Comments regarding Sooner Plant Farm (Shop Smarter Shop Sooner)

My son passed away in December from a genetic illness. One of his last wishes was to have a mimosa tree planted, because he wanted to help pollinators like birds, bees and butterflies. All of which love mimosa. Well, I soon discovered how difficult it is to find a mimosa tree! Nobody has them. Apparently they are considered weeds around here. Finally I found the web site for Sooner, and they didn’t have any, but they had a way for me to get notified as soon as one was available. I put my name on the list, but did not have high expectations. Sure enough, after a few weeks, I got a notice saying they had six trees.

We were skeptical of ordering a tree online. 25 years ago we ordered some trees from a different company and what we got were some bare sticks, which didn’t even grow. But I decided to try, because I couldn’t find anything at all locally.

The tree arrived today and we were very happy. The packaging was incredible. Like Fort Knox for trees! And the tree is so pretty it made me cry. My son would have loved it! A HUGE Thank You to Sooner for making his final wish possible.

The plants I received from Sooner were is just fantastic shape and packaging that would survive any rough treatment. Congratulations on producing an excellent product and personal customer experience.

Large order from Sooner Plant Farm arrived in GREAT shape. Plants are extremely well packed, healthy and ready to plant. One or two were slightly wilted, but that can be explained by FedEx delaying the delivery by a day. In any event, they perked right up after some water and a rest in the shade. I love Sooner. I’ve been a customer for three years, and I expect excellence and get it. Sooner will work with you to get just the rights plants for your situation, will accommodate additions and deletions to an order and will love to hear from you about your plants and what luck (or not!) you’ve had in your garden. These folks are very fine indeed!!

Good morning:
I received the shrubbery from your farm.
Out of the hundreds or so plants I received through the past years, your shipment was by far superior.   The shrub was full of leaves, none fell off in shipment!   The growth of the plant was excellant.   The shipping box was a cargo container is sheep's clothing!   
The sealing  around the pot and moisture preserving techniques you use, are top notch.
And...You don't just shove a plant into a pot, you grow it so the roots ARE NOT balled up to the edges. Thank You for a high quality product.!

I ordered a shrub and it came the following week. It was in excellent condition and so very carefully packaged that not even a leaf was bent! I was astonished! I love plants and have ordered from several companies, but never before had one arrive in such perfect condition.

We just received our first order from Sooner Plant Farm. Sooner had to make several changes in our order due to the unprecidented mid-March freeze that killed some of the plant stock we wanted. Their customer service representatives worked with us to find a good replacement and were able to ship our entire order on time. The plants arrived in excellent condition and are already starting to flower in our garden. I can't wait to put together my next order from Sooner!

I don't care what their so-called 30-day warranty states, but for a premium price, I expect them to honor a request to replace a tree that was sent in the autumn and did not survive the winter. I won't be wasting my money on this nursery anymore. So much for supporting a nursery in my region.

"On Apr 16, 2021 5:36 AM, Sooner Plant Farm (Shop Smarter Shop Sooner) responded with:

We are very sorry this customer has lost his tree over the winter. Our nation experienced record cold temperatures which caused damage and killed not only newly planted plants, but many plants that have been established for years. Please know zone ratings are based on averages and not extremes. If you are in zone 7 and your plant is rated for zone 7, but your location experiences zone 6 or lower temperatures your zone 7 plants are going to be damaged or killed.
Again we are truly sorry when anyone losses a plant but unfortunately climate conditions are out of our control and the reason we cannot guarantee the overwintering of plants.

Brian"

I was looking for a Japanese Stewartia and my local upscale plant nursery on Long island wanted $340 for a 5 to 6 foot specimen. I was torn as I'm older and would have purchased it but I decided to check online as I've had luck with different online nurseries in the past. I found Sooner Plant Farm and was connected the the Yard Manager. He took a few pics of his Stewartias in the yard and sent to me and they were beautiful. They were 3 to 4 feet and very lush and healthy. The Stewartia was a third of the price I was going to pay at my local nursery. I quickly ordered on a Tuesday afternoon and the box showed up at my doorstep mid-day Friday. Honestly, I get transit damage and all but not one leaf was out of place on this beautiful specimen! based on the quality of the Stewartia that I received and the pleasant " and here to serve" attitude displayed by the Yard Manager and the person who took my order I give this company a ten out of ten!! I'll be sure to come back and order more things from them!!!!

