Comments regarding Spring Hill Nursery (aka SpringHillNursery.com)

I have to say that this is my first order with Spring Hill and I placed my order back in April 18th, I took advantage of that promotion with 50% off and that was the last day for the promotion. They shipped the climbing roses right away which I planted immediateley and they are all doing very, very well, one didn't seem to want to grow, it didn't have enough sun exposure, I took it out of there and moved it in full sun, it's growing like crazy. I also got the mini roses collection after a little while, one is dead, the one that came as a bonus, but all others seem to be doing fine, they all have small roses. After that I kept waiting and waiting, the shipping date got pusehd back every day, on May 19 we took vacation for 11 days, the night I came back I checked the status of my order, it turned out they had shipped most of the rest of the order the day before I left and all my plants were kept in the post office with all my mail. Needless to say that most of the plants were dead, even some of the roots were completely dried out of content, I took the day off from work just to try to save what I can save, I spent a fortune in preparing the soil in the front yard and I was ready to plant, the lilac collection was ok, they had replaced the yellow one with the bare root, that one is not growing any leaves but the other three are doing very well, the rasberry is doing ok, out of three, only one didn't survive, the astilbe collection, they are all growing beautifully, mostly everything that came as bare roots did make it but many of others were dead, I still planted them just to watch them dying, I called and requested replacements, they put an order in right away, no questions asked and they shipped, not in couple of days as I was told but in couple of weeks, unfortunately some of them came in the almost the same condition, the verbena collection, some of them died shortly after planted, the others are trying but I doubt that they will make it, the hydrangea collection that they sent is doing fine, the primroses and all the scabiosas I cannot say yet, they are very small plants and don't look too good. I also got the carnation collection as part of the initial order, they had replaced some of them with others, one was missing, I got some plant pills instead, I couldn't get it but they were all almost dried, I did plant them but it was useless, I'll just request a refund for everything that didn't survive, it looks like some of the plants just don't like to be shipped, plus, it's already too hot around here, no wonder nothing makes it in a good condition.
Bottom line is that I don't have any complains about customer service other than the fact that they can never tell you when is your order going to be shipped or give you a real estimate, they should at least e-mail people letting them know that their order will be shipped in 2-4 days, had I known they'd be shipping my order I would have asked a neighbor to take care of the plants. But it is what it is. In the future, I will only order roses from them, these seem to be very strong plants. And what they send you are already 2-3 years old, everything else is way too small. But you get what you paid for.

I was glad to find plants in the Spring Hill Nursery catalog that I couldn't find locally. However, the prices were absolutely ridiculous for the size and quality. Luckily, the butterfly bushes I ordered will continue to propagate so I feel I got my money's worth on those, but the 1 cent sale was a joke. When my order arrived, I realized I had paid 6.99 + 1 cent for two plants that would have cost me less than $2 at a local nursery.

I have worked closely with spring hill. A lot of time their plants are done on first come first serve. When u call to place an order for plants the shipdate they give u is not a ship date but the date when your growzone opens up for shipping. They have issues with training people there and not everyone gets the same training for customer serivce. I would order on line about this time of year and I would never get my plants do to the fact that I waited so long to order(what ever) I am glad that I am not charged until they ship the plants. They need help with the customer service end cause one day I would call about my plants and be told one thing and the next day I would call and be told something different. I think they need to get everyone who works for them on the same page, so when u call u get the same answer and not what ever is on that person's mind. I am not sure if I would order from them agian if I do I will go to spring hill in Tipp City

Spring Hill recieved my order on april 8th, after four calls to customer service to check on the status of my order, I finally recieved it today (may 17th). 12 of the 36 vincas were missing; the lavender were rotting and slimy; and the lilly bulbs , hen and chicks, raspberries and clematis all looked ok-pretty much what I expected. I called customer service and told them about the missing vincas and the woman cherfully offered to send them out, but I had to tell her to honor the coupon from the original order and not to charge me shipping. While I had her on the phone I also mentioned the lavender. In good faith, I will plant them and give them a chance, but I don't expect them to recover and I wanted it in some record that they were NOT in good health when I took them out of the shipping box. My growing season here is very short, and the delay in getting my order shipped out (I still don't know why) was really starting to concern me, and with part of my order missing, and part rotting I am not sure if I would order from them again. We will see how long replacements take to arrive.

