Comments regarding Breck's Bulbs

BEWARE, HORRIBLE, inflexible customer service. I was unable to get the $25 coupon to work. I just wish I hadnt wasted my time in their catalog and placing an order which I had to cancel. I'll go back to White Flower Farm----their service and product descriptions and instructions are excellent. Everyone I have called there is extremely knowledgeable.

I ordered from Breck's for the first time last month - and every one of the 15 Iris rhizomes I promptly received from them are growing well already. I'll find out next year if they are all labeled correctly, but I suspect they are. I will buy from them again!

I used a coupon for $20 off $40 which made prices competative. Placed an order in August. My credit card was charged correctly. About 6 weeks later my bulbs arrived. Of about 80 bulbs ordered, only one was unusable (dried up). All other bulbs looked healthy. Most are planted now and I'll have to wait until Spring to know whether they will bloom. If I needed more bulbs I would use a coupon to order from them again.

I received a $25 coupon for free merchandise...placed my order for the rembrandt tulip mixture. I have received the order and was very pleased. The bulbs are a good size and look to be in great shape. I will be placing an additional order with them.

I ordered from Breck's last fall, using their $25 off $50 coupon. I had no problems using that (online). This spring, some of the bulbs didn't come up and mid-summer, when I could be sure what did and didn't, I contacted them. They placed an order for complete replacement of the ones that didn't come up (to be shipped at the proper planting time) and gave me credit for some tulips that they don't carry anymore. I was very pleased with their customer service, and some of the bulbs resulted in some of the best-looking plants in my garden, namely the Starfighter Lilies. They were fabulous.

I'll be ordering again this week.

Ordered 12 allium bulbs, in late July, using $25 coupon. Bulbs arrived August 27, in plenty of time for fall planting. Also received a $25 gift coupon, for any $50+ purchase. Will be ordering dahlias for spring.

I just ordered from Brecks last night for the first time on line to see if the first $25 would be free as their catalog coupon said. They did honor their coupon on my order of $20 and I only had a 93 cent charge for shipping. Perhaps this is just for first time customers only. I look forward to seeing the bulbs when they send them sometime in October.

I placed a $60 order, received my bulbs and the discount, and was very pleased when everything bloomed last spring.

I have dealt with Brecks for years and am totally satisfied with their bulbs and their customer service. They constantly offer the deal of giving me $25 off any order of $50 or more. They stand behind their products without fail. I couldn't begin to tell you how many times they have replaced bulbs that did not flourish.....for whatever the reason. I expect to order from them for as long as I garden.

I received a catalog today and they offered a $25.00 gift coupon. If your order was less than $25.00 then it was free. I figured I had nothing to lose so I placed an order that was less than the $25.00 even with shipping. Gave them all my info but when it came time to checkout they hadn't taken anything off from my coupon. This was online and I'm sure if you phoned you'd never get the free offer either. The catalog is now in the recycling bin.

I'm afraid I actually first contemplated subscribing to GardenWatchdog for the purpose of saving other gardeners the hassle of having to spend money to find out that Brecks is to be skipped over for better companies.
It is clear that they are pricey, and their bulbs are rather small. A few of mine receied looked fine but never grew. (How very odd.) Perhaps I Iost track of who's who in my bulb garden, but more likely is that some bulbs from Breck's were mislabeled.

My simple suggestion is to enjoy their colorful brochures, then promptly enjoy the heat they produce in a woodstove.

I've dealt with Breck twice and their goods have been satisfactory.

Last fall, I ordered windflowers and a bargain pack of mixed daffodils. I thought the bulbs were smaller than advertised and complained to Breck. They sent me another shipment post haste. All of the daffs came up and bloomed nicely this spring, but the squirrels ate most of the windflowers. Not Breck's fault.

This spring, I ordered astilbe, with a toad lily bonus. Every astilbe came up, with varying energy due to varying planting sites. Most have given me satisfactory first-year blooms. Four of six toad lilies have sprouted and seem to be thriving.

Breck's receives my positive rating, especially for their daffodils, which I can highly recommend.

COMPLETE scammers - I ordered astilbe in JANUARY, and when they hadn't arrived by the time Chicago was hitting the 90s, it took a solid half dozen phone calls for me to FINALLY get an answer that they had run out, and wouldn't be shipping them at all - after that, I got a STRING of e-mails asking me over and over for "my information" so they can "investigate". GEESH! With all the reputable companies out there, and great exchange programs like the one at gardenweb, there is NO reason to GUARANTEE throwing your money away with Breck's - argh!

