Comments regarding Richter's Herb Specialists

I'm a long-time customer of Richter's, and I type this with utter dismay and sadness hoping that others can avoid the frustration I've dealt with.

Richter's was my go-to plant and seed company with an unmatched selection for so many years. I would accept the long wait because it meant I would open the box of goodies knowing they were quality plants that were well packed. Unfortunately only one of those things (unmatched selection) is still true, it seems.

This last purchase was so disappointing to say the least. The box came to me bulging which I found unusual for the well-packed boxes I've gotten before, but thought, "hey, they know what they're doing." I was wrong. I opened the box and found some of the plants arranged orderly, but some were in there as though they were an afterthought shoved in without care.

Most of the plants were strong and healthy as I expected from them, but a third of my plants were weak, dying, or dead. Richter's no longer answers their phone, so I emailed my claim with photos right after opening the box (only have 48hrs after arrival to file a claim). I got an email response that the photos will be reviewed. That was 3 days ago and no word. One of the DOA plants cost $10 each, not including shipping.

I used to love this company. Now I can't trust them. At all. And that feels like a betrayal.

Read the other reviews - this place is a dishonest clown show. I had an employee LIE to me multiple times via email. Not make a mistake but LIE! About half the plants died because if their incompetence and they were totally unwilling to take any responsibility, as I say LYING about what had happened. I don’t know how they are in business. Read the other reviews: your online order is likely to randomly just show up months or years later (one of the reviews says plants arrived 2 years after the order was made!) Crazy.

I ordered dozens and dozens of lavender plants and received zero reply about shipping. After a couple weeks I had to go back and check my credit card charges to see if it had even processed. After two months of waiting with no info I emailed to see what was going on and was told they would be shipped when ready. I asked for a more precise timeframe and was told verbatim “they will ship in early April”.

In late March I had to travel due to a death in the family. The day after I left home (March 28th) I received an email that the plants had shipped. Within 5 minutes I was on the phone to tell them I would not be home to receive the perishable package. They had sent the email AFTER it had shipped - the first proactive (if you can call it that) email I received about the order. I was assured that if they were damaged I would be compensated. They were delivered March 31st. When I got home the plants were nearly all dead. I was able to revive about half of them eventually.

When I contacted them to see about the compensation for their mistakes and to tell them I had specifically checked about shipping so I could be prepared to receive them, I was told I should have contacted them within 48 hours of delivery (I was home 72 hours after delivery and they were already toast). I told the lady that they specifically said shipping would be “early April” and she said ‘March 28th is early April’. I politely replied that “early April” is anytime April 1st and later (though really more like April 5th or so) and she again said “March 28th is early April”. Crazy and wantonly dishonest gaslighting!

Do not trust this company to send you your order in anything approaching a timely manner and when they make a mistake prepare for some bizarre and rude response. They are dishonest and disorganized and don’t care one bit about behaving responsibly towards their customers.

I was so excited to order from the famous Richter's and placed a $200+ish order. The poor plants took months to arrive. When finally shipped they were sent right before a holiday and stuck in the box for over a week, waiting to cross the border. The customer screwing rep told me it wasn't their fault the U S had a holiday. Right...our ways and land are so far from our good neighbor, Canada! Mine was the first shipment they ever sent to the faraway and mysterious USA.

When I informed them that practically EVERY plant developed serious mold and started to die in less than week--well the customer screwing rep was overjoyed to tell me that I had had to report in 2 days with pictures or else the warranty was invalid. As anyone would know--they had been moldy but it took time for the bloom to show.

Well I never! Just thought I would add my caution to the other cautions on this page. I guess they will be cheating people with their famous name until there is no one left to cheat.

Ordered around $100.00 in seeds for my garden. The seed count is very low. I received 5 leek seeds and 4 sugar snap pea seeds. Seriously not great value for the money. I have expressed my disappointed with the online feed back form. I have yet to hear back from them. Stay clear and buy elsewhere. Too bad because I actually live near the place and want to support the locals!

I ordered 8 herb plants and a fig plant. The pre-shipping total was $47.75. The shipping was $30.70. I placed the order even with the exhorbitant shipping because there were a couple of herbs that I wasn't able to find anywhere else.

Unfortunately, the plants I really wanted arrived almost dead, and the fig was cancelled by Richters because it was "no longer available." Even though I paid for the order by credit card, Richters policy apparently is to apply a credit to your Richters account, not issue a credit through the credit card company. I could not find this policy anywhere on their website. But since I will never be ordering from them again, I won't be using the credit in any case.

