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

Ordered four packs of vegetable seeds at a better price than almost all of the competitors. Got them in TWO DAYS! I got a few extra seeds of each and they were clearly labeled and packaged nicely.

I ordered a goldfish plant from Hirt's through Amazon. It arrived rather quickly but it looked pretty beat up when I opened the box. I followed the instructions that were enclosed and within 24 hours it looked good as new. I lost about 20 small leaves (out of maybe 200-300) and there were a couple of broken stems. I just popped the broken stems in a shot glass and they are already trying to sent out roots. I'm pretty happy and am looking forward to doing business with them again.

I ordered 5 packages of poppy seed from this company in October. Two were sent right away. Two were backordered but came within a few days. One never came at all. When I contacted the company by email to find out when the last one was to come, they told me that their records said they had already shipped it. I kind of doubt that since I have not had trouble with stuff missing in the mail and since the cultivar that never came is out of stock at many other nurseries. i will not order from this company again and should have paid attention to their poor rating here on watchdog.

I received an amayrillis bulb as a gift ordered from Hirt's. I knew what had been ordered for me so when I received something else, I contacted Hirt's. The customer service was awful. I asked why I didn't get what was ordered. Response: "we had an employee that wasn't paying attention to what she was doing." I was then told to return the in-correct bulb and they would "make a note" to send me the correct bulb next year!!! I asked if the gift sender had been notified that the correct bulb was not sent and was essentially told that that wasn't their problem. I finally told them that I would just advise the sender to longer do business with them.

Also, my sister-in-law received an amaryllis bulb from Hirts (same gift sender) and it was rotten.

I just received my first order from them, some morning glory seeds. They arrived in a reasonable time and had culture instructions. I decided not to plant them, though, for a couple of months until danger of freezing in the Riverside, CA area is past.

This is my first experfience with Hirt's and I am very pleased with the service and the beautiful healthy plant I received in 4 days.

I have purchased bulbs from them via Ebay, on several occasions. In one order I received nothing more than dried out husks, the date on the package was for the PREVIOUS year! They were replaced, but when the 1 that survived bloomed it was not what I ordered. None of the others, and we are talking about a dozen or so, never even sprouted!Whenever I find something I want and they are the seller---I look elsewhere. Buyer beware!!

August 20. 2007---Terrible experience with Hirt's through Amazon. The plants I received were a total disgrace. I had several conversations with Pam (she was always very nice) Allan is the owner and he is the problem. I sent him digital photos of the plants---no comment and this has been dragging on since July. No response no offer of any replacement so I took my only recourse and had my credit card remove the charge from my account.NOTE: IF YOU PAY BY CREDIT CARD YOU CAN HAVE THAT CHARGE REMOVED FROM YOUR BILL. YOU MUST PROVE YOUR CASE BUT THAT IS NO PROBLEM WHEN YOU KEEP YOUR PAPERWORK.

It is very obvious to me why they have such a negative record, it's a shame that Amazon deals with them. I would NEVER deal with them or say a good word about them in the future.

Purchased 2 tomatillo plants from them recently. Good communication, plants shipped very quickly, and were exactly as promised.

I recently ordered from Hirt's Gardens for the second time. My plants (16 Serrano Peppers) arrived quickly and in great shape. Even better, the plants were advertised as 4" high but were more than 12" and already flowering. I know some people have had bad experiences, but my two transactions have been good.

I placed an order for 5 African Violets from Hirt's through Amazon. They arrived in a timely manner however they were a real big mess. The 4" pots were set into a Priority Mailing box with nothing covering them. On top of this they had poured styrafoam packing peanuts. One of the five plants was still upright the rest had spilled. Soil was stuck to the leaves of the plants, most of the leaves were damaged.

I contacted there customer service twice and have never heard back. I could of returned them but having purchased through Amazon and using a gift certificate I could only receive credit or replacement. I had little doubt the shipping would improve with replacements so I attempted to salvage the plants.

They appeared to have been beautifully full developed plants when they went into the box for shipping but are now not much more than starter plants and I'm not sure they will make it.

Needless to say I will never order from Hirt's again.

I purchased Chicago Hardy fig from one of their eBay auctions and it arrived quickly and safely packed (there was even tape over the pot to keep the dirt in it - I've received many plants from others in the mail with dirt spilled all over the box)

I found this company by doing an ebay search for a particular plant that I was having trouble finding elsewhere. They had a good ebay rating, so I took a chance and am really glad that I did. I have never before received such nice plants in such good shape. They were very large, very healthy, very well packaged (not even a crinkled leaf) and arrived in record time. I couldn't believe my eyes. Because I was so thrilled with this order, I came on specifically to look for Hirt's Greenhouse so I could leave a good rating here too and am totally blown away by the negative experiences. Maybe I was just lucky, but I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and will try them again.

