That's why I shave my head.
Favorite mail order companies
Victor, Do you do it yourself? weed whacker, lawn mower, hedge cutter? Patti
Tweezer.
He hires neubian girls whose heads are also shaved, this way he knows they know what theyre doing.LOL
That would be a sight for sore eyes. Now I must stop laughing and go and plant some seeds.
Hi Terry - i will try and start entering in my opinions when i have some free time :)
Wow. I aspire to be as organized as Patti with my orders one of these days. Right now I tend to list my orders in a notebook that's usually lost within a couple of days or I've moved on to the next notebook and can't remember which notebook had the order in it.
Here's who I had good experiences with last year and my next stop is watchdog to comment on them:
Van Bourgondien
Brent & Becky's Bulbs
EasyToGrowBulbs
Cates Family Glads
Bluegrass Gardens - Daylilies
Oakes Daylilies
Swan Island Dahlias
Noweta Gardens - Glads
Holland Bulb Farms - Glads
American Meadows - Glads
Old House Gardens - Glads
Blooming Bulb - Glads
I did have an issue with one of the places I bought glad bulbs from. Part of their shipment of bulbs from Holland was damaged and of course 90% of the bulbs I ordered were in the damaged part. They were willing to work with me to send me different bulbs but I'd really really wanted the ones I'd ordered. Unfortunately I can't remember which company it was. Either Holland Bulb or American Meadows. I think. Sadly the great Gladiola experiment didn't quite work the way I hoped so I won't be ordering quite as many this year. Instead I seem to have developed a fascination with Coreopsis and Galliardia.
My favorite mail order is Rarefind Nursery in Jackson,NJ they obviously have the unusual .High Country Gardens in NM is another I really like.
I did rate my favs and not so favs in watchdog....the reason I wanted a list with my buddies here in the NE is because they know who to buy from for our area, it's very time consuming to look up every company in watchdog and you can't do a regional search(can you?) or a positive rating search search by region.? There is over 3400 companies rated...I don't have time to search thru them all. That's why I started this thread I was getting aggrevated with looking thru companies...I was looking at Daylily vendors and was only in the "b's" and thought "am I crazy? there has to be an easier way"
Victor- from Miller I just noticed the Triple s apple trees that just grow on a single stem. I had apple trees at our old house and don't want to deal with a regular tree.
I have just a little b-day $ to spend and I'm trying to determine what I REALLY REALLY want this year...my head is swimming! Or do I just save my $ and use it all at Fairweather's open house?
flowerjen, put your ZIP code in the first (left-ish) search box in the upper right-hand corner of the GWD. That will let you search companies closest to you.
Thanks, but I still have to pull all of them up to see their ratings and those are just the ones closest to me not the whole region. It's very time consuming.
Are you looking for companies to visit? If so, then Go Gardening lets you look for garden centers near you.
Or are you looking for companies to order from? (To be honest, a mailorder company's location may have very ittle bearing on whether they have the plants that match what you're looking for.) But you can always narrow your search down by category and state, if you're wanting to try to find sources closest to you.
And there's always PlantScout, if you're looking for specific plant sources.
Hostas: Naylor Creek and Jim's Hostas (I've ordered multiple times from both vendors and have had no problems with either) The only (and this is teeny tiny) problem I have with the GWD is that I'm only able to make 1 comment at a time...this past season I believe I placed about a dozen or so orders with Naylor Creek (some were direct buys others were from the hosta auction on the hosta library's website). I would have loved to had made more positive remarks, but I could only ammend a prior remark that I had already made...sort of silly. If Terry is still watching this, I think it would be IDEAL and GREAT to be able to post a picture of an order on the GWD that way people seeing complaints, or negative feedback can know what the post-er is writing about, and on the flip side what someone is bragging about with their positive feedback.
Daylilies: Too numerous to mention. If you want clumps of some newer and some older varieties, you can't lose with Oake's Daylilies. They may not be the cheapest but I've never received anything less than a 4-5 fan clump PER variety with them.
For the unusual: Plants Delight and Logee's.
Coleus: Rosy Dawn and Stained Glass Works.
Tropicals: Plants Delight, Logee's and DG's very own Brian's Botanicals.
Shrubs/trees: ForestFarm (have ordered 2 years running) shipping is crazy but the plants are outstanding. I plan on ordering/visiting a few of the places that Victor has mentioned this year, and I can't wait!
Berries, and all type of fruit plants (not fruit trees): Indiana Berry and Plants...they were all great!
I've ordered seeds and potatoes from Irish Eyes and the Cooks Kitchen and Pinetree and have had no problems at all with either of them!
I know I'm forgetting a few vendors. I do always make posts in the GWD with my comments.
Oohhh...Roses: Chamblee's. They rocked it for me last season.
I'm scratching my head because I know there are a lot of other places I ordered from but I'm drawing a blank...
um...
Forgot to type in the above post: Dahlias from Dan's Dahlias and Connely's Dahlias were great!
WOW
I am fortunate that I live in Southern. Green Mountain Transplants moved here a few years back from Vermont and they sell millions of varieties of plugs for like $.65 a plant sometimes. This is great if you want to try something new or just want a couple of one item. You can get anything from annuals to veggies and perenniels and some vines and shrubs. No joke, when early springtime rolls around I go there with a pen and pad and spend hours and hours (one spring I was there almost 4 hours) nursing my ice coffee and pinching, touching,sniffing, writing and dreaming while going through their greenhouse getting ideas. Also, their online catalogue is nowhere near the varieties they have in their greenhouses. I have no idea how good they are with shipping. Has anyone else ever used them. They are in Biddeford/Arundel area of Maine.
I USED to order from Green Mt Transplants. Last year they sent me one batch of good plants, and one that were DEAD or nearly so and they never responed to my e-mails. 64.00 wasted. I tried calling and always got a machine. Not going back. I will post a picture later today. They will be very sorry, though their rating isn't good anyway. Patti
Wow, Patti! I certainly would feel the way you do too. I do hear that their communication when ordering mail order is very poor. I think I just am raving about them because I live 15 minutes away and can go through the greenhouses and enjoy the immense variety and then bring them home. I am sorry you had such a bad experience! No excuse! $64 is a ton of money to waste that could have gone to other healthy plants locally!
It's tough when service is poor & causes customer loss. I had a poor plant come in last year, but the company tried to fix the problem. with people being careful how money is spent, service helps make decisions.
I am crazy about Raintree. Their plants are big and their customer service is great. And they have all the edibles that I like to order. I gave my sister gift certificates to them when she moved into her new place.
I just noticed, Victor...no bulbs for you???
I do like bulbs, but have quite a few. No plans for any more as of now. My favorite source is Brent & Becky.
thanks, I have ordered alliums and fall blooming crocus from them so far so good.
Not a lot mentioned perennial places
Except-
Garden Crossings
Avant
Brent and Becky's
Sooner
Lazy S's
Forest Farm
Did I miss any?
I want to buy chocolate cosmos and leary of purchasing from Spring Hill, Wayside, Parks.
Anyone buy from Big Dipper????
I have. They're good.
I bought from them last year and have an order in this year too.
I like Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds for vegetables and herbs. I've used them for a couple of years and found them to be very good.
Its my first year with Eminence Gardens.
He is very small but doesnt charge the card until he ships.