COVID-19 STATEMENT

FROM GREAT GARDEN PLANTS

January 2021

As we enter a new gardening and shipping season, we wish to reassure our customers that we continue to take all precautions against the spread of the coronavirus. We screen our entire team every day with a symptom questionnaire and temperature checks, and all of our staff works safely with masks and appropriate distancing. The safety of our staff, and our customers, remains our number one priority as we continue to weather this pandemic.

April 23, 2020

To our valued customers, Like most mail-order businesses, Great Garden Plants is seeing a substantially increased volume of orders right now. While we are thrilled and honored that so many of you are choosing us to fulfill your garden needs, we’re also finding ourselves overwhelmed with the volume of inquiries and ask your patience as we try to respond personally to you all - we are currently running about eight days behind on replying to calls and e-mails. The people on our customer service team are all super humans, but they’re not super-human, and are doing everything they possibly can to maintain the level of service we provide in less chaotic times. Similarly, our shipping department (also super humans, but not super-human, either!) is doing their best to ship out orders in a timely manner, no more than five business days after the day you chose when you placed your order. Tracking numbers are going out, but may also be a bit delayed. While we still have good availability on many of the hundreds of different varieties of shrubs and perennials that we offer, some things are selling out faster than we can mark them as out of stock. Our team is committed to getting you suitable substitutes and will contact you as soon as they can if this is necessary. So, we humbly ask for your patience and understanding. Everyone here at GGP is a gardener themselves and knows first-hand the anticipation of receiving your order so you can get out of the house and start planting. We truly are doing our best, with the goal of rewarding your patience - just as the garden does. Many thanks from all of us at Great Garden Plants: Abby, Amy, Megan, Pam, Sarah, and Sue in customer service Bryan, John, William, and crew in shipping  

Published March 31, 2020

Great Garden Plants shares your concern about COVID-19, and we wanted to let you know what we are doing to address the virus. We are open for business as usual (well, as usual as anything can be right now!), as agricultural companies like ours are deemed essential and permitted to continue operations under Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer's shelter in place order. We take the threat of the virus and our role in limiting the spread very seriously; as such, we have implemented multiple measures to protect the health and safety of our staff and plants:
    • All employees are instructed to stay home if they are not feeling well and not return to work for a minimum of two weeks if they are ill.
    • Social distancing measures have been in place in all aspects of our business, from shipping and receiving to growing to accounting. These apply not just during work but also breaks too.
    • Employees that can do their jobs remotely are working from home so that we can improve social distancing and allow our hard-working janitorial staff to concentrate their efforts where needed. They
We are striving to minimize disruptions to shipping. We are working closely with FedEx to continue deliveries in a seamless and safe way. However, if you've received notification that your order has shipped and have not received it in a timely manner, please contact us at 877-447-4769 or info@greatgardenplants.com (customer service staff rarely works on weekends, but if  you call or email us, we will get back to you the following business day). Packages from Great Garden Plants do not require a signature for delivery, so you will not need to come in contact with the delivery person to accept your plant order.    

To address a few questions we've been asked:

What should I do with my plants when they arrive? After spending a few days in a dark box, your plants will be ready to see some light, so the box should be opened immediately, using gloves if you wish. Remove the plants from the packaging and keep in a cool, bright, frost-free place. The box can be discarded or left outdoors until you are comfortable discarding it. I live near you and was planning to pick up my order this spring. Can I still do that? Though Great Garden Plants does not open a brick and mortar store, we do allow in-person pickups for those local to the west Michigan area. Even prior to the virus, this opportunity was essentially touch-free, so we don't anticipate any changes to this in 2020. If you'd like to pick your order up in person, simply call us to set up a time and we will work out the details. We will continue to update this page as needed. For more updates - as well as lots of pretty photos and gardening information to help you through this difficult time - you can subscribe to our newsletter below in the footer! We hope that you, like us, will find peace and joy in your garden and the outdoors, now more than ever.