Comments regarding Henry Field's Seed & Nursery

I have now had to contact customer service twice to find out were my order is. They have changed the charge to my bank account 6 time for one order, that was broken up into 3 shipments. The man I spoke to today should not be a customer service rep & when I pointed out that the way he was speaking to me was not appropiate, he became extremely rude.

Today is May 26th, part of my order was shipped May 15th. He would not assist me in tracking down the order, just told me to call UPS, the number he spit out was 1-800-UPS! I told him "It can't be" & he snapped at me.

I have called UPS & they haven't received the plants to ship! I hate the thought of calling Henry Fields back AGAIN!

I suggest all who have problems to only speak to a supervisor. I will NEVER order from them again!

I placed an order on 3/20/09 that consisted of seeds and plants. I expected the seeds to ship immediately and the plants to ship in late April (I'm in zone 6).

In mid-April I checked the website and it said delivery dates of between 4/20/09 - 5/4/09. At that point I figured they were saving on shipping and sending everything out in one shipment to arrive after the last frost date.

As of the end of April, we had not received anything from our order. When my husband called to check we were told that they had a computer glitch right at the time we placed our order and "lost" a lot of them. We were told that a few plants (blackberries, raspberries) had shipped and the rest would ship out immediately.

I went on the website to check my order today (5/3/09) and only one additional plant has shipped. The rest have delivery dates out as far as 6/20/09. I'm not waiting until the end of June to put my pepper plants out.

I called customer service today and they were spectacularly unhelpful. No offer to expedite shipping or refund part of my money because of their mistake. No explanation on why the estimated delivery dates keep changing. I ended up cancelling the unshipped part of my order.

I started out very apprehensive about ordering from them, based on all the negative reviews here. But I really wanted a Carmine Jewel bush cherry and they had a 50% off coupon as well. I crossed my fingers and took a chance. This was back in February.

I ordered the bush cherry mentioned, june-bearing strawberries that were buy 25, get 25 free, and raspberries that were buy 3, get 3 free. I got a confirmation email immediately, including the link/info on how to check order status whenever I wanted.

Early this month, I received a shipping confirmation email for the bush cherry and strawberries. I was able to link to tracking the shipped package but I didn't really need to, the package arrived 2 days after the email did.

The bush cherry was small. I mean, small. I would have probably been upset had I paid the full $29.95 for it. It was really healthy though. I planted it 2 weeks ago and it's shot up almost 12 inches. No fooling.

The strawberries came through a brief snowfall and plodding dogs and are growing well.

The raspberries came about a week after the first package did. Again I received a shipping confirmation email and again while able to track it, the package arrived in 2 days.

Three of the raspberries were large and had broken dormancy. The other three were about half the size but what can you say about something free? I planted them all.

Today I noticed that 2 of the 3 smaller ones had no signs of life whatsoever. I called Henry Field's and got through to someone right away. She was very friendly, advised me that the type of raspberry I ordered was no longer in stock, and could she replace them with another popular variety. We chatted briefly and that was that. Again I received a confirmation email (showing $0.00 for the replacement 3) with an estimated ship time of 5/04.

I'm really trying to find a reason to be unhappy with my experience, but honestly, there wasn't one. I'm very pleased from start to finish.

After reading the other posts and a little rersearch, I have decided not to buy from this company; mainly because it is part of a major marketer using this name and many others like Gurney, Michigan Bulb, Spring Hill, etc. All are part of the "Scarlet Tanager" company and will offer the same product at different prices with different sales gimicks. Con job! You are actually dealing with one company trying to act as several companies and this tends to lead to a lack of quality and service although they do make an effort to resolve problems. I am looking for quality product and service and this company shows almost a 50% negative rating from it's customers. Not for me.

never sent confirmation of order as promised. within 24 hours has turned into 10 days. delivery date was today mar 24 and order was never processed nor shipped. sent emails didn't get a single response. Never had problems in the past until this year. This is where we part ways.

Ordered 2 dwarf citrus trees and 2 bare root fruit trees everything arrived promptly and in good condition. Plus extra!! Staff was very pleasant and helpful over phone. Will order again.

I ordered almost all of my seeds this year from Henry Fields.
My seeds arrived within a couple of weeks, and everything was in my order. I will have to wait to see how they germinate, I already have the tomato and pepper seeds planted. Great service and I will order from them again. I have purchased from them in the past and never had any problems.

