Weston Nurseries Inc

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Weston Nurseries warranties their plants. I had several that needed replacing. I bought a few more bushes. The consider the site in advance, they installed the new plants and replaced the old.

Plans were great; we ended up moving out of the property, so we never executed the plan.

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We used the Angies List big deal and they were very responsive, we got a call back immediately after signing up for the deal and scheduled an appointment.  
Terry Duffy was the person who came out and he sate down and listened to our requirements and was patient and helpful in guiding the discussion.  He is very knowledgeable and creative and came up with great ideas. He came up with layout that we liked alot and that will greatly improve our home's appearance.
We are very happy with the process and experience and Weston Nurseries has been very generous with us as our situation required more effort than the scope of the deal. We will definitely want to extend the scope have them finish the plans.  We would recommend Weston Nurseries to anyone.

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Purchased two big deals for two areas.  We had a total of four designers, three saying they were the boss of the one before.  The last one, Terry, was the most knowledgeable but after a year and half, we were done with Weston Nurseries.  We wanted simple and rustic and Terry's design was most of what we wanted.  The above rating is for Terry's design only, all other designers would have received a F.

It was a Big Deal purchase. They were fine. There was no additional charge. It was a good experience.

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We're so happy we worked with Kris Romaniak at Weston Nurseries.  Our house was surrounded by fields of mud.  With great knowledge and care, Kris and his team regraded the backyard, helped design gardens all around the house, helped choose plants which could thrive in the varied degrees of light and shade around the property, and demanded minimal care (that was a must!)  -- all the while being sensitive to how the colors, textures, differing flowering times could create a beautiful, constantly changing visual realm.  He and his team were a pleasure to work with.  They absolutely guarantee their plants:  a very few things didn't thrive, they replaced them.  The garden has enhanced all of our lives; we're so grateful.

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Everything went  very well, they were professional, prompt and courteous.

I am retracting the my previous ratings and review since I believe there was a misunderstanding between me and the provider. Subsequent conversations and visits have put us both on track for a useful and productive plan (newer plans have proven this). Terry Duffy has been very understanding of my needs and circumstances and I feel that we can continue on a positive note.  I have always considered Weston Nurseries to be a fine company with strong roots in the community.

