Wow. I can't imagine a place like that staying in business. Sorry for your bad experience and I'm sure you feel like you wasted your time.

I think I would not want a reminder of that visit either.

Vickie

Just took a peek at their website and they sure don't have much information, do they? It says they've been in business 29 years!

How about ordering something from somewhere else to make up for the bad experience? I know it would be another expense, but maybe that would make you feel somewhat better. If it were me, I'd also have to have a good stiff drink.

Vickie

So sorry you had a bad experience. Plant those acquisitions away from your main garden and let them grow till the spring. Your out the $40.00 anyways and by spring you might feel better about the indiviual plants themselves. After all it's not thier fault their grower was a mean spirited person. If not you can always trade them or sell them on the LA next year for some you will be able to enjoy.
Take heart that most people in the daylily biz are great people, generous and patient. By letting us know what kind of operation this person runs you have saved all of us from doing business with them. Thereby helping fellow gardeners and giving this person the reputation they obviously deserve. I can guarantee that they will NEVER get any money from me. Btw there is an excellent daylily farm just outside York, Pa. It's called Perfect Perennials. I visit them at least once a year and drop a couple hundred bucks.LOL I know Rita orders from them as well. Diane and Stu are lovely people who will spend time(providing they aren't overrun with customers) when you visit. Stu answered all kinds of newbie hybridizing questions for me last year and Dianne is always willing to point out new varieties and other perennials in the garden. Not sure what part of Jersey you live in but it might be worth a trip next year. They are closed except by appointment at this time of year.

I'll include a link to their website in case you want to check out their intros or request a catalog. The catalog unfortunatley isn't on-line.

Hoping things get better,

Kim :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Perfect Perennials website

What an awful experience--most daylily sellers are so nice. I checked Garden Watchdog and there are no ratings on them, but they are listed. You might want to be the first and save someone else from such a bad experience.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Watchdog

Oh yea, I'd post on Garden Watchdog. Sounds like a terrible day to me. Sorry.

Thanks everyone. I just posted a negative review on the Garden Watchdog.
I feel a bit better now. It's true it's not the plants' fault they had bad parents! I should treat them kindly. You're right, I should place an order from a good place to make myself feel better.
What a day!

Wow, what an experience. I am much afraid I wouldn't have reacted as well as you did! After 2 hours driving, I think I would have told them they were very rude people and that I would be sure daylily lovers everywhere were going to hear it from me. Keep the plants, they will make up for the sellers. Daylily people are mostly very nice people but there is always one bad apple somewhere!!...Ellie

From reading all your posts and seeing all the wonderful daylilies you have gotten recently, I think you should think about how beautiful your gardens will be next summer. You've put a lot of time, energy and thought into planning for great color all season. You should be proud of yourself.
I am so sorry for your unfortunate experience in CT. But like the others have said, you really have done all of us a favor in reporting on this. Keep your head up, and take good care of your new babies. We are waiting to see next summers pics.
Nina

I'm so sorry that your trip was a disaster. Trips to daylily farms should be joyful and fun. Most daylily growers/people are great, and please don't let this experience color your views on the rest of them. If you want Christmas in August, you should place an order with Bill Maryott. He will MORE than make up for your bad experience. I know he is generous, but I am still surprised at just HOW generous every time I order.

Maryott Gardens

Natanya, I'm sorry to hear about your encounter with that daylily farm. Every once in a while, you get a crabby seller who really shouldn't be in the business. I've been so frustrated I posted a negative rating on Garden Watchdog, too. Have you been in touch with the seller since? If not, I would let him know that your business is concluded, you've posted negative feedback, and if he's interested, you've also posted to this forum for other prospective buyers.

Chris

I'm going to chime in on how wonderful daylily people are! My sister-in-law and I went as far as New York to Cottage Gardens - met Brent Ross - great guy! Sara at Daylilies by the Pond is crazy fun! And Sally at Willow Brook Acres was not only informative but a true lover of daylilies. Then "our" Amish farm of course have some of the nicest people working for them. Our local garden is a family operation and I've met the "daylily" brother and wife and once met the "Christmas tree" brother. I know my SIL has met the mother and they are all truly nice people.

I'm still trying to get pass the dividing right then. I've visited lots and lots of small and large farms and never have I seen this.

Really sorry this happened to you, I'm not sure if the poor way of selling fans or the rude manner you were treated after the fact on the phone bothers me most.

All I have ever visited either have the 2 double fans for purchase already by themselves and ready to just fork up and go or it must be purchased by the clump and is clealry marked with a clump price.

Enjoy the daylilies you got inspite of the unpleasant way you got them. It's not the daylilies fault their seller was a horse's behind and strike it up to a lesson to be more observant and assertive in future farm/garden visits to other places. I think you were right to place a review on watchdog.

And now, slightly off topic for this thread, but I saw you ask in another about ordering iris from Hornbaker. Take note that at watchdog there is a negative on their iris shipment from an unhappy customer. I don't know if you saw that or not and with this current unhappy experience I doubt you'd want another one this season.

While I love the place and have many daylilies in my garden from them and my mom has picked out and gone back and purchased several iris, neither one of us has mailed ordered from there. I honestly have no idea how their mail order is or the root conditions on either iris or daylily would be from them. If I were you I would call them and ask upfront what you can expect when you open your package if you were to order.

While I have seen their lined out 2 double fans for mail order sitting in the fields for delivery time and they look decent sized and healthy I can not say what might be underground beneath them as I have no experience in receiving them. I've always picked out and purchased clumps or a couple times purchased pots already dug and potted up that they put 2 or 3 double fans in early in the season up in the perennial section (the potted ones have done well).

