Comments regarding Michigan Bulb

"Sucker" is what I call myself for ordering here. My neighbors wanted to know if this was a "good" place to order from. They see my garden and think I know everything! This is another company I would (and will) avoid altogether. Tiny, small, inferior plants. Shriveled little things! Some plants did grow, but after 2 years they are still not the size I feel I paid for. I give my plants every advantage and give them exactly what they need and want -I know what I am doing! By the time I decided to call it quits I had thrown away the original label; which is required for a refund or exchange. No matter lesson learned. NO this is not a good place and their are no deals here. Go to your local garden center and stay away from home stores and places not making a living from their plants!

"On Jan 11, 2010 2:09 PM, Michigan Bulb responded with:

Thank you for your inquiry. Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience we may have caused. Our Customer Service Team is checking into the issue you had with your order and will do our best to rectify the problem in a timely manner. We will be contacting you directly with a resolution."

Posted on October 12, 2009, updated October 19, 2009
This will explain everything.

Order Date: 08/16/09
Order Number: ************
Order Total: $30.85

Charged:
-$17.97
-$12.88
=30.85 right? I can count why can't Michigan Bulb?

Attempted to charge 7.99 extra which was declined (debit card with exact amount for internet orders). I use a debit card for this purpose because some online vendors attempt to charge extras not approved.

Sent me a letter stating they were going to withhold my last item because they were no longer authorized on my card. I sent a letter back and told them basically I was going to report it on the Internet Crime Complaint Center and BBB.

Attempting to make unauthorized charges
Withholding paid for items.
Extortion letter

I have forwarded a screenshot of their order screen for items and the 30.85 charge, a screenshot of my debit card with their charges and their attempted unauthorized charge, and their extortion letter claiming to withhold my paid for item unless I authorize extra charges.

"On Oct 14, 2009 12:46 PM, Michigan Bulb responded with:

Thank you for your inquiry. Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience we may have caused. Our Customer Service Team is checking into the issue you had with your order and will do our best to rectify the problem in a timely manner. We will be contacting you directly with a resolution."

Posted on October 10, 2009, updated October 14, 2009
As I understand MI Bulb Co. is an affliate of Spring Hill Nurseries, and Brecks. I have ordered from all 3 companies. Spring Hill always ships great plants, bulbs, etc. Their packaging is good too. If I ever had problems I always recieved excellent customer service. Brecks I ordered from for the first time with 3-4 seperate orders. All were recieved in good condition.

MI Bulb Co. I will never order from again. I ordered 3-4 different types of tulips which were fine. I ordered a double order of Jetfire Daffodil which the bulbs were fine.

Also, I ordered the Oriental Lily Bag. They were the tiniest lily bulbs I have ever seen. I have never, ever recieved such small bulbs from any of their affiliates or the box stores. I dont even know if they will flower in the first year due to such a small size. The largest bulb was maybe the size of a half dollar. The rest are even smaller.

The worst was the mums I ordered. I ordered 12 cushion mums. First of all, the box was packed poorly. The mums were on the bottom in solid paper bags (I have never had live plants shipped to me in solid brown bags that were stapled shut). The mums didnt have any sort of bubble packaging in between them and the 9-10 bags of heavy bulbs. The mums were smushed flat. I never expect my live plants ordered from these companies to be huge. However, these were pathetic. The mums were one stem that is 4-5" long. That is all just one stem with a few leaves, and and open flower bud or two. I would rather they not be flowering, and growing. I have never seen such small plants shipped!!!

Due, to their size I dont even know if they will survive the winter. It is late in the season, and they may not make it. I will mulch them and hope for the best.

Lesson learned, never order from MI Bulb Co. Especially not live plants. I will see if the bulbs will do well come spring time. I will stick with their better sister companies, Spring Hill and Brecks.


Danielle

"On Oct 14, 2009 12:43 PM, Michigan Bulb responded with:

Thank you for your inquiry. Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience we may have caused. Our Customer Service Team is checking into the issue you had with your order and will do our best to rectify the problem in a timely manner. We will be contacting you directly with a resolution."

I placed an order in August and received a letter on Oct 2nd, 2009 stating there was an error processing my credit card but "rather than delay the order, it was shipped." Later in the day I received an email and recorded phone call requesting payment. I called customer service about their persistance and found out the order had not shipped. I can only believe this was a false statement to make me pay first. Needless to say, even thought they now have my payment, I will be returning the parcel because a company who has to resot to lies and is not truthful with their customers cannot really be trusted with my business.

