Lauren's Garden Service and Native Plant Nursery

My wife and I have been on a journey to establish a native plant garden. It's very difficult to find any local businesses selling native plants. Unfortunately people seem to prefer Asian imported invasive "Folex" plants at Lowes instead of actual "Rolex" plants.

Enter Lauren's. We were able to find all of the nutrition and ecosystem supporting native plants that we needed to build a landscape that ensures we're doing our part to keep an ecosystem alive.

We will definitely be back to shop for more plants and other items. Keep up the excellent work Lauren!

Good selection of native plants and friendly customer service! Plants all look pretty healthy and they have a range from gallon size to plugs. I'll be back next time I need more plants.

Lauren's has become my go-to for native plants. It's worth the drive. All staff have been friendly and knowledgable, and all the plants I've purchased were in great health and, now in year two, are thriving.

Went to Lauren’s to find some plants to fill a couple of flower beds around our house. We found a good selection with reasonable prices. The staff was helpful with recommending different plants to complete our project. When they ran out of what we needed more stock arrived within a week. One downside is that they don’t stock garden soil or mulch.

nice place, some good natives ; however, like many of the garden centers in this area (and elsewhere); the folks have little real training in botany or biodiversity. some of the plants they sell are not truly native to this area - oakleaf hydrangea, for example is a southeaster species and not native to maryland. For most people that are looking for native plants to enhance local biodiversity, such details are irrelevant. would be nice if they were more honest in what they are selling, however.

Lauren's has such a variety of native plants and I love their online and pickup options. We're converting our front/backyard to natives and it's really great to be able to look at everything online and place orders as we're clearing out spots. Being able to pick up when it's convenient is a huge help as well.

I thought it would be nice to take my mom, who is in her Seventies here for a Mother's Day gift. I had been there the week earlier and they let me use their bathroom. No hassle. This time they sent us to Royal Farms down the street. We had to drive there. Im pretty annoyed. I don't want to ruin my moms gift. That really sucked of them.

I have been here several times and received such friendly and knowledgeable service that I've recommended them to friends in the area. They have an excellent variety of native plants that have been well taken care of and have recommendations of where and how to plant them. Thanks for the great experience! So excited to plan my next planting!

Planted a month late, in December, over charged me due to their inability to understand that when I said my soil is rocky, I mean it’s rocky. Didn’t properly amend the soil around plants. Didn’t really mind the grading, just put rocks down, which caused all sorts of issues.

They claimed I hadn’t notified them of my concern over the swale but I have 4 emails including the very first one I sent where it’s clear conveying water is my primary concern.

edit:
downgraded to a 1 from a 3 due to inaccurate review response. Here’s my rebuttal:

1) The business is either being dishonest or dumb. The math they are using for the overage neglects that I made a 1/3 down payment.

3950-1,317=2,633
4,176.00-2,633=1,543 over quote. NOT 226 as they claim below. This required that they consult me prior to work which they did not.

Let’s say this was a billing mistake and they only meant to charge me 226 extra: It’s still pretty upsetting that rather than correct this mistake they just accepted my refusal to pay the overage. It doesn’t pass the smell test for me.

2) They brought in a tiller to tear up the sod because they were late to start the job and the ground was frozen because it was december. They did not amend the soil AROUND plantings (usual guidance is 50/50 native soil to amendment, to create a zone that touts can grown into more quickly than the hard clay. I told them on consult that my soil was 50% rocks so their claim they couldn’t predict the soil quality is laughable.

3) I cut the cost of this project by halving it from 100 ft to 50ft specifically so they didn’t have to cheap out on quality.

4) I mentioned several times I wanted the water in the swale to convey properly but the area they threw rocks down was 4” below grade to the water flowed down the edging rather than conveying. Maybe you didn’t install a rain garden but you used the words with me i person and did not contradict me when I mentioned it prior to the sketch being drawn. A quick google search shows that the proper technique for gardens that must convey water is to grade berms on either side. I tried to ask about how they were engineering the water area prior to installation and they told me It would be in the drawing. The drawing only had the location of the rocks and my concerns about grading were ignored.

Hands down the best options and quality for native plants. The customer service was attentive and friendly. They also carry some vegetables, herbs, and indoor plants. Plant shopping here was my happy place. Happy planting!

Hands down best nursery to get native plants. The plants at laurens garden service are very healthy. Glad to have found them, plan to visit again soon.

I was very pleased with the design and installation of the landscaping in front of our house. The installers were very professional and the plants were very healthy. A real winner!

Excited to go back next spring to check out their native plants for purchase and absolutely loved their gift selections in the shop!

Lauren is aware of my frustrations. However, upon reviewing other comments, I thought I should post, as this is a clearly a consistent issue with this company. They are incredibly poor communicators.

Their installation policy states, ‘we will notify clients of any surprises to get approval for increased hours for anything over 15% of the original estimated cost.’ Today I received a final invoice that was over 30% the original estimate, without any of these extra charges being communicated to me or with my approval. I felt blindsided. After two phone calls, I was told that the extra 30% would be reduced to 15% and was reassured that something like this rarely occurs and was an ‘accidental oversight.’ But after seeing others write similar things, it makes me think that this might be a more consistent communication problem.