Last year I ordered seeds and 3 year old asparagus crowns from Henry Field's, even though I lost 5 of my gus crowns the rest did great and produced gus a few months after I planted them. I was not able to call the company about the 5 crowns that did not come up due to spinal surgery and being laid up for 8 months. This year I just ordered seeds from HF and received them quickly. I plan on ordering 200 sweet potato slips in the next few weeks from HF and have always been happy with their products. I have already sown spinach, brocc and lettuces from the seeds I just ordered a couple weeks ago, and they all germinated with in 5 days, wonderful!

Thank you HF.

I placed an large (at least for me) on-line vegetable seed order earlier this year with Henry Field’s.

When I planted the tomato, pepper and eggplant seeds in flats, they were extremely slow to germinate and the eggplants refused to germinate at all. The seeds I planted directly in my garden were slow to germinate or failed to germinate as well. I did contact Henry Field’s Customer Service and explained the problem and they did replace part of my seed order.

Needless to say, I am extremely disappointed with the seeds from Henry Field’s. Additionally, the seeds were packaged in foreign countries, I.e., Thailand, etc.

I’ve been gardening for nearly 50 years so I think I know what I’m doing when it comes to gardening. This is the first and only time I. have purchased seeds that failed to germinate. Incidentally, the seeds I planted directly in my garden are also very stunted. At this time of year, they should be growing rapidly but they are little runts of a plant..

I will never order seeds from Henry Field’s again as the quality of their seeds are very poor.

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D-mailed Customer on June 25 asking for information so I could locate their account and try to come up with a possible resolution to satisfy the Customer. As of July 31, no response has been received."

Ordered an albeit cheap tree peony, they sent me in late winter (for Chicago planting!) a twig thing that did not sprout. Had to break the frost to plant...

Contacted customer support and a they then sent me a viable specimen (at a better time to plant).

Will not order again, but will not nay-say.

I made a large order early in spring. I had ordered one of their specials on raspberry plants, buy 1 (set of 3), get one free. Both sets looked decent but only 1 set of 3 plants leafed out. I emailed and got prompt service and was shipped 3 more plants to replace them. The replacements were of even better quality (larger, too) than the original. All bulbs and rootstock were great, too. I would order again.

Near the end of April 2008 I decided to order from Henry Fields. I ordered 2 Female Arctic Beauty Kiwi plants and 1 Male Arctic Beauty Kiwi plant. It is now May 6th and I received my plants today. They came quickly and were healthy. I would buy from Henry Fields again.

I ordered 18 Raspberry Plants from this company. About 2 weeks before shipping date, the notified me they were out of one lot. I promptly called, and told them they could send XXX instead, in order to complete my order. OH, NO, that would be a substution, and that wasnt allowed. I tried to explain that I was merely giving them a chance to fill my order, and this was refused.
So, my order came short, with a 15.00 credit due me--which they are now insisting that I pay!! They will not listen that its DUE ME, instead of me owing it.
With todays internet, you would think a company like this would strive to have a good reputation, instead of slowly ruining it. I will not order again.

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Contacted Customer on 4/22/08 for possible resolution; no response."

I have ordered five Walker's Low catmints. The plants have arrived quickly. They were dormant roots in a bag. I planted them two days later and in a few days they were all showing green growth. The price was definately a bargain, and yet, they're growing nicely. I will order from this company again in the future.

127993 shipment number

I ordered $ 59.75 of merchandise. I received only $11.75 worth of it.
I want my money back.
The returning slip has been torn away from where it was supposed to be, so I cannot return the item I got
They are just deceiving people into buying stuff from them.I sent 2 emails already and never got an answer.

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Contacted the Customer on 4/22/08 for possible resolution; have received no response as of 5/27/08."

Mountain Laurel died on me and asked for replacement and they said they didn't have anymore, come to find out on their website that they did. They were nice enough to issue a credit but that will not cover the $7 shipping charges...Maybe put my credits together and try to use them. Guess you get what you pay for. This will be last time using Henry Field & Michigan Bulb

I placed an order with Henry Fields for the first time this year. My parents got a glimpse of the catalog, and picked out some seeds and tomato food they wanted to try in the garden, and since i had a $25 coupon, I ordered enough to get the discount.

