The scoop on 'Brighter Blooms Nursery'

It took too long for my plants to arrive. When they did, they were almost dead with withered brown leaves and broken plastic pots which had spilled most of the soil.
I immediately sent photos and was assured by someone named Trish that replacement plants would be rushed to me.
That was more than 2 weeks ago. Now, when I call, I get the recorded message and a "hang up".
I would never do business with them again and certainly will never recommend them to anyone.
What a terrible way to run a business!

I ordered $400 worth of plants. I had a terrible experience with them.

The plants came with half of the leaves brown, and 1/3 of the leaves had fallen off. The stems are brown and dry.

The customer service is horrendous. I emailed them right away with the problem. They didn't respond for 5 days. They said that the plants were normal, and that they were growers, not florists.

I've ordered from 4 other online nurseries and never had a problem with any of them except BrighterBlooms.com. This is by far my worst experience ever with any online venders.

Warning: If you get their email about the "bizarre nursery mishap" that "Mischeivious Grandchildren turn $11.95 Daylilies into 1.99 ones."

The daylilies that they say "Many are Premium grade, collector quality plants that easily sell for $11.95 or more." will show up in a box that weighs a total of 9 pounds.....for one hundred so-called daylilies. That's because the box will contain a couple of cups of slimy mold and a few pieces of green stuff. The "daylilies" are about the size of a blade of grass, if that, and look like this year's sprouts. All of this mess will be in one plastic bag. Nothing else, just the slimy stuff that is supposedly a hundred daylilies.

I got a refund in a timely manner, but that does not change the fact that they are advertising slimy blades of grass as daylilies comparable to ones that would be worth $11.95. Nor does it change the fact that my husband and I spent two full days preparing a site for these so-called plants before they arrived.

My first order was my last with Brighter Blooms.

I ordered a purple wisteria vine in June of 2008. It took a couple of weeks to arrive, but I followed the planting instructions and planted the wisteria. Almost immediatly the leaves started to fall off. i emailed customer service and I got a reply the next day suggesting miracle grow. The customer service dept. made a note of my trouble for the future. The miracle grow is working and now my vine has grown about 4 ft. since planting. My husband liked the vine so well he wanted another one so my pergoda has dual vines. I ordered it July 3 and it arrived today. This vine is fuller and taller than the first. I am expecting the leaves to fall; customer service said it was trauma from travel for the plant. I planted it using miracle grow. I will let you know how it does

I also orderd over $200 worth of plants from Brighter Blooms, and also had a very bad experience. Daylilly bulbs were moldy, knock out roses were dead, and one plans is still on backorder after over two months. I, too, got the "This is our busy time, please try back later." message followed by a hang-up when I tried calling. Emails went unanswered. I finally did get through on the phone and was told that it was my responsibility to take pictures of the damage and send them using the contact us link on the website. I did, and heard nothing for two weeks. I finally got another person on the phone who asked me to send the pictures to her email. She reviewed them and promised to send a replacement for the knock out rose. It still hasn't arrived. She also promised that the backordered honeysuckle would be in that week and shipped the next. Haven't seen it. She didn't mention the molded bulbs, so I emailed her back about it. She didn't respond.

Something else to be aware of when ordering is that you'll get a message about it being their busy time of year, so don't expect your order any time soon. They weren't kidding either. It took a long, long time for my order to come. This, of course, comes up only after you've placed the order and given them your credit card.

I feel this is a case for the Better Business Bureau and North Carolina's Attorney General to look into. Other than sending a note to them about my experience, I don't feel there's much more that I can do to get this matter resolved.

Where to begin? I ordered close to $200 of plants from this company in early April. When the plants arrived (at the end of the first week in May) they were all crammed into a long, narrow box. They were stapled to the box from the outside with more than 30 large staples. Most of the plants had broken branches. One plant was nearly dead and another was missing altogether. Three of the bushes that were supposed to be in gallon containers were in quart pots. I am generally not a complainer-and the plants seemed to be salvageable- so I waited for the arrival of the final plant and tried to revive the worst of the lot. The final straw was when the last plant finally arrived- yet another three weeks later(end of May) bare rooted in a plastic bag with no packing protection whatsoever. What was left of the plant was a few etiolated broken stems, a ball of bare roots and some loose dirt. Frustrated and upset, I decided to call the 800 customer service number. I got a recording that concluded with a hang up. I e-mailed my complaints and got a response asking why I hadn't complained about the original shipment earlier. When I tried to respond, my e- mail bounced back-multiple times as undeliverable. I even tried to email through their website- and that bounced back as well. I have continued to call -with no luck. Because of the size and condition of the plants I recieved, the terrible packing , the lengthy wait, as well as the inability to communicate with them, I would never do business with this nursery again.

I ordered two annabelle hydrangeas from this company, then when I went to prepare the holes I realized it was taken over my dead tree roots, so I called to get a tree removal service to do stump grinding on the spots, they told me two weeks, so I decided to cancel/postpone my order, then I was told by Judy "Yes, I will take care of this for you. As per our terms of service, orders
over 24 hours that are canceled are charged a 15% cancellation fee." I'll never order from them again.

I ordered a flowering almond bush from Brighter Blooms because I can't seem to find them at any local nurseries. The plant I received was healthy and huge; I don't think I've ever gotten a bigger plant through mail-order.

Brighter Blooms may be a good source of plants, but there lack of communication leaves a lot to be desired. I ordered a plant 2 months ago, they never emailed to advise what was going on with the order, so I called and was told it would be shipped by April 15, due to weather. I called again this week, this time I was told the plant is on back order. In my opinion this is poor customer service, as Brighter Blooms, never sent emails advising of status of order.

I bought a Fragrant Tea Olive tree. It's very good in package and pot and shipped very quickly.