Utah Wildflower Company — Local services in Salt Lake City

Rodrigo and his team at Utah Wildflower are truly exceptional. We required ‘ground-up’ landscaping and irrigation for a 0.3 acre property with a newly constructed home. We wanted primarily a water-wise property with bird/bee/friendly plants, planters, retaining walls, stairs and pathways, and a strip of turf for the kids to run around on. Our house construction had gone way over budget and so we weren’t sure we would be able to afford landscaping at all this year. We had meetings with multiple teams and received multiple bids. I was impressed with Rodrigo, as he seemed most knowledge about local, water-wise plants; approachable and friendly; and had great ideas for the property; and so I was doubly excited when their bid came in the lowest by a substantial margin. It turned out to be just an incredible value. Having just built a home, we have worked with dozens of construction teams over the past two years – many were great, many were frustrating, but Rod’s team was hands down the most delightful to work with, as they brought the rare mix of high-quality work, high efficiency, and courteous and professional behavior.

To get in just a few examples. First, the team was extremely efficient. They estimated a month to complete the work and it took three weeks. Second, the work is high quality, and they stand by it. The planter boxes are excellent craftsmanship, the patio and pathway exactly what we had hoped. The irrigation system working without a hitch. Of the over 300 plants/trees that were planted, most have taken beautifully. I’ve found only three that did not take, and Rod has offered to replace them in the spring. Third, they are incredibly accommodating, careful and professional. We wanted to wait on the landscaping until the home build was complete, and build completion creeped over expectations, week by week, to ultimately 5 months past the expected completion date. Rod’s team were so accommodating, working around the unexpected, ready to start once we were, and honoring the original quote and contract, despite the significant delay on our end. The team always left the site clean. In one case, my wife had mentioned to the crew that we were having people over on the weekend, just to request they not work Saturday evening – come Friday afternoon, they had picked up and cleaned the site entirely, of their own accord without being asked, to accommodate our party. Finally, as mentioned, they stand by their work – since the job has finished, Rod has already come by to check in on us, and requested to do so again in the spring.

The ultimate product is beautiful and exactly what we were hoping for. Even though this was a late summer/fall job, we’ve already seen droves of birds and bees coming to the plants and property.

In short, this team is knowledgeable about waterwise and local plants, conducts excellent and efficient work, are professional and accommodating, are reliable, and for our project, were also the most affordable.

(excuse the ghoulish photos – just put up our Halloween decorations – don’t worry, the bones and gravestones aren’t part of...

It’s been a dream of mine to be able to xeriscape our yard and not waste anymore precious Utah water resources. Our two priorities with our xeriscaping project were simplicity and low to no effort maintenance. The goal was to rid of any and all grass, using only native plants and incorporating rock. I feel as if those priorities were sufficiently satisfied. Rod and Robby are a dynamic and professional brotherly duo with motivation to assist and willingness to travel up to Ogden from Salt Lake City to get the job done. Rod’s guys worked long hours and completed the job quicker than we expected. We ended up exceeding our expected budget, partly due to discovered issues we had with our old drip line system. Not preferable, however, they did throw us a bone by letting us use some leftover boulders from a previous project, no charge. As we had to make some design changes throughout the process, there was some minor miscommunication related to the implementation process.

The project was unfortunately completed during the hottest week of the year, so we inevitably had a few plants that died instantly (you can see from the picture where there should be three large plants along the fence line). Fortunately, we’ve already discussed the warranty program with Rod, and are looking forward to getting them replaced by the end of the year. We’re excitedly anticipating the growth and bloom of all of these new plants including our spectacular amelanchier autumn brilliance tree.

Something we learned in the process that may be helpful to others: if you’re able to utilize the Utah Water Savers rebate program, the program doesn’t allow weed barriers. We discovered through the process that we were not eligible for the program, however, Utah Wildflower Co. didn’t put down weed barriers anyway. As a result, we’ve been weekly pulling weeds throughout the yard to stay on top of the growth. Rod told us that weed barriers aren’t always a preferable choice, due to their tendency to get torn up and look unpleasant. We’re debating on whether we’d put down weed barriers ourselves once the mulch needs replacing, as I can see the positives and negatives of both having weed barrier vs not. Something to think about depending on your preference.

I appreciate their use of solely organic mulch. We were able to get the name of the type of mulch they use for future reference as we plan on replacing the mulch with the same brand in a few years.

We received instant compliments on our front yard from surrounding neighbors, with this positive trend seeming to spread. It’s apparent that the job was professionally completed, and we love the use of chat gravel being incorporated in a creative way. This was a big job and I appreciate Utah Wildflower Co. following through with it beginning to end. As some may know, it’s not uncommon for particular contract work to be abandoned. Thanks Rod and Robby!

Attached are before and...

I used Utah Wildflower Company to do a complete xeriscape/localscape of my front yard in October, 2022. Since we were so close to winter I figured I would wait until summer when I could go through the Utah Water Savers program to get a rebate. This way I could give a bit of info on the whole process if anyone is going through a program like Flip Your Strip, Localscapes, etc.

Pros - Rod was extremely responsive coming out the day of to do a bid on the project. The project was able to start within a couple weeks and finished about a week later. The crew Rod used was great. The plants used were all water-wise and look great. The sprinklers were mostly done well (more on this later). During the project Rod was communicative. The landscaping done had zero issues qualifying for both localscapes and flip your strip and I had to do nothing to pass the program. Minor maintenance after a few issues in "So-so" below were remedied.

So-so - Some of my downspouts were damaged. Rod said they would replace them with popups but they weren't installed correctly and is something I had to personally repair to stop further water damage to a path. Four of the trees installed didn't have water to them and they started to die this summer. I had to run new lines to these trees. One of my zones wasn't put on a drip and I was given a hollow excuse as to why it couldn't be. To Rod's credit they were going to reimburse me for this section but I wanted it done correctly. I had to push back to get that section put on a drip zone as well. The plans drawn were extremely bare-bones and the Water Savers rep wanted to see more detail. I didn't get more detail in the plans and had to get the rep to compromise. When removing the grass we had a lot of tree roots in the yard. They removed to those roots which probably wasn't as deep as it should have been. This spring it's been a ton of work removing those roots myself to stop trees from sprouting everywhere.

Cons - At the end of the project I asked Rod where I could buy plant replacements. Rod assured me that all plants had a 1 year warranty and that if there are any problems to reach out to him.

To my surprise, only 4 plants died over the insane winter we had (woohoo local plants). I reached out to Rod to get them warrantied and had no response. So I reached out again, nothing. My wife reached out, nothing. This over the course of a few weeks.

It's minor and only cost us $100 extra out of our own pocket but the principle of saying there's a warranty and not honoring it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Rod could have told us a good nursery to go to and I would have given this a 5 star but I can't out...