I don't know how the seeds and tomato food are doing as of yet, however the angel trumpets and the rose bush I ordered for myself are doing wonderfully! The angel trumpets arrived in a very protective package to keep the plants from getting crushed. They were also very healthy plants. One came with out any leaves to speak of...however within less than two days, new leaves were sprouting. I have since put them in their own large pots, and they are doing great!

The rosebush was bareroot, and I followed instructions to the letter of soaking it and planting it, and it is shooting out new leaves all over! I can't wait to see the blooms!

I would order from this company again.

I purchased Calidiums from this company. When they came they were mushy. I called and they sent me more. BUT they were still mushy. I will never buy from them again!!!

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Unfortunately, when dealing with "live" products, such as bulbs or plants, they do go bad during the shipping process; we don't ship out bad products. And, according to our satisfaction guarantee, and the Customer's statement, her caladiums were replaced."

In mid January I ordered a variety of seeds, some Asparagus roots, and Cannas. As an afterthought I decided to risk ordering one live Brugmansia plant.

The seeds arrived promptly by mail, all accounted for. The other items arrived the 1st week of March - just in time for planting here in Texas. All arrived in healthy condition, including the Brugmansia. It was safely packed in an individual cardboard box, with the small pot wrapped up to the base of the stem in a plastic bag. I'll have to wait a couple of weeks to plant the Brugmansia - (the nights are still too cool here). But, due to it's excellent health, I think a couple of weeks under the grow lights in my kitchen won't hurt it.

Ultimately, I had no problems with my experience and I will probably order from them again.

On February 13 I ordered 11 packets of common vegetable and flowers seeds. I kept waiting for the package to ship and it was finally shipped two weeks later on February 26. Seven days later I finally received the seed. The day after receiving the seed I started opening packets to start the seed. The first packet I opened contained only 7 instead of 35 seeds. No problem, mistakes happen. The second pack of seeds contained only 10 instead of 30 seeds - am I starting to see a pattern? The third packet was only 10% short of seeds, so I'm getting better the more I open. The rest of the order all contained the proper amount (or more) of seed. I emailed the company and received an automated email stating that someone would personally reply to me within 48 hours. Six days later I finally got an email saying that replacement seed would be shipped to me. It then took them 2 days after that to ship the seeds. If previous timeline is indicative, I should have the seeds in only seven more days!! In summary I should have all the seed I ordered only six weeks after placing the order. Loooong time to process order, looong shipping time, poor customer service. You just lost another customer.

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I contacted the Customer on 4/22/08 for possible resolution; as of 5/27/08, have received no response."

I recently ordered fruit trees from Henry Field. The communication was good, and the trees arrived timely. I will definitely order from them again. I was very happy with the quality and condition of the stock.

I ordered several live plants in the 2007 planting year. The buy one get one free on several of the items, on top of the $25 discount was too much to resist. If I remember correctly I paid about $26 for 100 strawberry plants, 4 hosta and 1 blackberry (3 plants)

My blackberry were moldy when I got them since they were not packed properly. They of course died. Customer service was very helpful and said they would replace them this year in 2008.

The Neutral...(aside from the plants - but I chalk that up to I get what I pay for)......as a some others have mentioned.....you get signed up for Junk mail. LOTS of junk mail. I can specifically track it to this company because for some really odd reason, they put the order under a misspelled last name and all the junk mail is coming up with that same last name.

I think the Junk Mail is the most annoying factor, almost bad enough to go towards Negative. Mostly because once your information gets sold once, it will be sold MANY more times. Be prepared for a flood of junk mail. If you don't compost your junkmail yet, it's a good time to start ;)

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Contacted the Customer on 4/22/08 for possible resolution; as of 5/27/08, have received no response."

Last year in mid-winter I ordered 24 raspberry plants. I was assured they would arrive for correct planting time for my area. I live in Zone 5 Massachusetts. They stated that they ship to my area starting April 15th. Perfect I say. Well March 12th the raspberries arrived. There was 2 feet of snow on the ground and 1 foot of frost in the ground. I called Henry Fields and they told me it was the proper time for my area. They must be smoking something. 90% of the time we have snow into April.

They told me to put the raspberry plants in the freezer until I want to plant them. Sure, I will just toss out all my food for some berry plants.

To my shock, of the 24 plants I planted about 6 survived. A suprising 25%. They did offer to replace the plants for the 2008 season.....I said thanks but no thanks. No need to go through that again.

