Unless you are a seasoned gardener, steer clear!
I am not by any means a great gardener, but I am very open to learning. I went in at the beginning of the summer and spent about $500 on plants (worthy of some attention if you ask me), and while at the time they were taking my money they were helpful enough, we also spent a lot of time wandering around without help.
The part that makes me give them a 1 star is after the fact. Today, at the end of summer, I went in for some tips on how to care for my plants that aren't doing so well. I paid a lot more than I would have at Lowe's, to a local business, with the expectation of getting what you paid for in terms of help since I am not a Louisiana native and don't know much about the area. As a side note, I also intended to purchase some milkweed seeds from them too because I know how important they are. I was waiting to speak to someone for a while and when I finally did he was so incredibly rude and mean to me that I was stunned and couldn't even reply. He pretty much told me that it is my fault my plants are dying and when I tried to explain that some were doing well and some weren't, so that he could hopefully help me figure out what I did right with one and wrong with the others, he told me that I needed to stop talking and I wasn't going to learn anything if I don't listen. He continued to explain to me for about 5 minutes why it's my fault that my plants are dying and how he isn't going to replace them for me. I wasn't in there looking for a replacement, I was looking for help with the ones I have. Of course after that I didn't say anything, and he started blowing me off because I was "obviously unhappy." I don't know how he would expect me to be otherwise when I was looking for help (not his money) and he wanted to tell me all the reasons he wasn't going to help. He told me I needed to rip out the ones I have and start over, and honestly, if he would have even acted like he wanted to help me, I probably would have repurchased from him. Instead, I decided that Lowe's is cheaper, and has a year warranty, and won't be rude with me for things that aren't even the problem.
The kicker is that while he's telling me it's my fault my plants are dead because I watered them in the afternoon and not in the morning, all I could think is that he could be teaching me instead of chastising me, that's what you do when you own a business and people come asking for help. Better yet, if the time of the day that you watered your plants mattered so much, why didn't someone help me when I was there initially spending a ton of money for help that that usually comes with supporting a local business. It's not like weren't asking questions about how to take care of plants in Louisiana at the time.
In the end, I will be replacing my plants from ones from Lowe's, because the other times I have purchased plants from them, I spent less, got more help, and if that all fails, I do get a year warranty. With me, a little help from Southern Gateway would have gotten my money twice. But they won't again. Lesson learned. read more