Because of a cool and wet spring, I was told my order would be shipping later than expected so the plants would be more established. It seemed reasonable to me, but several inquiries about an estimated ship date went unanswered. When the order finally shipped, it became clear that most of the plants had been ready for weeks (long and leggy) except one, which still was barely rooted and was smashed in shipping by all the large overgrown plants around it. I simply requested a replacement plant be sent. It took some time for any reply, but I was eventually told my Richter's account would be credited. That means I recoup the plant cost but have to pay shipping again. I looked to re-order the plant, and it was out of stock. I opted for maybe seeds, which are available. However, when I went to check out, despite weeks now after their response, there still is no credit applied to my account to apply to an order.
The other plants I have seem to be fine, and I was pleased with the selection, however their customer service seems ill equipped to handle negative issues. With so many other excellent companies to choose from, this one is not worth the trouble.

This is the second time that I ordered from them. Both times I had to email them, 6 or 7 weeks after they started shipping to get the status of my order. I received less than half of my order with no explanation and, more importantly, no refund. The plants are good quality, but this company is not worth the hassle and wait.

Excellent company! I have ordered before but it’s been a while. They are great communicators and respond quickly. I just received my order and the plants arrived in perfect condition, looking like I just purchased them from a local nursery, not shipped from Canada to Illinois. The packaging is so secure that you have to work at it a little to extract the plants. The plugs are smallish as expected but the part above the crowns are larger and fuller than I thought they would be. Will order from them again.

I live in the far west of the US, a long way from Ontario, especially considering customs. So if I order live plants from Richter's, I do so in the spring, trying to hit that window between winter's deep freezes and before summer's searing heat, because shipping that far takes several days. I've been truly amazed. The packaging is superb. Plants have arrived alive, healthy, and remarkably fresh. It's so wonderful to be able to buy things I've been able to find no where else (I grow a lot of herbs, both culinary and medicinal). I've also had great success ordering seeds from Richter's, any time of year. I've ordered from this company over the span of many years, most recently just this month.

I am surprised at all negative comments. This company has a huge collection of plants and seeds all of which are high quality. I made an order that consisted of one seed packet and 2 coloso figs after making my order I revied an email letting me know that one of the figs I ordered was out of stock; in the email, she also gave me a list of available figs. I picked a substitute, however this delayed the order enough that it went passed Monday which is the day they ship so I had to wait for next week for my order to ship but I got a surprise in the mail, they shipped my seed packet with no other charges which I thought was nice and the actual seed packet was high quilty instead of the usual paper packet I got a foil packet which won't dissolve like the paper ones do if they get wet also they are supposed to keep the seed viable for longer. then the figs came and right out of the box I could see figs 4 of them. never before from all the other mail order companies I had ordered from none of them had fruit, I got a plant that was strikingly beautiful and fruiting out of the box. they were also packaged well and had no problem being in the post office over the weekend. overall five-star experience

I went to Richters just before the May long weekend this year.

Their started herbs and vegetables were few and small. Not at all like last year.

I was told that they "started late" this year due to personnel problems.

I hope they sort their business out.

Unfortunately and sadly i have not had a great experience with Richter's seeds. Upon planning a $300.00 order for seeds, and as a first time customer, i decided to place a $40.00 order first. Im glad that i did. I waited and waited for my seeds, didn't come, so i called Richter's and they were friendly, said i put in the wrong address,, which i doubted right away,,, as i go over things 3x before i press send,, but benefit of the doubt we "corrected" the address ( PO Box number ) i contacted the postal service who confirmed they did not receive a parcel from Richter's seeds at all.
Again i waited and waited, called the post office several times. No parcel, so i called Richter's again,,,,, and they said "it came back" and they resent. So again i waited ( going on 6 weeks at that point ) and how does something come back- when it didn't get here to be sent back????
Anyways she said another one had been sent- yet they still had the wrong box number. Again corrected the box number over phone. Waited and waited, called again, she said it should be there very soon and just wait a bit longer. Post office still has not received anything. They have post it notes all over the post office waiting for this phantom parcel. 2 months later,, still nothing! Its getting late- too late to plant my seeds indoors. A wasted year for the garden ( have a shorter growing seasons due to chinooks) Im sure glad i didn't proceed with that $300.00 order!!! I think ill try Brother Nature seeds instead.

