Comments regarding Spring Hill Nursery (aka SpringHillNursery.com)

Oh my god! I didn't realize how many Negative of this company until I check here. I try to order some products of their 2005 new catalog online. and I find out their website system is so ridiculous. First, my account no and special offer key code on my mailing never works. until I contact with their customer service. It took me several times to finish my order online. and then they never sent my confirmation email back. the customer service staff told me she can't find my order. Ridiculous! I even printed it out just in case. anyway, I give up this company. But I am still worried if they will charge me by this untrustworthy online system.

My experiences with SpringHill have been interesting to say the least. I ordered 6 Amethyst Astilbes and a Bluebird Rose of Sharon. This was my first time ordering from this company. I received and promptly planted everything. Two weeks later, the Bluebird appeared to be very sickly. I called the company for advice and they offered to send another without me even asking. Upon arrival, I planted the replacement and kept the first one in the ground in hopes that it might survive. Both ended up surviving and bloomed during the first year. Surprisingly, BOTH look to be of the "Minerva" variety, which was disappointing as I was landscaping specifically with the Bluebird color in mind. I emailed the company to ask if pH of soil may affect the color (being a novice gardener). Instead of answering my question, they sent me another Rose of Sharon! As it was too late in the season to bloom, I won't know until this summer if this one is a true Bluebird. If not, something is amiss.
Meanwhile, my 6 astilbes bloomed - all Pink, not Lavender. Again - a disappointment. I called the company and opted for a certificate worth their value to be used this summer.
This company can be commended for their customer service and quality of plants - but if you order a specific variety, that is what you expect to get! Hence, I give them a neutral rating, although I plan to order more from them this spring. Hopefully my next experience will make them a positive in my eyes.

I ordered perennial grab bag for $9.99 in november. I recevied order confirmation e-mail. It stated i would be notified about date of shipping, but it never happend. I called customer service in a few weeks and was told that package has been sent 10 days ago. The same day i received small box with 2 plants :daylilly and 3 bulbs of liatris. For today it looks like daylilly will grow and 2 liatris plants. One bulb did not make it. I will know more about these plants in a few months.

I ordered a few items from Spring Hill earlier this year and was disappointed that most of the things I ordered didn't live. I ordered several Lupines, a few daisies, and a Euphorbia of some type. The daises are the only thing that made it.

They replaced the Euphorbia and Lupines, none of which survived for the second straight time. I consider myself to be somewhat knowledgable in planting things properly, especially after reading their instruction pamplet, but why the entire stock of items they sold me failed to live is beyond me.

Of course, I gave up on them as I'm sure they would have thought I was abusing the return policy by asking for a third shipment.

Oh well...guess I'll try my hand with another company.

Ordered in the fall of 2003, things were a little small and all but two plants ( Trumpet Vines, which I did not think a person could kill) came up and bloomed the first year.

Service and shipping were satisfactory.

I've ordered from them a few times and have always been pleased with the items. In fact, I don't recall anything I have ordered from them not making it, so I have never had any experience with their replacement guarantee. My most recent order was for a couple of hydrangeas, some violas and primroses. I ended up getting two shipments because of a couple of the items being on back order and I appreciated that they went ahead and sent what was available on time and the items on backorder arrived not too long afterwards without any additional shipping charge for the split shipments. I particularly liked the Pro2 packaging they are using that protects the entire plant during shipping and makes for a much neater box when you open it.

I placed two large orders with Spring Hill the end of August. I received an e-mail shortly thereafter with a link to their shipping schedule. My account was not charged until they shipped. Although I did not receive an e-mail when they shipped, everything did arrive in the time frame they had told me. The plants were all healthy and well packaged. Some items were a bit small for the price, but I appreciate the conveniece of ordering online. I am looking forward to seeing my beautiful gardens in the spring and summer!

This summer I ordered a Peony and a Daylily when they were on sale. I was told that it would be shipped at the appropiate planting time but was given no date. Four months later when I had yet to receive it I wrote to the company. It was then shipped in a weeks time. When I opened up the box I realized that they may have just mailed it but must have packaged it four months ago. There was no life left in those plants. The Peony had been petrified and the Daylily was barely recognizable. I have ordered from many mail order catalogs with good success but this will be the one and only time I order from them.

I've had mixed results ordering from Spring Hill.

In spring 2004 I ordered several ornamental grasses, hellebores, and Irish moss. Nothing was shipped until summer, and Customer Service was unable to even estimate when they would ship. The estimated shipping date on Spring Hill's website seems to have no basis in reality.