"On Oct 14, 2009 12:07 PM, Michigan Bulb responded with:

Thank you for your inquiry. Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience we may have caused. Our Customer Service Team is checking into the issue you had with your order and will do our best to rectify the problem in a timely manner. We will be contacting you directly with a resolution."

I ordered some Rembrandt tulips from the company in august and mentioned that I would like to have it shipped soon regardless of the time zone but I never got my tulip bulbs. The date was postponed every week and finally when I called them they were rude and canceled my order. This is the worst bulb company ever!!! I am never buying anything from them.

I ordered tulips, hyacinths, and iris (more that $100) from Michigan Bulb for Fall 09. Original estimated shipping date was september 16. This shipping date got pushed back first to the end of september, then to the middle of october. My original order had a note asking them to please disregard zone timing and ship my order immediately, which they totally ignored. After they missed the first estimated shipping date I sent an email to their customer service which was fobbed off with a form response of "we'll ship your order when it's appropriate". At the end of september I set an ultimatum - get my order here within 2 weeks (a generous amount of time given how patient I had already been) or I'll cancel it. Their reply was one sentence saying they had canceled my order as requested. What?! I didn't request it canceled, I requested it freaking shipped to me already. They didn't even ship part and cancel what they couldn't get.

This company is totally unprofessional, I'll never order from them again and would discourage anyone else from doing so.

I have been ordering from this company off and on for years. Some plants arrive healthy, some not, but I was always reassured by the lifetime guarantee to replace the plants. I just got a letter stating that they will no longer allow me to order from them and will not honor any outstanding replacement certificates that they already issued. I think this is bad business to offer a guarantee and then not follow through when a customer gets replacement plants.

"On Jul 16, 2009 11:42 AM, Michigan Bulb responded with:

Thank you for your inquiry. Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience we may have caused. Our Customer Service Team is checking into the issue you had with your order and will do our best to rectify the problem in a timely manner. We will be contacting you directly with a resolution. "

i guess i'll be getting my money back sorry just remember
MB if you would not buy it dont sell it.....its that easy
sick to see what i got for the money IF YOU WOULD NOT BUY IT DONT SELL IT

"On Jun 19, 2009 10:22 AM, Michigan Bulb responded with:

Thank you for your inquiry. Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience we may have caused. Our Customer Service Team is checking into the issue you had with your order and will do our best to rectify the problem in a timely manner. We will be contacting you directly with a resolution. "

I had a pretty large order from Michigan Bulb. However, I have had around 30% success with the plants I finally received (around 50+ plants). In addition-the site leads one to believe that an order will ship in the spring only to ship in the fall (I ordered 6 under this assumption). I guess I'll try to get the plants that died replaced-but I just hate to get my hopes up again for plants that will very likely die-again.

"On Jun 19, 2009 10:22 AM, Michigan Bulb responded with:

Thank you for your inquiry. Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience we may have caused. Our Customer Service Team is checking into the issue you had with your order and will do our best to rectify the problem in a timely manner. We will be contacting you directly with a resolution. "

Twice I have recieved Rembrandt Tulips from this company, 1x as gift, another order I purchased. They grew well the 1st year or 2, in a nice sunny, southern exposure. The 3rd year? I have NO Rembrandt Tulips anywhere to be found. OTHER kinds of tulips I ordered from here grew well. I just have to assume that either the Rembrandt tulips were not meant for this zone, altho the paperwork said they were, or else they're not as hardy as advertised. Either way, my days of buying from Michigan Bulb are gone-ppfft-no more. I expected those beautiful tulips to last longer than a couple of years, & I'm soooo disappointed. I have also received TOTALLY DEAD tomatoe plants as a gift from a friend who ordered them from Michigan Bulbs. It wasn't worth the effort to get replacements. Mark this company OFF your list, folks.

I placed an order with Michigan Bulbs last October.

The gold stargazar lily is not available until this fall. On the website, it didn't say "out of stock". I cancelled this item and ordered it from another nursery this spring, the plants are growing healthy with big bulbs now.

All other bulbs of lilies and irises do not grow well and are not producing flowers. It just waste my time and work of planting them.

One good thing is that they do a fast money refund with email confirmation.