I, too, am surprised at the negative comments. I have ordered from them several times. We moved and I forgot to change my address. They re-sent the order. It was a large order. About 200 seed packets. I have not ordered live plants, but, I would definitely look at them again and give them another chance.
They also have a lot of types of seeds that other companies do not carry.

I have ordered from Richter's for several years and am well-pleased with their products and service.

The herbs are often small---they are, after all, in the first pot they get after being removed from the plug trays---but they do well, for the most part, with a little rest and TLC. Of course---some may die or succumb to the Plant Reaper during shipping, but this should not surprise anyone as plants are living things and unpredictable.

I have always ordered large amounts, and have returned as a customer year after year. And I will keep on doing so as long as I am able to drag my boney butt out the door and into the greenhouse and gardens. I would recommend this nursery to anyone who loves herbs.

I've read the comments in here before the purchase and was a little worry.

However, the seeds arrive extremely fast, professionally packaged and comes with two very informative leaflets for the planters.

I'm exceedingly satisfied with this purchase and would highly recommend this company.

By all means, order their catalog - it is most informative. And the variety of herbs they carry is enormous. But don't buy anything from them unless you cannot find it elsewhere. Why? They sent me the wrong plant my first order & would only refund me the money - I wanted the plant! On my second order, I got an totally empty seed packet & another seed packet grew out a different plant than was on the packet. I have a feeling that this place is either too big or they just have incompetent employees.

At first everything seemed great. They had a huge selection of exotic plants, and we're super diligent in answering my questions prior to my order. They were also super diligent in replying to my questions post order. All seemed great, and though they tool a while to ship, shipping took just two days! Perfect, right? No... First, part of my order was missing. Second, the plants received looked iffy, and a bit browning, but I figured that was sue to shipping. Regarding the missing plants, I emailed and they promised a refund- 10 days later, nothing, and no more replies. As for the plants, 90% of them were dead within the week. They turned brown/gray, and shriveled out of existence. Only three plants and one plug from the pack survived. I had hoped this would be my go to greenhouse, but I don't think I'll ever purchase from them again.

Very disappointing mail order. Very small rosemary plants, brown leaves, bugs and overly wet. The thyme plugs were nearly dead on arrival and most did not survive. Directions advised to keep huntington carpet rosemary moist? VERY wide selection of plants on the expensive side, however. If you could select your own plants at the greenhouse might be worth it. Don't waste your time and money doing a mail order from them.

I ordered a few lavender plants, they did appear healthy. Plants were packaged with care, and there was no damage. A couple were extremely small, as small as the one I am currently rooting which is less than an inch tall, but I don't mind too much. Shipping is very SLOW, took almost a month to get plants, keep this in mind if you are in a hurry. Love their variety, and wish I could have got more but my budget just didn't allow for it.

I am surprised by the negative comments. I have not ordered live plants but have ordered many seeds including:
Lemon Balm
Borage (Borago Officinalis)
Calendula (Calendula officinalis)
Catnip (Nepeta Cataria)
Chamomile roman (Chamaemelum nobile)
Chamomile german (Matricaria Recutita)
Chicory (Chicorium Intybus)
Coriander (Coriandrum Sativum)
Purple coneflower (Echinacea Purpurea)
flax (Linum usitatissimum)
horehound (Marrubium vulgare)
Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis)
Lavender English (Lavandula Angustifolia)
Motherwort (Leonurus Cardiaca)
Mustard (Brassica hirta)
Nasturtium climbing
Nasturtium dwarf
New jersey tea (Ceanothus americanus)
Oregano Greek (Origanum vulgare hirtum)
Sage (Salvia Officinalis)
Savory summer (satureja hortensis)
Sea Buckthorn (hippophae rhamnoides)
Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis)
St. John's Wort (Hypericum Perforatum)
strawberries (Fragaria vesca)
sunflower
thyme (Thymus vulgaris)
Toothache Plant (Spilanthes acmella)
wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens)
wormwood (Artemisia absinthium)
yucca (Yucca glauca)
yarrow (achillea millefolium)

Everything has grown except soapwart and they replaced those seeds. I am planning another order this year - 2015. The seeds arrive slower then seeds in the states so order early.

It's a nice place to visit when there's snow on the ground, it really is great to smell dirt and herbs in the dead of winter. They also have a nice selection of books. However...

- powdery mildew in many areas of the greenhouse
- gnats flying all over the place
- most of my plants did not thrive, and they weren't cheap
- extremely low germination rate in seeds, the ones that did sprout simply wouldn't grow, even though I followed the advice of staff. I wonder, since the packets don't have plant-by dates, if maybe they were old seeds?