The hellebores have survived so far, but the grasses were dead on arrival. The Irish moss was out of stock, and was never shipped. Spring Hill gave me "replacement certificates" for the DOA plants. These certificates are only valid with snail mail orders, and can't be used to order online.

I used the certificates to order a couple of iris collections last month. This time, the order was shipped in less than 2 weeks. I got an email notification from Spring Hill when they received the order, but no notification when the order was shipped. The irises look healthy; we'll see how they do next year.

I would not reccomend any one order from Spring hill after my experiance this fall.I order two Daylily Collections from them:
The winners Circle Collection and The dwarf daylily Collection.
The winners collection came first and the box smelled like mildew and a strong horrible order that made me sick to my stomach. I opened it to find my daylilies I order in slimy rotting
condition,so I called and they were nice on the phone and seemed surprised of the condition of the Daylilies so the lady offered to resend them and I agreed to it. She also told me the dwarf collection was on its way to my house. The second batch of winner's collection arrived in a worse condition than the first batch!No sign of the dwarf collection so since it was late Saturday I emailed them.I got no response so Monday I called and she apologized and while on the phone the post woman rang my door bell and the dwarf collection had arrived.they were all healthy to my surprise and the lady promised to send another winner's collection out to me.This all started on Sept.20,2004 and today Oct.12,2004 I recieved a winners collection in the same condition as the rest and this time one of the Daylilies was missing not that it matters much anyway since they are rotten mush pile.It is hard to imagine how a place can stay in business but they made a pretty penny off of me but never again.It is risky bussiness dealing with this company so be aware of the gamble.

I purchased about $75. from Spring Hill this spring and was dissatisfied with the size and quality of almost everything I purchased. The catalog (of course) shows you pictures of beautiful, healthy, mature plants - I wasn't expecting mature, but what I received was puny or sickly looking, sloppily packaged, and a number of them did not survive. Trying to get refunds/replacements is like pulling teeth. I'll never order from them again!

I, too, went for the $50. worth of plants for $25 introductory offer, circa 2004. The herbaceous plants arrived in the toughest plastic packaging I've ever seen. All were in good shape, and only one Campanula didn't survive the summer. The shrubs were not as good. The leader of the Meyer lemon had been chopped off so it would fit into the box. The dwarf blueberry was on back order. Late in the summer, a very small, soggy, dead shrub arrived with a note that the original blueberry was out of stock and this was a substitute. Catalog prices were higher than local nurseries, and I had only placed an order because the picture of one flower showed an old variety that is difficult to find.

I just ordered from Spring Hill. Received my order in just one week. Product was as described. Will know more when spring comes. I was pleased with what I ordered and what I received.

I agree with aforementioned points regarding "you get what you pay for," or rather, don't! I went for the "buy $25, get $25" and had to approach my satisfaction level with that in mind. I order variegated weigela, althea (rose of Sharon hibiscus), 3 iris bulbs & a six-pack of Anne Greenway lamium.

After 2 months, my order out of the blue (withOUT the prior email notification that it'd be shipped, as promised by their order confirmation email). Luckily, I was home. The weigela is of decent size, and was actually very well packaged....as was the althea......no dirt ANYwhere. The althea was, however, not much bigger than the cuttings I'd taken of my neighbor's altheas two weeks ago! Ah well......the bulbs weren't packaged well at all-were just loose and bare in the box. The lamiums were my notch down from "Positive." They were soggy, drenched wet, rotting and fell apart w/rot when I opened them.

I'm abstaining f/a "Negative" rating simply because I didn't expect my experience to be stellar after reading the reviews, AND because when I called about the lamium, a very nice customer service lady issued a certificate to replace my lamium order. Seems they're out of stock for this year, but the certificate will give me the $11.99 value for next year's crop of lamium.

I'll be watching my mail for the certificate!

Kathleen in TX

Spring Hill was the very first mail order company that I tried and I am very happy with the plants that they have sent over the years. There were a few that didn't make here and there over the wet cold winters, but with no questions asked they have refunded my money. I order a Weeping Cherry tree from them about two years ago and paid half of what my sister paid at Home Depot, her's was even bigger. Within the two years it has caught up and is doing just great and it looks better.

Let's all face it. You get WHAT YOU PAY FOR. I ordered several plants from Spring Hill Nursery (butterfly blue scabiosa, variegated weigela, improved Meyer lemon tree, purple wintercreeper and a bluebird rose of Sharon). With low prices I expected that I get live plants and not too much more. Yes, they are all very small! I expect that when I pay 1/3 of what a "normal" cost would be. They all arrived alive with the order complete. That is all I expected, and that's what I got. The plants (especially the Meyer lemon) were basically infants. They are all still alive 3 months later. They need T.L.C., but they are alive.

