Comments regarding Heronswood Nursery

Received my order from Heronswood today. Not what I expected from Heronswood. Two plants ordered, both were dead. $16 and $17 each. Tiny little dried up root piece of anemone in a bag of dry sawdust chips and rotted oriental poppy root in wet moss with no live buds. They gave me a refund to my visa immediately, which was nice. I will not order again.

I EXPECTED PLANTS FROM HERONSWOOD AS PICTURED IN THEIR BEAUTIFUL PUBLICATIONS. I RECIEVED TINY PLANTS IN POOR CONDITION, MOST IN 2" OR 3" POTS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN FOUR OR FIVE INCH POTS - AND THEY WERE NOT GROWN BY HERRONSWOOD AS STATED IN THE MATERIALS IN THE BOX. THEY WERE GROWN BY BURPEE!! ALTHOUGH CUSTOMER SERVICE WAS CHEERFUL AND PLEASANT, I HAD TO CALL SIX TIMES TO GET AN INVOICE SHOWING WHAT I HAD BEEN CHARGED ON MY CREDIT CARD. FINALLY I AGREED TO A LESSER CHARGE, BUT I WILL NOT EXPERIENCE THIS AGAIN.

Buyer beware!!! Heronswood is no longer Heronswood! Sad, sad, sad... I looked forward all winter to receiving my Heronswood order, and regularly turned to them for premium specimen plants, so I'm not pleased to report bad news about a company I respected and depended upon. The first indication that something was wrong is that the order arrived in a Burpee box. When I opened it, everything inside was totally desiccated. There were six "Lychjen' Jenny" that were dry as sand, but still alive -- I watered them, and they should make it, but they are stressed and not what I expected of Heronswood. I had ordered 6 "Lysimachia clethroides 'Heronswood Gold'" but rather than plants, I received a "Cannot supply" notice. However, the worst disappointment was two entirely dried out TINY, TINY bare root Thalictrums -- they literally crumbled in my fingers, and the roots broke off. They were packed in some dry cedar shavings -- and, although it looked as if there might have been signs of new growth at some time in the past, they were yellowed and disintegrated when I tried to pot the (dead) plant. These Thalictrums were $14.95 a piece!!!!! This is not the Heronswood I have loved over the years. This is tragic ghost of a company that was once top of the line. I called the company and was offered a replacement or a refund. The woman who answered the call was polite, sympathetic and helpful, but she was not from Heronswood, she was answering from a call center. I choose the refund, and will not order from Heronswood again.

Posted on March 8, 2012, updated March 26, 2012
What has happened to Heronswood? I just received my order and cannot believe what they sent to me. I ordered 2 Astrantia Moulin Rouge and received tiny pieces of dried up plant material in a bag of sawdust and wood shavings. One is possibly just dormant but is the smallest piece of root I have ever seen. The other is black, crumbly organic plant material resembling compost. These were $16.00 each!! I know the Astrantia were bare root, but I expected healthier, live (not dormant and certainly not dead) bare-root plants like on their website! I also ordered an Echincea Pomegranate potted plant for $19.00, and while it was in a pot, it is not more than 1/2 in high. No kidding!! What it was is a 1 inch plug that was put into a 4" pot and sold as a 4 inch plant. Worse than this, I tried to contact customer service at 5:15pm by email and the email immediately kicks back with an error from their server. I try to call them and they closed at 5:00pm (Bankers hours). What a joke! They used to have plush, healthy plants and provided excellent support, which made it worth the extra few dollars they charged. Now, they are much more than a few dollars extra, they provide substandard or inferior junk, and offer limited support. I won't be back.

I will not be ordering from them again. I'm very frustrated with their lack of customer service. I ordered Cosmos atrosanguineus as part of an order back in June 2010. It did not arrive with the other plant I ordered, and I was not told it was out-of-stock. I have contacted them multiple times since, asking for an estimate of when it would ship. Twice I was told they would look in to it, but then I never receive a follow-up response. I finally just told them today, May 2, 2011!, to cancel it. I'll be ordering them from Chocolate Flower Farm instead.

My sister ordered 3 plants from them and received 3 tiny broken and scrawny specimens. She immediately contacted them and did get a quick reply and a total refund for the plants. The issue we have is she received the refund for the plants and was left with a 12 dollar shipping charge for nothing useable.

I am just totally disgusted with this company! I have to cancel my order, after several attempts contacting them regarding a ship date, to try to cancel BEFORE order processed, I again requested to cancel my order in an email on 4/5 as it had not been shipped and my credit card had not been billed, no problem right? WRONG! I finally had someone contact me on 4/7/2009,stating that my order could no longer be cancelled as it had already been shipped. I asked if I could return it and in a short email was given the return address the next day. Still contacted company by phone to cancel as no charges on credit card- "can't, order shipped" Where is my order? Oh! It was sent out via UPS and billed on 4/10/2009-a full two weeks after my initial attempts by phone and email to cancel.This shipment was preventable- now I am going to get stuck with return processing fees as well. Nice! Their customer service is atrocious!