I would like to know who the parent company is for Spring Hill Nursery, Breck, Michigan Bulb, Garden's Alive etc.
Could anyone tell me please?

Here's the ownership chain of Spring Hill, for those of you who're interested.

Gardens Alive! owns:
Gardens Alive!
Audubon Workshop
Breck's Bulbs
Gurney's Seed & Nursery
Henry Field's Seed & Nursery
Michigan Bulb
mySEASONS Garden Solutions
Spring Hill Nurseries

After reading some of the comments, I thought I'd enlighten those of you unaware that Spring Hill, Brecks, Michigan Bulb, Garden's Alive and one or two others not common and currently not coming to mind ARE ALL OWNED & OPERATED BY THE SAME COMPANY! Their calls (which are not to 800 numbers) all roll into the same call centers, where employees are given very little training and very little support! The products all ship from the same warehouses (in Lawrenceburg, IN and Tipp City, OH last I knew) using different invoices/labels.

The only positive I've ever seen from any of them is the replacement guarantee, but as stated, the replacements are often in the same shape as the originals, so little good that does! I do know they used to offer money back on anything, too, but maybe that has changed.

Last spring I ordered several plants from them. ALL of them came the size of small twigs, some never even came out of dormancy. Emailed them for refund, which they did promptly, hence the neutral rating, or else it would've been negative. Will never even look at their catalog again.

Right now I'm posting a neutral rating. Previously when the plants didn't grow they sent replacements or $ back no questions asked. We moved into our new house 2 years ago and I ordered a lot of stuff. The evening primrose and foxglove were doing great, then I ordered the magic rose collection, keys of heaven, orange phlox, red pansy, trumpet vine and red phlox. They had to replace some of the rose collection for different colors and they all shipped at different times. I think only 2 of the roses survived and the pansies bloomed but nothing else grew. I was going to wait one more growing season before calling to get my $ back, and depending on how I'm taken care of we'll see if I change my rating. Also, I remember receiving a letter saying that their greenhouses were destroyed and that they lost a lot of their plant stock, so if that were truly the case then that would account for the majority of the problems.

I ordered twice from this company using 50% off coupon. My first spring order experience was mostly negative because all bareroot gaillardia plants were either dead or died within a week, vinca and liriope plants (also bareroot) were very small things with tiny roots, and none of six vinca plants made it through summer (liriope is ok, but still small). Hydrangea was yellow and way too small even for a perennial plant, but I must say that it grew amazingly well and looks like nice small shrub by now. Daylily was ok but small, and it didn't bloom this year. Overall it was about 1/2 survival rate for this order. I placed second order for fall planting for some plants (potted) and bulbs. The second order was much better, plants were healthy enough and reasonably sized, and bulbs looked ok too. Will see in spring how they'll do. I am giving them a neutral rating and, no, I won't order from them again. There are too many excellent mail-order companies to waste time and money dealing with not-so-good ones. I can get bigger and healthier plants elsewhere and might even save money!

Very disappointed in the plants I received. My RED butterfly bush is actually purple. Will it mature into RED (it's been a year now)? My GREEN rudbeckia has healthy green foliage but has never bloomed (so don't know if it would have the green flowers) and it also has been a year in full sun. My scarlet flame phlox was purple the first year (in 1 plant) and never bloomed in other plants. Has been a year and didn't bloom this year. I planted in required sun/soil conditions. So, I think I'll pass on ordering from them again.

Last year, APX Logistics shipping service, had MOST of the Spring orders, then in the mid-part of March after many customers called in to see where their order was Spring Hill, called APX to see what was going on. They just closed up their entire business and left all the shipments sitting in a warehouse. Spring Hill PAID UPS to pick up the orders and get them delivered, this played havoc with the whole Spring season. Not only did customers get the orders late, Spring Hill had to replace almost every order and refund 10 times as much as usual in a given season. But the fact is they did this when it wasn't there total blame. So, if your decision was based on last Spring please be aware of the facts in the matter.