I received an email offer for 20% off orders placed on Labor Day weekend. I went to the site, ordered three Rose of Sharon shrubs, and went to the checkout page, which stated my total and shipping charges. I then put in the keycode for the 20% discount, and clicked on "update charges", or something similar. For sure, the next page reflected the 20% discount on my plants, but the shipping charge had been INCREASED by $1.04 for THE VERY SAME ORDER.
It's not the dollar, it's the dishonesty.
Never again!

I used to order from this company, their pictures made everything look so good but I have never been really satisfied, the plants were always below what I expected, and seldom lived through the ordeal of how they were packaged when sent.

My first mail order experience. I liked and needed the info provided at the website and the reasonable prices. My order arrived in three separate shipments, and altho they promised to notify me via email when each shipment left, they only managed one notification. The packing was a bit flimsy, but arrived in good condition except one alstroemeria (order included roses to flowering perennials and bushes). I contacted the company when the alstroemeria died and they promptly sent a replacement. Each CSR was very polite and helpful, I will order from them again in the spring.

As an avid 'mail order" gardener, I ordered from Spring Hill in March, attracted by their coupon and reasonable prices (usually cheaper than other catalogs). As seems to be a common occurance with this company I was told that my order was back ordered. I finally received my order (almost three months later). The packaging was far inferior to that of the more expensive mail order nurseries;
the red hot poker primrose (I suggest not ordering this as it seems to be a consistant problem for them) was soggy and rotting, the monarda was bone dry and quite dead, 2 of the 3 lady's mantle have survived, and are still alive if not thriving, most of the strawberry plants have survived and I have high hopes for a good crop of strawberries next year, the phlox were alive when I received them, though have since died (I won't blame Spring Hill since they died weeks after being planted). I e-mailed the company about the plants that arrived dead and received a reply within 48 hours saying that I would be credited for those plants, which I was in a timely matter, so in my mind, no harm no foul.

I placed my first ever mail order for plants with this company after not being able to find the plants and/or quantity I wanted at an affordable price.
I ordered Starry Eyes Campanula (Campanula poscharskyana).
It did take longer than expected to receive the plants, but I received an email from them stating they were behind on their orders and when I could expect mine to be shipped.
The plants arrived well packed and in very good condition. All of them have survived and I expect them to continue to thrive.
I would order from this company again.

I have ordered from this company for 3 years (call me a slow learner) and have had, on a whole, disappointing results. This was the first plant company I ever ordered from and, in hindsight, I guess I thought a 60-70% fail rate was expected. The only plants that have survived, and to be fair, thrive have been the asiatic lillies. None of the ferns or hostas survived even one season. Only a few (2-3 out of 30)of the daffodils made it to season three and none of the tulips came back for even a second season. The bulb size never really lived up to their claims. As I have become more knowledgeable and practiced, I realize that their claims are simply too good to be true. They did send replacement bulbs and plants when requested, but these poor plants faired no better. In more recent years I have tried the same types of plants in the same areas and soil with success, the difference being the source of the plant material. I will not order from this company nor its sister companies again and have requested that the stop sending me catalogs.

I placed an order for 2 Weigelia and some mums. The mums were very tiny. One is growing, one died and the third is still the same size (about 1-1/2 inches).

The weigelia was on back order and they were not very cooperative about telling me when they would be available. The CSR indicated that they do not grow the plants there but get them from a supplier. I drew the conclusion that they are a clearing house.

Since this will be seen by them "PLEASE TAKE ME OFF YOUR MAILING LIST"

This was my first experience with any online nursery so I wasn't sure what to expect. My first order was March 2004 and was a Rhododendron collection (3 plants- each was a different variety). I ordered them because they were supposedly a hybrid that grew well in southern climates as Rhododendron normally fry down here. They arrived within a week and came very well packed- bare root. There was a nice amount of root material, healthy stems, and lots of leaves. I planted all three in different areas in my yard- all partial shade. Two of the three grew by leaps and bounds and look fine. One shriveled up and died. I notified the company and was given the option of a replacement or a refund. I took the replacement option, and was given a certificate in the amount of my purchase. Very generous, in my opinion, considering 2 of the 3 are fine. So to me, that makes up for the shipping costs on the next item. All responses from the company were timely and courteous. I also received an email notice at the time of shipping.