I am a lifetime gardener and understand the risks in buying bareroot plants, but have not been happy with Michigan Bulb. My plant order from April arrived on June 4th to Zone 7 Long Island. The plants in plastic bags appear dessicated already. Summer snow plants in pots look awful too. Some reviewers say "they replace dead plants and have a lifetime warranty" but that ignores the loss of, in some cases, weeks or in some cases, now that the spring is closing, a full growing season for next spring.

Last year (2008), I really got hooked on true lilies. Didn't know much about them and didn't know which companies were reputable to by from (also didn't know about this site!!). Found Michigan Bulb and loved the prices.I ordered over 30 bulbs from them. It is now June in Texas. Most of my asiatics are about 1 foot tall (these are varieties that are supposed to be 3-4 ft. tall). There are no signs of buds on 95% of them. I did get a measly two flowers. Lilies I ordered from B& D Lilies this spring are already taller than these awful specimens. Payed $15 for an Allium Globemaster that never came up also. These people are terrible. Don't even know if it's worth to call and complain. Very disappointing.

on april 29 I order some sub-zero mixed hibiscus from them .received them on may 02. and they looked like little twiges . they looked like the stuff they packed them in dead as could be. i planted them any way, but they still have not showed any signs of life. this is the 30 day of may .and they are still looking dead.

Pretty much the same as most others here. Ordered the stuff a month ago. I called this morning to find out they had to "grow my plants" and they wouldn't be "big enough to ship" 'till 5/12. They said nothing about this on the phone when I ordered. At least now I know they will most likely delay me further. I will grow my own from seed from now on...it will be much faster! (cheaper too)

I ordered flowers in early March and they were on the shipping schedule for my zone for April 1. The ship date changes every time I go to the website to check the status and i mean every day it gets farther out. As of this morning the new ship date is between 6/2 and 6/22. I really wanted to plant THIS year. If I didn't want these so bad, I would have cancelled already and I am still considering it. DON"T order unless you are a very patient person.

Just don't order from this company. They keep pushing my order back to JUNE! I ordered on April 9th... Nothin' on their website that told me that the plants were on WAITLIST, otherwise I would never have ordered them. I should've listened to the comments here... Oh well... shudda-wudda-'cudda! :)

As of today all the mixed pink daffodils I ordered for the front of my house have come up a lovely yellow.

They did come up but they certainly don't match the colors in the rest of the garden.

I will contact Michigan bulb but I have been waiting to see what else does/doesn't come up.

Placed and order with them via phone (03/01/09). Was not told that items were not in stock. 30 days go by so I called back (04/02/09) and found out the items are "estimated" to ship on 05/01/09 to 05/15/09. That's nearly 30-45 days!!!!

On a hunch, called them back to day, and now they are "estimated" to ship 05/20/09-06/06/09 That's 60+ days!!!

If you need/want your plants in SPRING, don't order from them. If you want your plants months later, give them a try.

BTW. When I ordered, they never informed me of the out of stock status/delayed shipping. When the shipping date changed, they never notified me of the change.

If they delay shipment again, I'll come back and update the status.

I feel disappointed for this company, as I spent a lot of time to planted the bulbs in Oct, 08 but a lot of bulbs still not come out.
1. I ordered 20 pcs of Branching Tulips n the quaility is not good cos I only see some leaves but no blooms.

2. I ordered 72 pcs hyacinths grape, around 50 pcs bloom but only bloom once. I also plant some hyacinths from the other company, they all bloom again n again.

3. I ordered 40 pcs Amemones Double, only 3 blooms, they are beautiful. however, I'm not expect only 3 came out from 40 bulbs. So sad!!

4. I also ordered 20 pcs of blazing star liatris but only one blooms n all other dead.

5. 20 pcs Twinkle Toes delayed n I feel angry cos I can't plant all bulbs in the same time. I only got it last month n plant it in the same time. I really want to see the flowers. But I know it will make me disappointed again.

I will not place order to Michigan again, it is not only waste money, the important thing is waste my time n now I need to buy flowers from HomeDepot to replant in the backyard. Otherwise, it looks empty.

