No experience but I cannot afford the 75$ delivery fee so I could not shop here. I am also suspicious of how they call themselves a delivery service and not a nursery. Are you looking for a rare plant?

They only seem to deliver to California, since when I looked for more info on specific plants they first wanted if I was in northern or Southern California. So you might want to ask on the California forum after you have read the various threads I found when I did a search for "Plants Express" on the Garden Web California forum. Here is a link to the list of threads. At least one thread is from 2013, so on the positive side it seems like they have been around for several years.

We are redoing our whole yard so ordering a lot of plants - there is free shipping if you order over a certain amount. $499 I think. Still having a hard time finding much feedback out there on quality. I'll try the California forum. Thanks!

They are a plant broker, not a nursery or grower, so quality could be all over the map depending on who they are buying from. Since they only deliver in CA, I'd assume that's where you are located as well. If so, I have to wonder at the need for using a broker rather than just purchasing direct from a local retail nursery. Or having your landscape contractor or designer purchase from a wholesale grower. CA (and OR and WA) are the major wholesale growing locatons for just about any plant sold in the US. And local nurseries with a full range of plant selection year round abound. Brokers will always bump up their pricing from retail (that's how they make $$) and nurseries will usually offer a much better warranty policy.

I would LOVE to use a broker to get my hands on rare plants grown at a wholesale nursery that neither the nurseries nor the landscaper I use are willing to open accounts with,@. (They're "too far." Argh.)

I started this same thread on the CA forum - check it out for some helpful feedback.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/plants-express-retail-nurseries-in-the-bay-area-dsvw-vd~4931690

Hello, this is Mike Cornell. I am President of Plants Express. We have been in business since 2001 and together with our wholesale business shipped over 1.4 million containerized plants last year in California. We are plant lovers who know plants. We ship hundreds of varieties of plants everyday to both Northern and Southern California homeowners and businesses. We also supply independent garden centers and big box retailers, like the Home Depot. If you are looking for just a few plants, we highly recommend local garden centers. If you are looking to buy a lot of plants and you want them delivered directly to your home with a "no questions asked" guarantee at the lowest prices available in the market, we are happy to help. You can call us M-F at 888-444-1126, ask for Chris. Chris is a certified nursery professional who can help with the most challenging plant questions. I hope this note answered your questions.

My experience has been mixed. I’ve ordered from them several times. Most of the time it’s been fine. The one bad experience is when I ordered a second 24” boxed Palo Verde tree from them. The first one I ordered months prior was perfect and a beautiful tree. I ordered one months later and it was really pitiful. It was much much smaller and looked as if it grew against a wall because it was so lopsided. They said some branches must’ve broke in the delivery (I checked and there was no evidence of this) and hey exchanged it.

The second tree came and although much better than the first one it was essentially a 15 gallon tree planted in a 24” box. It again was smaller but this time fairly symmetrical. Instead of hassling with exchanging it, I just decided I couldn’t reschedule our landscaper again and said just plant it. When they removed the sides of the box, they showed me the root ball had never expanded outside of the 15 gallon soil and so there weren’t any roots holding the soil together outside of the 15 gallon circle. It was a perfect 15 gallon perfect circle.

I saw a just as nice or nicer 15 gallon potted one at our local nursery for $159...$175 less than what I paid (with delivery)...but the thing is, I could’ve transported a potted 15 gallon tree in my own truck and not paid $75 for delivery. So I basically paid $175 for dirt and a wooden box I didn’t need.

-Addendum: I received an email from Michael Cornell apologizing for the experience and letting me know that he had instructed someone at his office to offer a 100% refund although I didn't request one, expect one, or know about it until after I wrote the review. I can truly respect that he cared that I wasn't happy with the experience we had and wanted to make things right, and wrote him back explaining this as well as thanking him for the email.

I had a recent large order ($10k) with Plants Express in Northern California. Ordering and delivery was smooth. Communication was good. Pricing was great. Plants arrived as scheduled and looked nice.

Among them was 119 Pittosporum Tenuifolium in unlabeled 15 gallon containers, sold as 15-gallon plants (about $7k).

Like victortanisaka's experience above, my landscape contractor noted they were recently transplanted 5 gallons that shouldn't have been sold as 15-gallon plants. The root balls easily fall apart when removing them from the 15 gallon container. I asked a local nursery for a second opinion and they also agreed that they shouldn't have been sold as a 15 gallon.

I reached to Plants Express and they said they are perfectly good 15 gallon plants, offering no remedy/recourse.

I am by no means an expert in this space, so be your own judge. See attached photos/videos.

I see the original post was a few years ago. But I order regularly from Plants Express in Southern California.

