Comments regarding White Flower Farm

I must join the ranks of those disappointed in White Flower Farms. Several years ago I loved them, and things seemed to arrive and grow beautifully. Recently, they sent me a $20.00 gift certificate--perhaps to encourage me to order again. I ordered 3 penstemon plants--all 3 arrived as terribly small and dried out roots. All three failed to survive. I won't be going back.

Here is how I use White Flower:

First their catalog is second to none. It can be used as a reference even if you don't order.

Second, if you want top quality for the price, I order from Song Sparrow first. White Flower quality is not as good but their prices are just as high.

Third, if I can find the variety I want from Bluestone, that is a better choice for reasonable prices and good quality.

Finally, if Song Sparrow and Bluestone don't have it, then White Flower is my choice. But with their prices you have to be picky as to what you order from them.

Last year I ordered expensive lady fern rhizomes form White Flower Farm. They arrived with and were very small. Of the six for $30.00 only three srpouted out. Better to find them localluy.

I did get a five dollar coupon, so I was going to order, although the prices are out the window, there is no mimumum order, so I was thinking with the coupon, I could get one plant at a reasonable price, but each and every item, I searched for was sold out. They really should have enough things in stock. I am very disppointed after waiting two months for my coupon. Plus I could not find any information about how to get on a waiting list, in case any plants are ever back in stock.

I ordered from them two years ago and will not order again. One of the plants I ordered was broken at the root possibly in shipping. I requested a replacement and received no reply. It took a couple of tries before I was told the plant was out of stock and they would send a refund. Well that was fine but they tried to keep the cost of shipping for the plant. I had to send numerous correspondence and finally call to get them to refund the shipping cost for the dead plant. Their catalog is pretty but their customer service is lacking. They are also definitely overpriced and ship small sized plants.

I have had nothing but positive experiences with this company. The latest: I ordered a viburnum and a rose from them back in late January, they shipped the plants in early March. A little too early, I thought, but I went ahead and planted them. The rose is doing fine (a Jens Munk which apparently really doesn't mind the cold), but the viburnum was unable to withstand March's sleet and snow and temps in the 20's -- it died. I called the customer service people, told them the viburnum was no more, and their only question: would I like a replacement? No arguments, no attitude, nothing but a very cheerful offer to replace the plant. Which they did, very quickly. I am impressed by their level of service. And the new viburnum is really quite beautiful.

I'd like to register my positive vote for Whiteflower farms. It's true that it's expensive, but I love the catalogue, and there are usually a few things offered by them that I can't find elsewhere - enough to justify the shipping expense. I view them the same way I view Wayside Gardens - lovely catalogue, access to some unusual things, good quality backed by a readiness to replace anything, no questions asked. I tink Whiteflower's prose os more fun and am sorry they had to change their catalogue format. So these too, for the unusual, together with Bluestone for economy, quality, variety, and what seems to be a personal approach, comprise my regular standbys every year.

Beware -- the plants are good quality, but this company is way, way overpriced. I foolishly ordered a hydrangea from them that cost me around $30. The quality was good, and it came well-wrapped, but it just was not worth what I paid. I have since ordered hydrangeas of the same size from Spring Hill for around $8, and I have since found out that mature hydrangeas at my local garden center cost about $20.

Actually, I'd rate White Flower Farm somewhere between neutral and positive: if it were a letter grade, I'd say a solid "B".

It pays to know what the going prices for a given plant are, and to know what your local nurseries will have in stock. White Flower Farm can be overpriced.

However, I've always received good quality plants from White Flower Farm, so the price may be justified on things not generally available from other suppliers. Sometimes it's actually less expensive to pay more per plant rather than pay half a dozen high shipping charges, just because one vendor has two of the plants, another has three, and so on.

