AZGardens report card (long)

[scrimman]

To those whom it may concern……..
Well, I just got my order from www.azgardens.com last night. Because they’ve got a $35 minimum order, I went in with my dad to be able to make the minimum and still leave room for my fish once I got the plants.  (I infected him with RPF {Real Plant Fever})  We ordered 4 Annubias species, a coupla swords, Java Ferns (Windelov and regular), Java Moss, Temple, Water Sprite, Vals (corkscrew and crystal), and a lot of “bunch plants”.
Had a few problems, but overall it was a good experience.
Problem 1, which I can’t blame on azgardens, is that the plants were obviously exposed to a lot of heat before we got them. :-/ The ice pack they thankfully packed in there was warm to the touch (our USPS down here are notorious for their “customer service”) > > The bacopa and ‘tropic sunset’ hygro that I ordered came in a light brown sauce; I think it used to be their leaves. :'( We requested Priority Mail, but I think spending the extra $16 or so dollars for the express mail would be the way to go in the future.
Problem 2 was that they didn’t ship the Annubias “Coffeefolia” I requested.  They didn’t charge me for it, either, but it wasn’t there.  Oh well.
Other than that, everything looked fairly healthy, especially considering the heat they went through, and they weren’t all busted up from poor packing.  The amount of plants per portion was about normal, too.  The regular Java Ferns and Swords were thick with leaves and huge, and one of the Marble Swords came with a coupla babies attached.  Nice touch.
AND, I finally’ve got my Java Moss. ;D Time to start breeding fish!
I’d do business with them again.    

 

[discusaquarium]

they dont sound too bad, maybe i'll try them.

 

[dattack]

:
I ordered like 10 anubias from them last week.  How long did it take for you to get your plants assuming that they mail out all their plants on Friday I believe.  Sorry to hear about those dead plants and I really didn't order express mail because I figured anubias plants were pretty tough.  Man, spending there minimum 35 bucks and another 16 bucks for shipping is kinda expensive.  I will post here once I receive my plants.

 

[scrimman]

Oh, so you're the one who took all the coffeefolias!
;D
I wasn't too suprised by the dead plants once I found out our postal service did it's usual stellar job.  We've had triple digit temperatures for the last 30 days at least.
They told me they'd shipped on Friday, and I got them late Monday.  That's also about what I expected.
I've also just put in an order to aquabotanic (so I can get my coffeefolia) so I'll post the results from that, too.  They don't have a minimum, and they've got a flat $8 shipping charge.  They're having a sale right now; if you get $50 or more the shipping is free (I'm posting this in the deals section, too), but he's moving location so they won't be open from the 15th to sometime in July. I'm getting a African Bolbitus (does anyone know how hardy they are?), The Coffeefolia (of course), and a Java Fern.  The heat shouldn't bother them too much.
Hope your plants come in OK, and yeah, let us know how it goes! 8)

 

[dattack]

Sorry, not me.  They told me it was all out too.  I just ordered Barteri and Nana only.

 

[Cillana]

I got my order on Monday as expected. All the plants looked very good. I didn't find any snails on them.

My willisi and wendtii crypts had little baby plants attached to them that I took off and gave some to my mom and put some in my quarantine tank.

My 2 x 2 inch lileopsis (micro sword) was kind of hard to cut into smaller clumps but I managed.

My contortion vals weren't very twisted and had a lot of broken leaves. I removed all the bad parts. The new growth looks very nice and is perfectly spiraled. They made it to the top of my 21" high tank recently.

The leaves on my bacopa (moneywort) were bent down against the stems. They never straightened out but the new growth at the top looks fine.

I also ordered a piece of driftwood. They said that wood and rock were sent from a different location (Fellerstone in Ohio) so it was not with my plants. I received my wood a few weeks later.

I also ordered an anubia nana, some plant spikes, and a red rubin sword. They were not available and are on back order. My invoice says that there is no box fee on the back order and that they will pay at least half of the shipping cost. It also says that I can call and add items to my back order package. I'm thinking of adding ozelot sword, "tropic sunset" hygrophila, diandra, boivinanus aponogeton, and temple plant.

I considered ordering from aquabotanic before I found azgardens. I saw that azgarden's prices were much lower and had a much larger selection and decided to order from them instead.

 

[ryanp15]

Everyone always has a little bit of a different experience with online ordering from the same company. I think azgardens sounds good though. I have browsed through there before and I liked what I saw. ;D

 

[dattack]

Got my plants today.
10 contortion vall=6 bucks (dead on arrival unless they shipped me brown syrup)=6 $
3 anubias gigantea (decent at 8.99 a pot)=27$
5 anubias barteri (only 3 arrived and didn't realize they were small as hell, 2-3 inches. I see some roots but little if any rhizome)=20$
shipping/handling/box fee=10$

*They state that they will ship me the 2 barteris that were missing

Total cost=$63

Conclusion:
1)I feel for some reason that you should buy only plants that states "extra nice" on their website
2)Get express shipping for an extra 10 dollars more 3)I believe buying delicate long stem leaves could be a disaster in this summer heat which will become syrup like my valls.
4)Buy from LFS instead because you see what you buy.  Actually the day before I bought these anubias, I found a LFS with an excellent selection with better prices.
5)Buy from another online store for plants?
6)No more online shopping for me unless I really wanted a particular plant which isn't available in my area.

 

[ryanp15]

Sounds like you had a bad experience! See how different it is with different people. I never have ordered off line but I don't think I will either. It's so expensive and then you never really know what your getting either. Just like those small plants. My LFS has plants and they look great and do great and that's good enough for me. Plus in the neighboring countys there are many stores with live plants and they're great too. ;D Oh well that's just my opinion.