Mistreated loyal customers and accused them of lying. I've been going here for years - houseplants, gifts, outdoor gardening. I was consistently taken aback by how rude, dismissive, and/or uninformed the staff were (the latter always by their own admission). This doesn't apply to the younger, college-aged seasonal staff. I had one good experience and kept telling myself it's important to support local businesses. For this reason, we bought seven hydrangeas last year. They were pricier than other places but we were ok with that - we wanted to support our community. We showed them photos and measurements and sunlight stats for where we planned to place them. We asked for guidance. After passing us off to different staff several times, they finally helped us select two types. 2 of the 7 plants did not make it; the others flourished. We called when they were going downhill and asked for advice. They told us to wait. The months passed and the plants gradually disappeared beneath the soil. When we tried to replace them under the "hardy plant" guarantee, one staff member - very loudly to the point it felt she was yelling at us - basically accused my husband and then me of lying and telling different stories (we didn't - we were just describing two different points in time as the plants slowly failed, and she would have known that if she hadn't interrupted me). She said what we described was impossible and it was either our fault or we moved the plants to another location (we didn't). After being extremely rude to both of us, we said 'thank you' to avoid making a scene, got our replacement plants, and immediately went elsewhere for the rest of the hydrangeas and hostas we planned to buy for the front yard. At home, when we dug up the empty spots and sifted through the dirt, we finally found a few random hydrangea roots. What is the point of having this policy, of having open and curious and loyal customers, willing to learn and communicate, if you are going to treat them like lying fraudsters? I should have known better. How you treat your customers under normal circumstances - dismissive and rude - was a warning sign I should have heeded. read more