Comments regarding Sunshine Farm & Garden

Just received fifty Primula Japonica and they are magnificantly beautiful !!! They are in 2-inch pots & were on sale. The healthy leaves were much larger than I expected with every pot having nice white roots coming out of the bottom.

The plants were expertly packed in a tray which was covered by a net bag securely tied to prevent disturbance in transit. Then the extra space was filled with foam peanuts to further prevent movement...all this in an extra thick cardboard box.

I had to co-ordinate the order with a friend from a different city...he mailing a check to Barry Glick separately from mine. Barry worked well with me and was quick to respond to my numerous emails. Will I order again ???...YOU BETCHA !!!

I've ordered 100 helebores from Sunshine Farm & Garden. They have all flourished in my garden for over 4 years. The were packed VERY WELL so for those who commented negatively on the condition of the plants upon arrival I wonder if it's the postal carrier that is to blame rather than Sunshine Farm & Garden.

I love the website too, it's so informative and the photos of Barry's gardens are wonderful and his personal response to my e-mails is the personal touch I appreciate. Barry's passion for gardening and expert knowledge of plants comes through and I feel free to call or e-mail with a question or comment and always get a personal, down-to-earth, grass-roots, "hey don't you just LOVE to dig in the dirt" response - so I feel I'm dealing with my own personal plant expert not just a 'company'.

My plants arrived shortly after I ordered them: hellebores, ferns, phlox, and a few other things. In all, a large order -- at least for me. The hellebores were outstanding -- really a nice group -- the ferns were great, and everything else was OK (although some of the tiarella looked a bit fatigued). I should have ordered more of the hellebores and ferns, but now it will wait for next year.

Very positive~~plants arrived quickly, in good condition, big and healthy! Will order again and again, and will try to drive over to his Farm; he has many rare and valuable offerings!

WOW X 3!
I ordered 20 Hellebore seedlings from Sunshine Farms. The robust plants arrived VERY healthy and in perfect condition—not a single leaf damaged. The order was promptly shipped and arrived as scheduled. The price for the seedlings was outstanding, too. They're small, one year old plants in four inch pots and a terrific way to quickly get a good showing in my garden. These are un-bloomed plants from Sunshine Farms' own breeding program. I can't wait to see what treasures might show up when they bloom next winter. I'm sure I'll be back.

Owner Barry is a hoot. I love his e-mails. He cheerfully answered my several messages.

I have purchased a lot of plants from Barry and for the most part have had good results. I am establishing perennial beds that include some unusual species. I share many of my plants with my kids who are doing the same thing. A couple of examples:

I have 6 Bergainia ciliata that I bought from Barry and they are the coolest plants!!!! You have to go to his website to see them. I have them along a brick walk and they are gorgeous this year. The Hellebores are getting big and filling in and I am anxious to see what the flower colors will be come early spring.

Also, I just got back from my daughter’s house on the Eastern Shore of MD and her Aster tataricus are in bloom – spectacular!!! They are the showiest of any plants in her flower beds right now. I wish I had enough sun at our place to support them.

I recently ordered some plants from Barry Glick at Sunshine Garden and Farm. They arrived in 2 days. Whoever readied the plants for shipping and packed the box paid attention to the minutest of details. It was most appreciated.

A woodland garden is, for me, one of the most entrancing sights in the world. The best have a quiet, calm beauty with modest-seeming plants that truly become spectacular when you take the time to bend to inspect them. As your eyes adjust to the conditions, where ever you look, you begin to find some small treasure gently spreading to form a colony at your feet. So, during a brief trip to America from England last week, I was delighted to meet Barry Glick, helleborus breeder and guardian of Sunshine Farm & Gardens, one of the best-stocked and most magical of woodland gardens.

As a visitor to America, I cannot bring Barry’s plants home, only admire them and hope with all my heart that they can somehow be spread across America, which always seems to have so much untapped potential for shade gardening. I do wish we had this kind of service in England. It’s hard not to feel a little like a hungry child pressing its face against a sweetshop, watching the adults inside mostly oblivious to the rows of sweet jars on the shelves.

Life is full of possibilities. What suits one person does not suit them all. However, if you are serious about creating a medium to large-scale shade garden and want to learn more about the thousands of wonderful, often rare plants that love shade, may I suggest you take the time to explore Sunshine Farm and its website? Gardeners who love plants, enjoy diversity and are prepared to track it down; who value native plants and would enjoy individual advice before they buy them; and who have respect for good-natured, great plantsmanship are, in my view, highly unlikely to be disappointed.

