Have you ever been to gardenwatchdog.com? This is a site dedicated to letting people know their experiences with mail order companies. You can post your opinion of the products you received and rate the company.

Mike

Here is a link that might be useful: gardenwatchdog

Heh, at least they sent you plants. I ordered two months ago, and emails asking when they will ship are being ignored. They're filthy con artists.

Mike's right about gardenwatchdog. I don't know how I ended up ordering from Spring Hill without checking that site. Big mistake.

I think their catalog is terrible-looking. They have strange names for things and they don't provide scientific names. Makes them look very cheap and unprofessional.

I had a coupon for $20, and it didn't require you to buy a certain amount in order to use it. So I figured I'd use it and give them a chance to redeem themselves. I ordered two phlox and a Lace Handkerchief iris. By the way, the first person I talked to insisted I would have to pay for shipping even though my order with shipping came to less than $20--she said the coupon was only for merchandise. It didn't specify this on the coupon, so I called back later and talked to somebody else who said no, I didn't have to pay for the shipping.

When the plants arrived, in small pots, one of the phlox looked okay. The other looked mostly dead but had a small green sprig, and it is coming along all right. The iris looked okay on arrival but shortly thereafter, the leaves got weak and began to tilt sideways. I don't think it's going to make it.

The packing was good, though, unusual containers that cradle the leaves as well as the pot. And they did at least send the order.

So there you have it. Basically, you are taking a risk to order from them--unless you're using a coupon for free stuff as I did. It's a pity. I've always enjoyed their catalog. I ordered from them in the mid '90's and was pleased with what I got then.

Jennifer

I bought a daylily collection from them using the coupon like Jennifer had. I am very pleased with the plants! Every one of them is growing vigorously and looks very healthy. I also recently got three delphinium and three centaurea from them. Planted them last week and they, too are doing well. Sorry to hear some of you have had problems, but my experience with them has been a good one.
Linda

i ordered 6 red freedom hedge roses, 4 butterfly bushes..some homestead verbena and a red fairy rose from SpringHill nursery approximately 8 weeks ago...I received a confirmation letter from them several days later sayig my order was shipped..wow was i excited!! well, the box came, and lo and behold there was one plant in there, the red fairy rose. everything else was backordered. i went to their website and checked the status of my order...."no orders on file"...i guess it's more than backordered..i am assuming i am not receiving my stuff. i am sooo disappointed!! in their defense...they took the charge off my credit card, the 25.00 coupon covered the cost of the single rose bush and the shipping (with extra money left over, but i guess that's gone)...so my red fairy rose was free. i would much rather have paid the 60.00 that my bill was supposed to have been and received the merchandise i ordered!! i am very displeased and i believe from now on i will shop at my local nurseries instead of getting my hopes up for plants that will never arrive.

Just received an order from them - thought I'd try it once. Although most all the plants were alive they were puny. My Lady's Mantle was the healthiest out of all of them. My Poker Primroses were mush. I called the company and they very cheerfully said they would replace them. I hope I get them soon. Although I wouldn't say my experience has been bad, I don't think I'll order again unless it's a rare item that I can't find anywhere else and I absolutely have to have it. It was fun as a one time thing though.

It constantly amazes me that people will order from companies like this. Watchdog is a great reference to check out the reliability of a company. I also find that simply looking at the catalog helps...if there's a lot of hype, if there are no botanical names listed beside the plants, if the guarantee states they have a replacement policy (meaning you wait a year for the next growing season and trust them to remember you)...all of these things are tip-offs of probably fly-by-night nursery suppliers. It's almost amusing to read postings that share comments like..."I waited for my plants with such excitement and when they arrived two months later they were sticks and mush." Wake up! lol

I ordered the 3 season garden from this company because the waranty sounded attractive. It took them about 3 mos to shipped the order. When it finally arrived, I planted the flowers and waited for about 3 weeks them to sprout. Some of them are doing pretty well while 6 bulbs were just dead. I e-mailed them about it and they told me that they can resend the 6 to me next year because it's end of the season which means out of stock. So I asked them to ship me something else that's comparable to what wasn't growing and I refuse to wait a year and have 6 empty spots in my front yard. They said that the only thing they can do is to give me a certificate for something else next season or wait until next year for those same plants I needed. I pretty much told them to keep their certificate and that I would rather go to my local nursery and kindly asked them to stop sending me their catalogs. I would recommend that you do not order from this company. How convenient is it to have a waranty and then ship it out at the end of the season, so when customers complain about it, they are out of stock.

I recently ordered from them and wished I'd checked the gardenwatchdog site first. Plenty of horror stories there.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Watchdog - Spring Hill Nurseries

Okay I received my order from Spring Hill today and was relieved to find that it was complete, well-packed, and came with a better-than-average growing guide plus a little promo tube of sunscreen. Based on everything I've read about them and my own experiences, it could be that the worst part of their company are the customer service reps.

Spring Hill? It's like a broker, they order the plants that you order from wholesalers doubling the wholesalers price by 150%. I looked on that sight, my eyeballs almost flew out of my head! couldn't believe what people are spending on some things. Spring Hill is known for BIG $$$ and young low grade specimens.

I especially like those irises, what they sell them for? $4 each? something along those lines? Which you recieve something no bigger than 7-8cm? when everyone knows they should be around 12-14! And we all know what they really should cost.