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Contacted the Customer on 4/22/08 for possible resolution; as of 5/27/08 have received no response."

I ordered potatoes, onions, and strawberry plants last year (spring 2007) from Fields. They arrived here in upstate NY mid April when there was a foot of snow on the ground! Is it too much to ask that a company this big could check zones before shipping?

I've been dealing with Henry Field's for about two years now. I've noticed that they don't tend to be in a hurry to ship their plants, and their customer service isn't so hot.
For example, I put in an order in July for several types of bulbs and some black-eyed susans. I called two weeks ago to find out why they hadn't shipped, and customer service said everything was back-ordered. I doubted that answer, so I canceled my order for the black-eyed susans. The next week, my bulbs shipped. Obviously, they refuse to ship orders separately, and would have shipped my black-eyed susans far too late in the season for me to plant.
However, they are cheap, so you do get what you pay for.
For my money, I much prefer Bluestone Perennials.

My experience with this company has been mixed. I first tried them right before they went bankrupt, and I never received the order I placed with them. I tried them one more time a couple years later after they were took over by Gardern's Alive and ordered a few trees from them, but they all soon died. Their customer service remains weak, but their shipping prices are very good. Be cautious when ordering live plants from them.

I placed my first order knowing they had a so called bad reputation, but I figured I would make a small order in case it was a bad experience I wouldn't be out a lot of money.

My order arrived quickly and sooner than I was told, everything came as expected. I am not at all disappointed. I would order from again. I am starting to think those who left negative feedback for this company might be competitors trying to give them a bad rep. They were very easy to deal with on the phone and I have nothing bad to say.

Although I bought late in the year, I can't say for sure if everything will survive, but that is a risk I was willing to take. Everything that came did come exactly as described, so if it doesn't grow come spring, it will be on Mother Natures hands- not the company.

With my first order from Henry Field's, I bought quite a few bareroot plants on sale. They arrived completely dry and mostly brown, and a number of the plants never grew at all, while some grew poorly. I contacted customer service, which replied promptly and courteously that replacement plants would be sent.

Though disappointed at first, I am now quite satisfied. The sale prices were very low and made the order worth my while. The replacements for the dead plants were nice and moist, and Henry Field's even included replacements for the poor performers. I would order from this company again.

I ordered & received blackberry & raspberry plants from HF last Spring. The success rate of these bareroot plants were much much better than the potted plants I purchased from a more reputable mail order company. These plants produced fruit the first summer. I've been ordering from HF for 25 years now -- mostly vegie seeds or small fruit. I'll most likely continue to order from this company as long as they have the varieties that I'm looking for & at reasonable prices. I've never had any problems that weren't resolved to my satisfaction.

This is NOT a reputable firm. I was offered "$10 off $30 order" as a first-time customer, but the $10 was not applied. I was offered "one plant with each plant bought", but the extra plants were not included. When no one responded to my queries, I checked a customer page and found a note, in teeny tiny type, saying plants would be shipped in OCTOBER, long after the growing season is finished. Now I am sorry I ever gave these guys my card numbers, as I'll have to check my credit statements forever. Caveat emptor.

I ordered from Gurney/Henry Field this spring after ordering in the past. All plants arrived alive, and all but 2 survived our very difficult spring. I planted hostas, raspberries, chokecherries, bush cherries, and burning bush. One plant remained dormant for 2 months!! but I knew it was alive because it was green under the bark. In all fairness, I got what I paid for, everything grew, and the company can hardly be responsible for extended hard freeze and days of heavy rain following.

I placed an order thru the mail with Henry Fields in January 2007 for a packet of Red Hamburger Onions Seeds, Petunia Seeds, and 150 peat pots, the total was only about 20 dollars. I had ordered from them before but I had moved since then so I corrected the ship to address on the order form and the sent it with a check.
After about 3 weeks I tried to check my order online but I was unable to, so I email customer service. I received a reply later in the day stating that my order had shipped the week before to the old address.
When I emailed them back to say that I no longer lived there and I had updated my address on my order form I received an email back telling me that the order was already shipped and I should go to my old house and pick it up if I wanted it because there was nothing they could do once it had shipped.
I responded that it was their mistake and there was no way I was going to my old house to get it. They responded that they would have to forward my complaint to their customer service board and they would respond in a timely manner.
Well, 2 weeks later I had no heard anything so I email them again and this email went un answered. A week after that I email them again and finally got a "real customer service person", she emailed me back and said that she had looked into it and would make sure I received my order within 2 weeks and sure enough, I received it within the week. Of course by then I didn't need the peat pots because I had to purchase them elsewhere but at least I have them for now.
Afterwards I spoke to my uncle, who has ordered from them for his farm and he said that he also had the same type of problem with them. There is no way I will ever order from them again.

