Here is what happened to a garden blogger who wrote a
negative review about one of Proven Winner's
varieties.......................... from our facebook group
Retail Independent Garden Centers Media and Vendors
I'm a garden blogger for those who don't know me..flowergardengirl.com. I was courted by PW about 4-5 years ago. I have linked to them gosh knows how many times. I just posted my stats on how many times my viewers clicked through to them through my referrals--it's over 700 times. Then one day a year ago--I wrote one negative post on the Pretty Much Picasso--mainly because a few stock nurseries around here have ruined the PW cultivars with growth regulators and poor growing mediums. They die almost right out of the truck or shortly after getting them in the ground. This is the worst year I've seen yet. The plants are super athletes and need to be cared for as such to be the specimens they are in the photos. So anyway--PMP performs poorly in my area. Along came PW and found that post--and left me a very nasty email. Not only that but they also sent a bunch of well known garden bloggers to counter my post. How did I know this--because---the post was a year old( something the PW person failed to see) and all of a sudden it was getting lots of attention. I don't usually get that many well known garden bloggers to respond to any post much less a lot in one day. So I was alerted. I contacted one of the bloggers that I know well and she fessed up--yes, PW had contacted them and ask them to counter the post. Of course all bloggers who commented were embarrassed when they found out the post was over a year old. Not only that--but I had also posted another article the previous year that I did not like the plant. Of my pages and pages and 700 links to PW-this was the only plant I didn't like. PW ask me to take down the post and threatened to cut me off if I did not comply. They said I would never again be included in any activity at PW. Now listen--they never paid me a dime--never gave me anything but about 30ish 5" pots per year of the new plants coming out. I appreciated this and so--then they respond by telling me I am against their product cause I gave a negative review of one plant. They turned a lot of people agasint me. This did not however tarnish or hurt my traffic. They accused me of being against their plants because I wasn't invited to the garden 2 blog event hosted by PAllen. Such nonsense really. I have lots more integrity than that. Could they not have looked at how many referrals I'd given them? So I'm done with them--I'm done with being allegiant to any brand. I have more to say--cause I've also worked at an IGC and a big box. I'll save that for later.
You be the judge.........................
Garden advice you can dig!
07 December 2011
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Thank you Greg and I hope that people will judge me fairly. I invite folks to search my website for the PW brand see how many times I've written gorgeous articles in respect of their product. See my photos of how they grow in my garden. All of my accusations are backed up with hard copies with correspondence from the source. Thank you for posting this and thank you to your audience for giving me the benefit of doubt. Warmest wishes to you are your readers.
ReplyDeleteI surfed over to the original post http://fleamarketgardening.com/2011/07/06/proven-winners-plants-fired-me-over-one-negative-post/
ReplyDeleteAnd left a remark about how PW shouldn't expect their plants to perform equally well in all gardens...
PW is going to create a negative image if they can't tolerate a little honest reporting,
I backtracked to Anna's blog from this summer to catch up on the controversy, and learned an awful lot about product placement on blogs. I'm pretty sure I'm thankful that I never headed off in that direction, but then again, if I was making a few bucks (or even getting free plants), would I have sucked up? Me hopes not...
ReplyDeleteHi Stone, I published your comment and thank you. Thisleandthorn....I'll continue to review plants as it is crucial to know how the new cultivars are going to do in the NC heat and humidity but I will never ever be loyal to a brand. You are right about me being excited when PW contacted me---I was thinking wow--now I can really shine and with their help I can be so famous. It was more like I really gave them a lot of traffic in exchange for about 30 little 5" pots a year. But 2 years ago when they branched out to big box--their quality started to suffer as growers were chosen who cheapened the brand with poor growing habits. I started to leave the brand---I guess they noticed and quit romancing me. I never expected them to send other bloggers to counter my honest reviews.
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