Comments regarding Hirt's Gardens (formerly Hirt's Greenhouse & Flowers)

I wanted a replacement male arctic beauty kiwi for one that had died - the vendor was out for the year and my female seemed lonely :-) I found an inexpensive one on eBay sold by Hirt's. The feedback there was quite positive, so I ordered. The plant arrived quickly. It was relatively small, but healthy and is thriving.

i have purchased 4 different shipments of hibiscus plants. i must say, fast shipping, and plants were as promised on their site. i am very pleased with the condition i received them in, now it is up to me to grow them, so far so good. i will reorder again and again.

I ordered 6 plants from hirtz gardens through amazon, They came fast and the plants were in great shape.

On there ebay store i bought a yucca and an ensete. I made a big mistake. The plants i got came quickly but were both less than the size of a penny. These quickly rotted in my well draining soil because these came right out of tissue culture and had no roots.


I couldn't leave negative feedback or open a case because ebay protects these so called power sellers

I was surprised to read the negative reviews on this company (I had done so after placing an order). I am thrilled to report that my shipment arrived within 3 days; plants were green, healthy, and the soil was still wet in the starter pack of Jamaican Scotch bonnets. The Chocolate habanero was still moist. Yes, the plants were taped down and packed in peanuts. However, as this was my first experience with shipped seedlings, I can only say it was adequate, as my seedlings were still in the pack and/or pot, and were undamaged. Transplant went fine. I am sure that the varieties ordered were the varieties received as everything else up to this point is great! I have never received an online shipment so quickly for such a reasonable cost!!!

I wish I read all this before ordering....more negative feedback than positive?? I ordered a plant and two packets of seeds. Never received one packet of seeds. The plant is questionable. Lots of holes in the leaves....seems like something has been eating it. No flowers or buds yet, not sure how it will do. The customer service is horrible. I contacted them via email as well as sending them an ebay message after ordering. I wanted to know what combined shipping was so I could send them the correct payment. No response. I called and left a message asking the same thing. No response. I finally called again (as I didn't want negative feedback on my ebay account for not paying) & got someone on the phone.

After receiving the incomplete order I emailed/ebay messaged Hirt's again. No response to date. I have been trying to call all morning. I keep getting a recording telling me their hours are M-F 9-4. I started calling Monday at 10. I will update this review once I finally get in touch with their customer service to let you know the outcome.

Posted on July 6, 2008, updated May 28, 2010
Fool me once, shame on you... fool me twice, shame on me...
This month marked the third order I have placed with this company. After the first two I was a bit reluctant, but the seeds I ordered are quite difficult to find elsewhere and were on sale.

Shipping and Handling was close to five dollars for a $0.20 bubble mailer and not even $1 first class postage.
The quantity of seed offered is not worth the price they are charging. (But once again, there aren't a lot of sellers offering some of the peppers and perennials I have ordered.) In some cases I have received commercial packets of seed from Hirt's, where the MSRP was quite a bit lower than what I paid. Not to mention the relatively low germination rate on some of the vegetable seed.

I did receive my order in full and haven't had to contact customer service for any reason. However my second order was shipped nearly two weeks after they emailed me to tell me it was coming.
When I finally got it I found that they had included a note asking for "POSITIVE seller feedback". An entire packet of irish moss seeds didn't even germinate, but I'm letting it go because it would be more of a nightmare to talk to a representative than it would be to buy the seeds elsewhere.

All in all, I would only purchase seeds from this company if I couldn't find these seeds elsewhere. It may take longer to search for the items, but in the long run you'll have less of a headache.

I had found these people on Amazon, but the negative feedback led me not to order. However, they were still there after a couple years, and Amazon is pretty harsh to dud vendors, so I looked at their ratings, which were pretty good. So last week I ordered some things in 3-4 inch pots. They came quickly, were nicely grown but not potbound, and were packed well (Better than a Bluestone I order I got recently). Some were hosta, which matched the variety. Everything else is, well, green! This is the second plant source this year that has sent priority mail--this seems like the way to go, as I know it can go coast to coast in three days. I would order again, through Amazon, not eBay, which has its own set of problems. Frequently when I order perennials from Bluestone, the plants are so small I put them right together in the hole. I thought I would do this with Hirt's six foxglove package, but it looks like I need to start a second patch to hold the much bigger plants!

