Comments regarding Heronswood Nursery

Posted on June 12, 2012, updated June 13, 2012
I ordered two hydrangeas and a ornamental grass in March 2012 from Heronswood. When they arrived the grass looked okay, but was smaller than the one that I had ordered from another company. The one hydrangea looked great, but the one that was the main reason that I was ordering from Heronswood was in sad shape. The Hydrangea Involucrata 'Wim Rutten' Blue Bunny TM PPAF looked dead (e.g. like a stick that was rotten with no bud) even though there was a note saying it was just dormant. When I removed it from the pot there were living roots. I was upset that I had paid $18 for a dead stick, but I was still hopeful that it was just dormant. I planted both hydrangeas a few days after they arrived following the directions on their web site about using peat moss to amend the soil. The blue bunny hydrangea still has no signs of growth while the other oakleaf one is thriving and already about a foot tall.

I emailed Heronswood about a refund on May 4th 2012 and received no reply. I emailed again today on June 12th 2012 and then decided to call. I talked to a nice lady who refunded my money. They have a 1 year guarantee. I'm rating this neutral instead of negative only because I did get a refund, but I will not be ordering from Heronswood/Burpee again.

Posted on September 5, 2010, updated September 8, 2010
In Feb, 2010, ordered Pennisetum 'Karley Rose' and Wisteria 'Blue Moon.' To say, as others have, that the plants were small, would be an understatement. What arrived was dormant (understandable), TINY pieces of plant matter. To their credit, I was given a refund on everything but the shipping. The customer service person said they would not refund the shipping because the plants might grow. To my surprise, they finally did begin to grow. I now (Sept) have grass that is smaller than I could purchase from any big box store. Worst of all, there is no Rose in the 'Karley Rose', i.e., it is another kind of Pennisetum, probably just plain old dwarf fountain grass/aka Hameln. So not only were the plants tiny, they were not the advertised species. Do not order from Heronswood unless you're a gambler and want to overpay for a surprise. These people need to get out of the business.

I ordered two live perennial sweetpea plants from Heronswood this past June. They arrived completely dried out, with most of the soil having fallen out of the pots into the loosely arranged newsprint that was the only protection provided for the plants inside the cardboard box in which they were shipped. Both seemed dead, but I placed them in water as instructed for a couple of days to attempt to revive them. This was without success. When I called Heronswood and told them about this, they promptly refunded my money for the plants, and suggested that I wait until Fall to reorder to ensure new stock.
In the same week, I received African violet plants from another vendor. These were very carefully and thoughtfully packed (insulated box, individually made paper cones to hold each plant and pot, plastic covering over the soil and pot to retain maoisture and soil, protective air-filled plastic cushioning), came via the same shipping company to the same address, and for the same s/h cost. They arrived in perfect condition.
I believe the problem with the sweetpea plants lay with the packaging. I emailed Heronswood's Customer Service over a week ago, recounting my experience with the other vendor and requesting a refund of the $12 shipping/handling charge. However, I continue to wait for a response from Heronswood to my email. Most unsatisfactory.

Last month I ordered 4 clematis vines. One that arrived was a small liner, which is what I expected. Two were so tiny I would call them embryo's or almost bareroot. When I called them, they sent a replacement for one of the smaller ones, but when it arrived, it was the same size plant and definitely overpriced for what I received. I didn't receive the 4th one at all and no mention was made that they were on back order, out of stock, or anything, but my credit card was charged for it.

The reason I'm giving a neutral rating is that when I called customer service, they didn't hesitate to give me credit for the one that did not arrive. And they didn't hesitate to try to send a replacement. I will give them credit for that.

