I got the balance of my Burgess order, so I figured I'd follow up. It seems to be a definite "some things are better than others" type of place, so hopefully this will help someone figure out what is most worth it: Rose bushes and peony trees (bare root) came looking quite decent, and all of them have continued to be alive in my garden. A few have been slow to leaf out, but nothing arrived dead or rotted, and everything seems to be getting along now. Humming bird vines arrived looking like sticks - they were alive, but sticks. All are still alive, and one is leafing out, so, OK. The things are supposed to be impossible to kill, so I'm hopeful. Clematis came as cute little spider-looking root nodes. Fairly fresh looking. They have all sprouted up nicely. Honesuckle vines looked like a bit of a mess when they arrived - it was hard to tell what was supposed to be planted, what was root vs. vine, etc. I've got nothing out of those yet, and for all I know I planted the darn things upside down. Day lilies came as nice little root bunches, and all are sprouting up nicely now. The bare root trees I had received earlier all still appear to be alive (they're flexible and show green if you scratch the bark), but not a one has leafed out yet. The little potted lemon and lime trees I got came looking good, but the lime was suffering such a mineral deficiency I'm still not sure it will make it. Maybe 3 years from now I'll have a stand of nice little trees started for next to nothing and I'll pat myself on the back, but I'm not awfully impressed on the tree front just yet. Overall I'm still giving Burgess a solid C. I'd never accept it if I'd paid anything approaching a usual nursery price for what I got, but overall I think I got what I paid for.

"Does anyone have any experience buying this quantity from an online retailer and is my ~$2,000 possible savings better invested in "insurance" of not having to deal with the delivery and possible return hassles?" I bought my toto ultramax toilet in a custom black color from homeclick 3 yrs. ago. I had NO problems whatsover. And I also SAVED A BUNDLE. I had other delivery problems with a hansgrohe showerhead from them, but the toilet was on time and on schedule. Remember, your manufacturer of choice has a lot to do with delivery from Homeclick. Sometimes, Homeclick can only deliver what the manufacturer will deliver. I came out ahead. When ordering from online, you can only win. However, you must order well ahead of time to be sure that you'll win. In my state, sales tax is 9.5 percent. Online, I don't pay sales tax. Homeclick runs holiday sales that are 10% off. Add that to the sales tax savings for my state, and i get nearly 20% off with free shipping. Since the big box stores charge shipping and delivery, obviously I save with Homeclick.

I just also had a very good experience with an online retailer. Hosking Hardwood was wonderful to work with! I purchased over 900 sq feet of Wilsonart laminate floor. When I called to check if they had enough of my flooring in stock Crystal put me on hold to check and when she came back on the line she told me that they had just enough so she put a 24 hour hold on it for me. Took another day for them to check on stair treads, so she renewed the 24 hour hold. I also asked Michael some questions about which trim type to purchase for next to a sliding glass door. He was very knowledgeable and helpful. I ended up purchasing the treads and trim at a locally owned flooring company. They were able to beat everyones price by far on that (online and in town), however they could not price match the actual flooring. I also purchased the Floormuffler underlayment from ebay - I was very nervous -the price was way too good to be true, but I e mailed several times with questions and they answered them right away, I took a risk - but turned out fine. Got the Floormuffler for dirt cheap in 3 days! The company was Shock Flooring. So there are some good retailers out there. I did spend a lot of time on research. But all turned out well.

I had a very positive experience with Wayfair. I recently ordered 3 boxes of stone/glass mosaic tile ($31/sq ft). It was the kind on paper rather than mesh. It was excellent quality, but the same color glass tile was falling off all of the sheets. I called Wayfair with the intent on either returning it or exchanging it. I knew we could still install it and just hand set the fallen tiles, but I wasn't thrilled about the damage given how much we paid. They issued me an immediate refund and said I could keep the tile! They explained that since it arrived damaged, they did not want to inconvenience me with having to ship it back. Not sure if this is how they handle all damaged products, but I decided to order a different tile from them and it's lovely. Again, very good quality. And I'm going to find somewhere in the house to use the damaged tile...since it was free!