The Plant Connection

After the city cited us for having the wrong kinds of plants in the parkway, I contacted several landscapers through Angie's List about removing the existing plants and replacing them with smaller drought-tolerant plants. I needed the job done quickly because the city was threatening to fine us if we didn't have the work done immediately. Marilyn of The Plant Connection called me the next day, and we were able to schedule an appointment to get an estimate. I liked her right off the bat. I'm somewhat knowledgeable about plants, and wanted a landscaper who would be willing to work with me to create a unique look suited to my tastes. Marilyn grasped what I wanted right away and suggested a number of beautiful plants that would work with our existing landscaping. She was able to start the job within a week of our meeting, and completed it a week later. She communicated clearly with me each step of the way. We went a little over budget because the irrigation had to be re-done, but overall her estimate was quite accurate. She worked hard to find plants I liked, even bringing them to my house for me to look at and approve. We're delighted with our beautiful new parkway, and hopefully the city will stay off our backs now.

Marilyn is absolutely fantastic. Our new curb side appeal is the talk of the town and we couldn't be happier with the result. We currently use The Plant Connection as our weekly landscape service as well. The landscapers are unbelievably professional and keep our front lawn looking like a country club!

They were on time, courteous and neat. They came and did the job. I give them five stars.

Marilyn is an on hands knowledgeable creative landscaper. She recommended plants and got my approval for all. She was friendly and professional and a stickler for detail. She can recommend all professionals that may be needed to maintain or solve garden problems. My birch trees have been saved from a deadly virus and my lawn is now rid of all weeds and fungus. It is reseeded and will complete a beautiful picture that Marilyn created. It was an unexpected pleasure to work with her. She cares.

I asked this company when they could give me an estimate on a job for irrigation and SOD and they did not respond to my email from Angie's List. Bad form.

Marilyn was fantastic to work with. She had excellent ideas and was incredibly thorough. Her attention to detail brought a lot of great considerations to the job that we would not have otherwise thought of. She was always on time for appointments, as were the subcontractors she brought through. In the end, we ended up going in a different direction, however we would strongly consider using Marilyn for any future jobs.

I met with the owner, Marilyn, and she was a joy to work with. Her horticultural knowledge proved invaluable during the process of planning the new landscape. Her advice on plant compatibility, soil/climate suitability, as well as her impressive experience in this field contributed greatly to the successful and beautiful results that we were able to achieve. There were a few misunderstandings, but nothing unexpected for a project of this proportion, and all issues were addressed to my satisfaction. The workers were all very polite and responsive. The work was performed on time, and as expected. We liked the work so much, that we hired The Plant Connection to maintain the beautiful environment which they helped create.

Couldn't be happier with the results.

They redesigned our patio areas and front door entrance.

He was pleasant enough and got right down to business. He regarded almost everything growing on or around the property as old and wanted to take out and get rid of most of it (something none of our other estimates suggested (or at least not nearly to this extent). Even though we told him we were aware this was going to be a pricey job in the 20K range, we never heard back from him and never got an estimate. Not quite sure why.

Marilyn is GREAT! I had the easiest time working with her, and she came in almost $700 UNDER budget and gave me the credit for it. Her team works fast, and she has a great eye for good plant products, all of my flowers are thriving, and the trees look great. You have to imagine that I tore up 650 square feet of concrete in my back driveway to create a backyard where there previously wasn't ANYTHING GREEN AT ALL. Marilyn had great creative ideas for the small space, and ultimately gave me EXACTLY what I wanted. The irrigation system is also top notch. The custom planter box helps soften a concrete area we had to leave behind my tenants house, and provides great privacy. I am really happy with the overall experience and finished product and would recommend the Plant Connection to anyone who likes working with reliable, punctual, professional, and friendly people.