Just thought I'd mention this as there's lots of places to order from, nobody likes getting bum purchases, so don't be afraid to 'shop around' and ask upfront questions, it's been fun watching you here build up your garden and watch your love of daylilies grow--don't let a few 'stinkers' dampen that for you.

Natanya,
I am so sorry about your experience with this seller. And thank you for sharing it with us. I have also encountered a few unpleasant ones and have tried not to look back at those.
There are far too many wonderful daylily people and sellers that I have dealt with and I am happy and enriched having met them.
I second fairysoapgirl's mention of Maryott Gardens -- Bill and Marilyn never fail to overwhelm with their wonderful service and generosity.

Sorry about your experience. I don't think I would have been as nice. My mouth tends to run if I think I'm getting a raw deal.

I never ordered from Maryotts because of shipping costs, about 25% of your order. But after lots of shopping around for some of the dl's I wanted. No one could beat their price. Plus with all the rave reviews on here and how last fall when eveyone started recieving their dl's from Maryott's most put up scapes and bloomed. I figured it would be well worth the shipping costs. I should receive my first order from Maryotts next week. I'm sure I won't be disappointed.

Good luck and don't let one bad experience bring you down.

Andrea

What a bummer, you wasted yout time and money and driving to an ungrateful place of business. Just scratch it off to lesson learned and move on, life is too short to let jerks ruin your garden life.

Andrea,
Maryotts sends lots of extras, thus the high shipping price, they won't disappoint you.

Dot

Natanya,
As a resident of SE Penn, I'd like to second the idea of a visit to Perfect Perennials in Dover, PA or try a visit to beautiful Bucks county to Teich & McColgan in Chalfont next year.
They don't have the most recent cultivars, but all of their plants are well adapted to this area. They sell by the clump and dig it that day, along with a generous portion of great soil.They are great people to deal with in a beautiful setting.

Glad to hear you're feeling better. It's nice to come here and let off steam, isn't it?

By the way, I love DABO GIRL. I remember someone posting photos of it the last two years, but I don't remember who is was.

Glad you took up the garden therapy to work off the tears and steam.

Dabo Girl is a very pretty color and I like the ruffling on it. You're lucky to get that clump.

Vickie

It is a wonder that anyone could stay in business for 29 years with such terrible treatment.

I am glad you let us know about it, and I'm glad you warned everyone on Dave's Garden.

I'll second the advice to buy something...you'll feel better.
kay

What happened to Woodside Gardens in New Jersey. I know the Apps sold out and retired, but have the new owners reopened the nursery? It would be on my list to visit if I lived up that way.
Mmwwwoooohahahahaaaa!
Ed

I ordered plants from the new owners last year, and was disappointed. some of the double fans were singles with tiny increases. None of them bloomed this year or last year. It was not the same quality I had received from Darrell the previous 2 years.

I've been to Hardy Daylily Garden for more years than I can remember. It has always been my experience that they are friendly, professional, and kind. They dig the plants for me, bring them to the car if I want, and love to chat about garden ideas. I've met new friends just walking around plants in their garden and admiring. These friends always have exceptional experiences they tell me.

This is not a big commercial garden. The wonderful folks who run this garden are artists, so have planted a very beautiful garden that is in my opinion more of a home display garden. This isn't a garden that seems to compete with mail order companies since it is local and family run. I think of it as a nice restaurant with lots of chef selections which always surprise me nicely vs. a large chain restaurant with a set menu and tons of each item.

In my garden experience so far, I've been to a huge number of small and large gardens. This is a garden I generally buy 5-10 clumps per visit. All plants I've bought have thrived.

My mom forwarded me your other link that basically said the same thing

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/ratevend/msg0819264325753.html?349

I can hardly believe the rant I'm reading here. The first time I came to the Hardy's garden I was a little girl tagging along with mom. Now a bonafide gardener myself, mom and I buy each other plants for our birthdays. My last visit was 2 yrs ago. Here are the facts: their garden is well run, their plants robustly healthy (the ones I got still beautifully producing every year), and their customer service top notch. Perhaps I'm biased since I've known them a long time (and because they let me play with their dogs when I was a kid), but the Hardys are the nicest people! Hard for me to believe you are talking about the same people. My 2 cents...

My goodness. Isn't it interesting that the two people with positive things to say about this place either have no gardenweb member information or just registered today. Odd eh?

This is just a bit amusing to me. Not what Natanya went through at Hardy's, but just some thing that turned up on the net when I googled Hardy DL garden CT. What appeared to be an independent review of Hardy Daylily Gardens appears if you follow the link posted below. The review which was posted today no less has nothing but the utmost high regard for the owners of this establishment. I read through this whole thing and then looked at the links to the right of the review. To the right of the post you will see this link (Click Here to View Our List of Favorite Outdoor Plants to Grow in California). Anyway I went ahead and clicked on this and it takes you to Amazon.com and if you look to the right where it says about this Listmania author. Underneath you will see the name J. Hardy "expert", and below that "Plant Expert"

Like I said above, I think it's pretty amusing that someone would right a review dated today in the wake of this unfortunate insident (and its repercussions by way of negative feedback), and when you follow the links it leads right to someone else whose last name happens to be Hardy. Hmmmmmmmmm. Could this have been written by a truly satisfied customer?? Maybe, but when you see the name at the Amzon site it does make you raise your eyebrows and wonder some.

People do make mistakes and we all have bad days. If and when it happen you say you're sorry and get on with life and work a bit harder so the same thing doesn't happen again. It just looks bad when you see this kind of bandaid put to use in order to compensate for a negative review. JMO

Linda

Here is a link that might be useful: CALIFORNIA PLANTS

jackie o - I thought the same thing. I hate it that this post is still around. Please let this post die so I don't have to ever think about it again.