Posted on April 10, 2003, updated May 4, 2010
I purchased a four pack of pepper plants from this company on ebay a few days ago. They arrived today. Very fast shipping and nice healthy plants. They were well packed in a tiny box with no damage to any of the young plants. The soil was still moist. I am very impressed. I've since ordered many more plants from them, both on ebay and at their online site. If the rest of my plants are as nice as the ones I received today, they have a new customer for life. I found their website to be addicting. They have a wonderful selection of common and not so common vegetable varieties. They definately get a "Thumbs Up" from me.

I ordered, via Amazon, 12 of their "black" and yellow tomatoes on Wednesday. Email to me indicated they were shipped the same day. They arrived on Saturday morning in Newark, NJ. Plants in fine shape. I reused the box with the Styrofoam peanuts to send out some glassware to a friend the same day! Although I ordered these before I read some of the negative comments on here, I can say my own experience was totally satisfactory. Now let's see if my green thumb proves to follow through!

I ordered plants from Hirts via Amazon, then I read the reviews and regreted placing the order after reading the negative ones. My order was placed on April 20, 2010, and I received the order today, April 23. The plants were in excellent condition. Believe me I was pleasantly surprised after reading the negative reviews. I will order again from Hirts. What a positive experience!

They have stolen my bristlecone bonsai photo and used it without permission on two separate occasions on multiple sales websites each time! I have even asked them not to do so. Very dishonest! No company who commits intellectual property theft should be trusted.


David

We spent $86 before shipping totals and bought through their eBay store, last spring. Here are two pictues of what we recieved (you'll need to copy and paste the links in the address bar above):
//www.flickr.com/photos/35954859@N03/4478463244/
//www.flickr.com/photos/35954859@N03/4478463230/

After fighting with paypal (Hirts refused to talk to us about it), we were told that nothing could be done.

The red hot pokers were fine, if tiny, but everything else died before the season was out (we have a lovely bed full of healthy plants - we were not to fault).

Would never even consider ordering from them again.

I ordered Dr. Earths Organic Citrus Fertilizer from their Hirts Garden site. After waiting two weeks I received Espoma Citrus with a Dr. Earth's UPC sticker over the Espoma one.
There wasn't any return info or invoice so I called Allan Hirt. He said they didn't do it and all fertilizers are chemicals. I have not been able to return the product for a refund and it seems Hirt's doesn't care! I live within ten miles of Hirts and had shopped there for two decades. I do not like their new irresponsible attitude and will not shop there again! I thought tampering with product labels was illegal.

"I have not worked for Hirt's Greenhouse & Flowers for over 6 years. The purchase she is referring to was actually purchased directly from Amazon.com and must be returned to them for the refund. She purchased the Espoma Citrus Food by mistake instead of the Dr. Earth Citrus Food.

Allen Hirt"

Buyer Beware- I wish I would have researched her before I purchased from them. There are so many other Honest and reliable companies to work with, why choose one that is about 50/50 with good and bad feedback? Is your garden and time worth a 50/50 shot? I ordered several tomato plants from Hirt's and selected a delivery date of May 1, so that I was able to plant them when it was time. March 2, I had a box arrive to me with the plants in them, 2 MONTHS early. I was offered a refund, but only if I PAID FOR SHIPPING the plants back to them. Not my fault, should not be at my expense. Did not respond to my emails, POOR Customer Service!!! Like I said there are so many other Honest and reliable companies to work with, why choose one that is about 50/50 with good and bad feedback? Is your garden and time worth a 50/50 shot? Mine isn't. Shop elsewhere.

I have ordered from Hirt's on Ebay for several years and have always had very good luck with their plants. The delivery service is very fast.

Note: This company is on eBay as "hirtsgardens."

Their store page calls them, "Hirts Gardens, Seedmart and Bulbmart."

Wow, I almost ordered from this company. Thank you everyone for your feedback about the seemingly awful customer service; I surely will not order from them.

