Comments regarding Shooting Star Nursery

I received my first order a few weeks ago and have mixed feelings. The selection of plants is great, the communication and shipping time exceptional. But, I was disappointed when I opened the box. I really dislike the way the plants are packed --the shredded paper gets everywhere and is hard to disentangle from some of the plants, especially given that they are naturally small and not that strong. I bent two stems that way. The plants are living, but I won't say thriving, at least not yet. In comparison to other plants I've ordered this year they don't seem as strong and healthy. But, they are mostly different types than I've ordered elsewhere so that may be the reason. I'm keeping an open mind and waiting to see how they do over time. I might order again to get specific plants but will hesitate for sure, purely because of the horrible shredded paper packing.

Posted on August 27, 2010, updated October 9, 2010
I ordered one plant which arrived packed in a box completely stuffed with *very* finely shredded paper (a real mess to clean up and incidentally not recyclable). The upper part of the plant was wrapped in brown paper, which in turn was also stuffed with the shredded paper. The plant (in a 6" pot with minimal soil) had been severely cut back (not bad by itself), but there was well over a foot of tangled roots growing through all the holes in the bottom of the pot. I had to cut the pot into numerous pieces in order to extract the plant. It remains to be seen whether the plant will survive. I will revisit this review in the spring and consider a change in my rating.

I ordered two $7 Rhododendron calendulaceum and one $8 Hamamelis virginiana, plus $5 shipping. They were out of the H. virginiana (Common Witch Hazel), but shipped the two R. calendulaceum (Flame Azalea)- which were about 1" tall in 4" pots. They did not clearly indicate the size on their site.

Note: they did apologize for being out of the Witch Hazel, and service was very fast - I believe they shipped the day I placed the order. The plants seemed healthy.

Actually, they did indicate the size of the pots on the website - mine were 3 1/2". Although I was disappointed in the size of the plants, I have not ordered enough online to get a feel for what to expect for the money. It seems a local nursery would have better plants available, but Shooting Star had a wide variety of native plants that I couldn't find locally.