Los Altos Garden Supply

I have to give praise to Napoleon at the San Jose office, such a nice and helpful guy! If he would have helped us all the way I would be writing a really positive review…
However, on Napoleon’s advise we visited the Los Altos store to look at some different stone for our 1000 sq ft patio. We walked in and weren’t even greeted, hung out for a while but nobody came up to us so we decided to look around a bit. We found a stone we liked and went back in with some questions… Unfortunately, that’s when it all went down… The sales guy was rude, uninterested and unprofessional. After dealing with him for 5 minutes we left frustrated and upset. Never ever will I set foot in this place again and I wouldn’t refer anyone to this place.
Save yourself the drive, don’t go here.

DON’T come here if you are not a gardener/​landscaper or don’t already know exactly what you want to buy. The people in the store are impatient, not friendly nor helpful. I was looking for some ideas for an inexpensive pavers for a 1,000sf patio/​walkway. They just pointed to some half-​emptied brochure racks and the sample boards. One guy just rudely walked away as I was asking him a question. They get 1 star for the nice man in the yard who gave me some samples. May be they will be nicer if I were looking at the more expensive material. They wanted to charge $ 100+ for a delivery of 5 miles while I got my material from a place in the East Bay who was cheaper and charged only $ 80 for delivery. They must get enough business from the rich people and their landscape designers in the Hills who doesn’t care (or doesn’t know) that they are paying a premium price for the same stuff.

We ordered their ready to go plant mix. I specifically said that we wanted to grow veggies and wanted organic. The guy who I spoke to was helpful but then after the delivery (which was very prompt), we were thoroughly disappointed with the awful quality! We’ve found bits of plastic, glass, fabric pieces, and large (softball sized) clods of clay!!! They said that it was ready to go… and we’ve spent hours trying to break this stuff up! Really maddening and disappointed!

The only redeeming factor about Garden Supply was Daphne… an absolute jewel and the only reason I went there to shop for plants. Otherwise, I agree with the person who would give zero stars if they could. I always find it unpleasant to go to Garden Supply. It is a necessary evil as I live close by. Their attitude is What the hell do you want? Today took the cake. I asked the women at the desk if I could get help with some watering system pieces. She turned to grab a plastic bag, flipped it open and handed it to me without even looking up. I asked if it was possible to have someone help me and she literally said no, then pointed to the aisle where it all was. I was stunned.
This place caters to workers, not to the public. If you don’t know exactly what you need, don’t go there. They are closing the nursery so can’t get plants there anymore. Go to Barron Park for water system needs. As for rock, dirt, bark, etc… go to Mountain View Garden Center. Cheaper, same day delivery and very pleasant to work with.

Well, this place is closing, or at least they will no longer carry plants, so it probably doesn’t matter much what I write. They seemed to have a selection of some unusual stuff (plants) I hadn’t seen elsewhere.
The real gem here was Daphne. She was absolutely fabulous. I also know she had great customer service skills. My mother loved her. When an order didn’t work out one time, she made it right for her, and believe me, if you think I am picky, you should meet my mother. My mom still tells the story of what Daphne did for her.
Daphne was also very modest. If she felt somebody else could give you better info, she’d recommend you also speak to them. It was so clear how much she loved plants/​gardening. She was never condescending either, which was nice, considering I’m quite a novice.
I went in here the other day with a question for Daphne. Looked around for her but didn’t see her. Another lady, who’d never even met her, was asking for her because she’d been recommended. That’s when we heard the sad news that she’d left.
I was really kicking myself, as I’d been meaning to go in for quite awhile. Oh Daphne, where the heck are you?! Either nobody knew or everybody played dumb on her current employer. Really sucks. I hope she found a great place that’s close to home where they appreciate her. Please somebody, find her and let me know where she is.

These people caused us a lot of unhappiness.
My husband wanted to get me something special for my birthday and I told him that what I always dreamed of having was an American Persimmon tree to plant in the yard. He wanted to get the right thing so I even looked up and gave him the species name as well as a detailed description. He went to this shop in Los Altos because it was in our area and they seemed to be professionals and said they could order it for him. Instead they sold him a Japanese persimmon that had none of the characteristics he asked for. They claimed it was all the things it was NOT. Why? did they just want to push the product they have? What do we do now with a tree in our yard that we don’t want? What an unhappy birthday.

Garden Supply has a large selection of hardscaping materials (pavers and retaining wall, etc.) and their prices are usually good, but they do add on a lot of extras (delivery charge of $ 200, pallet deposit charge of $ 17 per pallet). The personnel, however, leave much to be desired. The customer service is unfriendly and they have a NO REFUND/​EXCHANGE policy. I was a little surprised by this. After spending more than $ 5000, the management would not allow me to refund $ 30 worth of extra blocks that I hadn’t even picked up at the store. Finally, the integrity of the employees their is questionable. I had close to $ 2000 worth of unauthorized charges put on my credit card after I left my credit card number with an employee when I called in a phone order. My credit card company is investigating, but I’m fairly certain (due to timing) that the culprit was a Garden Supply employee. Please beware! If you call in an order, ask for the manager or else insist that they type in the number directly into the machine.

One of my favorite spots to get unusual plants, esp. CA natives, and at better prices than other private nurseries in this area. Daphne is the gardening guru there and can answer any question I throw her way. What they don’t have in stock, Daphne will get it, if it is available.