Also, I feel like I should have seen this coming after reflecting on my previous interactions with the company before installation. For example, in April I was told I would receive a design work-up within a couple of weeks (I had already signed a contract at this point), however, I never received anything until late May and was told that I had three days to approve it so everything could be available for the install. The approval period was during Memorial Day Weekend and at that point, exact install dates were still not communicated to me and fell on days when I was out of town. It was all ultimately moved back, but the delayed and then chaotic communication should have been telling of how everything else was going to go down.

Lastly, I wanted to acknowledge that the outcome of my lawn was good, however, the landscapers did use some very inefficient practices. These approaches were described to me as eco-friendly however I would disagree. The invoice with increased charges related to labor costs, so I want to be transparent with what I experienced. To provide an example, one landscaper was using what looked to be a tiny tub / hamper to remove grass and soil rather than one of the three 4-wheeled barrels that were sitting on top of the truck.

My lawn looks great but all the back and forth and lack of communication / transparency was not worth it. I hired this company to help me, not give me more stress.

Lauren created a new backyard for us which involved an onsite visit and lots of back and forth exchange of ideas via email. We are very pleased with how it all came out and look forward to seeing it grow and change through the seasons. The installation crew was fabulous and the office staff was always responsive.

Such an amazing place to find native plants! Lauren and team were so helpful and friendly. They have a nice selection of straight species and cultivars and have been growing and expanding their inventory and offerings. I love that they post their inventory online so I have a sense for what might be available before making the trip out there (though of course the inventory is updated weekly and some plants sell out quickly). Also, prices are reasonable and you can buy plugs (seedlings) if you are patient enough to wait for them to grow. Looking forward to many return visits in the future. Please keep up the great work here!

Lovely little nursery full of beautiful local Maryland flowers, shrubs, and trees. Everything clearly labeled for sunlight and pollinators. Excellent staff.

Despite contacting them in the Fall to get on their Spring planting schedule and a January meeting with a staff member, we NEVER have seen a landscaping plan. When we followed up, we were told "next week." Being "too busy" is not an excuse for not communicating with clients and dismissing us through silence as not important to them. We now are starting over, late in the season, finding a new landscaper. VERY UNPROFESSIONAL.

This is such a lovely place. It’s well organized and just a perfect place to browse for a variety of native flowers, shrubs and trees. I’ll def be coming back

Great place to pick up native plants. The staff are very knowledgeable, and enthusiastic to help you out. I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to plant, but I talked with them about my location, and they recommended a number of plants.

Garden center reopens in April 2023, lovely shop open now. Lots of wonderful natural craft and boutique items, candles, nature journals, house plants, artwork... you're bound to find something as a gift or for yourself.

I gave this business five stars because it is a small locally owned nursery that has different varieties of native plants. If you are interested in building a colonial garden? Butterfly garden, bee garden or want a beautiful wrought iron arbor made this is the place to come. It was my first time visiting and I will definitely be back. Like I said, they have many different varieties that you will not find in the large garden centers . I bought two Joe pye weeds at $7 each and three quarts of packera at $7 each.. they also have winterberry and many different shade perennials.

Lauren worked with us to create a design incorporating everything we wanted. The crew was courteous and efficient. The mix of plants, and where they were placed has been great. We are really enjoying the variety in shapes, sizes, colors, and flowering schedule.

Lovely place with native plants... It's in really beautiful area that's shady and there's a couple of picnic tables. Staff is knowledgeable and helpful.

Did not have a good experience overall - as some others reviews and responses have noted, they are overly busy which leads to poor communication and zero customer follow-up, because they simply don't have time. We had a few thousand dollar garden installed, and the owner said they would be there on Day 1 to ensure the installers got the layout right amongst other things, but then she didn't show up. Why? Too busy. This led to multiple issues with the installers asking us questions for which we hired Lauren to take care of, and problems with the installers not understanding things and multiple miscommunications.

We were also disappointed with the warranty of the plants, as it's the worst I've ever seen in the garden business (they say they will "split the costs" of dead plants by having the customer come to their nursery and pay wholesale costs for the plants and have to install them themselves - I still can't fathom how that is "splitting the cost" - this literally costs them nothing, and costs the customer the price of the plant, the travel to the nursery, and the labor to install). We lost multiple plants in the first 9 months (some didn't look in good condition to begin with on Day 1) despite caring for them meticulously following the instructions.

The owner states in multiple responses that they get hundreds of requests, and can only do like 8 in a week. If that's the case - it should be a slam dunk to get an investor(s) on board and open up more nurseries and hire more staff to fix the issues and take care of the business appropriately. Being busy is a good thing, but not when it's so overwhelming and you simply can't take care of customers the right way, especially during and after installations.

I couldn't be happier with the design process, install, and result. I have been putting off landscaping my back yard for years, thinking I could do it myself. Lauren came up with a plan that reflects exactly what I want and was able to work with me to fit my budget. I wanted a bluestone/grass patio off of my deck and the cost came in higher than budget; Lauren proposed irregular flagstone rather than bluestone which turned out to be much better for our overall design and fit my budget.