This is a prime example of greed! I paid $52.00 for 3 plants (Charged for 3 day UPS, came UPS ground- 7 days). Received 2 pots (2") one was a Lobelia that was no bigger than a dime and the other was a string of very invasive OXALYIS! I immediatly called Customer Service and was told I would get a credit to my Visa. I was only credited $22.00. When I called back, suddenly my original order had disappeared and they had no way to tell what I had been charged (okay???) Surprisingly I receive an email that the third plant is now being shipped....I thought you lost my order?? AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS....IT IS NOT THE HERONSWOOD OF OLD, THEY ARE OWNED NOW BY BURPEE. ANY ONE CAN MAKE A CATALOG WITH PRETTY PICTURES, BUT YOU MAY GET A POT FULL OF WEEDS! SHAMEFUL!!

Had a lousy experience with a customer service rep. Had ordered several years back a Corydalis "Blue Heron". It finally decided to grow and bloom this past year. (maybe it liked being moved to another location) However, it turned out to be a Trachystemon orientalis. When I called the company about it, I explained what happened and that I still had the name tag right next to the plant. The "grouch" I talked with said that there was no "Blue Heron" Corydalis-only a Golden Panda. I told her over and over that I still had the original order and name tag(stuck right next to the plant) that said Corydalis Blue Heron. She still insisted that I was wrong. Got no where with here and was very frustrated. Would love to order some more from them but after being told how wrong I was about the Corydalis '' Blue Heron'' , I am uneasy about doing so.

Great catalog for this coming year ('09). Makes me want almost everything. However---

Very disappointed, customer service was terrible. Plants I ordered arrived a week late, (had to contact them for a tracking number) and had to inquire on a refund for my 2 day air shipping cost. No apology, just a refund for the shipping cost 2 weeks later, no follow up on the plants, while $150.00 dollars isn't a huge order, I was hoping for more from the company!

Ordered an evergreen tree and was sent something looking like a clematis. After emailing back and forth with customer svc who didn't know an abies from a cactus, I was told tree no longer available. Refund did not include any allowance for shipping. Therefore, I paid $9 for shipping 1 tiny perennial I also ordered.

Over $100 for around six scrawny terrible plants. Will not order again...

I ordered from this company twice and both times had negative experiences. The majority of the plants I've ordered quickly fizzled and died. And the customer service was very negative, accusatory and not helpful. If I did something that caused the problem I would own up to it and chalk it up to experience. But when you receive inferior plant material that's on it's way out when you receive it then it's not the customer's fault if it doesn't survive. I think this company should worry less about self promotion and more about customer service by offering it's customers good plant material in the first place.

I placed an order with Heronswood at the beginning of September for two trees. I waited until the end of the month to find out where my order was, I was told it was in the nursery getting ready to be shipped. Today I called and found out that my order had been cancelled because both trees were now unavailable. They told me that I should have received an email at the beginning of the week telling me this. Unfortunately, I never received this email and now will never trust Heronswood again. Since the ownership change, it is clear that this company has gone downhill in customer service, plant quality, and selection. I would recommend to anyone thinking about ordering from Heronswood to find alternate sources for your plants. Forestfarm, wayside, Greer gardens, mendocino maples, are all good options.

I ordered 11 plants from them in early to mid September. The last week of September I receive a small box with two poorly packed plants, one of which I am not even sure is a living plant. In box is a list of the plants I ordered with nine of them marked CNS (Cannot supply). Meanwhile I missed weeks of planting time and not even an apology included. They also included no information about how to plant the plants etc like the reputable dealers like Bluestone do. Nine out of eleven not in stock...why anybody else would bother with this company is beyond me.

Very,very,very,small plants,they have one of the best selections of plants, but no customer service.you order plants and ask is it available,they say YES you place you order but do not receive all the plants you ordered.
As a overseas customer this is most disturbing,you final think you have the plants you have alway wanted and they do not arrive,NO EMAIL TO TELL YOU IT'S NOT AVAILABLE
5 TIMES I HAVE PURCHASED SPECIES OF 1 TYPE OF PLANT OVER A PERIOD OF 4 YEARS HOPING THEY WOULD GET BETTER, AND EACH TIME IT HAS BEEN SO SMALL YOU NEED A MICROSCOPE TO SEE IT!


NOT GO ENOUGH HERONSWOOD

I had ordered a Korean maple which was healthy when I received it.
It had since died, when I contacted the company they will not stand behind the product, they will not give a replacement or credit. They now tell me that the tree you ordered was not for your area. Don't you think when I talked to them during this order, this was something as a seller they should have mentioned to me. With all the research I did told me that these trees survive in Minnesota so Elcho, WI should have been ok. I never worked with a mail order company that did not stand behind there product. Very disapointed.