Have ordered twice from Spring Hill--fall '05 and spring '06. After the first, I'd've given a positive rating: my plants arrived healthy and well-packaged, all grew, seven of the nine TB irises bloomed quite well in their first spring season, as did two of the four SDB irises. *However*... the two SDB irises were a different variety from what I'd ordered, and it appears that at least one of the TB irises was substituted as well (I'd ordered nine clearly different TB irises, but two had identical flowers). Still, not too bad. My second order was slightly more disappointing: even though everything was alive, several of the plants had been pinched in their (extremely thorough) packaging. All but three of the 21 plants lived (and I blame myself for those that didn't, so I didn't seek a refund), but few have performed well--almost none of them flowered this year, and the delphiniums in particular have been disappointing. So overall I would have said "Positive Minus"... but I do have an expectation that what I order will be what I receive, which is what edged this over into "Neutral."

On another note: as has been observed, these people appear to be affiliated with Michigan Bulb (which mails many of the same plants, but in smaller pots and poorer condition), and are *definitely* associated with Breck's--my Breck's order this year arrived from Spring Hill's mailing address!

Ordered carpet phlox collection and deluxe minrose collection on May 28th from Houston, TX. After constantly checking upon the order and seeing the shipping date move back repeatedly, I finally emailed them on the June 5th and received an email on the 6th that my carpet phlox order was shipped that day and that my minature rose collection would be shipped a week later. I received the phlox order on the 14th of June and when I opened the box I saw ten dead phlox plants and two seriously stressed lime green phlox plants ( they were nicely packaged in enclosed plastic containers). I planted them anyways hoping that they would somehow miraculously revive but no such luck. Only one plant of the whole collection survived. I received my rose collection on the 16th of June also nicely packaged in bagged plastic containers that were labeled. Unfortunately, my earthquake, sherri ann and orange honey miniature roses had been subsituted with a purple chariot, judy fischer and dwarf king miniature rose plants. Plants were small and a some of the leaves and stems were yellow or brown. Miniature roses are pretty hardy so I went ahead and pruned off all the dead leaves and stems and planted them in some lovely soil. So far they are looking to be growing stronger.

Overall, my experience with springhill has been quite disappointing. I did email them about a refund on the phlox plants but ultimately had to call them to receive a response. They promptly refunded my money which is why I gave them a neutral rating. I don't think springhill is such a value after all the time that was wasted. The plants I ordered arrived either dead or very weak and straggly looking so make sure you have a great green thumb to revive them. In conclusion, a ten dollar plant that is heathly and lives for ten years in your garden is always a better value then a three dollar plant that dies within a week.

I placed a large order last August for fall plantings. However, plants were not received until mid to late October-- a real problem for Minnesota.

Plants were packaged well, but plant quality was variable at receipt. When I complained about plant quality, customer service initiated replacement without questions. Unfortunately the replacements arrived even later.

About half of the plants did not overwinter, I suspect largely due to the late planting. However, when I asked customer service for a refund for the plants that did not make it, my request was handled promptly, courteously, and without questions.

Because I know that they really do stand behind their plants, I will order from them again, though not for fall plantings.

Last fall I ordered bulbs and was very pleased. This spring I ordered quite a few plants and several "shrubs." The plants came DOA and the "shrubs" were tiny twigs which did not survive. I will never order from this company again. I wish I had asked for my money back but really didn't remember the money back qurantee.

I received their catalog in March with a 50% off coupon. I placed an order in mid-March for 2 of the larger complete gardens, 126 plants in all for $164 including shipping. It was such a good deal (so I thought). 5 weeks later, I got 1 box of the 2 that were supposed to be shipped. Most plants in the box were either dead or dieing, were barely more than stems, and had almost no root systems. I emailed them to let them know I had received only 1 box, and they said they would ship out my order again. 3 weeks went by and I hadn't received any of it. I emailed them again, this time not very nicely, asking where my order was. A week later my order arrived. This time the plants were more well-developed. I was pleased (finally!) with the plants but not at all pleased with the two months of lost growing time. I have my doubts about doing business with them again.

I have ordered from spring hill a few times and the plants keep getting smaller and more scraggly. Id pay a few dollars more for shipping if I could get just a little bigger nicer quality plant.

