We hired James River Nurseries to do all our landscaping when we were building our house.
I like the plan we came up with. But, they failed in their execution and customer service.
1) They planted a tree I didn't ask for. They said they had to do it because it was an HOA requirement. Fine. But, I should have been given the opportunity to choose the species and location. Nope. James River picked the tree (with a color we don't want) and planted it in the way of where our bulldozer needs to go.
2) Half a dozen shrubs and 1 tree they planted are dead within 2 months of their planting. Doug said he'd send someone over in a couple days to take inventory and fix it. Weeks later, no one ever came so I had to follow up and remind them again.
3) I bought sod to cover 3/4 of an acre. Some of the sod didn't take. Some of the sod came with weeds. I thought the point of sod was to not have any weeds at all on day 1?
I found their execution, customer service, and product to be lacking.
UPDATE: weeks after I posted this review, James River came and replaced the dead shrubs and dead tree. They didn't call me to tell me they were coming. Instead, they just came. So... once again, they missed an opportunity to ASK ME what kind of flowering tree we would like and where we would like it to be planted. Instead, they planted some tree (I have no idea what it is) and located it directly right where a bulldozer needs to go in order to reach our backyard. It's just so unnecessarily wasteful.
This is really a 1-star review. I'm leaving 2 stars in case our poor experiences with James River were a fluke.
UPDATE 10/9: Months later (but less than a year after initial landcscaping), another shrub died. I notified Doug and he said he'd take care of it but he never did. It's been a month since he said he'd take care of it and now he won't even answer polite reminders that we're waiting on James River Nurseries to fulfill their warranty. They blew yet another chance to redeem themselves. read more