About 25% of that was for fixing the irrigation system. I repeatedly told Marilyn I was concerned about spending so much since my flowers always died before. She told me the reason was because of the bad irrigation system and they were going to fix that. We were initially pleased with the work as everything looked good. Then many of the flowers started dying. In August, a friend with a green thumb looked at the problem. She saw that the plants that were dying were getting no water. I contacted Marilyn. She has been very reluctant to stand behind her work regarding fixing the irrigation system. First they said they couldn't?t do anything. Then they said they could put in drips. Her worker who comes is Paul. He always has alcohol on his breath. He shows up, does one little thing and leaves. He said, ?We didn?t put the system in.? No, but you charged me over $1,100 because you said you could fix it. Most recently Miguel showed up and put in some new plants. He said he would be back. That was a couple weeks ago. There are still areas where the plants died from no water. It has been a continuing struggle to get The Plant Connection to fix the irrigation system and replace the plants which died because they got no water. Marilyn said several times, ?We don?t guarantee the plants.? The plants died as a consequential damage of her negligently installed irrigation system which remains unfinished. I want her to fix the remaining problems and replace the plants that died as a result of lack of water. Company came out and took care of the problem. Were very professional. We hope the plantsw will thrive.

The work was done quickly, cleanly (considering the amount of brick and dirt that had to be moved), and efficiently. I was consulted on every step and choice of plant materials. The result is wonderful, a lovely front garden full of varied and beautiful plants. The first day it was finished, neighbors stopped to compliment me on its quality. Marilyn's excellent design and Mark's professionalism have made this a great experience.

I called Marilyn on or around 7/20/2012 for an estimate to install a new irrigation system. She was very courteous, asked for all information such as my phone number, the address and general area, the kind of job I was looking for, approximate size of yard et cetera. We made an appointment for Friday 7/27/2012 at 3:00pm. She provided me with the name (Paul) and phone number of the person who would come to do the estimate. On the date of the appointment at 3:15pm nobody had shown up. I called Paul on the number that was provided to me and he was at the chiropractor and was not aware of the appointment. Very strange. I asked him if he could coordinate with Marilyn to schedule a new appointment. More than a week later I have still not heard from them. In the meantime I have selected another company to do the job.

Very professional and knowledgeable.

Marilyn from Plant Connection came to my house to give us a free quote on the work that we needed to get done. We had some work done from a previous contractor that was horrible, so my fiance and I wanted Marilyn to help us with the remaining work. Marilyn was prompt to schedule a meeting and quick to follow through with the initial quote. However, when she arrived at the house, she immediately started suggesting items that we were not interested in. Clearly, she was trying to upsell us on other items that we did not want, nor that we had budget for. Additionally, she told us outright that our budget would not cover the work that we wanted to get done. The request was to fix the irrigation system so that the water lines overlapped, take out a banana tree, clean up the yard, install sod and prepare the soil, and to lay down brick on a small section of the yard. She said there was no way she could do this under $5,000, which seemed completely unreasonable. We tried to work with her and requested the quote be itemized for each piece of work so that we could pick and choose the items. She never contacted us again and we never got a quote from her. This unprofessional nature is exactly the reason we had a horrible experience with the first contractor, and now we know never to use Plant Connection again.

Marilyn was professional, helpful, and enthusiastic. I appreciated that she brought examples of her work and took the time to think about the design, the climate, and our tastes. Her love of plants is evident and infectious. We would have loved to hire her but her bid came in much higher than we could afford. Given our modest budget we have had to scale back our project and hire a landscaper that provided a lower bid for the job, but we are saving for the future when we can possibly hire Marilyn to make her vision for our backyard a reality.

