Meadows Farms Nurseries and Landscape — Local services in Fredericksburg

I had landscaping at my home done by the staff at your location on Route 3. The Customer Satisfaction Survey that was offered with my completion packet would not give me the opportunity to express how I felt about my landscape experience. The Landscape Architect/Designer was prompt at our initial design meeting, but when I had questions about my landscape job he was very rude. He and I had exchanges via text messages about adding extra areas to be landscaped to the original plan. Since he was hired as the designer I wanted to contact him so to make sure that we were all on the same page in regard to my project. We exchanged text messages because the extra areas, what he and I talked about did not occur at my home. This was a problem to me because when you say that something can be added without issue, you must abide by that based on integrity. I even went as far as giving an acknowledgement that I knew that there would have to be financial adjustments made to the original agreement. I sent him some pictures of some plants that I would have liked to have planted, they were Salvia. I do not know anything about gardening and that is the reason why I chose to spend my money with Meadow Farms. I sent him a text of the flowers, and he went on to state to me that “he never got those pictures, and come on why would we plant Salvia that will die at the end of the season. I thought this came across as very rude and cavalier to say the least. I then called him on the phone because text messages lack tone on or about 8:20 and he stated to me that “he did not have time to talk to me about this issue because he was lying down with his kids”. This was very rude to me because a proper response would have been “Mr. Miller I am with my family, can we talk about this is the morning?”. He did not have to answer the phone he could have sent a text that said “It is after business hours can we discuss this in the morning I am with my family”. I understand business and family because I have children and grandchildren, and I am the owner of a business in the field of health care. You should never use that tone and take that position with a customer that has spent his or her hard earned money with your organization, due to the fact that bad reviews can have a negative effect on business. I stated to him that I wanted vibrant colors in my landscape package and he stated that he had some things in mind that I would like because I wanted red, yellow, and orange flowers to accent my home. This did not occur to say that least for the amount of money that I paid, which is over $3000.00. I expected a better design, more content, a higher grade of flowers, and some imagination. The Landscape Foreman was relatively nice and he had me send him the pictures of the types of flowers that I wanted which were French and African Marigolds and Salvia. Once again I am not a landscape professional, so that makes me a novice in the area of horticulture. I have a couple of issues with the landscape team they used some flowers that were damaged and on the verge of dying. The roses that we got were very small and damaged. I expected a great deal more in regard to my design because Meadow Farms is the preeminent landscape operation in this area, and I expected an upscale product. I also had flowers beds made but the landscape crew dug the flower beds so that if it rained the water would settle and potentially run into the house, instead of draining into the yard. I am not pleased to say with the professionalism, customer courtesy, respect, and the lack of desire to assist a client by the Landscape Designer at your location on Route 3. I can honestly say without a doubt that I will never do business with the Meadow Farms store on Route 3, because this experience is one that cost me a great deal of money but yielded a mediocre result to...

We are very disappointed with the sod Meadows Farms installed for us this spring. We were skeptical about using a full sun variety under trees but were reassured by their professional that it would take. It did not. We followed all directions given to us at the time of installation. It appeared fine for about a month or so, and then browned over time in different patches and died. Sod is not covered under their warranty conveniently enough, but we can pay them to come out and reinstall for another $10,000. I don’t think so. Very dissatisfied and we won’t be using their services again, which is also disappointing because we try to support local businesses.

Update 9/4/23: Chris, a manager at Meadows Farms, was in contact with us and visited our house last week to see the situation. He agreed that we should have more grass growing than we do now and he pointed out some places where the sod was not in contact with the ground that may have impacted water drainage. He promised to replace what’s there this fall and to get grass to grow at no additional costs to us.

When I had first contacted Meadows Farms about the sod dying off, I had thought its dying was part of the reseeding process discussed at the initial consultation, so I wasn’t upset at all. However, after being put on hold, the customer service representative immediately came back on the phone with “What do you expect us to do about it? If the grass had died after a day or so we might have come out and replaced a patch or two, but not after months” and “…You should have read your contract…” and “I guess it will take another $10,000 for someone to come out to your house.” So after complete dismissal and blatant rudeness from this customer service representative, I felt we were being scammed. She should have politely transferred us to a manager instead of becoming confrontational and aggressive. Maybe, Mr. Meadows, you could provide training or have clear policies for your employees to follow because this could have...

It is mid season (early August) and I am looking for sugar snap peas to add to my garden. I thought I had some seeds in my seeding inventory, but I don't. Instead of buying seeds somewhere, I thought I would call Meadows Farms to see if they had any seedlings or plants. I normally drive all the way out to the one near Dulles airport, because the service there is impeccable and the inventory vast, but then I recalled they had other locations closer to me. To avoid driving all over the DC/MD/VA and around the beltway, I thought to call and save myself time.

I know at the Dulles location (off Route 50), they have people who work the cashier and phone, as well as people outside in the nursery, walking by asking if folk's need help. I figured whoever answered the phone could ask someone to check - all it would take was a 10-minute phone call, at most. Instead of burning gas, I could let my fingers do the walking.

JULIA was not having any of that. She wants me to drive around the beltway and burn gas and waste time. I call. She answers the phone. I explain my situation. She told me bluntly, "Your best bet is to just drive here and look for yourself."

I took a breath.

I explained that I didn't want to have to drive to all of their 16 locations if I didn't have to do that. She went into explaining how they buy from Bonnie and blah, blah, blah. Nothing that explained why she couldn't walk back to where the plants were (or have someone else do it) and tell me if they had the plants or not.

Simple customer service, Julia. And if they didn't have the time or resources at the time, she could have taken my phone number, called me back when they did and that would have been just fine.

No. Julia wasn't feeling customer friendly today, so guess what? My wallet isn't feeling Julia or this Meadows Farms. As a matter of fact, my wallet isn't feeling any of the Meadows Farms today.

I'll spend my money elsewhere....