I ordered $50 worth of roses for my garden in March. When I received them, I noticed that they were very small-about 3 inches tall. Much smaller than any other rose I've ordered online.
I moved them over to a gallon pot so that the roots would take-no different than I would any other rose I order-and within 3 weeks 4 of the 6 roses had died. It is now April and the remaining two have also died. I've treated those roses no different than the other I received. While those are flourishing, the ones I received from Michigan Bulb did not. I don't want to waste my time calling them to have them send a replacement. I'm honestly disappointed that the time I spent taking care of them was wasted.

This is my second experience ordering from Michigan Bulb and I am dissappointed again. You'd think that I would have learned something from my first experience. I am tempted each year by their unique offerings, discounted prices and coupons (we all like a good deal). I pray that next year I come to my senses!!!

To be honest this year was better than last year as the packaging was much better and the plants were healthier. My chief complaint is that everything was so small. The azeleas plants were small twigs and it will be years before they mature. None of the small bushes/cuttings (miniture roses) that I purchase last year survived and I fear the same for the azeleas. Also the bulbs were smaller than the same bulbs purchased locally. It would be nice if the glossy catalogs showed actually items rather than what could happen in the distant future! If you want small, inferior plants and bulbs this would be the company I would highly recommend.

I can relate to others who experienced the same issue with ultra-delayed delivery. I placed the following order on 08/16/08:

Items Not Shipped:
1 PINK FLAMINGO PLANT
Delivery Estimate: 10/26/08 - 11/09/08
1 CHINESE LANTERNS
Delivery Estimate: 11/15/08 - 11/09/08
1 INDIAN LILY
Delivery Estimate: 10/26/08 - 11/09/08
1 ORANGE CANDLEFLOWER
Delivery Estimate: 10/26/08 - 11/09/08
1 RUSSIAN SAGE
Delivery Estimate: 10/26/08 - 11/09/08
1 CHINESE LANTERNS
Delivery Estimate: 11/15/08 - 11/09/08
1 INDIAN LILY
Delivery Estimate: 10/26/08 - 11/09/08

The items have been postponed for shipment countless times. The first shipment date was early Sept. Now I am canceling my order because the cold weather will be in WI in 2 weeks and I wanted to plant all of my bulbs at the same time. I am especially worried about the quality of the order as mentioned in several previous comments. I am not willing to wait any longer. I guess you get what you pay for!

Ordered plants & bulbs 3 months ago and ALL were to be shipped within 2 weeks. I receive PART of the order and the invoice confirms that the balance of the order is to be shipped within a few days. Check back "online" and the balance of the order has been moved a month away, check again later and now it is 2 months away. Finally, after the 3 month wait, I get my order minus one variety. Check back and the variety I didn't get is no longer even showing up on my order, they cancelled it. Go check on this item and it is still available for sale on their web site. Why was this portion of MY order cancelled and why did it take 3 months to get plants that they SAID would be here in 2 weeks?????????
NOT a company I will be doing business with any longer!!!

I have to add my review to those that wish they had read here prior to ordering. I placed my order in early August. I checked the order status 2 days later only to find out my order would not be shipped for 2 months. Everything I had ordered was in season. I promptly sent Michigan Bulb an email canceling my order. Now 2 months later I get a notice that they will be shipping my order. I sent them multiple emails reminding them I had canceled the order. Today I received my box of dead plants. JUST SAY NO! Their customer service is a joke and their plants are even worse.

I am going to paste a copy of the email I just sent MB as I had been a very happy customer for years. I heard people talk about their bad experiences with the company and would tell them to give MB another chance.
Yes I had received orders where things were dead, broke or what ever and 1 email and they were replaced. But heres the deal. By complaining or requesting that they replace the items I am now listed as a BAD CUSTOMER because I expected live and prospering plants after I paid for the plants and the S&H.
So BE WARNED, IF YOU WANT LIVE PLANTS.Try someone else.

