Comments regarding Heronswood Nursery

Posted on June 12, 2012, updated June 13, 2012
I ordered two hydrangeas and a ornamental grass in March 2012 from Heronswood. When they arrived the grass looked okay, but was smaller than the one that I had ordered from another company. The one hydrangea looked great, but the one that was the main reason that I was ordering from Heronswood was in sad shape. The Hydrangea Involucrata 'Wim Rutten' Blue Bunny TM PPAF looked dead (e.g. like a stick that was rotten with no bud) even though there was a note saying it was just dormant. When I removed it from the pot there were living roots. I was upset that I had paid $18 for a dead stick, but I was still hopeful that it was just dormant. I planted both hydrangeas a few days after they arrived following the directions on their web site about using peat moss to amend the soil. The blue bunny hydrangea still has no signs of growth while the other oakleaf one is thriving and already about a foot tall.

I emailed Heronswood about a refund on May 4th 2012 and received no reply. I emailed again today on June 12th 2012 and then decided to call. I talked to a nice lady who refunded my money. They have a 1 year guarantee. I'm rating this neutral instead of negative only because I did get a refund, but I will not be ordering from Heronswood/Burpee again.

Received my order from Heronswood today. Not what I expected from Heronswood. Two plants ordered, both were dead. $16 and $17 each. Tiny little dried up root piece of anemone in a bag of dry sawdust chips and rotted oriental poppy root in wet moss with no live buds. They gave me a refund to my visa immediately, which was nice. I will not order again.

I EXPECTED PLANTS FROM HERONSWOOD AS PICTURED IN THEIR BEAUTIFUL PUBLICATIONS. I RECIEVED TINY PLANTS IN POOR CONDITION, MOST IN 2" OR 3" POTS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN FOUR OR FIVE INCH POTS - AND THEY WERE NOT GROWN BY HERRONSWOOD AS STATED IN THE MATERIALS IN THE BOX. THEY WERE GROWN BY BURPEE!! ALTHOUGH CUSTOMER SERVICE WAS CHEERFUL AND PLEASANT, I HAD TO CALL SIX TIMES TO GET AN INVOICE SHOWING WHAT I HAD BEEN CHARGED ON MY CREDIT CARD. FINALLY I AGREED TO A LESSER CHARGE, BUT I WILL NOT EXPERIENCE THIS AGAIN.

Buyer beware!!! Heronswood is no longer Heronswood! Sad, sad, sad... I looked forward all winter to receiving my Heronswood order, and regularly turned to them for premium specimen plants, so I'm not pleased to report bad news about a company I respected and depended upon. The first indication that something was wrong is that the order arrived in a Burpee box. When I opened it, everything inside was totally desiccated. There were six "Lychjen' Jenny" that were dry as sand, but still alive -- I watered them, and they should make it, but they are stressed and not what I expected of Heronswood. I had ordered 6 "Lysimachia clethroides 'Heronswood Gold'" but rather than plants, I received a "Cannot supply" notice. However, the worst disappointment was two entirely dried out TINY, TINY bare root Thalictrums -- they literally crumbled in my fingers, and the roots broke off. They were packed in some dry cedar shavings -- and, although it looked as if there might have been signs of new growth at some time in the past, they were yellowed and disintegrated when I tried to pot the (dead) plant. These Thalictrums were $14.95 a piece!!!!! This is not the Heronswood I have loved over the years. This is tragic ghost of a company that was once top of the line. I called the company and was offered a replacement or a refund. The woman who answered the call was polite, sympathetic and helpful, but she was not from Heronswood, she was answering from a call center. I choose the refund, and will not order from Heronswood again.