Later that month I ordered the Kaleidoscope hydrangea collection. Again, 2 of the 3 are fine and one died. They were planted side by side so I'm not sure what this 2 out of 3 living thing is all about! Same situation as before and again I took the replacement option.

Last, in June 2004 I ordered the "grab bag" collection of perennials, bulbs and ground cover. The ground cover is all doing fine. So far, only one type of bulb (not sure which plants at this point as I forgot to note what I planted where!) is coming up. I know it's late in the season, but the advertisement said they were summer bulbs and you could plant them right now, so I did. Anyway, I will at least give them until next spring and see if it comes up. If not, I will probably just request a refund.

So all in all, I have had a good experience with them.

All in all, I've had a very good experience with Springhill and it's affiliated companies. I thought the shipping was slow, esp. when sending bareroot roses, but they all survived and are flourishing in my garden.

The only thing to really go wrong was the irises that I ordered. Only one survived out of the twelve that I received, but I really think it was just one of those things.

When you order 8 ferns, and after they arrive you can fit all 8 tiny pots onto a single dinner plate, and they all eight share four 2" fronds, you have a problem.

Don't waste your time on these rip off artists. Spend a little more and get plants that have a fighting chance.

My first order with this company was Spring of '04. Typically I check this site before ordering from a new company, but this time I checked it after. I was very nervous, but my worry was needless. The plants arrived quickly, and the order was correct. Their packaging also kept the plants healthy through shipping, and even for a couple of weeks before I could get them in the ground (I got a little busy, oops). I purchased 3 helleborus and 6 monarda, panorama mix, all on sale (sometimes you have to worry about the sale stock you receive). While not fussy plants to begin with, all are doing wonderfully, and the monarda are now getting loads of blooms. Their prices are good (sales are excellent), and while it usually takes time and some smaller orders to begin with to trust any mail order company, I would definitely order again from them.

In Spring 2003 I ordered the mini rose collection. While I thought they arrived a little on the early side, and were a little small, I planted them. They have done wonderfully. In the fall I had to move half of them because they had grown so much, they were now too close together. The survived our truely terrible (really cold - little snow)winter and are putting on a show right now.

This spring I tried the clematis collection. All 4 are growing well.

This company had a $20 coupon, so I thought I would try them. I ordered two items, an iris and a collection of 3 hellborous. Both items came in separate shipments. I would imagine this certainly does not help keep shipping costs down. The hellborous were smaller, but they were 3 for $12. The iris however was $8 and it came as a small (one tiny fan), nearly dead little plant. Did not survive. Emailed customer service. They responded within a day. Very nice and said that I would receive a credit. I emailed back and said that even if it had to be sent next spring I would rather have a replacement since getting a credit would require me to place another order and waste about $7 on shipping (for a $8 credit, hardly worth it). The customer service rep. said they would place it on next spring's order. However three days later I received a credit in the mail. So the customer service rep. flat out lied.

I know I only ordered two items and it may be a hastey decision, but I doubt I will ever order from them again, especially since there are so many companies out there to chose from.

I ordered close to $90 worth of 'stuff'. All was good and is growing fine but for:
I Ordered a yellow rose and got a pinkish type rose instead (it is growing like gangbusters, tho). I also ordered a hyacinth and got something that is growing (it has light green leaves and a bambooish stem), but it ain't a hyacinth :=]
They cheerfully sent me a credit for next year for the price of the two above plants, no questions asked, plus I get to keep these two 'mystery' plants!
great service!!!!

I spent probably $200 with them and their companies this spring.....

I got one rose, came bareroot and was large. Blooming profusely right now, very happy.

Another rose was dead, but I think it might have been from some cold weather in early May.

Daylilies were all tiny fans.

Joans Blood Carnations, very nice, like them alot.

Hardy Glads, doing great.

Purple ice plant, doing great.

Eden's paintbrush iris? Oh my god this was so small. It is about the size of a piece of crabgrass. Its living, but I'm sure it'll be a couple years before it blooms.

Daylilies are the mainstay of my garden. Spring Hill's were bigger and better than the ones from home depot, but not nearly as good as those from independent daylily farms. Their prices were pretty cheap.

Ordered a 10 miniature roses special. Plants were tiny, yet came quickly. 3 of the plants had terrible blackspot, and finally had to be removed. The others are still doing fine.