I am writing as I have been A CUSTOMER for years and I have promoted your company to gardening friends who had a bad experience with the former owners of the company letting them know it's now owned by a new company and they have been Very good to me.
I just called to find out why 2 orders I placed have not been shipped just to find out I have been classified as a bad CUSTOMER as I ask for a replacement in accordance with your guarantee if the plants I order and pay not only for the plant but the shipping too and they arrive dead or broken or just completely fail.
Well theres a fine How do you do... As a reward for posting in online gardening forums such as Daves garden, Gardenhere.org and a few others and attempting to change the way people feel towards you. I get a slap in the face.
So here's what I am going to do. As a senior member of Gardenhere, I am going to post this treatment so others can avoid being labeled Bad because they expect LIVE plants that they spend their hard earned money on. They will be forewarned that yes if you pay and are a returning repeat CUSTOMER You too can be "TAGGED"
Since I am a moderator on the forum and have been a member since the site started newcomers tend to listen to the warnings. And on Dave's Garden, Yes I am going to list you there as well.
Then I am going to Blog about you and on my own website that I get a good amount of traffic for gardening and cooking tips I am going to add you to the black list so others may be wary and know what to expect.
In this day and age you can not treat paying customers like this. I am on a limited income and gardening is a lifeline for me. You just cut part of it off.
So Thanks for the PAST Great customer service and NO THANK'S to the way you treat people.

I hope you can avoid being treated like this.
Quasy...

I placed an order with MB on April 22,2008. I have recieved 2 plants out of my order and they were in good condition. It was a month later that I got them. In my box was a list of the things to be shipped the 31st of May thru the 12th of June. I just checked on line again and now they have moved it to the 12th thur the 28th of June. I would just like my order and why do they keep changing it? I do not think that I will be ordering from this company again.

Ordered numerous items from MB last year to plant this spring on our new property, formerly a horse pasture. I was anxious to get some significant growth going, but everything I recieved was either half dead or so minuscule I'll be nursing most of them all this winter in a green house before they can survive in a real planting. Got 2 of the "all season shrub collections", and some are doing okay while some show no hope. Ex: Two forsythia bushes arrived as bare 2 foot 'sticks'. One is leafing out just fine but the other shows no signs of life, although they are planted in the same soil mixture and cared for identically. That makes me believe it's not anything I'm doing wrong. Three poplars that are supposed to be fast growing are still the same sticks they sent 6 weeks ago; no sign of buds or life...
They shipped (by regular US mail) 12 tomato plants in a box not half the size of a shoe box, jammed full of packing materials and more advertisement. Crushed and dried out when I got them, and not even four of them show any promise.
I understand the need for occasional substitution, but they sub'd blackberries for the raspberry collection I ordered. They obviously haven't done their homework, because blackberries in Washington State are darn near considered noxious weeds, they're so abundant and aggressive. Customer Service is a huge misnomer with MB, and I won't be ordering anything else from them, ever.
Unfortunately for MB, I'm retired military and tend to warn my decades worth of contacts when I get less than acceptable products or response. Just wish I'd seen this site before I wasted $200...

I have had 2 bad experiences with this company.

First, last spring......i ordered black & blue violas. they arrived weak, nearly dead...........i planted them, they died. I called & they were able to replace the black violas but not the blue because they weren't expecting to receive anymore, BUT they gave me a voucher for the remainder of the balance. Okay, that's fair.

This spring..........i receive my black violas, again very weak, again after planting them 2 of the 12 survived & barely at that.

So I have my voucher, which I can only use through mail order. Fine. I figure, live plants are obviously a problem with them, so I will order bulbs with my voucher.

So I look through their site & mag, and place my mail order.... Peonies & Double Anemones.

I get an email stating they received my order & it's being process. Cool. It's going quicker than I thought. I am pleased......UNTIL I go check the order status online.

Order reads:
Double Anemones
ship date OCTOBER

No mention of the Peonies or why the anemones are being shipped so late when the company ships until mid-June.

So I email them..........and surprise, get nothing but an automated response. They never personally responded.

So I called, long distance, to get an automated system (which i don't remember last year). Either I got disconnected or I pushed the wrong button, either way, I had to call long distance again.

This time I was put through to RICHARD. He speaks as if he could careless about what I am talking about. Very dull & then immediately on the defense when I ask him about the order.

I ask him why the order is being postponed until October & what happened to the rest of the order. He tells me they didn't have the Peonies in stock & the Anemones won't be available until Fall Shipments.

I try to find out why this was so hard to relate that to me & don't get a clear answer. So I ask to cancel the order.

I tell Richard, "I have either received dead plants, dying plants or delayed shipments and no or poor responses. So just cancel the order, I will go elsewhere."

He gets puffy & says "It's cancelled." and then just sits there. So I say thank you & hang up.

Then check the status to make sure it was cancelled & I have been keeping an eye on my credit card to make sure no charges are being made. For some reason I am very untrusting of this company and Richard.

