Who's your best lily sources

Hi
When I was new to lilies it was really hard to find the sources for a lot of lilies . Here my List.
Top 3 Not necessarily in This Order .
1) Buggycrazy.
Positives : 1 ) Has the largest Bulbs of anyone
2) Excellent Customer Service
3) The best Oriental Selection
4) Lots of her Own Seedlings
5 ) Prices are Good
6) Fast And Fare Shipping

Negatives : 1) She A bit Eccentric (-:

2) The Lily Garden
Positives :1) Has larger than normal Bulbs
2) The Best OT's On The Planet
3)Very Generous With Bonus Bulbs
4) Her Lilies are bred for Garden Worthiness
5) Fast Shipping
6) Her prices are good Considering the extra Bonus she gives. She Gives Nice Bonus Bulbs. Not Common
Asiatic's or Orientals
7) A Great Guarantee
8) The Premier Hybridizer in the World For Garden Lilies . My Opinion .
Negatives : She's Not the Fastest Responder to Email And Her Voice Mail Boxes is always full.

3) The Lily Pad
Positives : 1) The Best Source for Dutch Hybrids
2) The Best Source for the American Series Ot's (Van Der Salm)
3) Very Attractive Prices
4) Excellent Customer Service( Jan's Awesome)
5) Bulbs are Slightly Above Average in Size and are of excellent quality
6) Gives Bonus Bulbs

Negatives : They do not produce there own Hybrids


Here some More Lily Sources.

1) The Lily Nook
Positives : 1) Nice Selection of Bulbs
2) Bulb Quality is excellent
3) Customer service is good
4) Bulb size is average
5) Bonus Bulbs
Negatives : 1) Prices are not Very good because of the decline of the Dollar
2) They ship late in the spring. Better to order in the fall if you Want your Bulbs in March.


2) B&D Lilies
Positives : 1) Above average size bulbs
2) Excellent Quality
2) Nice selection of mostly Dutch hybrids a few of there own Hybrids
3)They Answer there Emails in a timely Fashion
4) Bonus Bulbs ( They say they do I made a $150 order and did not receive Them)

Negatives : 1) Customer Service. Bob Can Be Sarcastic and Caustic.
2) Pricing is inconsistent . The Same Dutch Hybrid can be Bought at Lily Pad for $7 or less. They Charge $14 +
3) Late Shipping in the Spring .Order in the Fall if you want your bulbs before April'.


3)Van Engelen/John Scheepers
Positives : 1) Very Attractive price
2)Excellent Quality
3) Nice place for some common species
Negatives : 1) bulk only (5 or more)
2) limited selection




All The Rest : Breck"s/ American Meadows/ McClure and Zimmerman/ Etc......
Most have nothing unique To Offer. Mostly common Ductch Hybrids Except Brecks has Tango Lilies.





This message was edited Apr 5, 2008 9:21 AM

This message was edited Apr 5, 2008 9:25 AM

This message was edited Apr 7, 2008 11:21 PM

I love The Lily Pad! I have place 2 orders with them in the last year and have been very pleased. I do wish they had more variety though.

I only have ordered Daffodil's from Brecks, but was very satisfied with those.

Hallson Garden has excellent lily bulbs but a very, very limited selection. Excellent customer service from Chris and Brian!

I like Faraway Flowers. I've gotten excellent bulbs from Ramona. She has stuff that nobody else does and they are quality bulbs. Customer service is the best. :)

Buggycrazy, what can I say, she has simply wonderful bulbs and great customer service.

I also got some nice bulbs in the Wooden Shoe co-op here on Daves. Neal did a wonderful job with this co-op and I haven't heard one bad thing about the bulbs.

Diann

Buggy Crazy

If Buggy Crazy has it, I will buy it from her. Knowledgeable, fair and honest with a great product.

Faraway Flowers, excellent quality,unique bulbs with prompt attention to customer service and detail. She is wonderful! Fair shipping prices and really neat stuff!

I have purchased from the Lily Pad, prices are good, but I wouldn't say the same about the customer service I have received over a couple different issues the last few years. I would say sometimes they just don't come across very friendly (giving everyone credit for having a bad day here and there). Mostly Dutch hybrids, not specifically grown for the beauty of a garden, but more for the cut flower industry.

B&D...nice sized bulbs for the garden, knowledgeable lily advice, nice variety, many hard to find. I think if you ship in flat rate boxes, your pricing shouldn't cost more to send to New York, as compared to Oregon.

The Lily Nook has been very good to me with the orders I have placed. I have gotten a bonus bulb, but I can't recall what a qualifying order was. The bulb sizes were average, but they grew beautifully their first seasons. Reliable customer service with a nice selection of garden lilies.

The Lily Garden. I will second Dennis's assessment. Though I usually buy her lilies from my lily society. I would add that I don't think her bulbs are particularly large, but do grow well.

This message was edited Apr 4, 2008 11:06 AM

daves co-op!

Oh yeah!!!

Van Engelen/John Scheepers actually sells some HUGE lily bulbs, though I am certain most of theirs are Dutch imports. I have had good luck with them. Love most of those already mentioned as well. I like supporting US growers whenever I can.

I forgot a couple Van Engelen/John Scheepers are indeed a good source I also Forgot Blooming Bulb Which is another excellent Source

The bulbs I got from Blooming Bulb was not true to name, so I probably won't be buying from them again. Bulbs were big, but so what if it's not what you think you bought.