I have difficulty in searching the uncommon FRAGRANT SNOWBELL (STYRAX OBASSIA) and could only find it available at Sooner Plant Farm. I placed the order in March and received in April due to weather condition in Virginia. The tree arrived well preserved and I have to say that the packing quality is beyond expectation. I was very happy and satisfied with the product: a solid tree with strong thick base trunk and well formed branches with quite a number of flower buds. To be honest, this is the best experience I ever have during 60+ online plants purchase in last 10 months.

It almost seems redundant to leave a review on top of the thousands of positive ones, but for the record, my experience was great. I bought a native red mulberry and planted it after it had acclimated for a week on the porch. It has been going strong for around a year, has doubled in height and is green all over. We planted it in the spring and it grew like crazy. It's clearly developed lovely roots and overwintered just fine. I hope to get all my trees from them going forward.

"On Dec 26, 2023 2:06 PM, Sooner Plant Farm (Shop Smarter Shop Sooner) responded with:

testing testing testing "

I have ordered at least six times from Soonerplantfarm.com and have never been disappointed. The company is consistent with providing high quality, healthy, beautiful trees, shrubs, and plants! Each time I’m taking back how the company can send such great looking items through UPS, the packaging is with evident care. I cannot say enough about soonerplantfarm; I’ve tried ordering from others, and no other online nursery have even come close to the quality. I’ve provided this review solely on my own. I love nature, planting in spring, and I understand the disappointment of investing money to be disappointed with online ordering. To SPF, please continue with your high standards of service, and thank you!!

I ordered a Coral Bark Beni Kawa Japanese Maple tree from Sooner in May of 2020. The ordering process was easy. A Sooner team member called me to discuss the specific selection, by which I was surprised and grateful. The tree arrived on time and packaged safely. Planting instructions were clear. It's a healthy, sweet little tree. It's now December, and the fall color has been absolutely STUNNING. Wish I could attach a photo to dazzle you! :0)

Excellent service. The plant quality was outstanding. Couldn't be happier. Highly highly recommend!

I purchased a hydrangea from Sooner Plant farms for my mother's birthday. It was to ship on Wednesday, by Friday I hadn't received the shipping notice so I emailed them. The plant arrived the next day. Very happy it was cleared up so quickly.

I recently made a purchase from the Sooner Plant Farm, what a fantastic experience. From ordering to receiving wonderfully packed plants. The plants were securely packaged and arrived in great condition. There was a very informative planting guide and fertilizer included in the box. The plants are planted and doing well in their new home! I will continue to be a Sooner shopper!

I have purchased many shrubs and plants from Sooner.I can't say how very much this garden center has made my garden shine.Always superb service and their selection is excellent.

Like alot of the reviews, I was looking for something very specific, Parkland Pillar Birches, and couldn't find anything locally. Looking online I found them right away at Sooner Plant Farm. I wasn’t sure what to expect getting 5 trees delivered all the way from Oklahoma to Connecticut. I didn't know what kind of condition they would arrive in or whether they would just be tiny saplings of trees. But I took a chance and placed an order. Their customer service team responded right away and we confirmed a shipping date. When they arrived I was very impressed. The trees showed up in three boxes that FedEx laid down in my driveway. When I opened them up, the trees came right out of the box and looked like I had just picked them up at a local nursery. They were all ~4' tall and fully leafed out, ready to be planted. Sooner Plant Farm's customer service, responsiveness, and quality were great. I will definitely be back to order more plants in the future.

Posted on September 29, 2020, updated September 29, 2020
I ordered a Purple Fog Smoke Tree from Sooner Plant Farm. The tree exceeded my expectations as a Texas Master Gardener. The tree was well branched, fully rooted and packed in a tough box so it arrived just like I had picked it up from the nursery. I will definitely order from Sooner again and will tell all my gardening buddies about Sooner. Definitely a 5 star company!

mskasik
Texas Master Gardener
Texas Master Naturalist

I ordered 4 goldflame spirea bushes. They arrived within 2 days and they are absolutely perfect and beautiful. Such a difference from the other online nursery I've used. And better than most of our local garden centers.