Overall our experience was excellent. We received a prompt call back from Marilyn. She said she could work within our stated budget. We set-up an on-site meeting in which Marilyn and her assistant showed up on-time for this and subsequent appointments. Marilyn and her assistant assessed the area for approximately 2 hours (taking photos and measurements). A couple days later she informed us of how the work would progress (2 phases). We then promptly received an itemized easy- to- read plan and estimate. We made 50% payment. The work commenced a couple days later taking approximately 3 days. Work included cutting down a large tree and getting rid of the stump, transplanting a large palm and hauling away plants and soil and leveling the ground and putting top soil down and replacing and reconfiguring sprinkler heads, and installing a new lawn. After phase one was complete we made the second payment. Approximately one week later Marilyn made a landscape design for phase 2 - Planting, and forwarded the estimate. The HOA Board met to discuss and approve expenses for phase 2, approximately 2 weeks after receiving the estimate from Marilyn. Upon receiving 50% payment Marilyn's workers completed the planting phase under her supervision in one day. Marilyn supervised her workers who work smart and quickly. She provided referrals (lighting company, cement guy) who are also professional and competent. She was a pleasure to work with.

Marilyn responded each time I attempted to contact her (I have been extremely frustrated by other lawn and yard services on this website). Her crew, led by Miguel, was very personable and conscientious. I look forward to having them return for twice monthly maintenance.

They came when they were scheduled and were neat and clean and did a good job, it appears as if all of the spinklers are working properly.

Marilyn was awesome! Really knows her stuff, and was prompt, punctual and even came back several times to help draw up her estimate and plan. We didn't wind up hiring her at this time, but she seemed like she would do a great job. Her quote was not as competitive as a couple others we met with, but our guess is that you pay for quality. Again, we did not hire her so we can't totally speak to the actual work that she does, but we can speak to the prep work and designing was great and fact that she was by far the most responsive of the companies we met with, and just seemed to be a total pro. She's got a creative eye and an experienced mind, which is a good combo!

Just the best experience ever! The same day I first contacted Marilyn she met me at my house, I had an estimate that same night for removing old landscaping, and all that initial work was entirely completed the very next day. She listened to my unschooled thoughts about what I might like, then chose plants and designed new planter beds (lining the inside of a new fence and bordering the perimeter of my house), added a new tree and re-seeded the lawn, all exactly when she promised it would be done. She asked good questions of me, and actually listened to my thoughts and preferences, and was always patient and pleasant. Her irrigation expert, Paul, was also great. He assessed, modified and upgraded my existing sprinklers to fit the new landscaping, kept me closely apprised, called with recommendations, etc. All done for a very fair price. I'm new to this neighborhood, and can't tell you how many neighbors have remarked how fresh and lovely the house now looks. A++ recommendation.

The work went well overall. Marilyn was prompt, professional and had specific knowledge regarding the type of trees that were dead, and the one that could be saved with a trimming. She also pointed out ways to minimize the huge job, which was impressive. The work contracted for removal of the limbs trimmed and debris on the roof under the trees. This was completed. The worker however, took it upon himself (being conscientious) to use the blower on the entire roof, which was not an agreed upon task in the contract. The company wanted to charge an additional $100 for this work. We did not agree to pay the additional $ as it was explained at the onset that we were on a very tight budget, and we were not given the choice to add this additional removal prior to it being done in our absence. In addition, the crew trimmed the trees over the pool, but did not remove the debris from the pool right after the trim. This caused stains on the bottom of the pool and we went back and forth with the company to convince them that it was caused by the landscaping debris. The pool was inspected and cleaned prior to the landscaping work, and finally the company said that they would pay for the additional cleaning. I negotiated with the pool company to provide additional cleaning to remove the stains and informed the landscaping company that we would take of the problem ourselves. Otherwise, the company does good work.

When we remodeled our house, the back yard was completely destroyed and all that was left was dirt. We hired Marilyn to create an outdoor area that we could enjoy year round. She came up with several different options for us and we eventually chose a plan that we are thrilled with. Marilyn is very responsive and always answered our calls and e-mails in a timely manner. She also listened to our feedback throughout the entire process. In addition, she pays a lot of attention to detail and will not hesitate to have her staff redo work if it's not done exactly right.

She wrote some letters to our association about the state that our plants were in. She was very nice, thorough and we could tell that she likes what she does. It is a passion of her and we thought that she was very knowledgeable. Her pricing was pretty high unfortunately.