[redwitch]

I've had friends and clients who have absolutely loved Sunscape. I've had others who spit when they hear the name. Guess it depends on what they wanted done. Those who wanted the tropical landscaping seemed to be pretty happy. Those who wanted something other were highly dissatisfied.

Sadly, hiring a landscaper seems to be one of the riskier undertakings in TV -- you really don't know what you're getting until the job is done. No matter how good of a job they did on your friend's or neighbor's is no guaranty that you're going to be happy with the job on your lawn. On top of that, you frequently have to pay at least a portion up front because their costs are so high.

The best thing you can do is try to educate yourself as much as possible as to what you want. Learn about local plants if you possibly can. Talk to as many people who do their own gardening or are master gardeners as possible. Definitely talk to several landscapers and ask LOTS of questions.

I'm sorry you had such a miserable experience. Jeff's attitude towards you is inexcusable. At the very least, it seems he could have offered some sort of compromise to replace at least some of the dead plants. While I understand (and sympathize) that no one expected such an extreme freeze as we had and that standard planting didn't have a chance of survival because of that freeze, at least Jeff could offer to replace the tropical plants. The hardier plants should have been fine given a normal Florida winter, so I could see him not being willing to replace all of the plants.