The install crew was wonderful, very professional, friendly, and good communication. In addition to excellent work, they left everything neater and cleaner than they found it. I thought I would have to wait until spring, but they fit me into their fall schedule, so the view from my windows is much nicer than it was before and I can't wait to see everything greened up and blooming in the spring!

They have the best website around and only offer native plants. This is important for Maryland's ecosystem, so please choose them for all your plant needs. It took some work to get someone to serve us, but once we had someone, we received great help (we think they are used to online orders and pickups instead of walk in customers due to COVID). All the plants have the same signs that can be found online which makes shopping very helpful. We will be back and we will recommend this nursery to everyone looking to upgrade their gardens.

The crew came for spring clean out of our rain garden and were wonderful. They have taught me a lot about the plants and managing my garden.

Ask for design and install services for a 300+ acre estate, only to be told they were "too busy" to come look at my project. I offered to self install but pay them for design and purchase all my plants from them and was told they couldn't do that and weren't interested. This would have literally been thousands and thousands of dollars of business. If you are that busy hire more staff! Business owner herself was dismissive and uninterested.

I called Lauren's Garden Service last March. Lauren personally came to my house in Anne Arundel County to see my yard and hear my thoughts on improving the landscaping. She provided a drawing of the design using all native plants. The installation crew came on time and were polite and courteous. They consulted with me about moving certain plants and the best options for plant placement. After the installation, I contacted Lauren and the team on a few occasions for advice on some of the plants' health in the heat of the summer. Each time, Lauren and the staff have been most helpful and friendly. I would highly recommend Lauren and her team.

Enjoyable socially distant shoppers for native plants. Owners were friendly and knowledgeable,and their pets made sure to greet us personally whole the humans socially distances. (The owners were considerate about the pets and offered to put them inside of any of the customers were uncomfortable. I found a the plants I was looking for and then some.

Lauren's Garden Service is AMAZING! Based on questions they asked me they designed a beautiful landscape around my pool that exceeded my expectations. They were responsive, friendly, and extremely professional.

I ordered several plants for curbside pickup. All the specimens were very robust and healthy. Customer service was very quick to respond when I had a question. I appreciate that the nursery specializes in native plants and has unique options beyond the big box stores. Could not have had better experience and will shop here in the future!

Put in a quote for some Butterfly weed plants, got a response quickly about them. Plants were then available for pick-up shortly after. Meadowside pick-up was quick and the plants were as healthy looking as I hoped they'd be.

EDIT: Just wanted to share photos of them from a few weeks back. They shot up and flowered quite a lot!

Lauren's Garden Service helped us plan a complete over haul of our backyard. Lauren's thoughtful design looks lovely and I am so excited to watch the plants grow, fill in and start attracting native pollinators. Her team ripped out years of overgrown ivy, and carefully arranged all of the new plants. For all of their work and the 80+ plants that were installed, her service is a great value and I would highly recommend her and her team.

I really enjoyed working with Lauren's Garden services. We had a bit of a tough ask to find plants for. We wanted a backyard that provided natural habitats for birds and bees, especially fall/winter for birds, while also providing July/August blooms for our firepit area. She had great ideas and was able to provide substitutions for the few I was not enamored with.
When staff came to plant, they were friendly, tidy - cleaned up everything, they checked in with me on plantings and moved Items I requested moved, all were clearly plant nerds.

Lauren's Garden's crew installed two rain gardens for us this spring. They did a great job during a difficult time for everyone (pandemic). They were professional and worked tirelessly. The gardens are flourishing and doing their job with all the rain gutter run off we've had this spring!

We were pleased with our experience ordering plants for delivery from Lauren's nursery. Selecting and ordering was simple, we received timely updates, and the delivery was very convenient. As new gardeners, we particularly appreciated the emphasis on native plants and the blog articles that helped us pick out the best plants for our area. Will shop again!

Wonderful experience. High quality native plants with good information, speedy, decent pricing, and they made pickup very safe and convenient. Highly recommend!

Lauren’s Garden Service installed a pathway and patio for us along with a large garden area with native plants. We were extremely happy with Lauren and her company. Lauren came up with a plan based on my ideas and pictures I found online. The work looks great and as I had hoped. The crew was friendly, hard working and cleaned up at the end of each day.

Lauren's Garden Service was fantastic from start to finish. My house needed some serious landscape cleanup. The work that I needed to have finished included cleaning out the gutters, removing overgrowth around the entire border of the 1+ acre lot, power washing for the house and the deck, and removing devil weed that had taken over our chicken coop.

From the moment I first requested a quote, I knew that I was in good hands. They took care of everything that I needed help with, and did a fantastic job.

I'll hire them again in a heart beat.

Great service and a good price! I really like this company, they are very professional and good at it. The farmers are excellent, they are responsible, kind, you’ll never have a problem with them. I recommend 100%.

Just loved the selection of plants and quality of plants. Lauren listened to me and understood the water problem in our yard and it was addressed. Everything was beautiful and it was extremely easy to plan. The service was very timely too. Extremely happy.