White Flower Farm was one of my first forays into mail-order gardening, and the catalog's marketing was very seductive at that time. Now that I'm considerably more sophisticated (err skeptical), I don't get sucked in as often. I can still see how this catalog would entice new gardeners to purchase plants which can be had much more inexpensively at the local garden center. Okay, I also like all the pictures and the lavish, if not completely accurate prose.

Over the years, the standouts from White Flower Farm for me have been their lilies, their daffodils/tulips/hyacinths and the to-die-for Oriental Poppy "Raspberry Queen". When "Raspberry Queen" bloomed for the first time (the first Spring after planting), it took my breath away. That plant alone justified all my other WFF buys.

Still, to those of you new to mail-order gardening, I'd advise checking several suppliers (as well as their reputations) before ordering anything from White Flower Farm or any other vendor.

My greatest complaint with White Flower Farm is one common to many large (near-corporate) vendors: they decide MY climate zone, and MY last frost date, and USDA maps notwithstanding, that data is incorrect. I frequently need my plants far earlier than larger companies are willing to ship them. I got around that this year by opting for priority shipment and insisting that the plants be shipped as soon as possible. In short, I traded price for survivability in my personal banana belt.

I read the most recent review and have to tell you to check out Green Mountain Transplants. They sell by the plug tray but quality is excellent -- Grasses bloomed the first year and were astounding!

I ordered from White Flower Farm in 2001, and out of everything I received, only 1 item grew well. The rest didn't even come up (bare root) or died (plants). I'd like to try and order from them again, because I notice a lot of people seem to be happy with their stuff, but I think they're prices are too high for me to order again when I'm not sure the items will grow.

I have had a number of experiences with WFF, and actually got to visit the site several years ago. The catalog is beautiful and tempting - too much so for what they actually deliver - and I have found it a good source of info & ideas over the years. However, I prefer to buy my plants elsewhere when I can find them. Over the years I've ordered most of their main "offers" - The Emerald Isle & its littler brother Emerald Atoll (hosta mixes), the Unique 50 (daylilies), The Works (daffodils), Old Ironsides (astilbes), Dawn & Dusk (rose & clematis),the unnamed peonies, and most of the lily collections & mixes. The only plants I've found entirely satisfactory, especially as I've gained experience and found more mailorder plant sources, have been the lilies, and 1 of the 4 or 5 roses I've ordered from them. And the unnamed peonies are an unqualified success story - because they arrived late in the fall, and I had had a major injury that kept me from getting them planted, they spent the winter in their unopened packing box on my back porch. In the spring, I was about to just toss the whole box, figuring they would be long-gone, but my DH opened it up, and lo and behold!, there were the roots with multiple vigorous "eyes" just pleading to be planted; I stuck 'em in the ground, and since their third season they have been the most glorious, showiest things in my garden at peony time!

I have had mixed encounters with their customer service, but on balance I would have to say that they've been rather unhelpful most of the time. The first order I ever placed with them was for several different lily collections; not one of the lilies in one collection came up, and one of the other collections was obviously mislabeled - I'd ordered a pastel mix and a bright mix, and obviously received 2 bright mixes. When I called to try to make it right, they argued with me about my lily-growing conditions, and when I explained that I had dozens of lilies growing happily in the same section of my garden, they refunded only a portion of the cost of the group that didn't come up at all. PLUS they argued about the mistaken colors of the lilies - like, HELLO-O-O, it doesn't take a horticultural genius to see that hot oranges, reds, and yellows were not pale pinks & creams & pastels! (They ultimately replaced the wrong-colored ones.)

But I still have lots of good-looking lilies from them that come up faithfully, and their color mixes are a pretty good bargain. I've also had some good daffodil collections, too. The daylilies, OTOH, are massively overpriced - I had a pretty poor showing from them. A number of olants I've ordered have arrived in poor condition, and they have not been reasonable about replaceing them.

Overall, I much prefer to order from Bluestone, my mail-order plant super-heroes. I've had better results with bulbs from Scheepers and Von Engelman, at considerably better prices. So I prefer not to order from WFF. But who can resist that catalog?!