I was considering calling Breck's this weekend to let them know that the 2 Begonia's that I bought have never grown. Since it wasn't a large purchase, I decided to let it be. But yesterday I received a letter regarding an order that is to ship this fall. It said:

" Your credit limit is $137.50. You have $5.99 on account (no I don't). Now with your order of $65.94 you have exceeded your credit limit."

I absolutely won't be doing any more business with a company who can't even add and subtract!

I ordered from them because the first time buyer's offer was so good. Or seemed to be. The two asiatic lily bulbs I ordered are fine, but out of 10 other lilies I ordered, maybe 5 have come up. The firecracker flowers and daffodils never did, though. I'm very dissapointed, as I was looking forward to those beautiful plants so much.

My Brecks experience was bad. It's important for me to get my lily bulbs growing early-it gets hot early in the season here in Tucson. My order took a month to arrive during peak shipping period (March-April). I got 3 conflicting reports of when my order shipped from 3 different sources. A man I spoke to, the website order status page, and e-mails from customer service. I e-mailed Brecks several times. On average, a response took 3 days-which I think is too long, but I wanted e-mail because it's in writing. Brecks kept telling me that the bulbs come from Holland, so it takes time. After I told them I got 2 seperate shipping times from 2 seperate e-mails from customer service, they apologized and sent me a coupon for $25-no strings attached. I made an order with it on May 10 and got an order confirmation. A week later I checked my order status and it said "canceled". I got no notification of my order cancelation until I e-mailed and asked what happened. So now I can't use my coupon! Very long story short, I am unhappy with their customer service. I don't have complaints about the bulbs themselves, but dealing with Brecks was such a headache I won't order from them again. I'm glad I can find what I want elsewhere!

I've ordered stuff from six or seven different mail order companies over the past two years, and so far Breck's is the only one that I haven't had a problem with. Their customer service was fine, the bulbs arrived on time and well packaged, and everything bloomed last spring and again this spring. I would order from them again without hesitation.

I ordered several "special offer" hyacinth bulb collectionc in March. The ad said that the bulbs were pre chilled and ready to bloom within a couple weeks. I got my order confirmation on March 31, 2005. After two weeks and no order I inquired with their customer service On April 14th. They said they'd ship in two weeks. They didn't! Six weeks after ordering I still haven't received the order. Their customer service just keeps saying that things are delayed because of a cold winter in the upper Midwest. We always have cold winters. The hyacinths were pre-chilled bulbs from Holland which would not even be affected by cold winters in Indiana! Yesterday I cancelled the order and asked for an email confirmation, which, 24 hours later, I have not received. I ordered glad bulbs from another company yesterday, and they said they would ship them the same day.
I think Brecks is advertising merchandise they don't have.

I ordered peony flowering tulips, a collection of blue and pink tulips, supersak of daffodils and some grape hyacinth last fall. The order was shipped in two seperate boxes at different times, but I got them in time to put them into my zone 5 garden. They were healthy when they arrived. As of today, the daffodils came up fabulously, the peony tulips are gorgeous, the grape hyacinth are fine, and only a small number of the blue/pink collection did nothing( maybe 3 out of 35 bulbs). I had no problems with customer service, no issues with wrong charges on my credit card. I enjoyed my experience with them and plan to order more tulips for the fall.

Well , they are good they are bad which equals neutral. They have billing issues, you pay and later they say they can't authorize your CC, well they can, they just don't seem to have the brain power to get-R-done, that finally got it straightened out after 3 calls. They send the bulbs and packing slip shows money owed, heh well that took another 2 calls, finally worked it out. One of the Daffs died, 3 of the giant Hyacinth didn't come up and none of the blue lieutenants, ok so much for all the bad. FOr the good, one call and they are sending a check for the dead and ungrown items. Well this might be premature, as i haven't yet gotten the check, but at least they gave me no greif over a refund. Also the plants that bloomed and lived were very nice, no complaint there.

had Breck's recommended to me by a "friend" - ordered their "astilbe collection" which IS overpriced, but has a color I don't have. Planting time came and went - no astilbes - nothing - their customer service STINKS - lots of whining about how hard the winter was and how everything is "running late" this year - I asked for my money back, but honestly don't expect to get it - not if their performance to date is any indication. E-mail me if you have suggestions for better, more reliable bulb vendors, please! (niwahito@gmail.com)

