Comments regarding Eastern Plant Specialties

I had a great experience this fall ordering from their email sale. Their every day prices are more than fair but the sale prices were outstanding. The quality was excellent. Everything appeared to be freshly dug for my order. Nothing looked like it had been knocked out a pot. So these bare root plants should be tough and ready to establish themselves quickly in my garden.

Mark was very quick to confirm availability and get my order in the mail. This company appears to be a small, no frills operation. Don't expect fancy labels and packaging, detailed planting instructions, or an online ordering system. Do your homework on how to plant (or ask Mark about a specific plant). And do expect to receive top quality plants.

PS - Finding and ordering plants can be a little confusing as they are transitioning to a new web site. The best thing to do is sign up for their blog posts and sales notices and follow the instructions.

Posted on February 10, 2003, updated August 13, 2010
I have received many plants from this company, and they are all expertly packed and very healthy. The prices on wildflowers, especially cannot be matched elsewhere, and the selection is excellent. No inflated hardiness zones here. Just an honest appraisal of what a plant can be expected to do. There is no reason why Eastern Plant cannot be your ONE STOP nursery connection. Expert cultural info. is included with your wildflower order....some of the most practical advice I've read anywhere. THIS IS AN EXTRAORDINARY SOURCE OF PLANT MATERIAL. Please request an Eastern Plant Specialites catalog soon..you won't be disappointed!

I am surprised at all the negative comments about this business, but everyone has a different experience - and apparently a lot of the negative comments were made around the time of a death in the family of the business owner.

I ordered a plant from this company this week. The owner was quick to respond to my inquiry, and as others have noted, knows his plants. He was about to depart from NJ to ME, yet he took the time to quickly and thoroughly pack my plant for prompt shipment to me. He initially told me it was too late to ship to me, but I told him I had received another Magnolia successfully from Oregon (I'm in Michigan) two years ago without incident and I'd be willing to take a chance having this plant shipped in mid May.

The Magnolia arrived today, well-packed and in moist soil. Beautiful! Can't wait to get it planted.

I placed two orders this winter with Eastern Plant Specialties in response to emails received from them on great sale prices. I received the first order of wildflowers promptly, and everything was in great shape and well packed. It took me nearly 4 weeks to get everything planted, due to recovery from a broken ankle, but everything has thrived in spite of my delay. The trilliums in particular are much larger than I expected, with many blooming this year. The second order for a few small trees and shrubs also arrived promptly, but a couple of things were missing from the order. I emailed an inquiry a couple weeks ago and received a reply that those plants were not good enough quality to ship. I emailed again inquiring about a refund, and they replied that they will send it but are "backed up a bit" right now. I haven't received the refund yet, but do expect to. My impression is that this company has great plants and almost no administrative staff.

I ordered 30 assorted ferns from this company on March 28th. I didn't receive an acknowledgement so I e-mailed them on April 4th regarding this. They responded the same day and said that my ferns would be sent the following week. On April 13th the package arrived but I did not open it as we had had frost for over a week, so I put them in the refridgerator, as directed. I finally opened up the box yesterday and was delighted. The ferns were very well packaged and in fantastic shape. There were four different types of ferns and each species were wrapped seperately and labeled. They all had started to "bud out" and are large enough to be planted in the garden immediately.
This is my second year with Eastern. Last year I ordered 3 Clethra bushes, along with 40 ferns. Unfortunately, they overlooked sending the Clethras and were out of stock. However, they asked if I would have 3 Redbuds instead. That was fine with me. I was very pleased with them, they were almost 48" tall and healthy. I noticed yesterday that all three are in bud. Also all of the ferns (so far) that I ordered last year have "shown their noses."
I have read negative reports about Eastern Plant Specialties but I would highly recommend them.

I've bought from this company for over 10 years and have always had great success. If I think about it, I have more survivors long term with plants from Eastern than most other firms. My order is always well packed with good instructions. The prices are fair and my questions have always been answered promptly. They even have the decency to talk me out of things they dont think are right for my climate, they really care. Yes, sometimes they can be hard to reach on the phone, but they call back.

Maybe Eastern has been getting their act together -- I placed an order about a month ago and was very happy with the results. The plants arrived quickly, packed carefully and in good shape. I like that they stock native species, and I'm sure I'll be ordering from them again.

I would highly recommend this company as my past nine years of buying a wide variety of herbaceous and woody plants has proven to me that they are the best value for the quality plants received. Their catalog certainly is the best information available in determining the growing requirements needed that would be the most beneficial in determining chances of sucess and or failure of a certain specie. One has to remember that not every plant will thrive no matter where it is obtained, but you will certainly have a better chance with their truthful information.I live outside of Chicago and have many species thriving from them that I am most happy with. Always think positive!!!!!

I have not ordered recently from this nursery, but know that they moved within the last year to NJ. In the past I purchased some beautiful plants (umbrella pines, cryptomeria) that were good size, decently priced and in excellent condition - and ultimately prospered in my garden. I needed to contact them once and remember the machine said they were at work in the nursery much of the day - to the extent they have been unresponsive I would guess it is the move and the fact that they aren't staffed with admin. folks (or at least that's my impression). I am posting this note, because I was looking for the nursery and just found their change of address card.

I've ordered from this company on a couple of occasions and found their selection of plants, particularly native plants, to be very good. Plants arrived healthy and generally survived. My only negative comment is that I think the prices are high for the size of the plant.

Eastern now has an online catalog. It's not complete yet, but what is listed there is terrific!

I have ordered several times from EPS over several years. The plants have always been larger and healthier than most from other places, lovingly packaged, too. The owner(s) definitely went an extra mile for me when I screwed up an order once. You could do whole lot worse than these guys. I have been really impressed and would recommend them.

I ordered from this company for the first time this year and was very pleased. The packaging was excellent, the tree was a good size and very healthy looking. Also, the nursery does say things are "nursery grown". (For the person who was wondering if they were collected from the wild.)

Eastern Plant Specialties has an excellent selection of wildflowers. They came promptly, beautifully packaged with cultural directions. I will order from them again.

The owner was very helpful on the telephone. It's a small operation so be patient with the phone calls. Packaging was great.