I have no direct experience with the company, but they have reviews on Etsy.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/RhododendronsDirect

Recently purchased two plants from them, came in peat moss medium that was hard as a brick, which I didn't realize until after planting them and watching the leaves shrivel up in spite of daily watering. The owner was very elitist and acted like it must have been my fault. Would not recommend.

If they can recommend and then ship sizeable rhododendrons that will survive and thrive in Las Vegas - about the least rhododendron-suitable location I can think of - then they obviously know their stuff. GardenWatchdog reviews

btw, not understanding the obvious hydrophobia of dry peat and not rehydrating thoroughly before planting is IMO totally operator error and not the fault of the vendor!!

@Marilyn, that is a tough one. I understand both sides of the problem. The reason he used peat is that peat holds onto water for a long time and slowly delivers it to the plant. So it has some good qualities for shipping a plant.

Unfortunately, when peat becomes dry, it is extremely difficult to rehydrate. One way to solve that problem is to put at least 30% turface clay pellets into the soil mix, and I read a study where having turface helps to rehydrate peat that has become too dry.

Where I will fault the nursery is that they should have included a warning with the plant to notify you about the hydration problems with dry peat.

We purchased 2 plants from Rhododendrons Direct this April - a 12"-15" "Black Widow," and a "36"-42 Mature Plant" Mrs. TH Lowinsky."

We paid $179 for the larger Mrs. TH Lowinsky (5x5 at 10 years) because we needed to fill a relatively large hole in our landscaping left by an azalea we lost this winter.

The size of the Mrs. TH Lowinsky (26" tall, 30" across) was disappointing given the premium we paid to receive a "Mature Plant" instead of something no larger than what can be found at our local box stores for 1/3rd of the cost.

Perhaps more disappointing was the lack of response from Rhododendrons Direct when we raised this issue with them. We contacted Jim and asked to either return or exchange the plant, or perhaps to receive a price adjustment but received no response from him.

I’ve purchased 2 boule de neige and 2 gomer waterer rhododendrons from Jim over the past year. All four came very healthy and the GWs were gigantic! Much larger than what I paid for. I lost one BDN but that was my fault. The others are flourishing. Jim also has been very responsive to my questions both before and after purchase

This past spring, I was to receive an order from Rhododendron Direct for two hundred and eighty-six dollars in plants. When the plants didn't arrive two weeks after their scheduled delivery date I sent an email to Jim just to see if they had been shipped. Now four weeks past delivery date and no response from Jim I sent a second email with a follow up phone call (no answer left message) just in case he was not getting emails. After several more emails and phone call I gave up as it was clear that Jim the owner of Rhododendron Direct was not going to respond and make some effort to resolve the issue. If the order was shipped, he should have responded to my first email giving me the tracking number so I could work on my end to find the order and he should have done the investigation on his end as well. This was my third ordered with R D and clearly my last, as ignoring my emails and phone call Jim was telling me to F off. As I have seen in other reviews when Jim has an issue with an order, he just ignores his customer and takes their money knowing they have no chance to recover their hard earned dollars.

Current reviews are not favorable at Garden Watchdog but this post is old, from 5 years ago so quality at that time may have been better and has since declined

Reviews:

3 positives, 0 neutrals 2 negatives

OK, here's the deal with Rhododendrons Direct, this is how it was explained to me, at least:

Another wholesale nursery, Gardenscape Nursery in Gervais, OR, took over operations of R.D. and they are supposed to be fulfilling orders. I ordered plants last year but since I live in the area, I opted to pick up the plants to save on delivery charges. Leading up to, and on the day of pickup, I was unable contact Jim or figure out where to find my plants, but Gardenscape Nursery eventually reached out to me and I was able to get my plants the same day but in Gervais, not Albany. The plants looked good, but this is the type of place where you get fairly rare cultivars, not big plants for cheap! Then this year, I wanted some more hard to find cultivars, and they had them. This time I skipped R.D. entirely and set up the order with Gardenscape Nursery, and everything went smoothly, I once again picked up the plants in Gervais. And the plants looked good again.

This is something I'm seeing a lot of in the Willamette Valley: wholesale growers hitching their wagon to an online retail outlet so they can sell direct to the home gardener, in addition to their wholesale clients.