The prices are TOO good to BE true... and Gurney's is the example! Beware. Sorry its too late to save you the money!
Buying at a local independent garden center is still best!

I have ordered from Gurney's several times. I always get my seeds in a timely manner and they have a good germination rate. BUT any time I order plants it is a total nightmare! I get the wrong ones or something but I have always had bad luck ordering plants from them.

I've ordered regularly from Gurney's and I think they are a good company. The seeds as missmshell says are reliable. I've ordered asparagus crowns from several sources and I was most pleased with Gurney's.

I ordered a mix of blueberry varieties this year and the $3.99 Dukes that I tacked on to the order because they were so cheap were a mistake (insert funeral music here.) I haven't bothered to ask for money or credit because the others have done well and as I said I am happy with Gurney overall.

Buying at a local independent garden center is still best!

Great as long as you want Crimson King Maples and Bradford Pears.

What I mean is, local is great for "ordinary" stuff and preferred, but if you want something just a bit unusual, you almost always have to go mail order.

The seeds may be OK, but they do a very poor job on trees and shrubs and to save postage costs, they ship bare root, which means for some plants that most of the roots are dead by the time you get them.
I don't even think they sell the top quality seeds either. I'd go with Johnnies' seeds or Stokes for good Vegetables or even Territorial in Oregon before I'd order from Gurneys, unless you live in South Dakota.

I ordered from them last year for the first time. Mostly pepper plants. Not only were they late in arriving, but they looked liked something I could have grown on a north-facing window sill! Each plant had two leaves on it, was 10 inches tall, and six came bundled together. I was embarrassed to tell anybody where I bought them.

Needless to say, none of them made it after a few weeks. They all went in the composter. I didn't even bother calling about a refund--chalked it up to experience. I'll never order anything from them again.

We have ordered a lot from Gurney's and have always been pleased with everything we ordered from them. I have never had any problem with any of the seeds that we ordered and last year we ordered four cherry trees and a plum tree, all of which I was very pleased with. All of the cherry trees had signs of life and the only one that I was hesitant about was the plum tree which I did not see any green on it. I planted them in large pots as soon as I got them so that I could find a good spot for them and ready it for planting. Soon after I put them in the pots all of them started to get their leaves including the plum that I didn't notice any sign of life on originally.

Once in the ground they all did very well until deer ate them. So we had to rap them to prevent future damage, and they all soon started to come back to life, except for one which I believe was planted in a area that was too wet. This one ended up dieing, when my husband called Gurney's, about six months after we had received them, and told them what happened, they said they would gladly send another one in the spring. I was really surprised by this since I think it was our fault that it did not survive. I told him it would be a waste of his time to call but he called anyway, and I am glad he did.

We have also ordered strawberry plants from Gurneys in the past and I was also pleased with the quality of them.

This year I think I will be ordering some blueberry plants so hopefully I will have good luck with them also.