I have NEVER had such bad customer service from a company. I will never be ordering through them again!!

It's not hard to let your customers know what is going on without giving attitude about it!!

I was concerned about my order since it hadn't arrived in the time specified and the tracking information was showing confusing information.
I sent three emails nothing more than an automated response. Even their on site customer service messages weren't going through and they told me to call another number that wasn't listed on their site. The phone calls to customer service ( both numbers) were both frustrating and expensive since they do not have a toll free number. I only got a live person by saying I wanted to place an order. Not sure the live person was better than automated response. It took eleven days from shipping to delivery. Plants are in bad shape. I will put them in my urgent care nursery and see what happens. In any case, I will not be calling, emailing or asking for replacements. Life's too short. There are so many other nurseries to buy plants from....

So I decided to order for the first time from this company, I was told items would be shipped within 2 weeks. After checking on line I discovered the shipping dates had changed, so after checking 4 days in a roll and each day a different date was given I called. The representative preceeded to tell me that they ship within 2 to 3 weeks of order ok so my order was placed 8 days ago, my question was why did the ship dates keep changing not why was my order not here. I was then inform we are within the planting season until the middle of June and despite the fact that my tomato plants were not scheduled to arrive til the end of June, along with half my flowers, there would still be plenty of time. After trying to get a straight answer and express my concern as to when or if my plants would arrive to enjoy I was not given a straight answer, finally I asked the order be cancelled and was hung up on. Yes I am one who calls right back and so I did only to be told the reason the dates have changed is because my items were on back order! How hard was it to answer the question "why does the date keep changng?", a simple answer would have been nice but instead I recieved a lecture about planting seasons and that they never give dates over the phone. After waiting on hold 10 mintues I was able to cancel my order, the first girl did not do it even though I asked, and was assured they were sorry about my experience. Well I will be searching for my flowers locally this weekend, guess I should have done this in the first place!

I'm not real happy with Michigan bulb. The candy stripe roses were no where near as described. The roses I was sent have appear to be wild red single petal roses. There's nothing about them that looks anything like the picture. I was also shorted on the delphinium. I paid for 15 and received 9. I've had no luck getting an email response from MB, so I will have to try calling them. As for now, my experience was NEGATIVE.

I ended up on their mailing list somehow. I have never ordered anything from them. Then one day I started receiving bills in the mail for plants I have never ordered. Contacted their customer service department. Plants I never ordered arrived half dead, roots and dirt all over the place. Customer service finally responded saying that they have forwarded my request to the concerned department and they would get back to me in a timely manner. If this is the way they conduct their business with people who actually order something then I dont want to have anything to do with them in the future. So far a very negative experience for something I never asked for in the first place.

I have ordered from Michigan Bulb for years. I have always been satisfied enough to keep odering in the future. When I placed my order this spring I expected the same outcome as in the past. My order was split into three separate shipments. The first one arrived to my shipping address with no problems. I received notification that a second and then third shipment had been sent out. Nearly a month later the second shipment has never arrived. The third shipment finally did arrive with dried up little pots and a stem of dried up plant sticking out the top which was at one time a live plant. Still, I planted the lifeless stems. When the third shipment arrived I noted on the address that they had used part of my billing address and part of my shipping address and intermingled the two together which are in two different towns. The post office had scribbled through part of the address to get the third shipment to my shipping address. I made the mistake of calling the customer service number, expecting some resolution. After waiting the first time for five minutes or so and finally getting to a representative, about a minute later I was disconnected in mid-sentence. I called back later in the evening and talked to another representative. Lucky me. After explaining the situation once again, I was told that I had refused the second shipment. Funny how you can refuse something that never arrived. I'm assuming that the person at the wrong part of the address might have refused the order and it ended up back with Michigan Bulb. Although the representative seems to think that I am a liar and just refused the order so that I could have all this fun. After trying to make my point, to no avail, it seems to be my fault somehow that they combined my billing and shipping address together. Go figure. The representative told me that because the shipment was under 2 lbs. it would be stupid to mail the shipment by UPS. (Her words to me.) OK fine. But what does that have to do with shipping it to an incorrect address? Last time I checked the post office does deliver mail to my physical shipping address. When I mentioned the next issue and stated that the plants in the third shipment arrived late and were dead I was told that plants are shipped dormant. It seems as though I am also not smart enough to know the difference between live plants that come in soil in plastic containers that are supposed to have live plants in them and plants that are shipped dormant. After this continued I stated that I did not want the rest of the order and was told that I would have to hold. Great. When she came back she said that I would have to wait for some correspondence in the mail. I guess then I will get to see if I will have to pay for plants that never arrived and plants that arrived dead. I provide a service for a living. I would never treat my clients the way I have been treated today. This is the first negative review I have ever left for any company. But I don't know when, if ever, I have been so frustrated over an order. I was left feeling that there had been no attempt to provide a resolution. I hope if you deal with Michigan Bulb you can avoid needing to deal with their customer service.