Plants are in very good condition, soil is in great condition so plants can sit out in staging area for awhile. Or, don't have plants sitting around: you can request a specific delivery date. And, you don't have to be present for delivery!

At first the delivery fee seemed steep. However, living in LA, you have to drive around to get the wide range of plants, Plants Express has available. My time, gas money, and consistently healthy plants make the delivery fee worth it.

I strongly recommend Plants Express.

Hello!

I LOVE Plants Express and confidently buy from them all the time.

As a plant lover for over 45 years, I’ve studied plants, gardened since I was 10 and “relandscaped” my yard five times since buying my home 20 years ago. So I like to think I have loads of experience in choosing plants.

Three years ago I moved my business (not plant related) into a studio at the back of my property and quickly needed to tidy up the landscaping in the back and front. I drove all over town (even to San Diego from LA), searching for plants on my list.

Then I happened upon Plants Express when trying to find a specific item. Timing was important, I was desperate so I took a chance. And I’ve never looked back!

You get to choose the delivery date, assign a project name to your order (I’m now doing small design jobs), and not once have I been unhappy with the quality and form of any plants I’ve received.

Plants Express calls the day before your order is to arrive. They are very pleasant. I no longer feel I need to check my order during delivery for problems because the plants are always perfect.

Land is expensive in LA so nurseries squeeze plants up against one another, resulting in broken side stems, brown slimy foliage, weeds and disease. Plants need air to circulate through them. Often plants are mislabeled and root bound. And you have to work at reviving them.

You won’t have these problems with Plants Express. Pay the $75! It might hurt the first time, but you won’t even think about when you continue to do business with them:)

We just received our first delivery from plants express yesterday and were very happy with the quality of plants we received. Some background: we have a large yard and probably add two to three dozen plants to it every year. Over the last five years, we bought plants from big box stores, several local retail nurseries, a local wholesale nursery and through several local landscape design companies. Our yard has a palate of ten species that we repeat over and over again so we generally know exactly what we want. The big box stores have great prices but rarely have what we're looking for in stock. Local nurseries have good quality but are more expensive and are hit and miss with stock (the closest one decided to order no cistus/rock rose this year after having dozens and dozens of them last year). The local landscape design companies we've used have great service and will call all over to find the plants we want (and will pick out the very best specimens) but charge $100/hr to do so and then charge a delivery fee on top of that.

Plants Express pricing seemed pretty close to big box stores, so it makes sense to use them if you're getting a few hundred dollars in plants or more.

As for the "small plants in big pots" problem - all nurseries move their small plants to larger pots as they grow. Hopefully they don't immediately turn around and sell them at a higher price before they grow into the pots.

I highly recommend Plants Express. We ordered over 300 plants from them in a single shipment and every single one was healthy and beautiful! The staff is knowledgeable (especially Chris), professional, friendly, and helpful. If you need plants this is the place to go!!

Initially when I was considering ordering from PE, I was concerned about the mixed reviews. However, I have to add that I had a great experience with them. I had the unusual circumstance of needing to order from SF for my rental house in LA. Add in covid and I needed plants (65 of them for a complete landscape job) delivered on the day I arrived in LA. PE had the selection, Chris even called to warn me that a couple plants were in rough shape. I swapped them out for some others and they delivered as promised straight to the driveway. Yes, some of the 1 gal. plants were small, but plants grow and generally they were in good shape and the order came complete. For the wide selection, reasonable price (free delivery), and front door delivery, they were just right for my job. Very happy overall.

I know that this is an old thread but I'd just like to provide a review on my recent experience with plants express. Extremely unhappy with my experience. I ordered roughly $400 worth of agaves for my backyard remodel and the plants that I received were in terrible condition. They seemed malnourished, misshaped, damaged from shipping, and were generally the ugliest agaves I've seen. I was able to speak with Denise (who was great), provided her pictures, and she agreed that the agaves should have never been delivered in that condition. She immediately scheduled a pickup in two days to take the plants back. It took 2 WEEKS to get my money back after they had taken the plants back. Overall a horrible experience working with plants express. I highly recommend purchasing locally rather than online.

This is Mike Cornell, President, Plants Express.

Eric, thank you for your comment. I am very sorry for your experience. As you can see from the thread, the vast majority of our customers have had the opposite experience.

As you know, our policy is to deliver great plants and if your are not completely happy a full refund is immediately forthcoming; no questions asked.

This year we will ship nearly 10,000 orders in California and yours has been a singular experience. Again, for this I apologize.