I first ordered from Breck's last fall. The order was placed in Aug. and I received my bulbs in October. So far everything seems to be fine (I had ordered some hyacinths, tulips, daffodils, iris and alliums) most are already up and blooming. The problems began when I placed an order this spring. My order was placed on March 2 for Pink Instant Blooms Tulips and some perennials. The Tulips arrived within two weeks, I planted them in a pot in the house. They sprouted and grew quickly. Too quickly I guess, within a week and a half they had formed the buds and bloomed. The tulip blooms were about the size of a nickle. Then the plants flopped and died within two days. I was very upset with the Instant Blooms performance. Several weeks later my perennials arrived, most were on the dry side without any growth showing. I have planted them and am crossing my fingers that they will come up. I had sent Breck's an email describing my problems with the Instant Blooms and the only response I got was a automatic email telling me I can check my order status online. Poor Customer Service. I will never order Instant Blooms again, and may not order any more perennials. I am willing to try Bracks again for spring bulbs.

I ordered from Breck's before I found out about garden watchdog. I got a 20$ coupon, and ordered $20 worth of stuff, so I had only paid for shipping. I anxiously watched the shipping page, checking every day. I ordered at the beginning of March, and receved my items at the beginning of April. Plants looked in good condition, no mold, were packed well. I haven't planted them yet, so I don't know how they will grow.

In the future I will probably order from them again, but after having read this website, I will likely only buy up to the amount of the coupon again so I only have to pay for shipping. (That way if my plants take too long to get to me, or are in bad shape, I'm not out a lot of $)

I ordered from them last fall. Considering I planted the bulbs end of January, they are doing rather well...even under the care of a novice gardener like me.

EVERY SINGLE BULB GREW. The giant hyacinths are still blooming. The tulips (open) are 8" across!

Before I posted this, I saw only 54% rating. Maybe they have gotten better.

I ordered 50 Maxim strawberries from Breck's. I was really impressed with the size of the roots. Out of 50 plants 49 of them sprouted within a week.

I've ordered tulips and bleeding hearts from Breck's. The bulbs were big and they looked healthy. I didn't have a problem talking to customer service, when I noticed they only partially shipped my stuff. I'll post more once the bulbs have bloomed.

I ordered the Crocus bulbs from Breck's. They were shipped in late September, I refrigerated them until I planted them, which was in early / mid October (Northwest Indiana, Zone 5). I just noticed now that they are starting to bloom, and are looking very pretty and festive. I used to think that I couldn't even keep a fake plant alive, so I ordered from Breck's because of the guarantee, and the coupon. I have had nothing but luck from them, and I am very happy with all of my purchases so far from Breck's.

I have noticed that other companies affilitiated with Breck's do not have good ratings, and for that reason I do not order from the other companies (Michigan Bulb, etc.) I do appreciate this website, because who wants to throw money away?

I also just received my "Instant Bloom" tulip collection. I will post a comment later after I see how things go with them.

I placed an order using a $20 off coupon and received a confirmation number and a shipping date. Then a few days later I received an e-mail that canceled my order stating that I needed an account number to place the order. First I already receive Breck catalogs in the mail and second, they should not accept your order, give you a confirmation number, and a shipping date and then cancel your order. I will not be placing any orders with Breck's in the future.

Although it took some time to straighten things out, in the end Breck's came through on the peonies I ordered from them in the fall (I ordered them in September - I am a little late commenting). I ordered them using a coupon and therefore only paid $12 after shipping! When they arrived, however, 3 of the 5 plants had only 2 eyes or less (as opposed to the 3 or more promised). When I called them, they re-sent the entire collection at no charge and while 2 in the next collection also had 2 eyes or less, the 2 shipments combined made a full order. Both shipments arrived within ~2 weeks. There packaging was to blame for some of the problems. The roots were in a plastic bag alone and all 5 were toosed in a box together, so some of the fragile eyes had broken off in shipping, what a waste!!! All-in-all, I received more than five acceptable roots for $12. If I had a coupon, I would order from them again.

I recently received a catalog from Brecks. The catalog had "instant blooms" flowering bulbs. It said they can grow in winter inside on a windowsill. I thought this sounded like a great way to brighten up my house. I ordered on Saturday and got a confirmation back with a ship date of late April. I wrote customer service right away on Saturday asking if I could get them any earlier. I recieved an e-mail reply Wednesday (3 days later) saying " no, you can get them even later, but not any earlier". I wrote back to cancel my order and am still awaiting confirmation of cancellation. Very disappointed.