Back in the Fall of 2005, I ordered a planned perennial shade garden consisting of 20 plants from this company. I am an experienced gardener, and I prepared my new perennial bed with care (digging a deep, well drained bed and ameloriating my soil with organic matter and balancing the pH), while I waited for the plants to arrive. When the garden arrived, it was in the form of bare root crowns with a few growing tops. Even though I knew that the garden collection was a special deal, I was surprised at how small the plants were. Also, much of the order was dry, so I made sure to revive with a 12 hour root sooking before planting. Once planted, I protected the crowns with a thin layer of mulch for the winter (as I do with my other perennial beds). I probably should have questioned the order back in the fall, but I have had good luck with perennials from other sources and thought that this would be no different. Much to my dismay, only four of the twenty plants from the collection have come up this spring. After reviewing many of the other comments on this site, I would have to caution any prospective buyer to think twice about this company no matter how good the deal. I am planning to contact the company to invoke their guarantee, and if I have further problems I will post again in this forum.

I placed my first order with this company on the 3rd of March. Ship date was on the 7th, but by the 28th, I still had not received my order. I called customer service, and was told that they were having a problem with their shipping company and wait until today (April 3, 2006), if the plant had not arrived they would send another. Wonder of Wonders.. it arrived today! I also was concerned about the length of time the plant was in route, but was told that it would be fine, and if not they would replace it. I will post again when my Gunnera starts to grow.

This is my first experience with this company. I was enticed to try them when I recieved the $25.00 off coupon. I recieved an e-mail saying my order shipped on 3/21/06 and I should recieve it by 3/27/06. When it did not arrive I called customer service and the representative said to give it until 4/3/06. I called again today and was told it should arrive by 4/5/06. Both time the representatives
were nice but did not seemed concerned that my plants have spent more that 2 weeks in a box with out water. I was reminded that they have a warranty. I will update if and when the box is received.

the package we received was in extremely bad shape torn, retaped and partly open, the plants inside were packed with newspaper type shreds which were dried out. customer service has told us to plant the roses and wait at least 14 days to see if they will leaf out, if they dont they have promised to replace them free, so we will see. living in ohio and ordering from a supposed ohio company we felt it was taking to long to ship, so found out they were shipped from Missouri, and must have had a rough time in shipping.
we have other items coming in April so will update this when they arrive.

Re: Miniature roses, I had a mixed but generally good experience ordering from Spring Hill and the sister company Michigan Bulb. Most of the mini roses arrived very healthy and well packed, but some varieties were for all intents and purposes dead-on-arrival. I called the company to complain, and to their credit they sent off an immediate replacement shipment right away.

Over the course of the growing season, a couple of the varieties didn't perform well, bloom wise, compared to the others (Pink Cascade, Hearts Afire and Cherries Jubilee). I called the company to exercise my 'satisfied or your money back' guarantee, and they sent me a reimbursement for the varieties that didn't perform. The varieties that DID perform well were Judy Fischer, Beauty Secret, Green Ice, Lavender Lace, Sugar Plum, and Stars N Stripes.

Re: ordering other types of roses, I ordered 2 lots of 'Buy One, Get One Free' Red Grootendorst shrub roses. Well, NONE of these roses were Red Grootendorst! It was a waste of time and money to plant them. They did, however, reimburse cheerfully upon request.

I had more success with own root Red Fairy roses. Although the bare root bushes were kind of skimpy and dried out looking upon arrival, they responded well to being soaked overnight before planting, and came up to perform beautifully. (Note: I gave them every advantage: careful planting and soil prep, plus diligent mulching and watering trhroughout the season).

So all in all, my experience was positive, but with some negative thrown in--I guess that makes it a Neutral! The no-hassle refund and guarantee is definitely a good thing, though.

I've only placed one small order with them (using the 50% off), and so far have been satisfied. Small, but nicely packaged plants.

I got a Beauty of Moscow lilac (potted), 3 Butterfly Blue delphinium (bare root), and 3 Super Shasta daisies (potted). They were small plants but looked healthy upon arrival except one daisy. It died, along with one of the other daisies, while the third one's done fine, though still small and yet to bloom (I look forward to this growing season). Only one delphinium grew. When I called they happily promised to replace the 2 delphinium and 2 daisies this spirng.

It's tempting to place a big order with their 50% offer, but in the future I will probably get most of my plants locally rather than mail order (cheaper and bigger and healthier usually). Even though it is tempting when I look at the catalouges, I will only give in to mail order when I really really want something that I can't get locally.

