Comments regarding Arrowhead Alpines

Having ordered from AA several times, I am shocked, frankly, about my last two orders. I still have not received my 'Cobra' spruce, which I ordered in August. Per my bank, my check for it was cashed; I have contacted AA twice, but have never gotten a reply. Now, it's late October, my planting window is all but closed, I am apparently out ninety-five dollars....and I still have no plant.

As for my second order, for a 'Falling Waters' weeping cypress, I placed it a month after my first order...and I got it relatively promptly, albeit with no warning. Jury is still out on whether it will survive winter; it was very small, with very little viable tissue, and sent with a stone bone dry rootball, appeared desiccated when I got it.

What is going on with this company? This experience is, unfortunately, totally different from any I have previously had with them.

Will update when/if I get my missing spruce tree, and with a progress report on my sickly cypress. Very disappointed, so far.

I see on their website that Arrowhead is holding a big sale on trees and shrubs to clear out that part of their stock. They explain that they are downsizing to refocus on alpines.

I have had many good plants from Arrowhead over the years; in fact, I pretty much landscaped my back yard with their shrubs, which thrived from the start. But I think they are right to downsize.

One of Arrowhead's charms is that of finding unusual gems among their large and incredibly varied stock, but the other side of that was that they sometimes seemed a bit overwhelmed; that is why this is a neutral instead of a positive. On my most recent order, I got some good plants and some not-so-great looking ones. The order went to the billing address instead of the address I specified for shipping, so the plants spent almost a week in the box. Brigitta was most apologetic and based on past experience, I have no doubt that she will do her best to make things right.

Posted on January 2, 2012, updated January 2, 2012
I admit that Arrowhead Alpines does have an impressive plant list, but their plants are definitely hit and miss. I placed a large order last year (2010) - some plants were great; a few were not, and those died before I planted them. This fall I bought more, and when they arrived, some were in broken pots, some were out of their pots, and all were as dry as a bone. Some looked just plain dead - all brown and shriveled. They looked something that should be thrown away, not sold. I called the company, and the man who answered was not concerned - didn't apologize, didn't offer a refund - didn't offer advice. I was dumbfounded with his lack of response. I said I would email them photos of the plants. I did that and sent a follow-up email, and I received the rudest reply from the female owner I have ever received from anyone in my entire life. I was shocked. They must do a very good business to be able to alienate their customers this way. I asked them to remove me from their mailing list. Most of their plants can be found other places; those that cannot are probably not worth having anyway. I will not buy from this company again.

Posted on July 9, 2005, updated January 2, 2012
Arrowhead Alpines is somewhat of an enigma to me. I think the basic problem is if you take most genera, there are only a few really representative species/good doers; the rest may be of horticultural interest only or similar to the representative species. Draba, Acantholimon, and many bulbous genera come to mind immediately. However, Arrowhead basically lists everything, never mind if it's a poor grower, undistinguished, or just like another species listed. This is especially true of the minor bulb section, where many of the offerings are not on the general market for a good reason... they are weak growers, not hardy in the north, or otherwise unsatisfactory. Speaking of hardiness, zones are not listed, which weakens the catalogue and just reinforces the fact that the plants are grown in cool greenhouses, and thus may acclimate poorly to the garden. Most of the South African material is very dubiously hardy in an eastern zone 5-7, and there are even a few houseplants thrown in!! Heat hardiness is extremely important as well, and this topic is rarely broached. Arrowhead seems to believe if it's rare/rarely offered/monotypic it has to be good. Well, that is simply not true. Many rare plants are about as boring as watching paint dry...at least Arrowhead is honest about its "monotype fetish". I don't know what is so fascinating about a monotypic species myself, but there are certainly remote ones here for the taking, again never mind if they are any good. From my last order, Ipomea leptophylla promptly shriveled up (cool winds of May? it was grown in a greenhouse!), Indigofera pendula fried in the first minor dry spell (usually Indigoferas don't need a whole lot of water!) and Dionysia aretoides "Gravetye" browned up on a freak 98 degree day in June. I'm not saying that any of this is directly Arrowhead's fault, just pointing out how difficult it is to reestablish plants that have been grown "soft" in greenhouses. Certainly Arrowhead is not the only nursery to do this, but it is hard to make informed, intelligent decisions about plants when they haven't been truly hardiness tested. The species lilies they sent, by the way, were the smallest I've ever seen...no exaggeration to say they were about an inch high. Two of the stems had broken off at the base due to a large, heavy Yucca baccata being placed directly on top of them. In all fairness, these were replaced in my next order, with a note saying the broken ones would regenerate from the root. (guess what...they haven't) Even the new lilies are in suspended animation, and recently have begun to yellow, getting to a grand height of 2 inches their first year. I have no problem when seedling lily bulbs are offered, IF they are marked as such. The particularly lilies I ordered were quite expensive, and for the price I paid I would expect well established, blooming sized bulbs. What was sent to me wasn't even close to blooming size, and my guess is will take a few years to bloom...we shall see.
I think I would respect Arrowhead Alpines so much more if they utilized the "three year rule" before selling any plant....three years in the open garden with no protection or pampering in a cool greenhouse to see if the offering is a good doer or a weak species/hybrid not worth growing. I don't think it's asking too much to request that a nursery do its homework, rather than let the buyer "experiment" at his own cost. Look at the horticultural disasters that have infiltrated the market in the last 10 years...Coreopsis "Limerock Ruby", advertised as hardy to zone 5 yet a zone 7b plant!, Delosperma floribunda "Starburst", totally intolerant of a cold, wet, winter, yet incredulously advertised as hardy to zone 4! Arrowhead's catalogue contains a lot of weak growers, including many Saxifragas that would never in a million years do well in anything but a cool shady greenhouse with a lot of misting. If you have such a setting, go for it, but to try those very same Saxifragas in the "open garden" is tantamount to putting them directly on the compost pile. And so it is with rare Daphnes, some hardy orchids, etc. They are extremely fussy and have very exacting cultural requirements.
Arrowhead would emerge as a much stronger nursery if they would pare down their offerings to AT MOST 1,000 species and get away from the "if it has chlorophyll we'll list it" mentality. More is certainly not better in the plant world, and the more you garden, the quicker you realize how few species are really fabulous/unique/worth growing. One would have thought that basic fact would have dawned on Arrowhead by now, but watch, next year's catalogue will have even more species to tempt the unsuspecting with...Caveat Empator!

