60731f9b_Comments_regarding_Forestfarm__Content
[Rating] Negative [Author] Pitimpinai (22 reviews) [Content] 
On Dec 23, 2002, Pitimpinai Chicago, IL wrote: I have ordered more than 60 plants from Forestfarm for the past three years. Huge selection at reasonable price. Many are rare. The packaging is exceptional. I needed a large screw driver to remove the large staples and a very sharp knife for the tape. It was a special occasion when the boxes arrived. The plants were always in great condition. Sometimes bigger than anticipated. Insufficient information on planting zone recommendation and plant growth habits forced me to do more research before placing my orders. I found out two years later that the Yucca I received was not what I ordered. The Picea abies 'Little Gem' looks completely different from the ones I received last year. (A neighbor who works at the city's conservatory concurred, so did a few other neighbors.) I called & sent a cutting. The owner insisted that it is the right plant. The Dwarf Mockorange listed as 4' have grown 7' tall and one of the Aster frikartii 'Moench' had yellow blossoms. What do I do with those plants? I have substantially reduced the number of plants odered from them and only after a long consideration. Too bad, I was very happy with the quality & the packaging. On April 23rd, 2003, nunoi changed the rating from neutral to negative and added the following: The 3 Chamaecyparissus, 3 Hydrangea quecifolia, 1 Ilex crenata, 1 Picea abies,1 Yucca from Forestfarm died. The Yucca was supposed to be a Yucca filamentosa. It had very stiff blades with no filament whatsoever and a sharp stiff spike on each blade that pierced me whenever I tried to weed around it. The Yucca filamentosa I received from my neighbor has soft blades full of threads along the sides of the blades without a stiff pointed spike. Other plants that died were just too tiny. They didn't have a chance in the harsh winter we had this year. The Hydrangea did not turn green at all. I ordered 3 Aster Moench from Park's Seed this year. They came with a huge root system & crown at no exhorbitant shipping cost and already are sending up green shoots. I will not order anything from Forestfarm again. On Dec 23, 2004, nunoi added the following: I have ordered many plants from Forestfarm. Several of them were not true to name. This year, I shovel pruned all the so called miniature mockorange. They all grew to 8 ft tall, way beyond the 2-3' listed. I have corresponded with Forestfarm re other mislabeled plants, but was not fully satisfied with the response since the owner insisted that there was no mislabelling. I have learned to be very weary of Forestfarm. With the exhorbitant freight, one would think the plants would be true to name. There is no replacement for dead plants either. What a shame. On Dec 23, 2004, Forestfarm responded with: "Thank you for your note to us through Garden Watchdog. We truly do appreciate hearing about problems. Although we don't remember speaking with you, we have followed up on your concern by tracking down where the mockorange plants you mentioned originated. We've found that we originally obtained the starts from a major wholesale nursery that, some place along the line, mixed up Minnesota Snowflake (tall) and Miniature Snowflake (which we try to better distinguish by calling Dwarf Snowflake). That isn't hard to do and, unfortunately, mistakes like this can happen anywhere. They (and thus we) weren't aware of the problem until the plants had time to grow. Other customers can verify that we have stood by our plants being true-to-name in the past by crediting for those that were not. We hope that we did this for you, as well. If not, we hope that you'll give us another try to get it right! We don't know what made you say that we don't give credit for "dead" plants. Certainly if we sent out a dead plant (which we would never intentionally do!), and were told about it, we would give credit. If plants arrive in good healthy condition and then die after growing in their new location for a few months, we feel it is more likely that something in their new environment caused their demise, rather than something inherent in the plants themselves. Our guarantee says, in essence: We don't feel it's fair to ask us to guarantee our plants forever, especially over a winter. (If you want a "forever" guarantee, you will likely need to go to a nursery where the expensive price of the plants pays for the guarantee.) There are just too many variables over which we have no control (such as Mother Nature's rainfall, frosts, etc). We do, however, CARE A LOT about our plants and our customers. Let us know if you have problems, and we'll do our best to make it right."
Comments regarding Forestfarm