bought 3 mountain laurel and one columbine... the packaging was fine but the 3 mountain laurel were in horrible shape dried out roots cement like..... leaves are very brittle...will not order ever again

4/02/2004--I ordered 180.00 us dollars) to henry fields company, when I finally received the ordered it came in 2 different deliveries, Everything was dead, the plants had no dirt on them, they look dorment, so I thought thats how they shipped, come to find out its 2 years later after planting and nothing I have nothing its all dead, I ordered several garden seeds and plants, strawberry plants were suppose to be free for ordering over 50 dollars worth of merchandise, well I never received them.
I will never order from here again, I called customer service and they said to give the plants 1 year to come out of dorment and i did but guess what i called and emailed them back and i still dont have anything. This company has always been reliable in the past but for some reason they have become worst ......PLEASE DONT ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY trust me they are not reliable...ALSO GURNEYS SEED COMPANY HAS BECOME JUST AS BAD I LOST 298.00 WORTH OF MERCHANDISE FROM THEM. GOOD LUCK AND HOPE YOU DONT GET TREATED THE WAY I DID

Placed order 08-23-2006 with a promised ship date of Strawberry Plants in March 2007. Then the date was changed to April and then May and now June 2007. No plants and no communication from company. Will never shop here again.

HORRIBLE MATH SKILLS! I ordered 2 sets of the football mum collection and 1 set of cushion mum collection last spring. That was a total of 18 plants. The plants did not bloom at all last year. This spring, none of the plants returned. I contacted the company. A representative stated that a replacement would be shipped. Upon arrival, I was eager to open the box and plant the mums. However, was shocked to see that only 1 cushion mum was sent. Note to Henry Fields: 1 is not equal to 18!!!!!

I have ordered from Henry Field's for the past two years with no trouble whatsoever. Last year (2006) I ordered some seeds and bareroot material (hostas and astilbes) which did fine and are coming back with a vigorous vengence this year. This year I ordered some more bare root material and seeds. Germination on the seeds has been excellent as I will have far too many seedlings to deal with and, the bare root peonies are doing just fine. I used a coupon both years with no incident, and will order from them in the future.

After reading all these negative comments, I was scared to order from this company, but I had pretty good luck with them in the past, and the prices were good, so I sent in an order and used the $25 off coupon. My order arrived in two packages, the seeds came almost immediately at the price stated, and the blueberries and grapes arrived in plenty of time for spring planting. They were very well packed, and healthy. The grapes are already growing nicely, the blueberries looked good, but so far are just growing small buds. The $25 off coupon was subtracted properly. My experience with this company was just as positive as in the past. I sent my order in by regular mail, not online, so I didn't have any of the online problems I see that others have had. I will definitely order from them again.

I am from Singapore and I ordered seeds and bulbs amounting to about US$220 from Henry Fields for shipping to a friend in Ukiah, California. When I ordered, the customer service was very helpful and I was very thankful and posted a hard copy of the order, shipping address and check and even a thank you card to them. A few weeks later, my friend in America received a letter from Henry Fields informing us that the prices on the plants had gone up and they would not deliver a single plant to us. I went back to the website, reordered using the new and more expensive prices to make up the same amount of $220 and emailed the order to them. I also posted a hard copy of the letter to them. In addition, I also requested my friend from Ukiah to post a copy of the new order and the letter we received from Henry Fields to them.

When I contacted the customer service the second time round, I was requested for my order number which I didn't have because I ordered by check. I called them using an international call and asked them if they could locate my order in any other way and I gave them all information (billing address, shipping address) but they still failed to pull out the order.

As a last resot, since no plants were delivered, I went back to the local back and tried to cancal the check. Imagine my disappointment when the bank told me that the check had been cashed. This is completely dishonest. If Henry Fields refused to send us any seeds, they should revert the check to me since I enclose a copy of the billing address in the same envelope and not cash the check and deliver nothing. I had good experiences with all other American nurseries I ordered plants but I will NEVER order from Henry Fields ever again.