended list any longer.

2--I do consult Dave's Garden (Garden Watchdog) regularly before buying from a vendor I haven't used before. I post my own comments under the name "nevadagdn". I wish the website had a 5-star or 10-point rating system so that I could rate things more accurately instead of having to limit myself to "positive", "negative" or "neutral". Still, the website is pretty accurate even with those limitations. I expect up to 10% of reviews to be negative, even with a very good company, and I'm a bit leery of companies showing only three reports, all of them positive. Generally speaking, if you stick with companies with 10 or more reviews and at least 85% of those reviews positive, you will be happy with your purchases.

I must add that I have ordered echinacea plants from them in the past and all of them looked ok. It's just this one plant I really wanted to try and I couldn't find it on Bluestone Perennials. This thing is so dead I'd bet a hundred dollars it will never sprout. I bet someone laughed when they packaged this up! Look for my photos I'm going to post later. They are shocking!

I don't want to be pest, but why do you order from a company with such a terrible reputation? It just seems on principle one ought think twice about giving them business. I noticed that even the positive ratings on Dave's say the plants are small and the shipping high.

idabean, I had positive experiences using this company in the past. I had no idea they shipped bare root plants they promised to be in pots. Every site I checked for this plant had 4 inch pots. Does anyone know a good place to order Caryopteris Summer Sorbet? I really want to get this plant soon and no place here has it.

I have learned my lesson about ordering from Wayside! Believe Me!

I don't know if they have it, but check out Lazy S'S--website only and I've been very satisfied with their plants. Other mail order nurseries I recommend include Seneca Hills Perennials (now only by website), Rare Find Nursery, Fairweather Gardens.

Not sure if they carry what you're looking for, but also try Forest Farm and Arrowhead Alpines nurseries.

Thanks to all of you who replied. I found it at Forest Farm for a good price. I just hope I don't receive a bare root plant. Those rarely survive for me. Maybe someday I'll receive one of these that's living!

Forest Farm does not send bareroots. Well rooted and nice size plants , especially in 1G pots. Kind of small, but healthy babies in tubes. The 'Summer Sorbet' I received from them last fall (tube size) is doing great. It survived a harsh winter without any protection.

Here's Wayside Garden's idea of a 4-inch potted plant...

{{gwi:231854}}

There was a couple of places on Ebay that were selling Caryopteris Summer Sorbet, you might want to check that out too!

Sorry to hear about your experience with Wayside.

Linda

What makes me angry is on their website it says "Shipped as 4-inch potted plant." Then on the invoice they sent with this dead twig it says "Shipped as potted plant or bare root. Both should perform equally as well!"

I hate to break it to them, but these bare root plants they are shipping are completely dead. They have places that are completely black and the bark is peeling off of the trunk!

FYI, the Ebay seller Perfect Plants is affiliated with Park's/Wayside and sends the same plants.
Echinaceamaniac, did you call them? I received a wrong plant in my last year order from them. They replaced it without any problem. Maybe, with their new management they changed their rules. Their feedback rate dropped dramatically since last year.