Visit the farm and garden (by arrangement only) if you can. It may not be the quickest of journeys, but it could just be one of the most memorable days of your life and you’ll have a chance to meet a delightful, highly knowledgeable new friend.

If you care about your environment and feel inspired to become a guardian yourself of even a fraction of the thousands of rare and native woodland plants grown at Sunshine Farm, take advantage of Barry’s experience which is always generously shared. Above all, buy his plants, enjoy watching them gradually multiply in your garden and make a happier future for us all. With plant diversity about to become one of the most significant of the world’s preoccupations over the next century, your children’s children will thank you.

Alternatively for the armchair gardener, visit http://www.sunfarm.com and take the garden tours to find shade garden images that will sooth and delight your soul on the busiest of days. This site should really be prescribed to reduce the nation’s blood pressure: it will put a smile on most people’s faces.

We are a small nursery, and purchased a small wholesale order from Barry Glick. I understand he sells retail also. I have grown Barry Glicks famous 'Sunshine Strain' of hellebores before. They are known to be the most vigorus and colorful hybrids, and I found them very hardy, and easy to grow. I thought I would try to contact Sunshine Farms directly, instead of through a re-wholesaler. I had corresponded with Barry for awhile, before purchasing. I was very pleased with the way he treated my small order, and my questions, especially since I know his main business must be with large companies. I purchased his Sunshine strain of hellebores, they arrived in excellent condition, with great top growth, good roots, and solid crowns. We could not have been more pleased. Also, I must mention it was most entertaining dealing with Barry, everyone should experience the Barry Glick phenomenon at least once. In addition he followed up with a postcard asking how the plants were, something unfortunately the large wholesalers often do not do. As a retail nursery, I would like to have more wholesale companies like Sunshine Farm and Garden to work with. I will continue to purchase from Barry in the future.

We ran a Coop this past October for four Sampler Trays of Helleborus and other perennials. We did this first, to check out Barry's plants and customer service...and second, to see how our wonderful gardeners at Dave's Garden would respond to the actual plants we ordered.

We had a totally POSITIVE Coop. My communication with Barry was fast, very informative with quick answers to all my many questions and to several of the coop members that emailed him personally.

Barry quoted an exact price for me and he was true to his word.
We mailed the check off to him and within the week, the plants had arrived via UPS. His packaging was fantastic. My own personal experience with UPS for sending my own plants from my nursery has not been good....but his came through great even though the box had been overturned at some point during their shipment. My nephew works for UPS and he warned me they move billions of boxes each day and they are turned and tossed every which way.

Barry uses a great stacking method of packaging that protects his plants. I was amazed that with all the tossing they received, that very little soil came out in the box. The soil was still intact upon arrival. They arrived in such great shape that my sister thought I had sprayed them with some special spray to make the color brighter. Some of the plants were in our hoop house for over a month while waiting on their new homes...and they all came through this beautifully!

We cannot say enough good things about Barry, his Sunshine Farm & Garden nursery, his great communication and his ability to share his love for his gardens with others.

We are in the process of offering another coop to start mid Fedruary with plants from his gardens even now, December 2003. This will complete the first of March 2004 for order taking.

We are very excited about offering our home state, South Carolina, more exposure to plants that are very unfamiliar
to our local gardeners. Barry's plants are going to have the best life in our shade garden...and we are thankful to him for a fantastic and very informative website! We feel honored to have the ability to share his plants and information with others!

Stephanie Pierce
Carolyn McDaniel
Owners, Aquatic Farm and Nurseries

We met Barry Glick last year at an illustrated lecture he gave on Hellebores at nearby Hancock Shaker Village and were very impressed with his knowledge and enthusiasm. These same qualities are evident in his e-mail "Glick's Picks" which we receive and read with much enjoyment. We have now ordered plants several times and have been very impressed with their quality. Further, we have never received plants from afar that were so well packaged. Inasmuch as he carries plants that, in many cases, are out of the main stream increases our interest and we have every intention of continuing to buy from him.

Very positive! I have a beautiful three acre garden thanks to the guidance of Barry Glick of Sunshine Farms and Gardens. We found him to be generous of advise and authentic in his love for gardening. We have had no issues with him professionally and found him to be faithful to his pricing, true to his product and prompt with his delivery. He is an irrepressable fountain of knowledge and invaluable as a resource.
It is a shame that a singular group of gardeners have found the need to jump on a negative bandwagon, but feel confident that despite the acrimony many avid plantsmen will continue to avail themselves of his services and knowledge.