I just finished calling (on my dime-no toll free customer number for this company) to Brecks in regards to an order I placed last fall and never received. They don't seem to have any working computers at this place, the girl that answered the phone said that they had lots of calls about problems, I wasn't the only one. I order LOTS of stuff online and rarely have a problem. I gave her my confirmation number and she could not find my order or anything about it. I politely told her at the end of probably 8 minutes of her trying to pull up any information, that I would not be ordering from this company ever again. I should have known better but the coupon was tempting.I will never make that mistake again! BEWARE!!!

I have not ordered a lot from Breck's, but the snow glories I ordered and planted in fall 2002 have been very successful. I ordered and planted more of these for this spring, so I hope they will be as successful.

I bought lilies and tulips from them using coupons they mailed to me. With the coupons, the bulbs were very reasonably priced, and the lilies certainly were big, of good quality, and shipped at the right time for planting.

Without the coupon, their prices would have been too high compared to their competition, I would probably not have purchased. I would order again, if coupons are available which bring the price in line with other retailers.

Positive rating due to quality of lily bulbs.

My experience with Brecks customer service has been miserable. I ordered about $80 worth of bulbs for forcing this past fall and they sent me a couple of wrong items. I followed their procedure and mailed it back to them at my expense. In what took 3 weeks time, they shipped me the correct item....a bit damaged, but at least I got it. I asked for a refund of the $7 it cost me to ship back the bulbs and they said it wasn't their policy to refund shipping on product returned to them. Out of principle, I kept complaining how silly their policy was, and one guy agreed to send me the refund. Still nothing....so I followed up again, only to be told by somebody else that they had no record of receiving my bulbs back and that I would have to prove that I sent them.

So, it cost me $7 to correct an error they made in shipping my product. I will never order anything from Brecks again.

I placed order using $25 coupon first week of November. I was not notified about shipping dates. I waited couple months. Weather was getting more and more cold even here in California. We were having almost ice on the roof and grass. I called Customer Service and was told that my order was backordered and when it will arrive they didn't know. I cancelled my order because i simply lost patience... Won't "buy" any discount coupons anymore in the near future. I was lucky to plant some tulips from Lowe's back in October. I was amaized how huge bulbs they sell and Home Depot too.

On August 14, 2004, I ordered using the $25 off coupon they sent me. I ordered several daylilies and cannas. I kept waiting and nothing. I sent them an email asking where they were. The email arrived on Dec. 11 saying my order would be shipped in late February or early March. Had I known of a 5 to 6 month delay, I would never have ordered from these bozos. I'm in Southern California and you can plant these at any time. August is a hot month so there was no reason for THEIR delay in sending these. Live and learn and I did. Never again.

Like many of the companies they are affiliated with, Breck's seems to be one of those hit-or-miss ordering experiences.

The assorted bulbs I received from them in the fall were all huge and in great condition - no mushiness or mold.

I then placed another smaller order in November (using the $25 off coupon) which included some additional bulbs, an amaryllis among them that I intended to force indoors before Christmas. Well, after two weeks and no correspondence except the token "thanks for your order", I followed up, only to find out the amaryllis wouldn't ship until Spring, something that wasn't apparent when ordering.

To their credit, I notified Breck's via email to go ahead and cancel the amaryllis, which they promptly did. I would consider ordering from them again; however, I avoid their affiliate, Spring Hill Nursery, like the plague.

I ordered bulbs from this company in June and again in August. Here it is, the end of the year, and neither order has shown up even though they were due months ago. The e-mail response from Breck's when I inquired about the orders in mid December was identical both times: there was an error in the order process and the order was lost. When I then tried to re-order the same items, which were supposedly still available, the customer service representative told me the discount coupons I had used on the original orders would not be applicable because I had used them already and they had also since expired! It seems you cannot win with Breck's. These were my very first orders from this company and I will never try them again. :-(

I placed my first trial-run order in early August, using the $25 coupon. September 30th, I sent an email wondering when I'd receive my order. They replied back (promptly) that I'd have it by October 31st. On November 18th, I sent another email. This is what they had to say:
"Thank you for your email. We have reviewed our records and found an error occurred while placing your order and it never reached our processing system. Please accept our apology for this inconvenience, but we would like you to phone your order to 513-354-1511. We are currently checking our system and feel this error may occur again, so we would like to extend a $5.00 coupon. Please just let our phone representative know we have extend this offer to you. If we can be of further assistance please feel free to contact us."
Yeah right, I don't think so...