Comments regarding High Country Gardens

I just received an order from High Country and my experience was really quite good. Yes, the plants arrived very small, but they are so cute! They are extremely healthy looking and they arrive expertly packed and it is fairly easy to unpack the plants (which I like). Since the plants are small they are very easy to plant. I love their catalogue--it's very inspirational. I found the service responsive and friendly. I would order from them again.

I have used the mail order and purchased several times from the albuquerque store. I think the plants through the website are significantly smaller BUT for mailing plants that need to be transplanted I think the smaller ones survive better. I live in the desert so I have to try a lot of plants and have a lot that don't survive but all in all their plants do the best...

Ones that haven't been successfully for me from HCG is the california poppies, rubspina pulvaris, yucca rostrata, and maura applecloud blossoms. Can't say enough about their russian sage, it's in it's second year and the color is so much better than others in the neighborhood and really thriving. Agastache ava looks full size in it's second year. Like all of the lavendars, and agastache, they really do well with little care. I have also purchased cactus and succulents, and I really would advise against it to others. I purchased three agaves and they are just too small for anything and agaves are slow growers. Maybe 2 leaves none being longer than 2 inches, or wider than 1 inch. TINY!

All in all, you have to love this company and their unique selections, and they have a good packing system for the box. If you are unsure, start with the wide varieties of lavendar, and agastache and you will be pleasantly suprised. Also their ice plants are vigorous!

It was very easy to find the plants I wanted & to place my order.

I have been exceptionally pleased to be able to use a mail order company to get plants for my garden. I have a new home with a gorgeous mountain view and I wanted to add gardens entirely around the home. I was unable to get the local nurseries to provide the plants I wanted including over 100 trees!! So I decided to design the landscaping myself and use the High Country Garden plants.

This has been highly successful. It has been exactly one year and 2 orders (over 250 plants) since I started the front garden . It looks beautiful! I will continue ordering this fall and next spring for the sides and back gardens.

Using the young plants is an excellent idea. It gives the root ball a chance to form and all of the plants are healthy and vigorous now.

I could not live without High Country Gardens! I have studied their catalogs for years as it is a great source of information for growing in the West, particularly the Rocky Mountains where I live.

The plants CAN be small at times, but I have learned to prefer that so that I am not putting a sponge of potting soil in the ground that dries out in our climate -- lavenders bought at a local home store in gallon containers will never make it through the fall and winter here with that big core of well-drained potting mix, according to my experience. The lavenders I did buy at HCG are thriving, and that is in zone 4 (protected enough to be a zone 5 micro-climate, or maybe the key is starting with the smaller plants!).

Shipping is always fast and well-packed for me.

I get excited every time a catalog arrives: it is a pure pleasure to peruse!

I ordered one of their gardens and everyone one of my plants are doing wonderful. I received them in good shape, fertilized as directed, and have kept a deligent eye on my purchase. They are growing and blooming and next year I will have a beautiful, full , perinneal garden.

I have ordered numerous times from HCG and have never had a bad experience. Several years ago I ordered the Inferno Strip Garden and this year purchased 2 Inferno Strip Gardens for my daughter. I suspect those persons who were unhappy with the plantings and their results are not experienced gardeners. There is always some attrition when gardening even when purchasing larger plantings from local garden centers - at a higher cost. Conditions are not always right for every plant every time. It takes a lot of care and consistent watering initially to get a plant established. Just made another purchase of cacti/succulents yesterday and with proper care I feel confident that the majority of the plants will grow and thrive.

HCG sells high quality plants. I purchased 2 plants in HCG Albuquerque store and they are doing well. I had to order the rest of the plants from the web-site (Viola Corsica and Veronica Pectinata) since they were not available at the store. The plants were very well packed and all of them except one (it arrived very small compared to others ) are doing well. I had to request a refund for one lost plant and the customer service was great. Overall, my experience is very positive. However, I wish HCG would carry larger selection at their Alb. location.

I have ordered from High Country Gardens for years in one of the most difficult gardening environments around (little water, summer frosts, no topsoil ) and have been very pleased with the selection and health of the plants, the service, and the user friendliness of their online communication.

I purchased 5 ornamental grasses that died, and notified High Country Gardens. They immediately arranged for replacements to be sent. I have nothing but high praise for this company, and I've bought from them for years.

I've ordered from HCG several times and have been very pleased with their plants and their service. I especially appreciate the care with which the plants are shipped.

I have shopped in their nursery and have corresponded via email, and have always found the staff there to be very knowledgeable and helpful. I've bought more than $1200 worth of plants from this company, and have been pleased with their health and vigor. I recently emailed a query regarding whether certain native grasses were safe for horses to graze, and I received an immediate response with a well-informed answer. I also find the High Country Gardens website, catalogs, and e-newsletter to be very useful and informative, especially regarding native and xeric plants. Highly recommended!

