Mahoney's Garden Center — Local services in Concord

Purchased 4 Arborvitae trees from them last year end of April, also purchased delivery and planting from them, probably they planted in a 50% shaded area in early May. Watered them in the first 2 weeks every day twice morning and evening with 5 gal pales each, then believed they should have established, later on relaxed to once when noticing consecutive dry days. Later started to notice browning, and then picked up watering again - this time with hosing each maybe 1 minute evening- which I roughly estimate would also fill a 5 gal pale - and town has suggested to limit outdoor watering to evening every other day. Ended up pretty much all brown, and town further limited watering to only weekend once, by this time I gave up. Was attributing to the dry season. But the past weekend happened to stop by and inquired about warranty thinking to replant them. Supposed to have 1 year warranty. But 1st asked for my physical receipt, which like most people I probably misplaced long time ago, then realized that as a Reward member, they could find my receipt from their system, then was asked to come back with picture that shows them dead. - I happen to have taken picture last year and was in my phone, then showed to them, then said I probably was not watering them enough and that is not covered, and the gentleman said he could not do the refund anyway, and I will have to come back. I have to admit that last year this area was a dry year, maybe I should have watered more. But I also wonder, if I had told them I did 5gal twice every day all the time, maybe they would tell me I watered too much. And my tree planting surviving rate had been pretty high, including from last year, like 1 died out of 15 other than these 4, some friends actually said I have "green thumb". Could it be I didn't take the right care of the trees, certainly could. Maybe these trees are quite different from the other trees I myself had planted - maybe they need more water.

I went there again later, this time a lady who is supposed to be able is present. The same thing. - After I told her the same, she said I was supposed to water every other day and maybe I could skip if it rains, until freezing - now thinking back, isn't that what I told her/described above - I guess my didn't last into freezing? Just described differently. I wonder if I point out such, I probably would have to produce evidence. Anyway she insisted I watered insufficient, which could be true, I had not planted this kind of trees before. So when I suggested that they could give me instructions if this type of trees need extra water compare to other trees, she suggested that I myself should have researched on how to take care of these trees "because like buying grocery, they would not give you all the recipes with the produce". Anyway, I am not a person like to argue, the coverage is declined.

Not going to buy plant from them again, if at all, I will try to remember to forget about the warranty - well, like warranty for many other products. but often they do not ask further questions if there are receipts.

The lady did say I should have called last year, maybe they could have made a difference. But I guess we could not go back in time.

My own fault for being too confident on knowing how to take care of the trees from past experiences and not good at...

I had a FANTASTIC experience at Mahoney's Garden Center in CONCORD, MASS. I had a goal to buy indoor house plants, and recognize I am not yet good at keeping plants alive.

Here is why I rate it 5 stars.

(1) HISTORY OF GOOD SERVICE. Based on a good experience at this very store about 3 years ago (and yes that plant is still alive & thriving, even with my poor skills) I returned on Saturday.

(2) IMMEDIATE HELP FROM AN ENTHUSIASTIC CREW I went to this Mahoney's with a friend who is excellent with plants, and we walked through the entire enormous greenhouse/garden center to identify what plants I liked, and what we thought may be a fit in terms of size, care, access to light, price, etc. Once we had our "list" I asked for assistance.

First, there was a SUPER FRIENDLY young man, (TJ I believe?) and he IMMEDIATELY was incredibly enthusiastic about plants. With an encouraging tone, he personally guided us through the store and show us his favorites and why he thought I could manage them. As our conversation deepened, he immediately connected me with gardeners there who could better help. Mahoney's is incredibly lucky to have such a welcoming employee as this one.

(3) EXCEPTIONAL ADVICE FROM NATALIA. We were BLOWN AWAY by the energy, knowledge, competence, patience, and follow-through from NATALIA in the Mahoney's in Concord. She was down to earth, did not rush us, and personally walked us through the store as well. She listened to my needs, looked at a few photos of my room/space and provided creative solutions and helped steer me away from plants that she thought would not thrive in my space, while directing me to others that she felt convinced would look great. I am not kidding. I bought 6 plants, and my friend who was NOT planning to buy a plant, bought one too. That's how awesome Natalia is. I am impressed with her follow-through, personalized service and advice. Natalia was SO AWESOME I had to stop what I was doing to write this review.

BRAVA Natalia, and THANKS TO YOU & the Mahoney Garden Center Concord. AWESOME experience and you have...

I was at a wedding for my girlfriend's brother when I was informed, the day before the wedding, that it was traditional for the family to have a single Gardenia flower at a table during the reception to take the place of the groom's deceased grandmother (it was her favorite flower). The wedding was in Worcester and we were sad to discover that there wasn't a single florist or garden store in Worcester that had any blooming gardenias in stock.

Mahoney's was recommended to be as a possible alternative option and I called them to check if they had any gardenias. Not only did they have multiple blooming plants of different sizes, but they were also extremely helpful in answering my numerous calls. At one point I even had them ranking the blooms on a scale of 1-10 to decide if I should make the trip from another store that only had one very sad looking flower.

Although I had planned on buying a whole plant in order to get one flower, when I informed the person who showed us to the gardenias in the store that I only really needed one flower, they cut the best looking flower off of one of the plants and then proceeded to let us take only the flower without even paying for it.

I can't recommend Mahoney's, particularly this location of theirs, enough for their courtesy and...