DECOBUG

my order from springhill has been coming in bits and pieces...the bareroot red fairy rose came first...once i cut the canes back, and waited 4 weeks, it started to leaf out well...i'm reasonably pleased with that purchase. also, my rose of sharon that came last week looks healthy (albeit tiny) and i have high hopes for it. now, on to the other stuff....my 3 homestead verbenas arrived yesterday deader than a doornail....my 2 butterfly bushes came last week a little less dead than the verbena, but certainly not healthy....i am still waiting for my red freedom hedge roses (the order was placed in april)and i am worried that i will have spent all this time waiting only to be disappointed yet again with springhill. i spent many hours this winter poring over the springhill catalog and planning what i was going to purchase. i have eagerly awaited each shipment, and i have waited a long time for them!! i am very disappointed with my plants and i did call the company. the lady on the phone was very nice (and i actually felt sorry for her), she said today was the last shipping day for spring, but that they can send me new plants out in the fall, or issue me a credit to be used for the fall. i declined the offer and requested a refund which she immediately agreed to. i would rate my overall springhill experience as neutral, it would have definetely been negative if i had to fight for my money back. as it is now, i will not be ordering anymore stuff from springhill..i'd rather put my money into plants that come from a local nursery healthy and ready to enjoy.

I ordered Lily of the Valley plants to be shipped at the appropriate time for my zone. They arrived in May, a little late, I believe, nor were they what I would call plants. They were a small tangle of some sort of root material with a few tiny buds and no instructions. I didn't know whether to plant them as they were, or to somehow separate them into the 16 plants I had ordered. I admit I'm new to this and expected individual plants with explicit directions, a far cry from what I got. Needless to say, I won't order from Spring Hill again.

I was very excited when I ordered a fern collection, hosta collection, and starter shade garden as I was redoing my back yard. I took advantage of a coupon they had so I thought I was getting a pretty good deal. While my ferns have struggled, my hostas have come up and are doing all right. My lilac twig that I got has since sprouted and seems to be the healthiest out of all the plants I ordered from Spring Hill. My shade garden, however, arrived in poor condition. My poker primroses were mush. The forget-me-nots were half dead, as well as the primroses, lady's mantle, and violas. I phoned Spring Hill and they were very nice and offered to replace the dead plants. While I was waiting for the replacement plants, I planted the remaining plants just for fun to see if they would make it. The forget-me-nots died on the spot. The rest have been struggling and I'm worried they might not make it either. So, finally I get my replacement poker primroses. They are mush again. My hubby calls and gets us a refund for our shade garden. This will be the first and last order I place with Spring Hill. And - as another customer said, they could have stated on their website or by calling customers that they could not keep up with the demand on certain plants. Their shipping is poor and that needs to be changed as well. When I received my plants temps were in the 90's! Not the right time to send plants and shipping is too slow. They gave me the same excuse - they were two weeks behind and plants were not yet mature enough to send. Well, sorry, but that's not good enough - will never order from them again. At least I got a refund, and customer service was pleasant. I'm surprised they are still in business! DON'T BUY FROM SPRING HILL!!!

My first experience was overall positive. Items arrived in good time. They clearly put alot of thought and effort into packaging, and for the most part, it works well. I ordered 4 different type plants, and 3 of the 4 arrived in practically perfect condition. The 4th plant had a number of broken leaves, but I guess that's not a huge issue. I was a bit worried I might have a bad experience with Spring Hill, based upon so many bad reviews here, but I guess I decided to take a chance, mainly because I find their site so well-designed and informative, much more so than some other garden/plant suppliers. I would use them again.

The bareroot items have been doing well, but I don't think I will order any potted plants from them again. In spite of the larger holder that are supposed to contain the pots, I had a lot of damage to the plants, and it took a long time for a couple of mini-roses to recover.

I feel they shipped too early for my zone. I'm on the borderline between 6b and 7a. I think they should default to the more conservative shipping date.

They do try to make good on their guarantee. I'm still waiting for replacements for one thing, but they shipped out replacements for some violas right away. Unfortunately, the replacements suffered the same problem as the originals: slow shipping. They were mailed out via UPS on a Wednesday. No problem, Ohio to Maryland, that shouldn't take more than a couple of days. Nope. They didn't arrive on my doorstep until the following THURSDAY, so the plants had been in a box for over a week, and arrived pale and spindly. I've had them for over a month, and they still haven't recovered. SHN, give UPS a clue!

my order was shipped on time.everything was packaged well.a few things died but were immediatly replaced.everything is pretty small so i will order again from them if they still offer the $20 cupon next spring.

I ordered some rudbeckia (3 plants) and some bittersweet (3). The flowers arrived 10 days after the ship date. The package had dirt across the bottom, the plants were soaking wet and were actually rotting and obviously dead. I've never seen anything like it. The Bittersweet is back ordered. My first try with Spring Hill - also my last.