But I probably won't order clematis from them again because I want more mature plants. I could have gotten a liner from Lowe's for $6, instead of paying $15 at Heronswood.

plants were healthy and of an exceptable size. however customer service is very much lacking. after attempting to order online several times, i ended up calling and was told it never went through. i tried to order over the phone and was told that they couldn't get them to go through and to call back later in the week. i called back and was told my order went through, after having it repeated back to me, apparently my original order went through four times. we finally got everything straighten out. i'll order from this company again but strictly on a probationary basis

I just joined this site because for one thing I wanted others to know how HORRIBLE my order from Heronswood was. Moved from NY, always drooled over the old catalogue. Now I'm in Portland, new home, this Spring I have been planting like mad, been to some 25 nurseries in Oregon plus ordered online from 15 national sources. Heronswood was a disaster - tiny sizes, high prices. I asked that things be sent early as I have growlights, coldframe, the works, and wanted to get going with things, they arrived in March. The Ornamental Chinese Rhubarb was the size of a little mini 4" carrot at best, and never sprouted on a heat mat under lights. I emailed a complaint to them - nicely worded, about my efforts and concerns and the sorry state of the plant when it arrived - three weeks later no one has responded whatsoever. Now that it's mid April, though a little chilly this year, I was just out in the garden and realized that with everything planted and sprouted, not one of the Heronswood plants has shown any sign of life while every other companies plants are up. The items shipped ranged from tiny 'annual' size plants (priced as premium perennials) to tiny tiny tubers and small roots. I don't know if the order froze somewhere in a post office or storage, or they had a lot of winter damage and shipped anyway, but while every other companies plants in a zillion species have shown life and popped up in various levels of growth, the Heronswood plants are probably all dead. When you break a stem and there's no sign of green, and it's the ONLY stem, unlikely it's just a late sprouter (what every species I ordered is going to sprout in July or something?). I'm going to mail them a long letter and see if I get a refund but seeing as no one has responded in any way to my email inquiry, I have a feeling they're a hit and run money machine until word gets out what a joke they are - the catalogue is shiny and enticing but the service and merchandise is sub-par in a recession when they're lucky ANYone is shopping. Really a disgrace - and at those prices??? never again

I placed an order for a hakonia. It arrived looking rather spindly and sad and did not ever recover. It's possible I over watered it or planted it in the wrong sort of conditions (organic loam, kept fairly moist but not water logged, partial sun). It was kind of pricey though so I am waiting to see if I can find a local source before I try it again.

"

Hello,
We are sorry to hear that one of our plants did not meet our high standards. If you can contact me with your name and zip code, we will offer you a prompt refund.
Thanks.
Paul"

Ordered a Styrax obassia, a hard to find tree that I love. I was very disappointed in the size of the tree--less than pencil caliper and only a few short roots. I'm giving this company a neutral instead of a negative because I didn't check to see what the description of the plant was before ordering. They should give an accurate description of tree/container size. Tree is alive, so maybe I can coddle it to grow into a visible plant this season.

Ordered 6 hydrangeas-some of them 25.95 each. when they arrived, boy was I disappointed. Had to realy look to even see what little green there was. I immediately called them and they sent 2 to replace 2 of the 6 that were all but dead when they arrived. They were still extremely small(less than 1in in height). After a few days, I decided to contact them again, letting them know how disappointed I was with the size of these plants( the ones I got last year were 6-8 inches tall) They refunded my money.

this company use to be one of the better nursery's around
now they take forever to ship expensive junk

Heronswood used to have the best catalog in the business, a veritable treasure trove. They were somewhat more expensive than many others, but had tons of plants not available elsewhere. Then Burpee bought them, and that was the end of that. Current catalog is all show and no substance. Boohoo.. I miss the old Heronswood :-((

Good source for some hard to find plants, but they tend to send SMALL plants at PREMIUM prices.

So this should be your last resort with the understanding that your plants will need a year or two to get to a reasonable size.

I find that often their plants are so small, they succumb to transplant shock even with coddling.

The nursery carries a lot of varitey--perhaps too much to handle. Their plants are very expensive and VERY small. I don't know about their health as they were so small that I immediately potted them; I nursed them for nearly a year before planting in the garden. My fear was they were to small to survive a zone 7 winter--given the cost, I did not want to lose my investment.

The shipping went as planned.