We searched for a unique tree and could only find it available bare root until we found it at Sooner Plant Farm online. We ordered, they set and confirmed a shipping date that would work with our plans and the tree arrived extreamly well packed to protect it during shipment. The tree arrived in excellent condition and was a quality plant. What impressed us the most was that as only a 5 gallon tree was not just a whip, a thin lightly branched tree. The tree that arrived had a 3/4 to 1" trunk, was well branched and looked like a tree that you would pick yourself. Planted it following their directions and after 10 days in the ground the tree has always looked like it was never transplanted. Will order from again - they really have a nice selection and I now know them well enough to trust the quality of their plants.

Recently I was looking to purchase 5 Catoneaster Little Dipper plants and none of my local garden centers had any, so I looked online. I found exactly what I was looking for, in the size I wanted, at a reasonable price and with a guarantee at soonerplantfarm.com. Although I was skeptical about purchasing live plants online and having them survive a cross country shipment, I thought I would try it. Sooner Plant Farm shipped my purchase promptly via FedEx and the plants arrived in a few days, extremely well-packaged and in excellent condition! They exceeded my expectations and I will definitely order from them again. I shared a photo of my new plants with my horticulture major daughter and she was impressed with my experience, said she would use them for a future purchase as well! I wholeheartedly recommend them.

I have been searching for a Sassafras Tree to add to our property but never could locate a reputable source until I found Sooner Plant Farm. The tree arrived today in excellent condition because it was so very well packed. It was especially helpful to receive specific directions for planting as well as fertilizer packets. Sooner Plant Farm has obviously gone the extra mile to insure that their plants arrive in good condition and transplant successfully!

Received my tree peony this week and although the plant was without any leaves it was a well developed, strong and healthy looking peony. A stark difference in quality in comparison to the other peonies I have received from other nurseries.

Highly recommended for all your gardening needs!!

First time ordering from Sooner and I am very pleased with the plants. They were packaged very well. Some plants had the water gel globules on top of them to keep them hydrated. All were wrapped in plastic well enough to keep the water in. An added bonus - Sooner gave a little package of fertilizer to add to the ground for each plant. I have never seen a company do that but I really appreciate that they want the plants to do well. The day they were going to ship they called me about a couple of the Hyssop plants I had ordered and said they were spindly and looking not too healthy. So I substituted with a couple of other Hyssop - just different colors. But his call was friendly and courteous and gave me the option to just cancel the two that were bad or replace. I wish I had ordered from Sooner before. The plants are the perfect size. They are not quite a gallon, but they also are not small. Plants I have ordered from other places were small and sometimes didn't make it. These are more established plants and as long as you put them in the ground right away, they have an excellent chance of making it. Thank you Sooner!

First time ordering from Sooner Plant Farm and was very pleased with the packaging and health of the plants. Definitely they will be my first choice when I'm ready to order any more plants.

The plants I ordered arrived great!! The packing they do is unbelievable. The plants they send are #1, you won't be disappointed if you order from them. They just don't make a sale, they want the customers to be happy and satisfied. They did a special order for me because I wanted something bigger then want they had. They keep me informed about my order, great customer relationship and well satisfied with the awesome plants I receive.

I had a very large order this year 2020.
I bought 2 Beautyberry bushes 10 Sweetspire 2 Viburnum
2 Hollyberries and 2 Butterfly bushes(Pugster) 10 Amsonia
Every shrub was healthy large and ready to bloom. The Amsonia was sold out and Sooner called me informing me they could send part of my order and the rest later. I suggested they wait and send it this fall. They just today 6/22/20 called to ask if I wanted my plants as they were ready to ship. The customer service is outstanding, the plants are healthy and large and the packaging is top notch! You just can't go wrong ordering from this company.
Despite the covid lock down Sooner came through with flying colors. They have me as a future customer.

One of the best, if not THE BEST plant buying experiences I've had in 23 yrs of home gardening. Sooner helped me every step of the way from having to order over the phone because my browser wouldn't load their web page, to having the lowest price for my Vanilla Twist weeping redbud. This lovely tree arrived very healthy, packaged so well that there wasn't a grain of soil in the box. It was about 6 feet tall with full branching and leaves and has been in the ground for 3 days now and has not wilted at all. FedEx tracking was sent regularly including delivery window on the time it would arrive. They sincerely deliver on their promise of 100% satisfaction and in these difficult times I believe gardening can help bring beauty and healing to our world.
Thank you Sooner Plant Farm!

