Many Happy Returns?

I've received nearly all of my plant orders for the year season. Most are in the ground and doing pretty well.

A few notes:

I have another Ebb Tide rose coming from Dutch Gardens. The one I received looked like it had been either run over or stomped on when I got it. Still, I soaked it in weak compost tea with the others before planting and went ahead and put it in the ground. While the others started sprouting enthusiastically, the poor Ebb Tide did nothing. I can't say I'm surprised.

When I called Dutch Gardens to tell them about it and request another, I kept going on about how damaged it was. It broke my heart to throw it in the compost bin, I said, but there was no hope. "Mmm-hmm," said the operator idly. "It'll be a couple of weeks before we can get another one to you." Sheesh, don't they care?

(At least they send replacements without 20 questions. I'm hearing that Parks and Wayside are only offering store credit for dead plants now. That sucks. I've stopped buying from them for the most part anyways because their prices are ridiculous, but that certainly solidifies my decision.)

ANYWAY. I also still have an ornamental grass collection on order with Spring Hill. And do you know what the projected ship date is, despite the fact that I ordered it in MARCH? June 13-July 4. A month ago, I looked at my order status and they had the dates as April 30-May something. Have they bothered to let me know of these continual delays? No. Am I going to cancel the order? Probably. After all, even ornamental grass has its limits. Planting in July is useless. I'm not ordering from these jokers again, and their affiliate banner is coming off this site as well.

Man, I am one cranky gardener today.

Ok, here's some good customer service news. I had ordered a passiflora 'Lady Margaret' - yeah, the brilliant red one - from Select Seeds (the picture at left is from their site). When the rest of my order arrived, the passionflower wasn't there and was marked as backordered. Then, the total amount of the plant was suddenly refunded to me a month or so ago.

I was looking on their website the other day and there it was, for sale. I called, and the lady said they were in the process of recharging my account and sending me one. "The plants we got in were unacceptable," she said, "but we managed to get some more since then." I received my plant yesterday and, while small, it looks healthy.