I ordered several packages of seed from Hirt's - in particular, broccoli romanesco. When the seeds sprouted, I was skeptical about having the correct seed. Well, they had mislabled the seed and it grew out to be dinosaur kale! Of course, this is a much more common and less expensive seed. I contacted the company by e-mail, and got no response. I then checked Dave's Garden (which I should have done first) and saw all the negative responses. I believe all I got was a bait-and-switch routine and in my opinion this company is dishonest.
*Please think twice about ordering from Hirt's Seeds!!!*

I purchased a "P. lutea" from Hirts Greenhouse; I was very happy to receive it as I had lost my other plant to a fungal attack. I received that plant and it did indeed look to be P. lutea....until it flowered. The ping labeled as P. lutea is purple flowered which either means I have a super rare P. lutea (yeah right) or Hirts sent me a misidentified plant. I contacted hirts and was told to send my order and payment information along with an image of the ping in question. I submitted all the evidence and got such a short reply "Our grower assures us the plant is lutea" So fundamentally Hirts when presented with indisputable evidence will not do anything to resolve a mistake on their part. It is my suggestion all davesgardens members refrain from purchasing from Hirts. Matt Hirt is indeed a poor owner/grower/businessman and has no issues with committing what amounts to fraud - take this from someone in the Horticulture industry DO NOT buy from Hirts Greenhouse you might not get what you ordered and the quality of the plants you do receive is no where comparable to the price paid.

I ordered 25 Giant Shirley Foxgoves for $34.99 at an end of season sale. Then I read the feedback at Dave's Garden and was a bit concerned with some of the negative feedback. No worries. The plants arrived just a few days after I placed my order on October 23. They were large, albeit somewhat rootbound but healthy otherwise. I wasted no time in planting them and they seem to be doing well. The only minor complaint I have is the packing: 10,000 peanuts are not necessary; crumpled up newspaper would have done the job nicely. I will definitely order from Hirt's again.

I am an experienced gardener. Ordered 100 saffron crocus bulbs. Received in fall 2008. Planted. Assured excellent drainage, etc. This year 2009, no bloom! I have other types of bulbs all over the property and in raised boxes, behind fences to keep pests away etc. These are all winners year after year. Crocus - nothing.

I placed an order with Hirt's on Tuesday October 6th 2009 and I received my order on Friday October 9th 2009 in excellent condition. The plants I ordered were 2 Bhut Jolokia
{Ghost Chili Peppers} I received 2 plants in 1, what a sweet deal I received 3 total for the price of 2. Thank you Hirt's, we will be doing business again! Donna, Ocala Florida

I had ordered a few GHOST PEPPER PLANTS online from HIRT'S. Paid with my credit card and got the plants. I had put a lot of time and effort in growing these pepper plants. A few months had gone by, my plants are starting to have peppers. But the bad thing is that I realize they were not as hot as I thought it should have been. Then I do some research and realize it was not ghost pepper they had sent me. I had called and the lady told me to send the pictures and my information straight to the owners email. Which I did. The owner respond to my email, stating that i need to send the plants back and my proof of purchase. So I reply to the email stating that i have no problem sending them there plants back but i don't have my proof of purchase because it have been at least 3-6 months long. I mean how was I suppose to know that they ship me the wrong plants and therefore I need to keep my receipt for 3 to 6 months. So i asked them if they keep there records for that long, if they think I should still have mine. In that case they should check their record for my purchase. They reply to me saying that they will not issue a refund if i don't have proof of purchase. These people are very bad business. DON'T BUY FROM THEM!!!!!!!

what is with the horrible service? when you ask a question, you are lucky to get an answer, and when you do, it is a short rude response. matt hirt should consider being a little more professional since he is representing his company with his succint and gruff replies!

I bought six OSO easy roses from Hirt's. Two arrived dead--dried up!--and the others looked pretty roughed up. I contacted them and they said that I needed to take pictures. Well, I am behind the times and don't have a camera, particularly a digital one. They would not refund or make any other suggestions without pictures. I feel that their customer service really is awful. Basically they called me a liar. Never will I buy from them again!