I ordered from Spring Hill a couple of years ago, enticed by the great prices and that they offered some varieties I wanted. Of the many things I ordered, the only plants that arrived in good shape were the hellebores. The other plants were comparable in size to an order I received from Bluestone the same month, but most of the Spring Hill plants looked pretty bad and died soon after arrival. I resolved not to order from them again, but this past year broke that resolve to order the lilac collection that I wanted. Those plants cost quite a bit more, and arrived in great shape and did well. So I guess if you avoid their bargains and don't expect too much, you'll be okay. If you want small, cheap plants, order from Bluestone.

I have ordered from this company on two different occasions. Both times my orders had problems with billing issues. I included my check with my orders and still received bills for partial amounts of the order. Also, my first order was for some roses that arrived bareroot and they were completely dried out and dead. I will say our local post office may be to blame on this as they did not notify me that I had a package to pick up for a few days. I called Spring Hill to let them know of the problem and they sent me my replacements right away and the CS rep I spoke with corrected my account to show I was paid in full and he gave me credit on my account. My replacement order was not bare root, but potted, and I am very pleased with them. All three roses looked great this past summer and were full of blooms. My next order was also billed incorrectly as I once again paid in full. I had used a 50% off coupon and they tried to bill me for the full amount. Again, I called customer service and they did correct this. Not all of my plants survived this time, however. I lost Zebra grass, they replaced it, and it died again. Same with weigela and chinese lanterns. I did have several plants that are thriving and look great, but I'm not sure it's worth having to call customer service multiple times to get my order corrected and fix billing errors every time I order just to get plants at discounted prices.

Overall, my experience with Spring Hill has been their plants are duds, but overall their customer service is great. Almost every plant I have ordered from them has been on the smaller size, and most have died. However, customer service is quick to issue refunds and resend out plants. Overall though, i would rather pay more for the initial plant, and know that I would have to plant it only once. I have switched 95%of my business to other companies, but occasionally with a sale spring hill draws me back for one or two plants. I just would caution anyone trying to make a large planting in their garden to perhaps look elsewhere- Song Sparrow, La Pivoinerie D'Aoust (peonies), Wayside, Dutch Garden, Garden Crossing, B&D lilies, Lazy S's Farm, or Edmunds Roses have provided me more reliable plant quality. Hope this helps.

We have ordered from Springhill and some of the other companies affiliated with them. I use to work for their customer service dept. That having been said, Our experience with ordering from them was neutral at best. Having worked for a company that was hired to talk with their customers I thought I would be fine with them. We ordered roses and butterfly bushes Isaac house scabiosa collection and 50 oriental lilly bulbs and more from them last year. The isaac house scabiosas' were dead on arrival, the bulbs were moldy and the butterfly bush the wrong color. The bulbs were replaced promptly, the butterfly bush wrong color didn't matter to us and the isaac house wasn't a big deal compared to all of the things they got right. So, they aren't perfect but they aren't awful like some others we have tried. From now on I'll buy my roses from David Austin or jackson & perkins. THey have been good to us.

Spring Hill is one of those companies where if they're good, they're usually excellent, but when they're bad, they can be abyssmal. I've ordered several things from them including roses, lilies and bleeding hearts over the years. Some have flourished, others have died within days of being planted. I usually cut my losses at the end of the season and if I paid more than what the hassle will be to get a refund, I complain. If not, I chalk it up to experience and go elsewhere the next year. But, to date, I've had no trouble with their customer service. Knock on wood. :)

I ordered from this company twice, in a 2 week time period. The first ordered arrived to my Mom, and even tho it's been 3 weeks, her roses still aren't growing (at least she received what I ordered for her). I ordered 4 rose plants for myself, and did receive them, but one was substituted without my knowledge (sudstituted with a cheaper rose that Spring Hill doesn't even carry). Judging by the negative feedback for Spring Hill, this is a common practice with them. I won't order from them again, even tho you can't beat their lifetime guarantee. After I called them, on my dime, they did send me a replacement certificate for the value of the rose that I did not receive. My question is, why is this a common practice with this company? Simply notifying customers of lack of stock, and giving the customer the option of what they would like, would be a FAR better business practice!!!!
PS So far, none of the 3 Royal Amethyst rose plants that were ordered have shown signs of growth. Will post update later on.