I drove a distance to purchase the plants; unfortunately I won't be going back.

I should have read these reviews before ordering and I would have found another company. If you want seeds to start early in March, you need to find another company unless you order way ahead of time. I had a simple order of 3 seed packets. I placed the order on the Internet on February 28. A week later I get an e-mail telling me my credit card doesn't work in Canada. I call the bank the same day and authorize the charge, an authorization which is only good for one day. The charge went right through. Then on March 12 they get around to mailing my 3 little packets. From order placement to receipt will end up taking over 2 1/2 weeks.

I have ordered herb plants from Richter's several times over the past few years and have always been happy with them. They have a large variety of unique herbs that can't be found locally. Will be ordering from them again in the Spring.

20 plants were dead or missing from my order. I emailed them 5 days after receipt of the plants to let them know. They said they could not help me after 48 hours. Outrageously bad customer service. Missing and completely dead plants had to have been part of the original packaging. There were also crushed, out of the pot, bareroot plants. I will never order from them again.

I ordered from Richter's for the first time this year. They were one of the two companies that had the particular herbs I was looking for, and they were less expensive than the other company.

I placed my order online, then e-mailed them to make a change to the order. The plants were shipped quickly and arrived in a very good shape.

I would definitely order from them again.

I've been ordering from Richter over the last 3 years, perhaps spending over $500. Just spent a 'few' more bucks in June.

Here is my take:

- They have seeds/plants that I cannot find elsewhere.
- Their shipping cost was outrageous, particularly, when they took several weeks to fill my order. The plants were expensive but they wouldn't be able to sustain their business otherwise.
- The plants I have received, while didn't exactly wow me (small size), were okay. Richer have never promised me the big ones to begin with. The odd time (post office on strike) the plants were DOA, Richter gave me credit - fair and square.
- The customer services was okay and sufficient when I have issues. They didn't exactly hold my hand and sing nice songs, but I just need things fixed and they did :>).
- I have dealt with better companies in term of services and friendliness but my focus is getting the plants I want.

I'm buying less from them nowadays due to their high shipping charges. Other than that, I'd consider them an okay company to buy from.

I`ve order from Richter`s every spring for the last 6 years or so, and have never been disappointed. I Received this years order yesterday, and as usual, its filled with nice, healthy plants.

I've been purchasing a wholesale order for my own shop most years from Richter's over the past 25 years. Today I drove 6 hours (round trip) to pick my order and found when I arrived that the wholesale price was no longer offered. OK if they've changed their policy but they might have told me when I called this morning to tell them that I was coming . I spent 400.$ and they would not give me an itemized bill which will make it very difficult for me to price my plants AND the people that served me were very unfriendly. A real change since the days of Otto and Waltrout Richter - a lovely friendly and sharing couple - who began the company many years ago. This will be my last trip out to Goodwood. There are many other herb sellers out there these days with a way friendlier approach.

Posted on November 11, 2011, updated November 20, 2011
I feel I may have just thrown $150 down a deep hole. Well "just" isn't quite right. Actually, I (potentially) threw the money a month ago. That was when I placed my order, which, according to the Richter's website, should have shipped from Buffalo N.Y., since I'm in the US and I ordered live plants. Unfortunately, my shipping confirmation shows that they shipped from Canada, so I suspect that, at some point far, far in the future, I will receive a box of dead plants. And, I have a sneaking suspicion that the dead plants will not even be MY dead plants, since the order number on my shipping confirmation doesn't match the number on my invoice.

The suspense is killing me. Update to follow...

Ordered from them in the past and was happy with the plants and service. This year I ordered 25 herbs costing over $100 with the shipping. Only received 20, with no explanation as why others were missing. Was issued a Credit Note, which comes to the second issue. Although box clearly marked "live plants", the route used by UPS involved several stops along the way PLUS box was kept in a non-air conditioned delivery van and not delivered until the end of a very hot California day. Many of the plants were dead or dying. Contacted UPS and was informed that delivery priority established by corporate policy & basically that home delivery not a high priority. Store credit does me no good as delivery still an issue. 4 months later only 5 plants still alive.