White Flower Farm ran an e-mail promotion last month offering reduced prices on a set of 3 Amaryllis Bulbs. The bulbs arrived within 1 week. Two of them were soft and rotting. I immediately e-mailed the company and received a response within 24 hours. They did not have any more bulbs and I received a prompt refund.

I used to love White Flower Farm when I first began ordering from them around 1987. But since then, and especially over the last two years as their catalogue's focus changed more and more, away from trees, shrubs and perennials and toward annuals and tender plants, I've found less and less that's worth ordering, especially since they are always at least 50% higher in price than other vendors. Some varieties I'd love to get again, since I have moved and had to leave the plants behind in my old garden, are no longer available (Chrysanthemums 'Vampire' and 'Shaman's Vision,' to name a couple.) This year - well, why would I order 3 calibrachoa from WFF when I can get 6 for the same price ($19.95) from Park? And the prices of their pots - whoa, way out of my budget. The shrubs I ordered from them several years ago were the best performers in my garden, but now WFF just has nothing to offer me, and it's a huge disappointment.

Beautiful catalog! Nice selection of varieties.Great customer service, but they are a bit pricey , and the condition of plants when arriving is nothing special.

I don't recommend them. For Christmas 2001 I ordered for my mother a basket containing preplanted bulbs of various kinds. I was told that the order would go out the next day. It didn't arrive for weeks (well after Christmas), and when I called I was told that they installed a new computer system the day after I ordered. The middle of the Christmas gift-ordering season seems an odd time to do this, but I wouldn't have minded if they had just told me there was going to be a delay, instead of promising something they knew was not going to happen.

When my mother got the order, one of the individual planting pots was too broken to use. I asked for a replacement and that also took weeks. This year when they emailed me their Christmas catalog, I wrote a courteous letter telling them why I wouldn't be ordering, and to their credit they did send me a courteous letter back. No offer of a discount or anything, though.

White Flower Farm is pricey, but it does stand behind its products (in my experience). If you are dissatisfied and don't want a store credit, ask for a refund to your card.

An update to my poppy experience in 1997 - they did replace the poppies, at the same too-late time for planting, & they again died. The common poppy that I planted that year has flourished mightily. WFF refused to replace the plants again, so I have never ordered from them since.

Have had good and bad luck. Will probably not order any more due to high prices. Plants arrived in good shape however the Unique 50 daylily collection was not so unique. It is supposed to be 50 different daylilies leftover from breeders attempts at new hybrids. 38 of the 50 were the same daylily...Autumn Red, a 40 year old cultivar that reporduces like crazy and has very little value. The others were 4 other named older cultivars (kwanso, siloam ury winneford, and 2 others I cannot remember). NONE were leftover seedlings of hybridizers. They did refund my money after I complained. Very deceptive!!!

Ordered 200 of the Crocus bulbs to naturalize in the yard and the bulbs I got are more than twice as large as the packages I have bought from the major stores like Home Depot last year or even the local nurseries. I also purchsed some plants earlier and they came well protected and have thrived since planting.

Because of WFF's high prices, I have tried less expensive competitors. Unfortunately, less expensive mailorder options have resulted in products with less quality.
Nevertheless, WFF's prices make local nurseries more acceptable. Besides, you can pick exactly which weekend to plant (not raining, when in town) if you buy locally.

Ordered and planted the Unique 50 daylilies this past May,2002. This is a new house, plus we've moved from zone 10 to zone 6. Needed lots of plants, cheaply. Was really surprised to see these daylilies bloom their first year. Plan to order another 100. When they're larger and I remember what they look like, I can dig them up and start to divide and place. Right now, I think these are a great way to go. And the cheap daylily mix from Home Depot - a bust. Really slow to sprout, no blooms.