You indicated you were not happy, we refunded your entire purchase. Exactly how fast that refund shows up on your account is not only out of our control--the credit card company is much more involved at this point than we are--but TWO WEEKS seems to me to be pretty darn fast. What inconvenience or problem did you suffer as a result of two weeks versus, let's say, two days? I will be happy to take care of that too. Just let me know.

Normally, I would bend over backwards when I see such a post to try to make things better. Yours seems to me like a capricious attack from someone not used to instant satisfaction, for this we have no remedy.

Respectfully, Mike Cornell

President, Plants Express

Mike, I apologize if the main takeaway from my review was that I was unhappy about the timing surrounding processing my refund - sure it was inconvenient that it took 2 weeks to process the refund (based on when I received the refund receipt) but that definitely wasn't the main point. You're absolutely right - 2 weeks vs 2 days - doesn't matter as long as I got my money back.

To clarify, my main point should have been that the plants that were ultimately delivered to me should have never even been for sale given the condition that they were in. Each of the plants I received was in poor condition - whether being damaged from shipping (snapped agave leaves, water logged succulents) or damaged from general care (burns on new growth, diseased leaves, dead leaves, misshapen plants, etc.) I'm abstaining from posting photos of the plants I received, but if I posted a side by side comparison of what I received and what you advertise on your site you'd be absolutely embarrassed by the quality.

First rate company with excellent service and quality plants. After personally searching everywhere for a particular ground cover Plants Express was able to find what i needed within 10 days.

I have just placed a large order with Plants Express and am excited to receive and review. This seems like a company that cares, by the comments of Mike Cornell. Fingers crossed!!

ordered 4 trees from plants express [sept 2021] and two of them died immediately. to be clear plants express refunded [supposedly] the price of two trees after one months time. here are the problems: 1. plants express through a vendor sold me 4 cloned trees not trees grown from seed and therefore have very weak root systems until 6 months or more. nowhere on the website did they say that they were selling cloned trees. a clone is when you take a cutting from a tree, apply root hormone and then if the limb grows roots you have a clone tree from a "mother" plant. 2. a Ms Martinez in email contact never thanked me for my business nor apologized for the problem of two trees dying immediately. she was pretty curt throughout emails and attempted to deflect the issue back to me twice - as if out of 4 trees i cannot tell that two are dead. [the other two trees look great and they are growing fine]. 3. not going to order from plants express ever again - obviously a large company with many third party vendors, so oversight is severely lacking.

jonathan, Plants Express is a plant broker. They grow none of the plants themselves but access them through a large network of wholesale growers. It is a service that is primarily a convenience for the homeowner, as it makes available a large assortment of a wide variety of plants that can be accessed by a one-stop shopping experience rather than needing to search for or visit multiple mail order nursery sites offering the plant(s) you want or a need to get in your car and drive to one or more garden centers to find the same thing.

Given the pricing on their trees, it's hard to imagine them selling anything that was not of decent size and appropriately well rooted. Nowhere sells barely rooted cuttings for $45 and up!! FYI, almost any named cultivar of tree will be cloned (grown from a cutting or grafted). Seed grown plants may be very variable in appearance and are virtually always only available as straight species. A cloned tree is far more common than one that is not!!

FYI - "third party vendors" implies that plants express is a broker as i wrote originally.

FYI - not hard for me to "imagine" two dead trees because two trees died immediately.

FYI - since you did not receive the trees it's hard to imagine you commenting on product i received and paid $125.00 each for [4 trees for $500].

Thanks for your input!!

PS - plants express refunded appropriately as i stated previously after receiving photos from me of two dead trees. no one had to "imagine" anything. it was reality.

You gave the impression in your post that these were tiny little barely rooted cuttings and that Plants Express was responsible for shipping out inferior stock. Absolutely no need for you to be snarky about responses that explained how a plant broker works as it appeared you had no idea nor that cloned plants are extremely common!!

it's odd that plants express seems to have hired a comments "hitman" that gets notifications if i comment and responds 20 minutes later on a three year old thread. you're monitoring a three year old thread for plants express remaining "nameless"? i checked back here to print out the comments so i could complain to plants express corporate. for the second time - i originally stated that i knew they used vendors. brokers buy from vendors - i never said plants express grew the plants. in addition i made no comment on the commonality of cloned trees, that is merely your position that you keep on repeating.

If you were a regular here - which you are not, having just joined to make this one single complaint - you would see that I was one of the original commenters to this thread 3 years ago. As such, I receive notifications when any thread I post to gets subsequent comment.....so I am not monitoring anything!! The website lets me know automatically.

And I am certainly not a 'hitman' or a shill for Plants Express! I do not live in their marketing area and have never ordered from them but as a professional landscape designer, I have used plant brokers many time and am very familiar with how they operate. You apparently are not.