I've ordered from Richter's in the past and as long as my order is not bulk they are great. The few times that I've tried to order in bulk through them they have been terribly slow. I thought by ordering 2 100 plant plug trays in February that I'd have them by April/May. It is now July and I still haven't seen them. Same thing happened last year when I tried to place a bulk order in the summer for a Fall order. Eventually I ended up having to cancel the order because it was taking too long. Guess I'll have to just grow from seed myself when I'm looking for large quantities going forward.

My plant orders were very disappointing, lavendar was very small with brown leaves, contacted customer service and was told they would replace the plants. I have never received them.
Spoke with someone who had worked in their greenhouse and found out that they clone diseased plants, spray with banned pesticides that have been stockpiled, and many staff members were getting sick. The owners did not care just told the staff to leave if they didn't like it.
This does not sound like a company that cares about the quality of their plants. The treatment of their staff is disgusting and I will not be using them again. I do not wish to buy herbs that have been treated with toxic pesticides.

I have been a customer for many years. Most of my experience has been with seeds but I have also bought sage and scented geraniums with positive results. I recently bought a bunch of plugs. Of the 6 plug groups, the three lavenders arrived dead. I sent an email to the effect. It took 3 days for them to respond and they asked for pictures. I could understand such a response if I has said the entire shipment was dead. One lavender plant was totally dead. One has only 3 live and the other has only 2. The other three groups of plugs was generally fine. They didn't indicate that they would do anything. Quote " so our greenhouse can evaluate". This totally angers me. Well me - customer - is evaluating this business as inept!

This company is OK. I prefer to order only from organic companies, or those who are strongly committed to ethics around seeds. I didn't want to order from Richter's as they have a lot of trademarked seeds, and retain exclusive rights to certain plants. They also sell seeds for plants that are on many state & province noxious weed lists.
That being said, they have an EXCELLENT selection of herbs that are hard to find elsewhere. So, I went ahead and ordered from them this year. My order arrived in about 2-3 weeks, and was complete and accurate except for 2 backordered items.
At the time that I ordered, I asked why they did not put seed counts or weights in their catalogue. I was told it's too hard to count little seeds (well, most other companies manage to provide an estimate). So, I was a little suspicious that the amount in their seed packets would be quite small. I was right. You are not going to get a lot of seeds in their smallest size packets. That is why their prices are so good. For me, I don't mind because I'll be saving the seeds from these plants anyway. But if you want a lot of one kind of seed, better order a larger size.

Haven't planted anything yet, so cannot comment on germination standard (except to say that they do not put the germination standard on their packets, something which a high quality seed company will do).

I ordered a dozen of Richter's trademarked "Profusion" sorrel, a non-flowering version of French sorrel. I placed the order in the early spring of 2010 and received them in the late spring, as appropriate given my zone 4b/5a late last frost date. All the plants arrived in good condition and with helpful instructions. I planted them out into temporary homes in the garden and they all flourished, producing a bountiful supply of delicious leaves. This year (2011) I plan to move them to permanent locations.

I was a bit frightened by some of the negative reviews here, but I went ahead ordered anyway because of the wide variety seed they stocked.

I made my selections from browsing a copy of the paper catalog that I had previously received, but found it a little inconvenient initially to find my selections and make my order on their Web site. Long story short, if you're interested in ordering from them, go directly here: //www.richters.com/Web_store/web_store.cgi

Order was shipped promptly and arrived quickly. Seeds and paperwork were in a very tightly packed bubble envelope, and the seeds themselves are enclosed in non-resealable foil packets. Depending on the variety of seed, germination instructions printed directly on the seed packets or on stickers attached to the packets ranged from the very general to very detailed.

I am a bit concerned about how tightly the seeds were in the envelope packed, as some of the larger, more pointed seeds had poked little dented the packs. Have not yet opened the foil packets to assess if any seeds were crushed. Will update when I do open the packets and sow the seeds.

We're in CA and our plants arrived dead and dying. We've been getting the run around for over 3 weeks and still haven't gotten a resolution. The next step is taking this up with the credit card. Very disappointing. We were going to use them for a large project and I'm SO glad that we did a trial order first. This is the worst service and the have the weirdest business practices we've seen. All and all, an F minus.

Richter's is one of my favorite catalogs to receive because of the wonderful variety. I have been very pleased with the seeds and plants they sell. The only bad thing is that I never have enough money to spend on all the wonderful things I'd like to have from them.

Posted on February 22, 2010, updated April 30, 2010
Seeds ordered January 30th, all received February 10th.
Will report back in late spring on germination.
This has been a good year for me, seeds ordered from 10 companies and everything now received.