The catalog intoxicates you with its classy graphical layout featuring healthy plant specimens. I have been disappointed on several occasions with the size of bedding plants and their subsequent performance in the garden over several years. I have a rudbeckia goldsturm from Whiteflower that is still all foliage after two growing seasons. I've vowed to buy perennials from local nurseries from now on. / Last year I purchased tulip bulbs which arrived blemished and dried. I complained at the time and customer service reluctantly granted account credit for only *two* bulbs and noted my concern to be followed up in the spring. In the spring the tulips were wildly disappointing-- dwarfish and mutant-looking with yellowed foliage. I pulled them up almost immediatlely when I saw how horrid they looked. When I followed up with an e-mail to customer service, they replied that everyone had had an atypical winter and therefore bulbs were not performing up to par. Having had long experience with bulbs, and noting the obvious poor condition of the bulbstock the previous autumn, I wasn't satisfied with what to me was a riduculous exuse (how did they know the details of MY winter?) After another complaint, they issued store credit-- a credit I'm not sure I'll claim.

I am having a very bad experience with White Flower Farm. I ordered three roses from them planted them according to the instructions, but they did not grow. I called them and asked for a refund. They told me to do a "scratch test" to see if the wood was still green, and it was (slightly) so they told me the roses were probably dormant. I waited a few weeks and still no growth, and the branches were dry and brittle. I e-mailed them again and they are still giving me the runaround, even though I told them I would accept a credit instead of a refund. I will NEVER ORDER FROM THEM AGAIN!

I used to order a few 'hard to find' plants each year. But the costs have risen way above what I am willing to pay. I can usually find them now on the internet or at a local nursery that now has about 2,400 varieties of perennials.

I ordered one of their $145 Cyprepedium kentuckiense. When it shipped they notified me by e-mail and provided a tracking link to the Postal Service so I could follow its progress. They shipped Priority Mail so there was no problem with it being too long enroute. I have a correspondent who is knowlegeable about Cyps and I immediately sent him a photo via e-mail of the plant out of the box. He said it was worth the price. It bloomed this year (the first I've had it) and looks very healthy. One plant does not a whole catalog make, but in this case they lived up to their high-falutin rhetoric.

I have ordered from this company for at least 15 years. About 95% perfect service. The other 5% was corrected quickly. I have been given credit a few times. You don't have to use your credit immediately, and I have always been able to order something special.

The plants are top quality. One time, I received a postcard about a plant received a year earlier. They told me there had been a problem with that plant, and they issued me a refund, WITHOUT me even asking.

As many have said you get what you pay for.

Wonderful catalog, some good information, but too pricey for what you get. Bought the pastel tulip collection, but it wasn't pastel. Have bought other hardy plants, but they didn't survive. Great to daydream with but I go to buy elsewhere.

I have dealt quite a bit with WFF. 3 years ago I ordered 6 peony plans, a pastel tulip bulb collection and tons of daffodils. Out of the 6 peonies, last year 4 came out and this year they are down to 3. At the same time I bought couple of peonies from the local "Franks" for maybe $1.50-3.00 for 2-3 roots, and this year those plants look unbelievable. The first season after planting the tulips, I got a great display, the second season maybe 10 out of the 50 bulbs bloomed again and this third season 1 tulip made it. I am quite upset not only because of the money I invested (as other users have mentioned, very pricey), but also all the work planting. I am not sure what is the case with the daffodils, because I ordered so many, but I have a feeling that some didn't make it. Last fall (2001) I ordered their daylilies and daffodils collaboration pack, which with all honesty, were priced well below anything else I was able to find on the net. So far so good, but I will keep you posted. I also ordered early last year a Peter Honey fig, which was meant as a present for my in-laws. I had to plant it in a pot for a couple of months, because it did not looked presentable at all. It was supposed to be winter hardy for my area (zone 7), but I am not sure whether it made it.