Posted on March 8, 2012, updated March 26, 2012
What has happened to Heronswood? I just received my order and cannot believe what they sent to me. I ordered 2 Astrantia Moulin Rouge and received tiny pieces of dried up plant material in a bag of sawdust and wood shavings. One is possibly just dormant but is the smallest piece of root I have ever seen. The other is black, crumbly organic plant material resembling compost. These were $16.00 each!! I know the Astrantia were bare root, but I expected healthier, live (not dormant and certainly not dead) bare-root plants like on their website! I also ordered an Echincea Pomegranate potted plant for $19.00, and while it was in a pot, it is not more than 1/2 in high. No kidding!! What it was is a 1 inch plug that was put into a 4" pot and sold as a 4 inch plant. Worse than this, I tried to contact customer service at 5:15pm by email and the email immediately kicks back with an error from their server. I try to call them and they closed at 5:00pm (Bankers hours). What a joke! They used to have plush, healthy plants and provided excellent support, which made it worth the extra few dollars they charged. Now, they are much more than a few dollars extra, they provide substandard or inferior junk, and offer limited support. I won't be back.

I will not be ordering from them again. I'm very frustrated with their lack of customer service. I ordered Cosmos atrosanguineus as part of an order back in June 2010. It did not arrive with the other plant I ordered, and I was not told it was out-of-stock. I have contacted them multiple times since, asking for an estimate of when it would ship. Twice I was told they would look in to it, but then I never receive a follow-up response. I finally just told them today, May 2, 2011!, to cancel it. I'll be ordering them from Chocolate Flower Farm instead.

I had never ordered from Heronswood, either before or after its acquisition by Burpee. But this August I wanted to try Astrantia 'Moulin Rouge' and they were the only ones who had it in stock. I also ordered Primula vialii (it was irresistable on the Website) and both arrived this week, well-packaged and healthy looking. I will definitely order from them again when their stock matches my needs. Right now I'm looking at the Hellebores in their catalog and I am sorely tempted....

Posted on September 5, 2010, updated September 8, 2010
In Feb, 2010, ordered Pennisetum 'Karley Rose' and Wisteria 'Blue Moon.' To say, as others have, that the plants were small, would be an understatement. What arrived was dormant (understandable), TINY pieces of plant matter. To their credit, I was given a refund on everything but the shipping. The customer service person said they would not refund the shipping because the plants might grow. To my surprise, they finally did begin to grow. I now (Sept) have grass that is smaller than I could purchase from any big box store. Worst of all, there is no Rose in the 'Karley Rose', i.e., it is another kind of Pennisetum, probably just plain old dwarf fountain grass/aka Hameln. So not only were the plants tiny, they were not the advertised species. Do not order from Heronswood unless you're a gambler and want to overpay for a surprise. These people need to get out of the business.

Viburnum Nudum Brandywine is quite difficult to find. I ordered it from Heronswood on SUNDAY and received it, in good shape, on WEDBESDAY! As I was waiting those few short days, I emailed Heronswood about the order. They emailed back promptly and courteously. The plant is now in the ground, being watered, giving me much satisfaction.

I ordered over $300 in plants from Heronswood and was very pleased with the order. All plants are thriving in the garden. Had I read the reviews before I ordered I may not have ordered, but I am very happy that I did. I will definitely buy more plants from them in the future. The Helleborus are fantastic (I purchased 6) they arrived larger than I expected and very healthy. The one tree peony was a little small and starting to dry out, but when I emailed them they responded that they would be happy to refund my money if I wasn't satisfied. It has been in the ground for 2 weeks now and it is looking very healthy. Very happy with the customer service.

Had I read the reviews before I ordered I probably would not have done so, but I was very pleased with my order. The two hydrangeas I ordered were healthy and a nice size, and are thriving in my garden. The Beni Kaze Hakonechloa were very nice plants as well, good top growth and well developed roots.

I ordered two live perennial sweetpea plants from Heronswood this past June. They arrived completely dried out, with most of the soil having fallen out of the pots into the loosely arranged newsprint that was the only protection provided for the plants inside the cardboard box in which they were shipped. Both seemed dead, but I placed them in water as instructed for a couple of days to attempt to revive them. This was without success. When I called Heronswood and told them about this, they promptly refunded my money for the plants, and suggested that I wait until Fall to reorder to ensure new stock.
In the same week, I received African violet plants from another vendor. These were very carefully and thoughtfully packed (insulated box, individually made paper cones to hold each plant and pot, plastic covering over the soil and pot to retain maoisture and soil, protective air-filled plastic cushioning), came via the same shipping company to the same address, and for the same s/h cost. They arrived in perfect condition.
I believe the problem with the sweetpea plants lay with the packaging. I emailed Heronswood's Customer Service over a week ago, recounting my experience with the other vendor and requesting a refund of the $12 shipping/handling charge. However, I continue to wait for a response from Heronswood to my email. Most unsatisfactory.