I have many friends who like to grow chiles. This past growing season I have had 4 people contact me to identify their plants. All of the plants were not the species they were supposed to be. All of them were purchased from Hirts through E Bay. I already got the wrong plants from them myself this year. They sold me 4 Bonda Ma Jaques habanero plants that were not Bonda Ma Jaques. I did get a refund. But now I fear my 12 Chocolate Bhut Jolokia plants are not what they are. I still have to wait to see pepper pods. My friend on the east Coast bought the same plants and they are all another species. I talked with a woman from Illinois who tried twice to get Scotch Bonnet and both times got the wrong plants. Another man from Ohio purchased Bhut Jolokia that is not Bhut Jolokia and my friend from LA also now has discovered she has the wrong plants. So far I am the only one that got a refund. Hirts refuses to give a refund to these others. They swear they have the correct seed. But what kind of nursery makes this many errors!!! I truly believe they do not have the correct chile pepper seed and know it. They count on the E Bay transaction being too old, because it will take awhile before your chile plants bear fruit. So if my 12 Chocolate Bhut Jolokia plants turn out to be something else I will sue them. I sell rare chiles for high dollar so I have the right to sue them for wasting my time. So if you are mad here is another thing you can do. Most states require Agricultural paperwork to ship live plants. Find out if this applies to your state. If so report them. The fines they will pay will be far more than the money they make by not making a refund!!!

I have had a number of plants ordered from Hirt's. Tomato and pepper plants, a tree peony,and two oriental poppies. All arrived quickly, in great condition. The prices were great and the plants are growing and thriving.

I was late on starting my tomatoes this year, so I decided to try to order starts online. Was looking for a particular heirloom tomato that was my favorite of last summer, and I found it online at Hirt's at a pretty good price.

I ordered 8 different varieties of heirloom tomato starts from Hirt's through their Amazon store. I paid for standard shipping, but I received my package via USPS in 2 days! While some of the varieties were maybe only 2 inches tall, others were 4-5", so it balanced out. (Might have been disappointed if I'd only received one or two varieties and they'd all been on the small side, but as it is, I can't complain). Planted them out in larger pots the day I got them and out of the 36 plants that I received, only one did not make it. Not bad at all, and overall I'm very satisfied. Great prices and a great selection of heirloom varieties.

I ordered roughly three hundred dollars of plants this spring thru ebay. They were shipped immediately. Most of the plants arrived looking o.k.
The packing IS deplorable. The bottom of one box nearly fell through when I first moved it.
But for a price usually less then two dollars a plant, I didn't expect much more (and besides by then I'd read the reviews here.)
The meconopsis however looked awful. (I don't think they have anything to improve drainage in their medium, so if they soak plants and it's hot, the plants can rot.)
I e-mailed them and four replacements were sent out immediately. And arrived much healthier. Of my whole order so far I have only lost two of the replacement meconopsis. So the plants, though sometimes small, can grow.
However, they rarely reply to e-mails. Obviously from stories here, and obviously from their pretending to write a customer review here they can get quite over-sensitive and defensive. Their replacement practice and policy can be rather random.
Another plant which I had ordered 25 of arrived in the wrong color. I have had one response to many, many e-mails about these plants.
I suspect a company which has grown wildly; a mom and pop outfit which has been unable to keep up with normal customer service, and hasn't even realized it should be either positive and consistent. I don't think they intend to cheat people, they just can't manage their business.
They think their good ratings on e-bay and amazon will be enough, and had never heard of dave's garden before this spring.

I have purchased from Hirt's Gardens on ebay prior to attempting to purchase again now. The plants I received before were mostly good and did well. However now he and his company won't even bother to reply to my before purchase questions. Evidently they don't need business as customer service is terrible. After reading all the comments especially the negative ones it's enough to make any one not purchase anything from this place.

Hirt's and all of your others names you'd better do something fast or you will be out of business soon

No customer service ===== no customers!!!

This company stinks. My plants arrived, just about DOA. The roots were so matted, I can't imagine how long they've been sitting in the pots they arrived in. I also ordered seeds from them and I don't have high hopes of germination. It's $30 of my life I'll never get back again. Buyer beware. This company is horrible and should be ashamed of the products they sell.

my god, well it looks like i have a 50-50 chance,huh....well it seems as though most of you have ordered plants or bulbs...i have ordered pumpkin seeds of different varieties what should i do if none of them ever grow? this is my first time ordering online..............im a little worried.bummer.