I have always received plants in great condition. And they have always thrived. Plus, if you get the chance, the High Country Greenhouse is a wonderful place to visit.

We have ordered twice and have been very pleased with the plants. While they were small, they were the size designated in the catalog. The spring after we planted them, they were absolutely enormous and completely filled the garden space.

Two of the plants did die within a few weeks of being planted but replacements were shipped promptly and without question.

High quality plants and outstanding customer service!

I just received my small order for 6 Delosperma Cooperil (puple ice plant). Shipping arrived a day earlier than expected (FedEx tracking #). Very well packaged. Everything as expected. Highly recommend.

Although a couple of things initially went awry with my order to High Country Gardens, their customer service is excellent and they righted things quickly. They replaced one plant that was really too small and poorly rooted for the premium pot size that it came in, and refunded me for another that was mislabeled as a different cultivar because they couldn't replace it. I agree with some of the comments here that their plants are very small and maybe a little high-priced for the size, but they were all healthy and well rooted (except for the one they replaced), and shipping and packing is very efficient.

As a resident of the high desert on the border of Colorado and New Mexico I have a diffucult time finding plants that are colorful, easy to maintain, thrive in the cold of winter and the blistering sun of summer. I also have a thriving population of rabbits and mule deer that stand in my back acreage waiting for the newest offerings in my landscaping. All of these problems are solved with amazingly wonderful results by High Country Gardens. Their print and online catalogues are concise, practical and essential for anyone who has gardening challenges. Check them out and enjoy!

Being in PNW zone 8b, I have to be pretty careful what I order from HCG. That said, their website is so excellent and helpful! With their detailed information and well-organized catalogs I can find the varieties that are most suited to my climate.

I just ordered a number of plants for my "inferno" strip (what they call the area between the sidewalk and the driveway) -one of my best areas for their xeriscape plants. They arrived promptly and are doing very well. I've been following their instructions very carefully, and the little plants are all thriving. The centranthus ruber is even blooming and the penstemon have easily doubled in size in two weeks. I just wish that I had the right climate for more of their plants.

I have purchased from High Country Gardens, and its bricks-and-mortar Santa Fe Greenhouses, dozens of times. I have been uniformly impressed with the quality of the plants and the helpfulness of the staff. Their plants are typically smaller than other nurseries, but they quickly catch up in a couple of months. My survival rate from HCG is much higher than from other places.

They've introduced and popularized dozens (hundreds?) of amazing plants that thrive out West (Agastache, Penstemon, Salvia, and lavenders in particular). High Country Gardens have proven that water-wise gardening can be beautiful!

I highly recommend their catalog for great ideas and, if you're near Santa Fe, their Demonstration Garden borders on becoming a tourist attraction! (My parents ask to visit each time they're in New Mexico.)

I ordered 3 chocolate plants and 3 mallow poppies, each of which arrived well packaged and in very good condition. In fact one of the chocolate plants was in bloom already and sporting a second bud which has since opened as well. Each little plant was well developed and leafy and arrived with adequate moisture. The company sends instructions to unwrap and water at once, which I did. All have been planted and are thriving in their new homes. I was pleased enough with the overall experience that I have now placed another order.

I have been using High country Gardens online since 2000 and never had a bad experience. Plants are always good and arrive in a timely manner.

I recently ordered and recieved 3 orange coneflowers from this company. They were very well packed , came in 5 inch pots and were extremely healthy. I will definitely order more from them.

I have very sandy soils that drain quickly, but I live in humid South Jersey and am too busy to water frequently. Plants work out great! But High Country is not just for desert plantings. They actually include a symbol that tells you which plants are not appropriate for the East Coast, yet there's plenty to choose from. Why not help the environment and try xeriscaping (low water, drought tolerant)? Some fun or unusual varieties. I just ordered some Mother's Day gifts, but my last order had great looking plants that arrived in pristine condition. The best I've ever seen (and I mail order a lot). Highly recommend them.

Excellent service!!! Vigorous, healthy plants! I ordered several agastache plants and my hummingbirds LOVED them. They would go to each and every flower trying to get every drop. It was like dessert for them, as every night that was the last place I would see them dining.

If you like nice plants and love hummingbirds ... order the AGASTACHE from HIGH COUNTRY GARDENS!!!
And they smell wonderful to boot!

Received my order no problems. Plants came in 3 inch pots with lots of roots.