I recently received my order from Hersonswood (for 4 rare conifers) and I am quite satisfied with it. Yes, their plants are small but they are very well rooted. The closest I can compare them is with Forestfarm's "tubes" (because over the years I have also bought a lot of those), and Heronswood's plants are, in my opinion, superior to the small offerings from Forestfarm. They are also of consistently high quality (see my comment on Forestfarm elswhere). A rapid census of the (many and rare) things that I have growing in my backyard shows that the proportion of plants that came from Heronswood (relative to the number of plants that I got originally) is much higher than the proportion that came as Forestfarm tubes, and the size and quality of the Heronswood plants is also better, even comparing them after 5 - 10 years in the ground (to be fair, Forestfarm gallons usually do much better than their tubes). I have been less lucky with Heronswood's perennials, but then I am not all that interested in them so perhaps it was my fault. For rare conifers, if you are willing to start small and wait a few years, I can reccommend them most heartily.

This is the second time I have ordered from Heronswood and both times I was dissappointed with their plants.I ordered a Tropaeolum speciosum for $7.00 and I got it in about six pieces of little root. No plant at all. I will not order from this rip off company again.

"Thank you for letting us know about your Tropaeolum, and I am sorry for any misunderstanding about the way this plant is shipped. I should explain that this is how this plant grows; as a tuber.

Each of these pieces of root is a viable plant, and this is the only way that they can safely be shipped. They break if shipped after they have come into growth, and do not do well in pots because of their horizontal growth habit. If you plant each tuber horizontally about 3" deep in moist, well-drained soil, each one will grow, so you actually have about six plants. Plant them in the same conditions in which you would plant clematis, with roots in shade but where the vine can grow out into the sun.

I'm sorry that you did not understand how these plants are shipped; we do note "tuber" in the plant size description. Please let me know if you still have any questions, and our apologies for any confusion regarding this plant.

Sincerely,
Myrna Ougland"

Very expensive, many plants are small and are barely clinging to life when they arrive, and not well-suited to the rigors of weather in the East.

I recently did a cost analysis of about a dozen mail order nurseries with whom I've dealt, and this is the most expensive one. The value is particularly poor if you consider that so many of the plants are really quite small, sometimes hardly established in their tiny pots. In my experience most of the plants as shipped are too small to be planted out, and for any kind of survival should be nursed along in a greenhouse for several months. Once I contacted them saying that I would be willing to pay more for larger and better established plants, and I was pretty much told that's not the way their business works and that I should look elsewhere. Also I find their interpretation of zones, at least zone 7, to be questionable, as this does mean to expect lows of 0 degrees, not 10 or 15 degrees. Their plants have done very poorly in my garden in North Carolina, unlike those of a large mail order nursery in Oregon. They are probably a good supplier for dedicated plant people who must have that special newly-discovered species, especially gardeners on the west coast. Yet I admire their contributions to mild-climate horticulture, and their perserverance in collecting plants from all sorts of exotic places.

We have a saying in the gardening circles I run in here in Seattle: "Friends don't let friends mail order from Heronswood." There are a number of reasons: tiny plants, big prices and poor customer service. On several ocassions when I have received the wrong plant (i.e. hellebores that bloom white instead of maroon) I was told to "come out to the nursery and handpick the plant" I should have originally received. This is not a very good solution...the ferry ride over itself is prohibitive. Last year I received a sedum that was little more than a 2 inch pencil sized dry stem with two short roots dangling off of it! Of course the roots withered and the plant died, but it was my fault, since I was the responsible one once the plant was shipped. I had to try to make viable a plant that got bare-rooted and tossed in a box in its infancy. Bottom line...expect a 50% mortality rate on the plants you order. Recommendation...pot all of the plants you receive upon arrival and expect to nurse them along for one to two years before you stick them in the ground to compete with the larger plants you got from better sources. If you have the luxury of going out to Heronswood, do so. Pick your own plants, save on the shipping, enjoy the gardens.

"Heronswood strives to offer the best customer service we can. When customers contact us regarding problems with their orders, we make every effort to quickly resolve a complaint; either by replacement or credit. We have two prerequisites: first, the customer needs to let us know of
the problem, and secondly, the customer needs to be reasonable in their expectations (a flower stem that is broken off in transit from an otherwise healthy plant does not typically require replacement of the plant).

When possible we are delighted to send large, full plants. While many of our plants are small (for economy of shipping and other reasons), most of our plants are ready to go into the ground when delivered. Some do require nursing, most often those which are listed as "onsite only" and too small to be shipped, except at the special request and responsibility of the customer. There will always be those few whom we cannot satisfy, and while we regret this, we have a large contingent of regular customers who come back year after year, which leads us to believe that we're mostly doing things right."