A funny thing happened with my High Country Gardens order

Well, my High Country Gardens order finally came. FedEx left them in full sun despite the cautions all over the boxes to leave them in shade. Thanks for nothing, FedEx! There were three boxes, which seemed like a lot for 15 plants.

(That's the sound of foreshadowing you hear. It's similar to the Law&Order bong!bong! noise.)

The plants took a week to arrive so they were really sad and wilted. I opened up the first box and my 15 plants were there. I glanced over at the other two boxes, wondering what the hell was in them. Then I realized that the box I had just opened had a SECOND layer of plants beneath the 15 I'd already pulled out. American Meadows, who has been struggling under the weight of their new acquisition, had sent me someone else's order. A big order. I panicked and texted Scott and he told me that the plants would never survive the trip back to HCG and to unwrap and baby them along with the others. They were mine now.

The packing slip included only the plants I'd ordered. There was no note saying, "Sorry your order was so bungled and late, here's a couple of plants on us." And who sends 50(!) plants as an apology? I unwrapped and watered all the plants, which took over an hour. Then I started reading up on what they'd sent me.

21 Salvia sylvestris 'Blue Hill'. You read that right; 21 of the same salvia.

5 Dalea pupureum

4 Ratibida columnifera 'Yellow'

9 Gaillardia (two colors)

12 Stachys coccineus 'Mountain Red'

I've called and called HCG, trying to get a rep so I can alert them that a customer probably got a shipment notification and never received their plants. I would be so upset if that happened to me. As before, no one answers the phone and their voicemail box is full. I spent an entire day putting plants in the ground, hoping they'll survive. It's a good thing I have so much empty space in my garden. Have you ever received an order that wasn't yours?

I'm done with High Country Gardens

I placed an order with High Country Gardens back in March. The plants are intended to go in the entrance to my yard, which is currently a weedy, awful mess.

They charged my card at the time of the order, which is fairly unusual for mail order nurseries (in my experience). I should have received my plants the week of April 15th. That week came and went and my plants never arrived. I called them and was told that I was "in shipping" and that my plants would go out the following Monday. But no plants arrived.

I called again and they told me that Bouteloua gracilis 'Blonde Ambition' had held up the order. It would ship as soon as that was ready.

Still no plants arrived.

I got a mass email saying that their winter had been cold and their stock wasn't where it would normally be at that time of year. My plants would ship the week of May 13th!

Then I randomly received an email last week stating that they would be unable to fulfill two of my plant requests (Lonicera reticulata 'Kintzley's Ghost' and Gaillardia 'Arizona Sun') and they were refunding the money and crediting me $10 to use at the nursery.

I still have no plants. At this point I want to cancel my order completely but when you call you get put through to a voicemail box that is full and no longer takes messages. When I tried to cheat and choose the phone option to place an order I still can't get a live person. It's like they just disappeared, taking my money with them.

I've placed orders with HCG and had no problems in the past. Now that they've been sold to American Meadows the whole operation seems to have gone to shit. I don't think I'll be using that $10 credit. Buyer beware.