Starr Nursery

Posted on May 20, 2010, updated April 13, 2012 Recieved my first order from Starr Nursery yesterday. Nice sized, well-rooted plants arrived quickly in great shape. Will definitely order from Starr again.

King of the Agaves! Greg is a really nice guy and on my first visit to his nursery was a pleasure. Of course I bought some agaves and other things too... Plan to continue to be a repeat customer again.

This was my first order with Starr Nursery and I am more than satisfied with everything! The Agave ovatifolia is larger than I anticipated and is in absolutely perfect condition. The Agave striata, while smaller, is no less than promised and very full for the stated pot size. Everything was well packed and arrived promptly. Excellent product and excellent service. I look forward to doing business with them in the future. Barb

I am a landscaper outside of Houston Tx and I have purchased agaves and cacti from Gregg a few times and have been very satisfied every time. He has some unique varieties hard to find elsewhere and has been very helpful with my purchases. I have recieved very nice specimens very quickly every time. I plan on ordering from him many more times. I also enjoy the expedition pictures on his website with many of the plants he sells shown full grown in their natural setting.

As far as I'm concerned, Starr Nursery is AWESOME!!! I purchased my Agaves from them back in 2000, when I lived in Hawaii. They were not only healthy, but just down right gorgeous!!! I've only brought 2 of my agaves with me to Washington State (the rest are doing fine with my niece in Hawaii) and they are thriving. Again, I was & still am a very happy gardener/collector. AAAAA+++++

I ordered plants of several Agave species. They all arrived in good shape and began to show signs of growth within 1-2 weeks. I would buy more Agave plants from them in the future.

I ordered a 5 gallon size Hesperaloe parviflora. What was sent was a 2 gallon size plant (when I potted it up, it fit very comfortably with plenty of room to grow in a 2 gallon pot), with a root system that left much to be desired. Time will tell if it makes it, but since this succulent is not known to be wimpy or fussy I hope its innate nature will pull it through and be its salvation.

I don't know what this customer expected, but rootman received a standard 5 gallon size plant with at least 6 individual flowering size plants in the clump. The plants are grown hard in full sun so they are not wimpy and etiolated. I'm sorry that a standard 5 gallon size plant from Arizona apparently does not meet the expectactions of this customer. When sending plants bareroot acroos the country, it's not unusual for the smaller roots to die off even though I wrap them in moist paper towels, then place the roots in an open plastic bag to try keep them from drying out too much. Hesperaloe parviflora is easy to grow, and even this customer would have a hard time killing it.

In late March, I ordered 2 Adeniums from the website. The price on each was a little high ($25.00), but I figured I would get well branched, nice fat plants with a huge caudex. What arrived in two weeks or so were sparsely branched slender plants with yellow-green leaves that had brown crispy edges. I was disappointed, but figured I'd baby the plants along and after they had established, cut them down by half. I planted them in a large trough along with other Adeniums and Pachypodiums (obtained from other souces) and for the next two months watered them just slightly to encourage new roots. Well, everything around them sprouted quickly and grew well, and some of the other Adeniums even developed flowers. However, the two plants from Starr Nursery just sat there, like pet rocks. In early June the foliage started dropping off. When I inspected the plants, I was extremely surprised to see that had rotted at the base, and the rot was spreading up the plant. "Red Ribbons" was too far gone and needed to be discarded, but I was able to salvage the top part of "Crimson Star". and have since tried to treat it as a cutting. In mid June, I wrote to Greg to try to explain the situation. He got back to me in a week or so, seemingly only concerned about my "anger" than the problem with the plants. He asked me a number of questions, interview style, like what soil mixture the plants were in, what temperatures they were exposed to, and wanted pictures of the plants! It was clear he didn't believe me. I offered to send the fragment of the "Crimson Star" back to prove there had been a problem. After hearing nothing for over 10 days, I reluctantly said I was going to have to leave negative feedback at the Garden Watchdog site. I soon received a message that Greg was refunding the cost of the plants, not including the postage to Paypal. He again reiterated how arrogant, vehement, and angry I was, not understanding why I "hated" him so much. I have no "hatred" toward this merchant, and have always just wanted him to make a wrong a right. Since the nursery specializes in Agaves, I should have known better to order something as far afield as an Adenium. Perhaps their other plants are fabulous, I don't know. All I can say is , the general treatment of Adenium, which is adopted by Highland Succulents, one of the leading sellers of Adenium in the United States, is to prune them heavily when they are young, to develop many branches toward the base. It is also necessary to use super tight pots in the early years to develop a good caudex. Greg's plants were supposedly grown in 6 inch pots, but the roots of the plants I received fit comfortably in a 4 inch pot, suggesting they were way overpotted. This would account for the torpedo shape and lack of a good caudex. The story basically had a happy ending, but I had to write three long emails and be persistent. I don't think I would deal with Starr Nursery again, at least not for Adeniums. There seem to be other nurseries around who have a better feel for what they need.

