Prairie Gardens — Local services in Champaign

I notified staff that hostas were infected with virus that can spread to all hostas both in their store and throughout customer’s gardens. I photographed the plants and experts of American Hosta Society confirmed infection. Staff said they would remove from shelves but then returned the infected plants to shelves for sale. They betray our trust, place profit over the welfare of people’s gardens and are breaking USDA and state regulations. Update 9/20/23 Was hoping to see an amended reply from Prairie Gardens admitting their error in not recognizing that they were selling hostas infected with HVX. I received confirmation from the USDA that the sample from Prairie Gardens tested positive days before they posted their reply in which they suggested that I was surely mistaken and that I educate myself. I sincerely hope that they have taken their own advice and provided training for all of their self-proclaimed “expert” staff and nursery workers so that they may learn to identify and remove virused hostas in a more timely fashion-ideally before they are taken off the truck. Otherwise they perpetuate this cycle and continue to contribute to a problem that devastates hosta gardens. I’ve shopped at Prairie Gardens for 50 (yikes) years and will continue to enjoy shopping there for other plants. I stopped buying hostas from big box stores and Monrovia long ago because they routinely sell virused plants. After this incident I’ve sadly added Prairie Gardens to my growing list of places to...

Beware of the signs! I always loved coming to this place when in Champaign, but will hesitate in the future. It's a lovely store, but on my way back to Chicago after spending over $300, I realized that I was not given the 50% off sale price on the garlands I bought, which at full price were rather pricey and I would not have purchased them at that price. I called the store and they said they'd look into it. After several hours they let me know that the garlands I bought were not on sale, even though the sign I read said something like "all garlands over $x.xx 50% off." She claims that it said "spring and floral" and I bought fall garlands. It was not obvious that there was a differentiation since the signs were posted in both sections. She said I could ship them back and they'd give me a refund. Well, they are bulky and the shipping cost would be prohibitive. I cannot just get in the car and drive 150 miles to return them. Seems like they could have done something more for customer satisfaction given the unclear signage, but no... I noticed that the employees in several sections of the store yesterday were less than friendly. So sad. Really makes me reconsider spending my money there again. UPDATE: They called back today and said that the buyer would allow them to credit me with 30% off due to the confusion over the signage. That seemed more fair and warrants an additional star for the...

We had an art canvas stretched here and it was a touching experience. The two people who work the art department are just totally competent, sincerely hardworking, decent people. One of them had a family crisis during our project and the other person stepped up and worked for both of them, and finished a week early, just to take the pressure off their colleague. The work in this shop is superb. I can't say enough good about the art department. It's so much fun shopping at Prairie Farms, too. They always have new and different seasonal items. My only negative comment is that the garden center employees have a separate and different attitude. They consistently can't be bothered to help you, and when they do, the garden employees have quite a haughty attitude and won't share their knowledge without making you wait or putting you down for not knowing where things are, or even for just asking a question. Don't even talk to the garden people. Just walk through and maybe buy stuff, but if you try to talk they will make you want to leave. OH, I forgot... this place has the best large ceramic planters I have seen in all of North America!!! The selection is stunning and they cost ridiculously reasonable prices for the extreme beauty. Alas, they live in the infamous garden...