For garden varieties, one would do better to shop at their local nursery--bigger plants, less money. I will shop with Heronswoods, but only for rare and hard to find plants.

I have ordered from this co. once or twice a year since 1984. it is an excellent source for the new and the rare. I too have had very mixed outcomes with dealing with them and the plants i have received. only once have i complained with absolutly no satisfaction. my biggest grief though is with the shipping costs. since it is based on the dollar value,rather than weight or #of plants, you are penalized for ordering the more expensive varities.
If i order 4 $25. plants i pay 30.00. The same 30.00 could have shipped 12- 14 of their lesser priced plants. Why is this equitable? Still i'm glad they are there, but if i can find a plant at plant delights, or other places in the east. I think dan is great. i've met him at a couple of plant symposiums. I have to keep getting the catalogue just for the reading alone. Also the nursery itself is beautiful to visit, after a fun ferry ride.

I ordered from Heronswood for several years and was reasonably pleased. The prices were OK, and there are plants there you simply don't find elsewhere. Most plants arrived in good condition, and one time I had a plant fail over the winter they replaced it (since they had labelled it as hardier than it was)

But I won't be reordering from them in the future for two reasons:
1) Plants go to people who can take delivery first, not who orders first. In other words, you can be the first person to place an order for a plant, but if you can't take delivery until the weather warms (and other folks can) they get the plant, not you. Its not a policy that's very friendly to northern climate gardeners.

2) Shipping to my zone is now 30% of the total order, with a minimum of $18. That's just too high in my opinion. I can't think of a single other nursery which has such inflated shipping costs. They go to great pains to justify it in their catalog - but other places have much more reasonable shipping charges.

I was VERY disappointed with my order. Three expensive,
nearly dead clematis(which I couldn't save), high shipping
charges, and they do not back their product with any sort of
plant replacement policy. Also, they charge for their catalog(a very good catalog but I wish they spent more time on healthy plants). A complete waste of money for me;
in fact, my worst mail order experience which was especially
troubling since I had read they had(past tense I hope) a
good reputation. Enjoy their catalog and order elsewhere!

I ordered from their website last spring. The plants were healthy, arrived on time, and were packed well – but I felt the size of them was pretty small compared to the cost. They have some unusual species and hybrids for collectors - but I think the average gardener, looking for common plants, would be better off to order elsewhere.

The owner of this company was one of the speakers at a seminar presented by Horticulture magazine.
He did an excellent presention concerning the use of shrubs in the landscape. He assured the audience of which I was a member that all of the plant material was available at Heronswood.
My wife and I drew up a design and contacted the nursery none of the plants we wanted were avaialble to the public.

It just left a bad taste in my mouth after we were assured that it was available and we had planned for such.

I have had mixed results from ordering from this company. While I do love the catalog with its wonderful descriptions, I have had fifty/fifty success rate with the plants I ordered. To be quite honest, the plants were smaller than I expected. This made the prices a little too much for the size and age of the plants. The plants I ordered in '98 and '99 and slowly growing, that is the ones that made it. I did not contact them to tell them about the failed plants. I got their 2001 catalog recently and have been reading it cover to cover, and so far have resisted the urge to order anymore plants from them. I keep reminding myself of the expensive dead plants that I have in the garden.

I recently discovered this nursery on the internet when I was looking for a source for perennial Geraniums. I'm dying to order from them but - they're scary - I feel like if I order from the Chicago area - in June, they'll call me up and yell at me. Slight exaggeration, check out their fine web site.

While I have been impressed with the selection of plants offered by Heronswood, I have had several problems with their ordering process. TWICE now I have ordered a Bishop of Llandaff dahlia, gotten a confirmation card and THEN received a letter telling me that they are out of stock. Both times Heronswood advised me that the plant will be available next season, and that I should "order early". Last spring I ordered for fall shipment the same day I received the letter... apparently that still wasn't "early" enough. I don't wish to downplay their lovely plant selection but folks need to understand that they might or might not get stuff they order from Heronswood and they won't find out until a day or two before the confirmed ship date!