Why do I fall for Michigan Bulb every year? Must be the flurry of beautifully colored catalogs. Every year I order 60 or 70 dollars worth of plants and receive 25 cents worth of dead flotsam. Seriously, you can't tell the tops from the roots on this stuff and what isn't already dead (they probably send me your returns!), soon dies. You can baby Michigan Bulbs plants all you want, even if they survive they aren't worth the effort. Spend a little more and buy from your local nursery, at least you can see what your really getting.

I spent $103.26 and got 57 plants in all. Some were basically peat pellets with seed starts in them (coreopsis, columbine, sweet william), and some were nice reasonable bare roots (mock orange, "Nearly Black" rose). None were extremely large, but for the price, who can expect that? It's actually cheaper and quicker than buying seeds and peat pellets yourself (although not as gratifying, but that's another post!). I did have a chocolate cosmos and one (of three) lobelia die on me quickly after potting, but I'll take a 96% success rate on 57 mail order plants every day! I even had a good customer service experience when I decided to change my order not once, but twice, after initially placing it online. Smooth sailing on that, and the order arrived perfectly correct.

One particular note: I bought a blue poppy from Michigan Bulb for $17.99. Figured I could test their "lifetime guarantee" on this tough-to-grow plant (I'm in 7B; NC Piedmont). Well, the thing is flourishing in its pot, even after shedding all its original foliage and all but convincing me I'd have to make the call for a refund. All my other plants are looking good too, despite their somewhat shrimpy appearance right out of the box.

Bottom line: For the price, Michigan Bulb is pretty good.

I received my shipment after approx. ten days. It is only a partial order. No word when the balance can be expected.
I was extremely disappointed with what I found in the box. It was filled with Styrofoam "peanuts" which is normally good packing material. Unfortunately the contents of two of the three packs of primroses and what I think is the remains of a hydrangea plant(s) was mixed in with the peanuts. These were so lifeless and dry that I could not easily identify which was which, The remaining plants and the potting medium in the clam shell still sealed packages were shaken out of the cups. The soil was in one end and the wilted plants in the opposite end of the clear container.
The blackberry "plants" and the grapes also look lifeless.
Compared to plants that can be purchased in the local nurseries at a lesser price this box of plants is a complete joke. No, I have not contacted them about the problem and I do not intend to waste my time doing so. Based on the size of plants and the method of shipping I would not take another item from them if the MIBULB.COM president pulled in my driveway and handed it to me. They beat me out of my money and I have learned a lesson about "Spectacular Offers" and mail order plant purchases. Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. They will not get the second chance.
jaas6uvk, Texas

Michigan Bulb was the first mail order experience I had... I ordered 10 Ligustrum shrubs for a privacy screening.... and two hydrangeas. That was a couple of years ago. The ligustrum were shipped, and as I tracked them via the website, it looked like the postal service got stuck with the package. When I contacted the company, a very nice representative told me to contact them again in x number of days if the package had still not arrived. So I did contact them when requested, the package still had not moved according to the tracking, so I was issued a full refund on the shrub part of the order.
As far as the hydrangea...they died. They were small plants anyway (which is expected with mail order companies) so I probably should have babied them a bit more in pots first before setting them in the ground.
I avoided ordering from any mail order company since then until recently, and have had some ok experiences with them.

I think I will try Michigan Bulb again this year, now that I know what to expect.

I had the near exact same experience as dagored. The plants they sent me were all fine and well except in the passed 2 years. Half of the plants in each order looked dead but had roots. So I didn't think much about it since they say they send them when the plants are hibernating.Then last summer it was one bad filled order after another. Even if they were replacements. My account had a lot of mistakes. Asked them questions about it then suddenly they said they had a meeting and were closing my account. I wouldn't do business with them again.