How early in the season do you need to buy from Buggycrazy to get a nice selection? Went over there and most lilies are sold out.

MollyD

Hi Molly,

They are marked as soldout because she doesn't do spring shipping. Around October she will post her fall shipping offerings. The reason she keeps the so called "soldouts" posted on the website is so her customers can refer back for information on lilies (or other plants/seeds) they have purchased. I like this way of doing things because unless I save the information on my own computer, it would be gone if she didn't keep it available.

An example of important information (to me, anyway) is whether a not a particular oriental lily will tend to burn in the summer sun.

Oh so they can be ordered for fall delivery then?

Thanks!
MollyD

Pard, did you mean her (Buggy Crazy's) site goes up sometime in August for October delivery? There's just nothing like those Buggy bulbs.

No, I mean October. And probably not October 1st. I'm just basing this on memory. You can always email her when the time nears but I wouldn't bug (no pun intended) her now about it because she wouldn't know.

Suffice it to say she grows all of her bulbs, and digs orders by hand. Best quality bulbs I've ever purchased.

Don't worry, Molly. If you follow this forum I'm sure it will get announced here when her site is updated.

Thanks pardalinum. don't want to miss it cause I saw several there I'd love to get and her prices were very reasonable.

Thanks!

MollyD

Molly, here's the link from last fall and us all going crazy waiting for her site to go up.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/755265/

Pard, are you sure about that with Buggy? I just went and looked at my orders from last year and I ordered August 4th. I think her site usually goes live the first part of August.

Thanks Pard. Sounds like early August is the time to plan on ordering from her!

MollyD

I just went back and checked old threads. Her site went up August 4th last year.

Well that's good news! So I was having a senior moment after all! Was she actually shipping that early too? That seems a bit early for digging around here...

Looks like the shipping was in October maybe. This is the thread(it is long!)

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/755265/#new

Yeah, I got my shipments from her in October. Nice big fat juicy bulbs. :) I can't wait to see them this year.

I just had to read that old thread over again. As with all buggy related threads, it was hilarious.

As to Dennis' comment about her being on the eccentric side, well, she seems pretty normal to me, in spite of her rants on her homepage. I once asked her how she controls the blackberries around her place and she said she shoots them. Now I got to thinking... how creative! And fun too! Not at all like drenching them with toxic Crossbow. And I reckon her eradication program would have a dual purpose by also keeping the neighbors from heck intimidated.

Buggy is a gem any way you look at it.

Ya got to love Buggy!!

Because of this forum, I ordered from Buggy this year. I received the largest and most healthy bulbs I have ever planted. Thanks for your input on this forum.
Debbie

for me it's Old House Gardens, hands down! they have great heritage bulbs that are much more distinctive and fragrant than the moderns.check out the informative article on www.demosnews.com. (select the genre "Home", then click on "Growing Old Lilies")

Bumping up for the list of lily sources.

Just chiming in on Old House Gardens -- I think it's a very good company given the scope of things, not just lilies, that they offer and their mission to get great old plants back in gardens. Love their newsletter and their catalog. However, I've ordered lilies from them and have been very disappointed with the quality and the size of them. They're not growers. One time my bulbs were shipped here from Holland or wherever and then, by mistake, back to Holland again before they finally got to me. Their lily selection is good but very limited, and I don't think they sell any that Buggy or the Lily Garden don't grow in their own fields. Having said that, their martagons are a very good deal, have grown very well for me, and I'd get more from them if I had somewhere to put them.

I love The Lily Garden, but I have received Asiatics from them that were smaller than I expected, between the size of a walnut and a golf ball, and several weren't big enough to produce a bloom the first year. However, they're varieties no one else sells, and the quality was good, so I was still happy with them.

A warning about bloomingbulb: I received some virused bulbs from them. If you grow a lot of Lilies I'd avoid them, or at least isolate any purchased from them well away from other lilies till you see them bloom and can be sure they're healthy.

The Lilies I got from a co op through eflowergarden/touch of nature last year did very well. Some of the bulbs looked a little odd when they came in, the scales were sort of opening like a flower and they were sprouting, but they bloomed and performed beautifully and are returning well this spring.

Wooden Shoe/ Ednie flower bulbs has excellent Lilies. They have the best prices around, but only sell in bulk- 25 bulbs per variety. The only difference I've seen in their retail and wholesale divisions is minimum order and price ($50 minimum order retail, $250 minimum order wholesale).

I am not sure what is up with TLG this year. She hasn't been responsive to customers and just like a couple of the feed backs were saying, the e-mail on her order form doesn't work.
I kind of know what to expect, but I sent an e-mail order on Monday April 13th and never got a response. Not sure how she can expect to keep customers or even get new ones with out some office help, strange.

The Lily Garden has less office help than most these days. She has some very unique lilies and has a very kind heart. I know it has been a very busy year for her, so waiting a week for a response is not unheard of, and it is shipping season. I've used the same AOL address as I have for years and I haven't had any problems, and I have emailed very recently as well.

The info here is really helpful:)

I've picked up a few great deals end of season at Brent & Becky's too. They don't have a huge selection but I do like getting a deal:lol:

Keep missing Buggy--mostly when I have funds everything is snapped up:lol: I'm planning it better this year:)

I joined the PNWLS too but I only got a notice regarding last falls bulb sale and not one for the spring so I missed that one =( I'm going to email and see what I have to do to get notification or an order form for this fall's sale.