I ordered from them because they gave me a $20 certificate. I thought the plants were a bit small but 2 of them made it ok and seem to be thriving this year. One didn't come back after winter. I wasn't very impressed with the plant size or vigor.

My experience so far has been at the negative end of neutral but I going to call it neutral for now.
Let me start with my experience last year. I ordered the carpet phlox collection which arrived (totally unexpected because I had not received a shipment notification) looking extremely dead and rather like little brown weeds. Being new to ordering from an online nusery I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and planted the poor little things. They did survive the summer and have come back to life this spring which is great. I decided to give Springhill another chace this year and in February ordered the Freedom Hedge Rose collection and a Butterfly Bush with a $25 off coupon for an order over $50. Received shipment notification for the roses and the delivery date passed by with no sign of any plants. I first tried emailing CS, I did this twice and the only response I got was that they would respond within 24 hrs, which did not happen. Then I called, spoke with a very nice guy who decided the order had probably gotten lost and immediately entered a replacement order to ship ASAP via UPS. I was told that it would ship that Friday afternoon if possible or on the following Monday. Apparently this was incorrect as I have since been told that Springhill cannot guarantee that plants will ship on a certain date. Anyway, over the weekend I checked my order status and it had an est. del date of May..I thought this was strange considering I had just been told (on April 22nd) that it would ship pretty much ASAP and deliver in 6 days. This morning I checked again and the delivery date had been pushed out again to June 6 - June 11....pretty far out considering my much anticipated shipment had been lost and I was expected to wait another 6 weeks??!!
I called and spoke with a nice lady and asked her to cancel the replacement shipment as I did not want to wait that long. She gave me a replacement certificate# so that I could order some other plants. I decided on the Sub Zero rose collection and called CS again and spoke with another lady. I said I had found something else to order and wanted to use my replacement cert. but had a question regarding my original coupon. I thought that I should should be given another $25 coupon to take the place of the one used for the order that had been lost but that was not the case. When I asked, I was told no, I was told that the coupon I had used had expired back in March. When she told me no, I told her to credit my credit card for the amount of the Freedom Rose Collection. Before she did this I questioned her again about the coupon and she finally said that they can give coupons but have to get supervisors permission...she DID NOT tell me that in the beginning when I first asked so I was a little frustrated. She then told me that she was confused about exactly what I wanted to do...that first I had called wanting to cancel my replacement certificate (NOT TRUE) and then I was talking about ordering again but wanted my coupon re-instated (TRUE). In the end I gave up trying to help her understand my situation and told her to just credit my credit card and have her supervisor call me. To give her credit, she was polite during the whole conversation (as was I) but I would have thought she would want to make me feel better about the company and rather than saying NO outright to giving me a $25 coupon back so that I could place another order (over $50) she should have suggested that she could go to her supervisor for permission right at the beginning of the conversation, or at least tried to find some other alternative..afterall, It was not my fault that the shipment was lost. Why should I re-order from scratch paying full price without the coupon I had for the original order which I never received. I guess I will wait and see if anyone calls me tomorrow, I'll ask again for a $25 coupon to replace the one used on the order that was lost. If it's a yes then I will order again, if not then I'll happily go elsewhere. Sorry if this is a bit long winded but I wanted to include everything.
By the way...my Butterfly Bush arrived this afternoon. VERY small, about 4 inches tall. Looks alive but like I said it's small and not bushlike at all. It has 6 leaves on it. I'll plant it and see what happens.

Do you like to gamble? Spring Hill has enticing prices (if you use their large coupons.) The catch is that it's uncertain if you'll get quality plants, or even the right ones (which is why every order's a gamble). I've had mixed luck with Spring Hill. I've placed 3 orders in the past two years. Some plants were ridiculously small, while others were quite large for the price. Some thrived in my garden, while others died instantly. Some were shipped at the right time for my zone. Some shipped way too early. Some shipped so late I thought they lost the order. Most of the plants sent were the ones I ordered, but not all. Last year, I was able to reach customer service via email. This year, emails generated an automatic response promising someone would contact me in 24 hours. One week later, and still no one has contacted me. Today I phoned customer service. If you're willing to pay the long distance charge (there is no 1-800 number with this company) their representatives are friendly and helpful. So, that's the deal. If you don't mind the gamble, give them a try. If you want the simplicity of knowing you'll receive the right plants at the right time, pay a little more and choose another nursery.