The plants were never even ordered, even though we have emails from ?Chip? confirming that everything had been done and the plants looked great.
On our installation date in mid-April (a slot for which we'd waited a year to reserve) they explained there had been some mix up in the paperwork and there was nothing they could do for me.  The owner Metzit said he could ?take care of the whole problem? if I would just be flexible with the planting plan and allow ?Chip? to draw from plants that were in "their system? at that time last Spring (product they already had in stock or product they had already ordered and was expected to become available in the upcoming weeks). I was asked to source whatever I needed that they could not provide and given a planting date in what I considered the shoulder season for a plant installation of that size, a week before they knew I would become unavailable due to my enrollment in the Harvard Graduate School of Design?s DISCO summer intensive.  Again: no plant was ever put aside for me or transferred for me between their nursery sites.  I found this out when, returning from the remarkable ?Broken Arrow Nursery? in CT with a car stuffed full of plants they?d claimed they could not provide, I stopped by to check the quality of plants set aside for me in their Hopkington location.  The staff there (the on site staff have always been great) couldn?t find any recent activity in their system for me and said that there were no plants on reserve for me--which they said was ?impossible? for a job of my size set to go in the coming week.
When I reached ?Andy? (Chip?s boss) he told me that they only pick plants from what?s available the day or two before installation...they don?t do "landscape design? unless they can substitute any plant that is N/A at the last minute.  Pretty much amounting to a retail delivery service.  
They do have a retail delivery service at Weston Nursery, btw, and it is much less expensive than using their Landscape Services--an operation that seems more like a subcontractor to the Nursery rather than one that is owned an operated by Weston Nursery.  Even if they had never intended to come and install a job on their ?planting date? I had expected they would and so had already purchased trees they couldn?t source through the stellar ?Sylvan Nursery? to be delivered curbside on ?Planting Day?.  When two workers arrived with only a wheelbarrow to receive a 10-12? BBB Southern Magnolia from the Sylvan truck I was extremely uncomfortable as was the driver from Sylvan.  It was extremely clear that the two from Weston had not been informed about the size of the tree, despite the fact that I told Peter and Andy exactly what was coming. I called Peter and sent photos pasted below and he told me to ?call Andy?.  
These appeared to be immigrant laborers, as, when I asked them in English how they felt about proceeding they couldn?t understand me. I had now called both Andy and Peter to be sure they were covered by insurance and workman?s comp per the terms of my contract.  Eventually, I got this response ?we?re Weston Nurseries/of all of our employees are covered and we spend a lot of money on their benefits?. Still, to this day, I cannot imagine that any insurer would cover a situation that was so grossly dangerous to their employees.  Do you agree that the photo below appears to show extremely inappropriate situation?  They are trying to tip the rootball out of the Sylvan truck and into theirs so they can use the vehicle to drive the tree onto my property... The driver from Sylvan was one full hour off for the rest of his deliveries that day because he was decent enough to understand it would take them that long to figure out a way to receive the tree with any modicum of safety.   I should have just made the decision to reject the tree at this point, but Sylvan had bent over backwards for me so often in the past that I just didn?t feel it was fair.  In fact, all three men seemed less fazed than I was, but I still feel as though I exploited them by allowing them to continue.  Those two men worked harder for Weston Nursery than I have ever seen any other employee of their company work.  
The owner Peter Metzit closed the site down himself the following day, I believed, until autumn.  When I called last month to find out when they were coming, Peter told me ?never?.  Peter then told me that he had made a settlement with my husband dissolving my contract because they felt unable to meet my expectations and that he had it all drawn up on a record he had sent us.  Surprised that my husband had never mentioned any such transaction, I asked him about Mr. Metzit?s claim.  My husband recalled that Peter had asked him to "sign some papers on my behalf? but that he had (naturally) refused.  Those papers never came again by mail or email nor did any such paper suggesting they believed their work here was done.
Fast forward to now: I have two sinkholes in my yard against my home?s foundation that a civil engineer believes relate to the condition in which Peter left the site--apparently with rock fill supporting a huge, devided retention--not earth at all, as I had been led to believe.  This apparently let storm water drain throughout it like a sieve pulling with it all of the material they had installed which was not what I had spec?ed it to be.  I had ordered decomposed granite with a light stabilizer and top-dressing of crushed aggregate stone from 1/4" to 3/8?.  Extremely permeable, it allows water to drop through it and drain off under grade.  What they had used was some substrate filled with heavy binder and topped by stone dust filled with silt.  My neighbor claims that water is coming off of it in sheets, onto their property.  for the past month, I have ben trying to come to an agreement with Weston Nursery so that this site can be excavated before the ground freezes.  They have only offered to ?fix? work on they claim to have finished in an appropriate manner if I will validate a contract that I did not give a deposit for (it doesn?t even match the deposit amount) and validate false billing claims.  Maybe they were able to settle previous complaints to the Better Business Bureau this way?  It is unclear.
Now: the ground is going to freeze and so I cannot even safely issue a 30 day letter of demand--by then it will be too late for my neighbor?s satisfaction, and I don?t blame them.
Working with Weston Nurseries over the past three years trying to get my job installed has been one of the worst experiences of my adult life.  My time has been wasted, my property damaged, my money appears unrecoverable and I still have nothing positive to show for any of the time they spent here. To make matters worse,  the disrespect and contempt with which they (Peter, Chip and Andy--everyone else has actually been great, just fully under-informed by their supervisors) have treated me in person is disgraceful.  My husband and I own a small business and would never, ever have gotten as far as we have by acting in any such manner as they have.  Then again: we didn?t inherit our business (Metzit?s father and grandfather are extremely well-regarded in the industry); we worked for it.

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First I would like to say that they are right on the ball as far as shrub layout and design.  The designer knows his way around shrubs.  So if that is what you need you have made a good choice.  Ask for a quote so you know what size plants they are talking about.

They are ok to work with on hardscapes but need guidance.  You should work closely with them and provide them with feed back on your home as you know it better than they do.  Carefully review their recommendations and make sure they have the following on their plans,

1. Plant descriptions and quantities are important but also plant sizes need to be shown so that you can get competitive pricing.  Typically plants are either listed at 1 gallon, 3 gallon, 5 gallon etc or by trunk thickness for trees.

2. If you or they want to reuse some existing plants or relocate them, make sure it is called out on the drawing so that it is clear what is staying, going or being removed and thrown away.

3. Carefully review hardscapes so that you know what type of materials and installation is planned.  They should go over options. 

4. The beds and planting material should be called out as well so that the mulch type, depth and how much of the existing beds will be dug up and replaced with new soil.

5. You should also know or be clear on how the old shrubs will be removed.  The roots should also be removed and not just cutting the existing plants and leaving the roots in place.  Make sure it is clear what you want them to do.

6. We have also been told to stay away from weed blocking mats by installation contractors as they become problems over time.

It was all a new experience for us and the hardscape was very challenging as a lot of decisions needed to be made with the contractor.

The work was huge, my yard is about 60 x 30 feet, and I wanted all plants, no grass. They planned the new layout, brought in the plants, saved the plants I wanted to save, removed the weeds (of which there were a ton), and even moved a few big rocks around, it all took 2 days. The planning I was a bit less impressed with. I got the feeling the planner was swamped with work and not giving much attention to the design. I held off writing this review because I was not sure some of the plants would survive where they were planted, but everything has persevered.
If I were to use them again I would take a stronger hand in the planning.

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The designer come to my house on time, delivery the plan a little delay. They supplied all plants for their design and there are several trees died in the following winter, now waiting them come to replace the dead trees......