Last fall I bought several packets of seed from Hirts through Amazon, because I had gift certificates there, and they had some unusual varieties. One packet they sent me was not what I ordered, but I didn't complain. However, most of the 8 or so not inexpensive packets contained no viable seed at all. Of course it took me through the winter and into the spring to determine that they were not viable, so I doubt I can do anything to get my wasted money back.

Recently bought 4 tomato plants from this place. They came in a box. When I took the plants out of the box, they were all twisted and one had broken at the stem. The leaves have diseased spots all over. I worked with the merchant to get a refund. After sending pics, the merchant said they looked fine. Well they don't look fine comparing to tomato plants I have seen at local nurseries! Buyers beware. I will never order from this place again

I've ordered a couple of times from this company, as I was attracted to the low price on Ebay. It took awhile to get here, but the plants were generous and healthy. Thing is, their customer service leaves alot to be desired. I called, and the woman who answered seemed moody and had no knowledge of the plant I had inquired about. "I dunno. *sigh* Hoooold on..." I was on hold for awhile, but she finally got back on the line and said they had one more of a particular plant. I saw they relisted it on Ebay for 17.99 rather than the original 7.99. Also, they don't answer their emails or Ebay correspondence. This can't be good for business. I won't be doing business with them anymore.

This winter I won item(s) on ebay that had been posted by Hirts. Yes, Hirts uses ebay to sell plants! I couldn't read or see my winnings on ebay from Hirts Garden even though I was the winner.

Numerous times I contacted them and it was always Ccathy, from Hirts, that kept claiming she couldn't see it either (?) I continued asking when my winnings would be shipped by them. My queries were being responded to by Ccathy who kept claiming she couldn't "see" my winnings either. Then out of no where Ccathy claimed it must have been "my cart must have been emptied out and so I never paid for my order, thus there is nothing to ship. (?)

Finally she asked was it something I bought through Amazon, herself, or Hirts. Again, I told her Hirts. Back and forth the emails went. Me, constantly trying to find out when my ebay/Hirts winnings would be shipped. Ccathy was completely ignoring my emails by then so I sent a email with ALL of Ccathy's emails attached - to a email I addressed to "Supervisor" of Customer Care Hirts. No response.

This morning I received a email from Ccathy that my monies for my ebay/Hirts winnings, $26.12 Hosta's , have been refunded to my Pay Pal.account. Rather than shipping my ebay/Hirts winnings.

All of a sudden Ccathy can "see" my winnings on ebay/Hirts from Hirts , know exactly how much I had bid on my ebay/Hirts order, managed to refund my order instead of shipping my plants.(?)

This IS Hirts on Ebay

. Apparently Ccathy IS the Supervisor at Hirts Customer Care, and their spokesperson for Hirts/Ebay.. That is my take on it.

This IS Hirts on Ebay. NEVER bid on anything out there by Hirts. Never.

Eileen Wilson.

I ordered 8 echinaceas and 4 globe thistles through eBay. I was aware they were STARTER PLANTS grown in 2x3" containers. Shipping was timely and the starter plants were shipped with tape all over to protect the dirt on the tiny pots. The plants looked healthy but obviously they were soo tiny as if they just sprouted from seeds. So tiny that 20 days later despite TLC, out of the 8 echinaceas, only 2 are growing new leaves, 3 are holding their breaths, and the other 3 looks like they're gonners.
This is not really a big deal but what I don't like about Hirt's is their return/refund policy which is not worth the hassle. First they only give you 15 days to return the plants (in most cases it takes more than two weeks to know for sure if your plant is growing or not). Second, they require to fill up their return form and actually ship the dead plants back to them at your expense. The money you pay for shipping some dead starter plants is not worth it.
The globe thistles are showing signs of life nevertheless. I would have leaned more towards a NEUTRAL rating, but because of all the hassle you have to go through for refunds/exchange and only 15 days allotment for starter tiny plants, I'll give them a negative rating.

This was my first time ordering by mail and I did not know what to expect. The price could not be beat. My order of 16 heirloom tomato plants arrived in 5 days. I was surprised that they were crammed into an 8" by 8" inch box. The dirt was taped down and the plants were surrounded by styrofoam peanuts. The plants were big and appeared to be healthy enough to survive the shipping. A little water and a day of sun was all they needed.