My sister ordered 3 plants from them and received 3 tiny broken and scrawny specimens. She immediately contacted them and did get a quick reply and a total refund for the plants. The issue we have is she received the refund for the plants and was left with a 12 dollar shipping charge for nothing useable.

Last month I ordered 4 clematis vines. One that arrived was a small liner, which is what I expected. Two were so tiny I would call them embryo's or almost bareroot. When I called them, they sent a replacement for one of the smaller ones, but when it arrived, it was the same size plant and definitely overpriced for what I received. I didn't receive the 4th one at all and no mention was made that they were on back order, out of stock, or anything, but my credit card was charged for it.

The reason I'm giving a neutral rating is that when I called customer service, they didn't hesitate to give me credit for the one that did not arrive. And they didn't hesitate to try to send a replacement. I will give them credit for that.

But I probably won't order clematis from them again because I want more mature plants. I could have gotten a liner from Lowe's for $6, instead of paying $15 at Heronswood.

I placed an order with Heronswood for 3 Indigofera Heterantha, back in February, got the 3 plants at the time said in the confirmation. All 3 plants are growing and have bloomed. I have since placed another order just this week. I have not had any problems with them thus far and will keep them on my positive list.

plants were healthy and of an exceptable size. however customer service is very much lacking. after attempting to order online several times, i ended up calling and was told it never went through. i tried to order over the phone and was told that they couldn't get them to go through and to call back later in the week. i called back and was told my order went through, after having it repeated back to me, apparently my original order went through four times. we finally got everything straighten out. i'll order from this company again but strictly on a probationary basis

I just joined this site because for one thing I wanted others to know how HORRIBLE my order from Heronswood was. Moved from NY, always drooled over the old catalogue. Now I'm in Portland, new home, this Spring I have been planting like mad, been to some 25 nurseries in Oregon plus ordered online from 15 national sources. Heronswood was a disaster - tiny sizes, high prices. I asked that things be sent early as I have growlights, coldframe, the works, and wanted to get going with things, they arrived in March. The Ornamental Chinese Rhubarb was the size of a little mini 4" carrot at best, and never sprouted on a heat mat under lights. I emailed a complaint to them - nicely worded, about my efforts and concerns and the sorry state of the plant when it arrived - three weeks later no one has responded whatsoever. Now that it's mid April, though a little chilly this year, I was just out in the garden and realized that with everything planted and sprouted, not one of the Heronswood plants has shown any sign of life while every other companies plants are up. The items shipped ranged from tiny 'annual' size plants (priced as premium perennials) to tiny tiny tubers and small roots. I don't know if the order froze somewhere in a post office or storage, or they had a lot of winter damage and shipped anyway, but while every other companies plants in a zillion species have shown life and popped up in various levels of growth, the Heronswood plants are probably all dead. When you break a stem and there's no sign of green, and it's the ONLY stem, unlikely it's just a late sprouter (what every species I ordered is going to sprout in July or something?). I'm going to mail them a long letter and see if I get a refund but seeing as no one has responded in any way to my email inquiry, I have a feeling they're a hit and run money machine until word gets out what a joke they are - the catalogue is shiny and enticing but the service and merchandise is sub-par in a recession when they're lucky ANYone is shopping. Really a disgrace - and at those prices??? never again

I am just totally disgusted with this company! I have to cancel my order, after several attempts contacting them regarding a ship date, to try to cancel BEFORE order processed, I again requested to cancel my order in an email on 4/5 as it had not been shipped and my credit card had not been billed, no problem right? WRONG! I finally had someone contact me on 4/7/2009,stating that my order could no longer be cancelled as it had already been shipped. I asked if I could return it and in a short email was given the return address the next day. Still contacted company by phone to cancel as no charges on credit card- "can't, order shipped" Where is my order? Oh! It was sent out via UPS and billed on 4/10/2009-a full two weeks after my initial attempts by phone and email to cancel.This shipment was preventable- now I am going to get stuck with return processing fees as well. Nice! Their customer service is atrocious!