This customer ordered 2 special Adenium clones in February and wanted them shipped bareroot during winter. I wanted to wait for the weather to warm and we settled on the end of March. I sent him 2 healthy specimens and thought he would be able to keep them warm enough so they would grow, but apparently that was not the case. All the other plants from each batch (Crimson Star and Red Ribbons) are thriving. He had them for over 2 months before contacting me and telling me they were not doing well. I asked him to send pictures and asked several questions in an attempt to figure out what went wrong. He took that as a personal attack and got quite defensive, telling me this was the worst mail order transaction he had ever had. In his e-mails, he attacked me, my plants, and my method of growing the plants. I've been in the nursery business for 21 years. I started with trees and shrubs, and in the last 11 years have branched out into succulents. I'm always trying to learn from experience, and figure I will not ship Adeniums bareroot, and will wait until the weather is warm enough.

I refunded his money for both plants even though he offered no evidence that one or both had died. All I have is his word that one had died, yet I refunded the money for both. Apparently this wasn't enough to satisfy him as he left this "positive" review which is anything but positive.

I am located in Tucson, Arizona, with different growing conditions than Highland Succulents does in Ohio. Dr. Mark Dimmitt, one of the best growers and breeders of Adenium grows them in 15 gallon and 24 inch box containers and has some of the most remarkable specimens I've seen. They do not need to be underpotted as this customer insists.

I just don't get these personal attacks via this format. He obviously killed the two Adeniums I sent him and got mad at me. None of the others I sent out or sold at the same time have died. They were not in "dormancy" when they were sent out. Again, he wanted them over the winter, I suggested a later date so they would have a better chance of survival upon arrival in the much colder climate of Connecticut.

He says that cuttings rarely make a caudex in his climate. What does he think these were? Clones are perpetuated by cuttings, not by seed. An Adenium cutting will develop a caudex, but will take much longer than a seed grown plant, so the statement about a cutting not developing a caudex is nonsense.

What does he want? I refunded his money for both plants even though only one died. As for my nursery using inflammatory language, that's impossible as the nursery is an inanimate object. His e-mails to me were laced with anger and vehemence about this transaction as witnessed by his calling it the "worst experience in mail order" he has had.

As far as I'm concerned, this transaction is complete. Enough said.

Greg

I tried to order plants from this company. They have two sets of web pages (One for mail order and one for on-line ordering). The prices are different for each type of ordering. I couldn't place an order thru their web site - wouldn't accept my credit card information. Tried serval different time to order agave's plant but their web site for payment doesn't work. Also, I sent an email on the 11th of November addressing the problems of this web site. As of December 5th; I still haven't received an email on how to place an order from them.

I met Greg Starr at the 2005 San Francisco Spring Flower and Garden Show, and purchased a number of Agave seedlings of several years age, all exquisitely grown, all nearly unavailabe elsewhere at the time: A. pelona, A. triangularis, A. isthmensis, A. multifilifera, among others. Very helpful, knowledgable (I would say that Greg is one of the premiere authorities on the Agavaceae, particularly taxonomically, at the present time.)