Your Farm & Garden — Local services in Sarasota

I've been buying plants at Farm & Garden for nearly 15 years, spending considerable sums in the process. The personnel are usually friendly and helpful, but I'll never use them again after today's experience. I'd ordered some plants to be delivered, leaving my phone number for the person responsible to call for the list of items. I telephoned him three times over two days. After the third call my phone finally rang. I read my order and arranged for delivery. I repeated the list to be sure we both understood. The plants arrived as scheduled. I refused the annuals because they were all one color instead of the mixed colors I'd specified, perhaps an honest mistake. Among the other items on the list were four oleander shrubs of the cultivar "Petite Pink," which during our conversation he assured me were in stock. I had been at F & G the previous day I'd seen only a few "Petite Salmon," a different cultivar distinguished by its salmon-colored flower. I assumed the "Petite Pink" plants were new arrivals, but as subsequent events played out they obviously weren't. Specimens of "Petite Pink"were appeared instead, so on delivery I refused them too. Another possible miscommunication? Hardly. The order-taker called me shortly afterward claiming any mistake over the shrubs had been mine, that the oleanders were indeed "Petite Pink." I said they'd been labeled by the wholesaler as "Petite Salmon." He said the labels were incorrect. They weren't. He either can't tell the plants apart or thought I wouldn't notice. Whatever the case he blamed me instead of taking responsibility. He was surly and rude and kept interrupting the conversation. Afterward I called the desk at F & G and asked that the manager contact me, which he later did. He professed ignorance for why he was calling me. When I explained he had nothing to offer, evidently unperturbed by the lack of knowledge and unprofessional behavior of one of his staffers and failure of another to transmit the message. You'd think the management would care; management doesn't care. The plants were inexpensive, and F & G should have owned up. I'd told the driver I naturally pay for the replacement plants when delivered (F & G already had my credit card number). I don't claim expertise in everything, but I've studied plants for more than 50 years. I have an earned doctorate in biology. I've written a book titled "Coastal Florida Gardening: A Botanical Perspective" sold on Amazon and published scientific articles in plant physiology. I know and recognize the species I ordered through a botanist's eyes. In my opinion F & G, in its unabashed snobbery and apathy, has lost the little technical credibility it might have acquired, and I wonder if a trained horticulturist is even employed there, much less a botanist. Certainly the man who "helped" me seems unqualified as either. If I could assign zero stars to F & G I would. A single star is...

I've been going to farm and garden for close to 30 years for the most part been without incident. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable & they have a cute collection of eclectic gardening items & an excellent selection of plants & trees. However, today, they would not honor a price that was on one of their items. When I tried to discuss it w the manager Scott, he rudely stormed away mid sentence about 10 seconds into the discussion. The owner Amber was equally as unhelpful. I would recommend going there for small items or if u r ok w getting limited to no customer service or problem resolution from Management. Work w the staff as much as possible because the manager & owner are clearly uninterested in customer satisfaction or problem resolution.

Maybe it was a bad day for Management but it is customer interaction like this that will keep the big stores on top when the local businesses are more expensive, management that openly demonstrates no customer service skills & dont honor the pricing on the items (even if its mismarked). Even offering a courtesy discount because of the confusion would have been enough to stem the ill will. There were an infinite number of ways they could have chosen to handle this situation & they did it the worst possible way -- rude, disregard & no sense of customer service.

If I was reviewing based solely on the floor staff & inventory, I would give 5 stars but since I have to include Management, I only give 2 stars. I will shop there with the conditions I previously outlined because I luv the floor staff & they are well...

This place lost thousands of dollars in future business over a $2.00 veteran discount, the owner arguing with my wife over whether she was actually married to a veteran. This is on top of their 70% markup on orchids from Palmer Orchids (They didn't even bother removing the labels...$35 at Palmer Orchids, an astounding$59.99 at this place for the same product, which still had the Palmer Orchids price tag... See photo) just a few miles away, .

My wife had photos of my driver's license which indicates I am a veteran, and the owner told my wife that many people come in falsely claiming to be married to veterans, which is laughable. Prior to this exchange, my wife was looking into buying pots worth hundreds of dollars. She left with some ladybugs, because she was already there, but didn't want to give them any more of our money.

We have 5 acres of property on which my wife maintains several gardens. We spent well over $10,000 last year on improving this property with various plans, trees, etc. Hard to believe this place is owned and run by such an idiot who would lose all that current and future business over $2 while questioning my wife's honesty (even with photo proof), and doing so in an embarrassing way in front of other customers.

Unless you want to fork over at least 70% more to these bozos for the same product you can get just minutes away, and from many sources, I recommend going to Palmer Orchids, where my wife was treated like a paying customer whose repeat business they...