I ordered one plant (Sorbaria sorbifolia 'Sem') and am very pleased with the plant I received. It was shipped bare root and arrived just when I requested. It's 16" tall, well-branched and leafing out beautifully. At $18.95 + S/H, I feel Heronswood gave me good value for my money. I'll order again.

This is a prime example of greed! I paid $52.00 for 3 plants (Charged for 3 day UPS, came UPS ground- 7 days). Received 2 pots (2") one was a Lobelia that was no bigger than a dime and the other was a string of very invasive OXALYIS! I immediatly called Customer Service and was told I would get a credit to my Visa. I was only credited $22.00. When I called back, suddenly my original order had disappeared and they had no way to tell what I had been charged (okay???) Surprisingly I receive an email that the third plant is now being shipped....I thought you lost my order?? AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS....IT IS NOT THE HERONSWOOD OF OLD, THEY ARE OWNED NOW BY BURPEE. ANY ONE CAN MAKE A CATALOG WITH PRETTY PICTURES, BUT YOU MAY GET A POT FULL OF WEEDS! SHAMEFUL!!

I received my order of three extremely small plants on Monday. The shipping was high and plants almost miniscule. In previous years, Heronswood plants were top notch. What has happened???? I am very disappointed.

Had a lousy experience with a customer service rep. Had ordered several years back a Corydalis "Blue Heron". It finally decided to grow and bloom this past year. (maybe it liked being moved to another location) However, it turned out to be a Trachystemon orientalis. When I called the company about it, I explained what happened and that I still had the name tag right next to the plant. The "grouch" I talked with said that there was no "Blue Heron" Corydalis-only a Golden Panda. I told her over and over that I still had the original order and name tag(stuck right next to the plant) that said Corydalis Blue Heron. She still insisted that I was wrong. Got no where with here and was very frustrated. Would love to order some more from them but after being told how wrong I was about the Corydalis '' Blue Heron'' , I am uneasy about doing so.

Great catalog for this coming year ('09). Makes me want almost everything. However---

I placed an order for a hakonia. It arrived looking rather spindly and sad and did not ever recover. It's possible I over watered it or planted it in the wrong sort of conditions (organic loam, kept fairly moist but not water logged, partial sun). It was kind of pricey though so I am waiting to see if I can find a local source before I try it again.

"

Hello,
We are sorry to hear that one of our plants did not meet our high standards. If you can contact me with your name and zip code, we will offer you a prompt refund.
Thanks.
Paul"

Very disappointed, customer service was terrible. Plants I ordered arrived a week late, (had to contact them for a tracking number) and had to inquire on a refund for my 2 day air shipping cost. No apology, just a refund for the shipping cost 2 weeks later, no follow up on the plants, while $150.00 dollars isn't a huge order, I was hoping for more from the company!

This is my first order from Heronswood Nursery and I am very pleased with the plants I received. I order 5/29 and received them on 6/12. They sent me an email to tell an exact date of delivery .They did not charge me until they sent out my order. The web site is wonderful. I will be ordering from them again.

The catalog was beautiful; the packing was extensive but rather heavy and the shipping costs were high, as were the plant prices; the plants came in fine shape, although the two roses were very small. Heronswood called me to tell me I didn't need to ship airmail, and sconscientiously sent me a refund right away. I would buy from them again, something I was having trouble finding. I'd expect, however, that the plant(s) might well be quite small.

I had originally placed a rather large order with Heronswood in early April but decided to go with a local nursery. So I e-mailed on April 9th to cancel my entire order. They did get back to me quickly and assured me that they had canceled my order. Fortunately, I kept that e-mail because just today (4/28), I get a notice from UPS Quantum View that my order from Heronswood has shipped. I immediately e-mailed Heronswood to ask if this was a mistake because my order had already been canceled. Again, service got back to me quickly apologizing for the mix-up and told me to refuse the order and I would be refunded. I double checked my e-statement and found that Heronswood had charged my card on 4/15 - still well after the order had been canceled. I may change my experience to neutral depending on how this turns out.

I've never refused an order from UPS so I'm not sure how that's going to go either.