My order arrived today from Arrowhead Alpines. I saw the boxes on the porch this morning and assumed that it was camping supplies my husand ordered, so I left for work and he went to bring the boxes into the house. About four blocks away, he called and said, "It is your order from AA!" (We were both excited waiting for the order.) Hubby took the plants out of the box, took a few teaser pictures that he emailed to me when he got to work, and scanned the packing slip for me.

I placed my order in January and did not receive a confirmation. I sent a letter to change one item two weeks after I sent in the order form. I wanted to cancel that item and substitute in another because I did not do enough research on the first item and it probably would not have made it in my zone (5a). In the letter, I also named a few substitutes, which I did not do when I sent in the order form. Again, no confirmation received, but I didn't sweat it.

EVERYTHING (14 conifers) that arrived was exactly what I wanted! Hubby did not completely unpack everything, but I suspect it will all be pristene. This company really deserves a better rating and reputation. Specialized professionals are eccentric; that is par for the course. The owners are very busy - they do not have time to send out confirmations of every communication customers send to them. They don't have an email address. I've dealt with many of the "hand-holding" companies and found that most of them have merchandise that cannot hold a flag to what arrived today from Arrowhead Alpines.

My qualification is that I ordered only conifers so I cannot attest to other items that they carry. For the future, though, Arrowhead Alpines will be my main source for conifers!!! Thank you Bob and Brigitta!!!

I live nearby, relatively speaking, and was quite excited to visit. The selection of rock garden type plants is quite excellent, the rest is good for an independent nursery.

A man who seemed to work there, possibly, was quite belligerent, and yelled and scowled a lot. Eventually he started yelling at me from some distance away, I cannot imagine why, and I hesitated to take my plant to the register. Happily, a friendly woman took over the register, but I still left a bit disconcerted and have yet to return.

I have visited their location & bought plants there at least twice over several years. These visits followed review of their extensive catalog and were quite frustrating, as I feel their operation is primarily set up for mail order business, not in-person visits. While they are quite accomplished growers, I would not say people skills are Bob's forte. This place is most suited to the educated buyer who already knows the specifics about the particular plants she is interested in purchasing & deals with the company by mail. If you need company personnel to hold your hand while shopping for plants, you'd better go elsewhere or you'll very likely be disappointed.

They have a mind boggling selection. Generally the quality of the plants is average-to-good for mail order. In a couple cases though, I received plants they were way to small to ship. Once I carefully prodded around in the pot to be sure, and is was obvious that what had been sent out was a seedling that could not have been more than a few months old. It needed another year on the bench.

The straw that finally broke this camel's back, however was ordering the long-sought Clematis X texensis 'Gravetye Beauty' which should be red, and getting a mislabeled pink variety, probably the more common Etoile Rose. Since they can't be emailed, and are hard to reach on their non-toll free number, it's just not worth the hassle of trying to arrange a replacement. In the future I will only order from this nursery if they have something I absolutely can't imagine finding somewhere else or being able to propagate myself.

Would have to agree that Bob is not a people person and his wife should keep him locked in the house when the nursery is open to visitors. My husband got chastised for looking at their waterfall adjacent to the gardens. Many signs posted all over "keep out" and that type of thing. Yes, they have a nice selection of hard to find items. Things have been looking pretty dismal when we visited 3 times. Perhaps we expect the plants to look better than they do but then again, why not? Perhaps they should just be mail order and call it a day.

I ordered from Arrowhead for the first time this year. I was pretty pleased with the offerings in the extensive plant catalog. They sent good-sized plants and I have enjoyed having these, many of which were large enough to bloom this year. One Campanula is clearly not what it was labeled as, and I am in the process of contacting them to let them know.