Gardener Direct Review & Rating

Gardener Direct Nursery Grade: D-

Our recommendation: Be careful

Overall rating: 61

Top 20 Rank: Not Ranked

Website:  www.gardenerdirect.com

Location: Blanchard, OK

Why do we list location? This is so you can know, in most cases, where the evergreen shrubs you buy are coming from. 

We evaluate and score 10 different categories. You can read details on what each category means and how we score it here.

GardenerDirect.com Review

NOTE: Gardener Direct has dropped out of our top 20 rankings. We will continue to monitor and update the review as needed.

Gardener Direct rating is 61 which puts them at a D- grade. Gardener Direct scores high marks for the years in business and their return policy.  Everything else we graded didn’t do as well. Gardener Direct is firmly entrenched as one of our lowest-rated online nurseries. 

Gardener Direct appears to have a decent selection of sizes.  We found bare root as well as 1, 3 & 7-gallon sizes available. When we checked recently, a lot of the larger sizes seemed out of stock. They did seem to have some attractive prices but even then, they were all over the place.

We also gave them a decent rating of 7 out of 10 for their return policy.  It’s similar to others but they do say they will give a full refund or exchange.  “If your plants happened to get damaged during shipping or you are not fully satisfied with your order you may return it within 30 days of the ship date for a full refund or exchange. Shipping costs may not be covered in some cases.”  Of course, returning a perishable item in good condition may be problematic. There are a few hoops to jump through. You can read their return policy here https://www.gardenerdirect.com/returns/

Their terms of service are one of the longest we reviewed from all the sites selling evergreen shrubs online. It was 12 pages when we copied it into a Word document. 12 pages!!!  

It appears some revisions have been made to the overall design for GardenerDirect.com. The site looks a lot better and is a lot easier to get around.  Site search, which we said in the past was useless has been revised. Some of the selections from their top menu, however, go to a page with a 404 error.  There are also a lot of products featured that are out of stock when you click on them.

There’s also a disclaimer at the bottom of the GardenersDirect.com site that is very odd. Just curious what prompted this to be added:  “This site does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Information entered by Gardener Direct members is not endorsed by GardenerDirect.com. Never use any information from this site to diagnose or treat any medical problem.”

While their prices seem reasonable, the shipping costs can be high. A 2-gallon evergreen shrub at $40 isn’t a bad price. Paying 50% of that price for shipping is a lot. You can view their shipping costs here https://www.gardenerdirect.com/shipping-rates.

We also found some shipping cost discrepancies. For example, a Leyland Cypress in a 2.5 quart container was $19.97. The shipping they charged was $12.50. Their shipping rates chart says the shipping cost should only have been $10.50. That’s a pretty big discrepancy.

Gardener Direct says they ‘ships straight from the grower’ but we couldn’t find anything about whether they were an actual nursery or if they are a drop shipper that sends orders to other nurseries around the country. We suspect they are a drop shipper.

It is also hard to find Gardener Direct reviews anywhere. We’ve been looking for months & could not find GardenerDirect.com Google customer reviews anywhere. That’s a pretty big red flag. Then, out of nowhere, 2 Google reviews pop up. And, of course, both of them are 5-star reviews. The picture they show with their Google business listing looks to be home.

Better Business Bureau F Grade

The last time we checked, the Better Business Bureau listed 72 complaints for Gardener Direct and has given them an F Grade. 

They still seem to get decent traffic from the metrics we monitor. They just wouldn’t be a place we would consider buying from.

What were the red flags?

  • Having been around since 2009, they don’t have a lot of reviews on their product pages. And all of them are 4 or 5 stars.
  • There’s not a lot of reviews on their Facebook page. The most recent from May, 2017.
  • Their Google business profile lists them in Blanchard, OK. Their BBB profile says the location is McDonough, GA.
  • Their shipping rates published don’t always match up with what they charge when you attempt to checkout.

Gardener Direct Nursery Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Gardener Direct Located?

The phone number listed on their website is an area code for Oklahoma. There is also an address & BBB file for them in Georgia.

Can you call Gardener Direct to place an order?

The Gardener Direct phone number is 405-227-9888. Their hours are 7am to 5pm eastern time Monday through Friday.

 

Disclaimer

All the information on this website – www.BuyEvergreenShrubs.com – is published in good faith and for general information purpose only. Buy Evergreen Shrubs does not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability and accuracy of this information. Any action you take upon the information you find on this website (Buy Evergreen Shrubs), is strictly at your own risk. Buy Evergreen Shrubs will not be liable for any losses and/or damages in connection with the use of our website.

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Doug Hall
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