Ordered an evergreen tree and was sent something looking like a clematis. After emailing back and forth with customer svc who didn't know an abies from a cactus, I was told tree no longer available. Refund did not include any allowance for shipping. Therefore, I paid $9 for shipping 1 tiny perennial I also ordered.

I found many great plants in the 2008 Heronswood catalog this year so I didn't hold back when ordering. The new website was easy to use as I selected my goodies and actually told you when an item was no longer available. When my order arrived everything was there (not usually the case in the past) very neatly packaged and looking very healthy. Three weeks later all the plants I ordered have put on substantial growth and look fantastic. As a keen gardener I am very happy.

Over $100 for around six scrawny terrible plants. Will not order again...

Ordered a Styrax obassia, a hard to find tree that I love. I was very disappointed in the size of the tree--less than pencil caliper and only a few short roots. I'm giving this company a neutral instead of a negative because I didn't check to see what the description of the plant was before ordering. They should give an accurate description of tree/container size. Tree is alive, so maybe I can coddle it to grow into a visible plant this season.

I recently purchased some Iris Variegata from Heronswood.
The plants arrived in a timely fashion, were well packaged
and fully hydrated. The only caveat was that one of the
plants arrived with "ratty" foliage and upon further inspect-
ion was found to have a stowaway slug. I did not contact
Heronswood as overall the plant looked healthy and I
assume it will overcome it's holiness.

Ordered 6 hydrangeas-some of them 25.95 each. when they arrived, boy was I disappointed. Had to realy look to even see what little green there was. I immediately called them and they sent 2 to replace 2 of the 6 that were all but dead when they arrived. They were still extremely small(less than 1in in height). After a few days, I decided to contact them again, letting them know how disappointed I was with the size of these plants( the ones I got last year were 6-8 inches tall) They refunded my money.

I placed an order last week with Heronswood. I received confirmation via E-mail. The prices were reasonable and the shipping cost low.

I have placed many orders with the old Heronswood, with different degrees of success-which is understandable when one is trying exotic varieties.

My order is very small, but I'm taking a chance that I will be pleasantly surprised and then can order more plants that are on my wish list. I will give my official rating when I receive my order.

this company use to be one of the better nursery's around
now they take forever to ship expensive junk

I have bought from Heronswood many times and have made the journey out to Kingston to see the wonderful gardens. It was disappointing to see that Burpee closed down the gardens and moved the operations to Pennsylvania. But I decided to try them again, as they have many exotic species I can’t seem to find elsewhere. I tried and ordered a couple varieties as a test and they were sent quickly and the quality was excellent, in fact, surprisingly this was the best quality of plants I’ve received from Heronswood. I will be checking out their spring open in April at their new location to see how their new gardens are.

I ordered from this company twice and both times had negative experiences. The majority of the plants I've ordered quickly fizzled and died. And the customer service was very negative, accusatory and not helpful. If I did something that caused the problem I would own up to it and chalk it up to experience. But when you receive inferior plant material that's on it's way out when you receive it then it's not the customer's fault if it doesn't survive. I think this company should worry less about self promotion and more about customer service by offering it's customers good plant material in the first place.

I placed an order with Heronswood at the beginning of September for two trees. I waited until the end of the month to find out where my order was, I was told it was in the nursery getting ready to be shipped. Today I called and found out that my order had been cancelled because both trees were now unavailable. They told me that I should have received an email at the beginning of the week telling me this. Unfortunately, I never received this email and now will never trust Heronswood again. Since the ownership change, it is clear that this company has gone downhill in customer service, plant quality, and selection. I would recommend to anyone thinking about ordering from Heronswood to find alternate sources for your plants. Forestfarm, wayside, Greer gardens, mendocino maples, are all good options.

I ordered 11 plants from them in early to mid September. The last week of September I receive a small box with two poorly packed plants, one of which I am not even sure is a living plant. In box is a list of the plants I ordered with nine of them marked CNS (Cannot supply). Meanwhile I missed weeks of planting time and not even an apology included. They also included no information about how to plant the plants etc like the reputable dealers like Bluestone do. Nine out of eleven not in stock...why anybody else would bother with this company is beyond me.