Romence Gardens & Greenhouses — Local services in Grand Rapids

In January 2025 I purchased petunias from Romance Gardens and every plant died over a 3 week time, The look fine when I received them but slowly shriveled up and died. I wrote to complain on August 13 to complain, including photos and I received this answer:

"I'm so sorry to hear your petunias didn't perform well this season! Unfortunately, as all of your orders were delivered 1-3 months ago, based on company policy I am unable to issue a refund. We guarantee that our plants will arrive safely and in good condition, so if there are any problems with them after shipping and we are contacted with photos within one week of delivery, we will issue a full refund or replacement. Since the plants are live and there are so many factors outside of our control, we do not refund after this time period. There are no known issues with our Proven Winner Petunias this year, and we have had many satisfied buyers across the country. Since all 40 of your petunias died, it is likely something environmental.

Again, I'm really sorry to hear about your plants, and I wish you the best. Please let me know if you have any further questions or issues.

Jessica Romence Gardens Customer Support"

I have ordered Proven Winners on line on their web site for about 20 years. They always work!!! This year I ordered them from Romance Gardens because they did not charge for shipping which with an order for 22 plants at $9.99 each was considerable.

I even ordered a few replacements on June 2nd after I had lost so many including Bubblegum Vista Petunias which are pretty indestructible!! They died also!!

And I reordered them again which arrived June 5th. And they died!!

My flowers were planted in various planters not near each other on different areas on our 10 acres. So it was not something I did or did not do! Nothing different from other years and at different times.

And on other years I ordered from Romance Gardens and their plants were perfect.

I really did not think that it could be Romance Gardens' problem which is why I ordered again and again. But after all died and I do think it was their problem. I wonder if anyone else had this problem? I can understand a basic policy if a plant dies but, not when ALL the plants died. These plants died slowly! You should have the photos of the dead ones I sent.

416.04. on petunias alone!!! And I have used Romance Gardens on two other years and their plants were perfect. And, this year I ordered Bees Knees petunias from Burpee and they still look great.no problems.

I WOULD LIKE A REFUND OR MAYBE A CREDIT AND WE CAN TRY AGAIN NEXT YEAR.

I spent 416.04. on petunias alone!!!

I spent a total of 505.27 on three orders in 2025.A total of $505.27.

I did spend 49.95 on Verbena bonariensis 'Meteor Shower®' Terrific. And $39.96. on Angelonia angustifolia hybrid 'Angelface® Both of these sets of plants are still blooming in my planters and look terrific.Same planters just not...

I used to shop here for all of my houseplants and a lot of my outdoor plants as well, as it's close to my home and they have a decent variety. Today while shopping, I originally planned to get one spider plant hanging basket, so I didn't grab a cart. While I was in the houseplant section, there were multiple signs stating 50% off for a "Bodhi's birthday sale". I was excited, so I grabbed what I could carry, set it on the counter and told the clerk I was just going to set them there while I got a cart to stock up while they were on sale. She told me the sale was yesterday and that the signs must've been forgotten about. I asked if she would honor the sale as the signs were up and it's technically state law to do so (as they do even at big box stores like Target, CVS, etc.), and she told me she would for the three plants I carried to the counter, but nothing else I grab would be honored because she was going to take the signs down right away. I was annoyed because if I hadn't have said anything, they wouldn't have known either way, but whatever. I was more so upset because her attitude changed immediately after I asked her to honor the advertised price and she became very rude the rest of the transaction. The whole situation was very off-putting, so I'll be driving to another locally owned flower shop to do my business...

I have shopped at Romence for several years. but customer service this year has gotten worse. I ordered two orders very early... months ago. Several days after the first order was suppose to ship, I was told there was a "crop failure" and they could not ship part of my order, but they were shipping the rest of it imminently . I just found it odd that a crop failure would not be known sooner. And I had to scramble to find substitutes locally, which luckily I did. I was also told the other order I had placed was shipping imminently. The very next day, I was contacted and I was told this was not shipping either as there was ANOTHER crop failure...THIS WAS AFTER I WAS NOTIFIED THE DAY BEFORE IT WAS SHIPPING. I am not sure what to think. Even when you order very early in the season, availability is unpredictable and you are notified so late in the game. It's hard to imagine what is going on with their software program, their shipping department, and ability to know their own stock availability.

The other thing I noticed this year was the inconsistent quality of the plants they are now shipping. The first few years, everything looked top notch. I ordered a wide variety of annuals this year as usual, and some of them were just not the quality I had come to expect...