A beautiful mature specimen of "Inaba Shidare" (dwarf red lacewing Japanese Maple) arrived in perfect condition, artfully shaped. My first online tree purchase. Sooner Plant Farm answered all my questions and concerns about shopping online, and I am more than satisfied with my purchase and Sooner Plant Farm's performance. I will not hesitate to shop with them again.

In this difficult 2020 season, Sooner Plant Farm far exceeded my expectations. I am a new customer this year and felt as warmly welcomed as a long-standing customer would be. Colin McInnes was friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. The plants arrived on time, perfectly packed and in great condition. This is not always the case with mail order plants and is especially remarkable this year. Looking forward to future orders with Sooner Plant Farm !

I looked for Great Star Hydrangea for several years and Sooner Plant Farm had it. There was a glitch with payment but I had a response to an email within a few hours and instructions what to do. Once that was completed on Monday, the hydrangea was shipped and arrived safely on Thursday and wonderfully packed. It is now planted and dong well.

I've learned 2 things about buying plants and having them survive. The plants should be large enough to be well established in their pots, and they need to be in good condition. I learned this the hard way when buying small plants online to save money and found out they don't always survive.

I was looking for plants I was having a difficult time finding, and I found Sooner Plant Farm had the 11 Queen of Hearts Brunnera I was looking for. They were in their ECO 1 gallon which is a good sized plant.

The plants arrived and were packed with great care. The shipping department does an amazing job and the plants were in perfect condition. I was amazed at how well the plants were packed.

I can say the following about Sooner Plant Farm:
1. They have great selection of plants including hard to find plants.
2. They sell plants large enough that they will look good right away in your landscaping and will survive once you plant them and take care of them properly.
3. They have set up their shipping packaging so the plants will arrive in good condition.

I can also say they will work with you to settle any issue you have. I also ordered 4 lemony lace elderberry. This also was a diificult plant to find, but Sooner had them in a large 3 gallon root pouch.

When they pulled the plants from stock for the order, they fould the plants had been pruned and were shorter than what they were comfortable sending. Due to the plants not being up to their standards at the time, they needed to delay shipping until they were large enough to send. I was wanting to finish planting the bed I was working on, so I was able to get a local nursery to order them for me. Colin, the sales manager, worked with me, and offered to ship the plants once they were fuller.

Since I was able to find them locally, he cancelled the order for me and gave me a full refund. Not only that, he cancelled the order that same day. I know they are extremely busy, and sometimes you have to wait, but he still managed to get that done immediately. Colin was really good to work with.

I believe you will be satisfied with your plants from Sooner Plant Farm, and if an issue should happen to come up, they will do whatever they can to fix the issue to your satisfaction.

The folks at Sooner stayed in touch with me regarding my order, and when the tree arrived, it was beautifully packaged and in great shape. To my pleasant surprise the tree was a larger and better specimen than I had anticipated. It had been well pruned. I'm very happy.

I had an excellent experience! Nice, big, beefy plants and wonderful service. I have ordered from Sooner before and will do so again.

The plants were exceptionally healthy and the packaging was effective. They were really a different experience in on line plant buying. I would strongly recommend them and I will order from them again.

Sooner Tree Farm was excellent to work with and answered all of my questions in a timely manner. They shipped my tree in safe packaging with instructions and fertilizer.
I will be using them again for sure.

First time online order and with Sooner plant farm. The whole process went very smooth and Colin was very helpful and quick to response so I am very pleased with the experience.

Was concerned how Sooner will pack all the different sizes of plants considering I ordered nine different plants but packages came in very good conditions and with clear instructions so right away I knew I was in good hands.

Plants are all healthy and vibrant and now are in my front yard enjoying sunshine daily. I am happy to write this review and would recommend their company to anyone.

I have ordered from Sooner for a number of years and I am always impressed by the quality and service at your company. If the saying you get what you pay for is used in describing your company, I would say you get what you pay for and more at Sooner.
sincerely,
Travis Hendzel

I was VERY impressed by this nursery. They ship sizeable plants, i.e. NOT 4" tiny pots, and the plants arrive exceptionally well packaged. The tree I ordered had a growth pot, came with fertilizer packages, had soil moist, was plastic wrapped, in a 3' carton. Immaculate and impressive. No transplant shock.
After having ordered from several mail order nurseries and receiving plants that looked as though they might not make it, this was a pleasant surprise. I am ordering again!