Order consisted of Agastache and Gaillardia (oranges/lemons). Living in Texas hill country, I only purchase plants that are deer resistant. Gaillardia is advertised as deer resistant, but within 2 days the four flower buds that came on the plant were all nipped clean off like candy by the deer. I do not fault HCG for this, I am sure in many places they are deer resistant but our population will eat anything (including prickly pear cactus). Will probably need to treat the plant with a deer repellant.

On another note, the Agastache (desert sunrise) were not touched by the deer so I am excitted about that. I'm hoping this will be the plant that nobody else in the neighborhood has that has it all: deer resistance, heat/dry tolerant, hummingbird attractant, etc.

I ordered a lavender collection and some deer repellents and fertilizers this spring, all of which arrived quickly with no problems at all. The lavender are all healthy, but two are significantly smaller than the rest. However, the roots seem strong and extensive; they could be slower-growing varieties, and I'm hopeful their top growth will catch up. I'm happy overall with the health and size of the other lavender plants, which is the majority of them, and I'm thrilled that HCG carries Superthrive, which I've been looking for for a long time. I will definitely order from HCG again soon.

Excellent company to do business with--their plants and service are outstanding!

they are experts in agastache, a humming bird plant that is gathering quite a following in the northwest. careful planting guide for all geographic regions of the U.S. a chiloposis ordered from them was undersized, but wintered over so all is forgiven.

I have ordered several times from High Country Gardens. The plants were healthy when they arrived, and have thrived since. The first group I bought was a pre-designed garden, and is as beautiful today as when it was planted in 2003. I have been happy with all I have received since then. They have many plants I have not been aware of before, such as the orange globe mallow, which is one of the items I ordered this year.I will definitely continue to order from them.

I can't wait to order again from this company. I am a novice gardener who could never get lavender to grow. I ordered lavender from this company last year, and my neighbors raved that my yard looked like a garden in Provence! The detailed descriptions of water and sunlight needs, etc. are helpful for newbies like myself.

I have ordered from High Country Gardens many times. My garden is in hot dry southeastern Colorado. My mother happened to visiting me when I unpacked my most recent order on Good Friday 2007. She could not get over the condition of the plants and the clever packing. I guess I had come to take it all for granted! I believe in supporting our local folks (and DO!), but rely on High Country Gardens for finding new and unusual plants. Whether with the knowledgeable folks by phone or with the user-friendly website, this is a wonderful company of helpful and proud gardeners.

I ordered 6 Loneria (honeysuckle) and 2 Agastache Rupestris. I found this company's email communication to be excellant. I was informed as to when the company would ship these plants and roughly when they would arrive. Package tracking was available. 5 of the 6 Loneria look fine and the 6th one may be ok as well. One of the Sunset Hyssops looked really cold (we had a sudden cold spell during shipping week) but I think it was because they wrapped those two in newspaper and it got wet during shipment (wet newspaper refridgerates, rather than insulates) but a day and half later all plants are responding well to warmer temperatures and additional light during the day (prior to planting this week.) I think they should use small cell bubble wrap if they feel they need to insulate a plant during shipment as this at least will not become wet and while evaporating water start to cool the contained plant.

Small but sturdy stock, adequate shipping method.

I loved looking through the catalog at all the unique plants. I placed my order and everything was delivered right on time and all of the plants were in great shape.

Excellent plants and packaging, most of the plants are drought resistant and therefore do not tolerate too much moisture. I've had success growing some of them with care and proper placement.

I was very happy with the plants this nursery sent me. They came in a very timely manner, well packed and at a decent price.
They are happy in my garden, and I will order from them again.

High Country Gardens is the only mail-order nursery I will use anymore. 100% of the plants I have ordered over the past two years (a considerable amount of $) have arrived in perfect condition. Last year I purchased several flats of Ohme thyme and then circumstances prevented me from planting them in my chosen location. I watered the flats, hoping to get them in the ground soon, but by the end of the long, dry summer most of the plants were on their last legs. I threw them in the ground in October with little hope. Every single one came back this spring to my delight. This is typical of my experience with HCG. The only plants I have lost were due to my own mistakes (wrong location, etc.)

Wow! What wonderful plants, much larger than I expected. They are healthy, well packaged, and quickly shipped. Easy to use website and great communication.

I will be ordering more this weekend.

I just received my order from HCG.The quality of the plants are great and they were packed with care. I have been using HCG for the last four years and only had one problem that they took care of with one phone call. They have a great selection of plants that you can't always find locally.

I just placed my fourth order with High Country. I've always been impressed by the quality of their plants. Almost everything on their site grows well in the Denver area. The only problem I've ever had was one plant which arrived with a broken stem. They promptly replaced the plant for free.