I purchased Spring Hill's "Red Perennial Garden" back in the early spring of 1995. (one daylily, 3 dianthus, 1 monarda, 3 phlox, & 1 astilbe). I also purchased 3 lavenders.

Plants were shipped VERY promptly, & although small, all were extremely well packaged, alive, & healthy, except for the lavenders, which unfortunately were packed way too wet & had developed fungus/mold. Although I tried my best to repot & nurse them along, only one of the 3 lavenders survived.

I planted everything else immediately, & everything commenced growing beautifully. As these were very small plants, I didn't expect much if anything in the way of flowers that first season, but in fact the dianthus, phlox, & the daylily bloomed that very first summer. Unfortunately, the phlox bloomed a bright neon pink, & the daylily a dark rusty orange. Only the dianthus was red.

As I sold the house before the next season, I can't comment on what color the other plants were. And since I was selling the property, I didn't bother contacting Spring Hill so can't comment on what customer service would have done re: the color or lavender snafu. So I can't fault them for that.

Thus I am leaving this rating "Neutral".

Wow, some really strong comments. I don't think they are that bad. Their customer service was very good in my situation. Last year I had ordered some of their wave petunias to be sent to my sister-inlaw for mothers day. They had arrived late (june) and were dead on arrival. (that was the bad part). My sister inlaw called them and told them that they were dead. They asked if she wanted replacements and she said no to just credit the order back. They did. promptly. She told me about a month later. I got my cc bill and the order was already credited back. ...I didn't have to call or follow up with them at all for this. I thought that was really great of them.

I ordered a hydrangea collection last year. The plants arrived and the packaging was nice, but the plants were very small and spindly. I planted them last summer and would be very surprised if they have survived the winter.

My experiences with SpringHill have been interesting to say the least. I ordered 6 Amethyst Astilbes and a Bluebird Rose of Sharon. This was my first time ordering from this company. I received and promptly planted everything. Two weeks later, the Bluebird appeared to be very sickly. I called the company for advice and they offered to send another without me even asking. Upon arrival, I planted the replacement and kept the first one in the ground in hopes that it might survive. Both ended up surviving and bloomed during the first year. Surprisingly, BOTH look to be of the "Minerva" variety, which was disappointing as I was landscaping specifically with the Bluebird color in mind. I emailed the company to ask if pH of soil may affect the color (being a novice gardener). Instead of answering my question, they sent me another Rose of Sharon! As it was too late in the season to bloom, I won't know until this summer if this one is a true Bluebird. If not, something is amiss.
Meanwhile, my 6 astilbes bloomed - all Pink, not Lavender. Again - a disappointment. I called the company and opted for a certificate worth their value to be used this summer.
This company can be commended for their customer service and quality of plants - but if you order a specific variety, that is what you expect to get! Hence, I give them a neutral rating, although I plan to order more from them this spring. Hopefully my next experience will make them a positive in my eyes.

I ordered a few items from Spring Hill earlier this year and was disappointed that most of the things I ordered didn't live. I ordered several Lupines, a few daisies, and a Euphorbia of some type. The daises are the only thing that made it.

They replaced the Euphorbia and Lupines, none of which survived for the second straight time. I consider myself to be somewhat knowledgable in planting things properly, especially after reading their instruction pamplet, but why the entire stock of items they sold me failed to live is beyond me.

Of course, I gave up on them as I'm sure they would have thought I was abusing the return policy by asking for a third shipment.

Oh well...guess I'll try my hand with another company.

This summer I ordered a Peony and a Daylily when they were on sale. I was told that it would be shipped at the appropiate planting time but was given no date. Four months later when I had yet to receive it I wrote to the company. It was then shipped in a weeks time. When I opened up the box I realized that they may have just mailed it but must have packaged it four months ago. There was no life left in those plants. The Peony had been petrified and the Daylily was barely recognizable. I have ordered from many mail order catalogs with good success but this will be the one and only time I order from them.