The scoop on 'Donahue's Clematis Specialists'

We were in search of finding some unusual clematises and I stumbled upon this company in my internet search. Their website was great and the variety of clematises they offered was excellent. So on 7/12/2008, I placed my first on-line plant purchase and I was extremely pleased with the first two clematises I received from them shortly after ordering. This has led us to order seven other clematises to add to our flower gardens, with the last two clematises we ordered on 8/18/2008 just arriving today (8/27/2008). All of the plants we received from Donahues arrived in excellent condition and were well packed. Some of those clematises that we had planted earlier this summer have already grown a foot or more since we planted them. We can't wait until next year to see the blooms from our new plants.

I have already recommended Donahue's to our gardening friends and obviously would order from them again if the opportunity arose.

I ordered 11 clematis this spring . They were EXTREMELY reasonably priced ( large orders come to about $ 8.50 per plant) and arrived in great condition and packaged very well - not a leaf was crushed nor a stem broken. They were in smaller pots but that meant that they were easy to plant and several of them have started to bloom already. Donahue's Clematis has a great selection ( some really unusual varieties) and based on my experience -I would recommend this company wholeheartedly. I plan to shop here again - in fact I am already planning my fall purchases!

I purchased clematis by mail order twice before and was very happy with the condition and size of the plants. I made a special trip there in early June to see and hopefully buy more plants. To my great delight found it was the 2nd day of their end of season sale everything 1'2 off!! No shopworn or abused plants here. Wall to wall buyers and the sales staff was friendly, knowledgeable and so helpful; we came home with 15 new clematis and a variety of other perennials. Yes they email for special sales etc. The greenhouse, grounds and sales area were so clean- no litter, dead plants or plain old clutter. I would encourage a special trip next year to visit and buy I know we will be back buying. ALL the plants we bought are thriving and growing well.

I am so pleased with the 2 plants I ordered from them;C Armandi Snowdrift and C Texensis Princess Diana
They were a very good size,well packed and arrived when I asked for them.
I will order from them again without a doubt.

The 9 clematis plants were well packed...no problems there....I planted them in early October...
One plant...my Ernest Markham died over the winter...never made it til the following spring...
The rest were fine...except one clematis which was supposed to be Huldine...has never bloomed once until this summer...and I realize it's not even Huldine...
Instead it's got super tiny little white flowers... not sure what it is...but it looks more like a viticella clematis of some sort. Oh well...can't always get what you want!

If you ever have a chance to visit this nursery, do it! I have only one word...WOW. A HUGE selection of beautiful, healthy plants await you. I went there for the clematis, and found the widest variety of clematis that I have ever seen in one place. All of the plants were full, healthy, and well cared for. But Donahues has much, much more than just clematis! Just about anything you are looking for, they have it! Some of the prices may seem a bit high, but in my opinion it is well worth it. You get large healthy plants that are far superior to any "cheapies" you get at other places.

I am the Coordinator for the Spring 2003 Clematis Co-op. I don't like to give a Nursery a negative rating, but it definitely was NOT positive and there were many factors that influenced my decision.

My phone, e-mail, and faxed coorespondence was NOT handled in a timely manner. They did NOT respond within 24hours, which I feel is a reasonable amount of time to wait for a potential customer placing a substantial order. Donahue's was made very aware of this fact upon my initial e-mail to them. It was re-iterated numerous times over the past two months. Basically, they just didn't care!

I ALWAYS had to request an updated list of Clematis that were "Sold Out". However, this was an on-going process and the availability that was promised one week was NOT available the next!

Plus, I had to REQUEST MY BILL! The Accounting Department was as slow, inefficent & unresponsive as their staff answering their e-mails, faxes and phone calls!!

Up to the moment that I placed my order for over 350 Clematis, I still encountered changes! The worst was when I finally received the plants, only to discover on the enclosed packing sheet that "Mrs. R. Brydon", 3.5" plants were NOT available, even though I was told that they were when I placed my order by phone!!! To say that I was very upset and disgusted with this Nursery, would be a mild under-statement!

On a more positive note, the plants I received were healthy with a well developed root system. However, I did notice that "stuck" in-between the larger 3.5" size plants were some much smaller ones of the same size!!! Yes, they will grow in time, but needless to say, they still charged me the higher price!!!

Would I use them again??? Most definitely NOT!!! I don't want to have any further dealings with this Clematis Nursery!! In the future, I hope to deal ONLY with wholesale Nurseries that are well organized, respond to the customer in a timely manner, remain in contact with me (NOT the other way around), don't change their story each time you hear from them and certainly don't pull any "last minute punches", by not shipping a certain variety of Clematis that was ordered and promised!!!

I have not purchased from this company by mail order, but I have gone to the nursery to purchase clematis.

Well rooted, very nice plants at a reasonable price.