I am new to gardening. I live in New York City. My first purchase was 6 begonia tubers which I grew indoors according to the detailed instructions WFF includes with every order. Perfect results. I have bought over 200 tulip and daffodil bulbs from them for my mother's garden and that of my inlaws. The neighbors ohh and ahh. I have also purchased poppies, and peonies (which bloomed in year 1 despite WFF's advice to be patient), iris and daliah tubers, etc., and all have given fine results. The people on the telephone are always charming, knowledgeable, and have talked me out of buying things that would be too ambitious for a new gardener. Their catalogue is quite artful and a great read. The web site navigation could be improved. However, the massive, well-written on-line index of cultural instructions is very helpful.

Yes, their prices are high, but the plants I have ordered have been so much larger and healthier than other catalog retailers. If you want to save a little money, go with their collections, which offer good-sized plants that establish themselves quickly.

My daughter bought me a $100 gift certificate from White Flower Farm last year for mother's day. I made my order immediately, but nothing came until a month later when it was probably too hot to send plants in the mail. Everything was small and black or turning black. One adenophora survived out of everything, but they credited my account and I ordered bulbs that fall. The bulbs are gorgeous and the envy of the neighborhood, so I finally get satisfaction a year later. I think that is too long to wait, which is why I am casting a negative vote. Do they care that when we plan painstakingly to order for our garden's needs that there is a hole there for that time that can't be filled because the time for establishing those plants has gone? I have an ugly mound of dirt in the backyard still, that should be sprouting with good material. This year I will buy mostly annuals from local plant sellers.

Plant quality and customer service have been unacceptable. I quit using this company some years ago. I'll never forget having my pronunciation of clematis corrected and being told that perhaps the problem was related to my expertise. That was it for me. Apparently, problems with plant quality continue --a dear friend of mine told me she had the misfortune of being given several White Flower Farm gift certificates -- she reports the plants were of inferior quality and either did not make it or gave a poor performance last year. Like me, she has been gardening for years. Hey, but the catalog is fabulous.

Although, WhiteFlower Farm's prices tend to be high and their plants are generally small, their customer service is excellent. They replaced a bad lavender plant twice with no hassle or add'l shipping fee. Their strains are quite hardy.

They do tend to tell the customer when to plant, however. I ordered begonias last year, and they wouldn't send them until THEY deemed it safe for me to put them outside, even though I told them I wanted to start them inside.

I recently sent an order for pots was pleased with the price and delivery speed. Looking at the site the seeds are a bit pricy.

I have enjoyed the White Flower Farms catalogs for years. But I want to caution anyone who is thinking of visiting them. I went 100 miles out-of-my way to visit them (an invitation that is in the catalog). I got there and found a small gift shop. Everything growing was off-limits to visitors.

I placed several orders days before my order from White Flower Farm. My order from White Flower Farm arrived so quickly, my husband thought I ordered with expedited delivery! I am still waiting for products from the other companies. I was very pleased with the quality of flats and trays I ordered. The prices were reasonable for the high quality I received. I wanted something that I could use year after year that would not be "floppy" when I carried them in and out of the house. I did not order seeds or plants, so I cannot offer a recommendation for these. I will order from this company again.

I've used this company for over 10 years. High-quality plants (you get what you pay for) so I don't quabble over the prices. My most recent purchase was Campanula 'Blue Gown' which arrived in excellent condition. It went into the garden last spring and bloomed and thrived. It's folliage is still nice and green through the middle of winter. Perhaps if price is an issue, purchase smaller quantities and propagate the rest that are needed. I recommend WFF to all my friends.

I have ordered from this catalogue since I was in my teens,
now (50)+ I have generally been extremely satisfied with their product, their replacement policy (an order of tender bulbs froze in route) and the excellent selection of plants. I still have descendents of some of the first plants I purchased in my yard as do many of my neighbors and friends. Yes, they are a bit more pricey...so is quality anywhere you find it. NinaT