Any basic horticultural research should have enlightened you about clonal plants and how ALL named varieties/cultivars tend to cloned - propagated asexually - since they rarely ever come true from seed. That is a gardening fact of life that you seem to be unaware of.

In short jonathan, you appear to be more of a troll than anyone posting helpful advice for others.

We ordered from plants express over the summer of 2021 to add the final touches on our pool project. Plants came in good time however the delivery person was not able to even get the plants out of the truck, had we not had help there would of been no way for them to move them as we ordered 7 24 boxed trees. All the trees looked great, except one tree. It came damaged but our landscaper said it should be fine once planted. Just after 2 weeks of planting them 5 turned brown and started to die. I sent photos at the 33 day mark just to document as I wanted to let them know of what was happening with the trees. I was told to give them more to time and to make sure our watering system was set correctly - they should be fine is what they ultimately said some plants take 1 year to establish. In Dec of 2021, 5 of the 7 trees had died, confirmed by our landscaper. So we emailed Plants Express to follow up on our options - we just really would of liked to replace them. Their first solution was we could purchase the trees again and they would give about $30 off each tree and we would need to pay the delivery fee of $100 again. We told them that wouldn't work for us and they needed to offer something else. After going back and forth several times they finally agreed to refund $795 of our $2300 order....they would not tell us how they got to this price but they said because we emailed at 33 days they would not honor their 30 day return policy. Had we known how this company handles these issues we would of just ordered them locally, although we saved money when ordering from them in the first place, in the long run we ended up having to spend $1050 additionally because now we have to replace the 5 trees and their "refund" did not even cover the cost of 2 trees. Buyers beware. Also if you really want to order from them I would suggest placing your order through Home Depot as you would be dealing with them regarding returns which would offer a lot less hassle. I mean 3 days is why they wouldn't stand behind their product....Costly lesson learned. In the end we are very disappointed in their service.

I recently ordered from Plants Express. It was a mixed experience.

The delivery person helped me put the trees in the driveway so that was helpful.

However, the size of some of the trees were small for 24 inch box. The Fernleaf Catalina Ironwood in particular that I ordered was quite small for the 24 inch box (1st picture). It seemed like a 15 gallon was transferred to a 24 inch box to charge a higher price (3-4X price). There were few other trees in 24 inch box category (2nd picture) that seemed to be the right size but Catalina Ironwood was not. Root ball of one of the California Pepper tree seemed displaced as well (2nd picture, you can see the tilt). These kind of experiences leave a bad taste in customer's mouth. Some of these nuances I was not aware of but the gardener pointed it to me.

It takes effort to get another appointment with the landscaper to plant the tree and set up irrigation so I accepted it but overall not pleased with this experience.

One California Pepper tree whose root ball was displaced is dead in less than a month. I called and emailed Plants Express. Have not heard back from them. You can see the dead dried leaves. I have adequately watered it too.

I was so excited when I ordered my roses for my garden that I have been putting together since my grandma passed away few months back. I ended up spending $600 on different colored roses. I was so excited and waited 2 weeks for these roses. Then a day before the delivery I was emailed I wouldn't receive them for 4 more days which was today. So I woke up for the special delivery at 7am today and I couldn't believe my eyes. I told the man was he joking that these couldn't be right. I cried for over 2 hours. Denise is who I talk to from the day of my purchase . She said she cannot replace them because these are the best they have. I could have went to homedepot or even Walmart and spent my $600! If the roses are dead and limbed over then they are wilted so bad. I am so disappointed and will NEVER shop online again. Denise said they will pick these up and refund within 30 to 60 days! DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY AT PLANTSEXPRESS !

I can't recommend Plants Express - I paid $300.00 for a tree that the delivery person left laying on the front lawn and left. I paid for delivery and this is the kind of service I get. AND I called the customer service number (about 3 months later) my landscaper told me to call the nursery amd let them know that there were problems with the tree - the tree had something weird

going on with the bark and wasn't thriving. I sent photos to customer service and they said the bark looked okay to them and the tree was growing normally, seriously? Check my photos! Absolutely terrible customer service - BEWARE!

Plants expressx has terrible quality plants, they delivered a bunch of diseased pants to me yesterday. Plants are tiny for the price, looks like 1 gallon transplanted to 5 gallon. stay away

Apparently Daniel did not read any of the other comments to this thread otherwise he would know that Plants Express is only a broker or third party facilitator between the actual grower/nursery and the customer. They are not responsible for the plant quality - the grower is. All they do is access the plants in question and arrange delivery.

And Daniel, it is not considered good form to "like" your own comments!!