Mail Order of Tomato Plants

12 years ago

I wonder if there are others out there that have had this same problem when mail ordering your tomato plants by Gurneys.com web site. This is my third year of ordering by their website and again they take my money early and then send me an email saying that two of my plants have been sent out (Big Boy), while two of my plants (Baby Girl) are now back-ordered and finally three of my plants are no longer available.

This happened to me before but I ordered again this year because their plants always come in very good shape with no dead plants upon arrival --although arrival is never when they tell me on the phone and there are different ones substituted or not available that I ordered. I am in the 4 zone and we are the last to be sent out. I would think that when they take your money and cash your check or credit card that they would be sure that the plants ordered were in there greenhouses.

Finally after three strikes and your out regime, I have decided to not order from them ever again. Also, I wrote them an email two weeks ago asking where my plants were, and got a form email back and not a personal reply for two weeks with the bad news and their profound apologies again. Let me know, if you have also had this problem with this company or others, so that next year I don't have this happen to me again. Thanks a lot for whatever info you have on this subject.

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Comments (6)

Bets
12 years ago
Mrsgilly,

I've never ordered tomato plants from Gurneys, so I can't comment on them, and aside of occassionally buy a tomato or pepper plant on impulse when I visit a nursery department or garden store, I have started most of my tomato and pepper plants for many years.

Two places with excellent reputations are SelectedPlants.com in Alabama; and HeirloomTomatoPlants.com in Southern California.

The owner of Selected Plants, Darrel Jones, is a delight to work with. When you call him, he can tell you exactly which plants he has in stock. He has grown everything he sells and can tell you about them if you are unsure of which heirloom and open pollinated tomatoes you might like to try.

Laurel Garza at Heirloom Tomato Plants Carries a few Hybrid plants and has photos of many varieties on her site and also grows all of her own plants.

According to people who have ordered from them, both Darrel and Laurel do excellent jobs of packing and shipping plants and are very easy to work with if there is a problem with the plants when they arrive. I have personally dealt with them in other respects and found both of them to be fine people.

I do suggest you order early from either or both of them next year. I believe that if you do, they both make sure they plants seeds specifically for your order. Otherwise, you can find out what is available and they can ship it out.

I hope that helps.

Betsy
athenainwi
12 years ago
I recommend SelectedPlants. I ordered a few years ago and the plants were exactly the varieties that I wanted and arrived when I said I wanted them.
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heirloomjunkie
12 years ago
I ordered from Gurney's too this year. My first time. One plant came, good condition. But the other one I ordered isn't due to be shipped for another one to two weeks. Kind of frustrating, as my last frost date was May 15th. The plants I ordered were a little less rare than I realized. So next year I will grow from seed (my seedlings I've grown this year are better than theirs) or go with a local nursery.
mrsgilly
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks to all for the good ideas.
edible
12 years ago
I have ordered from the Tasteful Garden out of Alabama. When I order I specify that I do not want substitutions and most of the time I do not have a problem. They will not send plants out unless they feel they are healthy and large enough, so sometimes they will contact me to see if I want a refund, if I want to wait, or substitute. Anyhow, I recommend them. www.tastefulgarden.com
heirloomjunkie
12 years ago
My plant from Gurney isn't doing so great. I planted it up and gave it a day of dappled shade to adjust, but all the leaves are getting crispy and curling. So not worth the trouble...

Mail Order of Tomato Plants

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