Out of my 5-plant order through their Amazon.com storefront, 2 were wrong. I ordered Cyperus alternifolia (Umbrella Plant) @ 2/$5.99 total, and got 2 Darmera peltata (Umbrella Plant) @ $5.99/ea. These weren't the plants I wanted, but the error was in my favor, and the cost to ship them back is more than my original $5.99 I paid. Sooooo, I guess I'll keep them.

Just beware that maybe items aren't what they are supposed to be.

Shipping was really quick; 3 days from when I ordered to when I received them.

April 2007, I ordered the double pink coneflower from them because my expensive root from Parks Seed dyed after about 3 weeks, Hirts sent me a very nice potted double coneflower, which now has a bud. The red one they sent came with two buds, I also the following weeks ordered some of their daylillys, everything was just fine. Also when the plants arrived on a Wed, I didnt have time to plant them so I just set them in window sill till weekend came.
I will gladly oder from Hirts Garden and no more from Parks.

I ordered a harlequin big leaf hydrangea, a pinky winky hydrangea, and two rubymine phlox. I was very impressed with the size of the plants, and they were delivered within two days. I am very pleased with their service, and will order from them again. Their prices are good, and their products are healthy. I am very happy with the plants I received. These items were purchased off ebay, which is the first time I have ordered plants off ebay before. I will order again in the future.

I ordered seeds from Hirt's for the first time this year. Seeds were in good condition, and are just starting to pop up. I was impressed with the unique variety of seeds and some plants they have to offer.
Though they are lacking in planting/sowing instuctions, at least with the seeds I ordered.

Nothing but great things to say about them... Quality plants and good prices. Shipping has always been 2-3 days max.

If you are ordering more than one plant, order them all at the same time, otherwise you will pay separate shipping even though they packed it in the same box.

I ordered to two wisteria bonsais. They were really bad looking. I am trying to nurse them back to health. I will have to let you know how it works out. From reading the other post I don’t think I will be buying from them again.

I bought an oxalis (shamrock) from Hirts through ebay, and I couldn't be more pleased. The plant came well-packaged in a clay pot. It was healthy, blooming, and the dirt in the pot was still moist. It continues to bloom profusely.

i recently sent an order to hirt's greenhouse, paid with a money order and received my plants 9 days later. plants were larger than i expected and true to name. i would order again from them.
louis, 48150

My first order from Hirt's was really sub quality. I was disappointed, and had ordered several things that were unique. Not one of them survived.

I was on the "lust hunt" for a true blue Hibiscus, and fell in love with their deep "Blue Satin" variety. So... I decided to give them one last chance this spring. The plant arrived in perfect condition - exactly as it had been described. The shipping was a little slower then it should have been, but the plant was none the worse for wear.

It's a gamble...

I ordered a clematis from them on Ebay. It took 4 emails & 30 days before they finally shipped it. The plant was very nice, but shipping was ??? 30days!!! I will NEVER order from them again.

I have ordered several items from Hirts through Ebay and thought I'd order a few things from their web site. The plants arrived all in excellant condition. A couple of weeks later I placed two large orders one containing mostly irises and dahlias and the other a few misc items. A couple of weeks later I received the irises. All beautiful and in excellant condition. The packing slip showed that the complete order was included. I emailed them promptly to let them know that the dahlias were not included. No response. Sent a second email a week or so later... no response.
I called customer service. I explained the situation and assurred the lady that it did not say the dahlias were backordered. Without getting enough information to look up my order, she told me she was going to look it up and laid the phone down. I sat there for over 15 minutes listening to people talk in the background before someone hung the phone up. I immediatley called back and got the answering machine. When I began leaving a message, I was again disconnected. I sent several emails stating that I no longer wanted to know the status of my order, but just wanted a refund on the remaining items. Never got a response and never got any of the other items.

Since then, I have accidentally ordered from them again on Ebay. (Seedmart....go figure) and received the order in perfect condition.

Final thoughts: IF you get your order, you will be pleased with the items. It is a gamble.

yikes! i just read some of the ratings below and can't believe the company i dealt with could be the same as the company everyone dealt with? so much so, that i made sure about the addresses and the phone numbers. they matched.

this is my 4th order with them. 3rd one this year arrived today. in absolute PERFECT condition. and i'm a FREAK about what i consider excellent condition. the last order they left one thing out and sent me one wrong plant. the customer service was excellent. they told me to keep the plant (which was beautiful but not ordered by me) and immediately sent me the correct plant which was so beautiful i couldn't believe it??? so are we talking about the same people here...or am i just lucky?? because all 4 of my orders where perfect and every time i spoke with customer service they were excellent?? i also puchased some bushes from them. i expect these tiny little things for the price they were asking. but instead i rec'd large beautiful healthy plants.

well, i can only be honest about my experience and certainly no one elses. but i wouldn't hesitate to purchase from them again.

TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE. The absolute worst plant experience ever. They have the worst customer service of anyone I have ever dealt with. I bought some plants from them, the first one spent more than a week in the mail because they sent it by UPS instead of by priority mail like I specified during checkout and it was shipped late in the week and UPS does not transit on weekends. The plant arrived weak but has since rebounded some. My second plant was pretty much incident free, shipped on Monday and arrived on Friday but again, I chose priority and it was shipped by UPS. I bought one more plant and this is where the nightmare is happening. Although I received an absolute beautiful plant, it was the wrong plant. I offered to buy it at about $10 off since he would have to reimburse me for shipping and he wouldn't do it, made me ship it back to him so I did. Then he again sent it UPS and it got stuck on the train so yesterday, it should have been here and it didn't make it. I e-mailed him and he just tells me to file a UPS claim if it is dead. Never once and explanation, doesn't say sorry, doesn't do anything except get off of an e-mail as fast has he can. Never once have I received anything more than a one line reply from my e-mails and not once has he answered an ebay message, I had to find his personal e-mail and deal with him like that. Save yourself a serious headache and think before you buy from this company.
Mark

I have bought from them off ebay at least 5 times. The flower bulbs are big and healthy and always bloom for me. The "live" plant, ones that come in pots are not that great. They either look like they are about to die or sick. The last ones I bought had little buggies coming out of the dirt!!!!!! I had to spray all of my plants after that. I think I will stick to bulbs, IF I ever buy from them again.

I ordered many kinds of seeds from their ads posted on Ebay. They advertise and sell a lot of vegetable & flower seeds that are not the run-of-the-mill varieties (They also command a higher price for just a few seeds of any one particular variety.) Seeds were OLD and had minimal to nil germination. I am an experienced gardener with 35+ years of growing and selling vegetables. I have a greenhouse, heated germination mats and professional lights so it was not my ignorance or inexperience that was to blame for the poor germination rates. In general, I feel that everyone should be cautious about buying seeds on Ebay unless you KNOW you are buying from a trusted source. Hirts Greenhouse does NOT fall into that catagory and I will not purchase seeds from them again, period.

Took my money and will not respond to emails. What a bunch of bums. DO NOT BUY FROM THESE PEOPLE!!!

Terrible experience. Quick payment, but no delivery and no response to five emails. They do business on ebay under the name "SEEDMART".

DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY. THEY ARE ONLY INTERESTED IN MAKING MONEY OFF INFERIOR QUALITY PLANTS.Ordered 3 canna bulbs off e-bay. It cost me $19 for bulbs and shipping. The bengal tiger bulb, which I was the reason for ordering to begin with, was tiny, dead, and rotten looking . I e-mailed the company and they replied that I ship it back. I was not paying shipping to return the bulb after what I had already spent. I planted it any how and it never came up. The other 2 bulbs finally came up, but are such inferrior quality, I would not have paid a dime for them.

Bought 8 sets of seeds off ebay,sent 3 right away, 1 couple weeks later,4 never came and filed paypal complaint.Received refund after one month then they had audacity to send emails stating that I had to pay again.
Will never buy from again,customer support is non-existant

Goods are ok, but don't expect they will get back to your Email.

I ordered an "Christmas Cactus" from ebay, the plant is an african euphorbia. Poorly packed,sad shape, there was a pot but the plant was not in it, the dirt was all over in the box and the plant was broken off. Now a month or more later it looks like it will live.I will never order from them again.

Would NEVER order from here again. They sent tiny, tiny, almost dead plants to my Mom (I ordered for her off ebay) and god love her, she tried to nurse them back to health. She called them immediately when she got the order to say they didn't look like they would make it. They said they would refund if they died. Well, they died. And after she left several voice mails and e-mails and I left several (neither of us got a response) I finally got someone live. "Send in the dead plants and we will refund your money." We did and a year later, I am still trying to get a refund. No response. THEY ARE SCAM ARTISTS.

I ordered from them last year and had no problems, I ordered again this year, just got the bulbs, all carefully packaged with detailed planting guides, it's still snowing here so I can't plant them just yet, but if last year was any indicator, these bulbs will be just as nice.

Last year I won the bidding on a Chinese ground orchid, a golden lotus banana, a yellow clivia, and an Alocasia 'Hilo Beauty'. It was mid-winter in the area where Hirt's is located, so I suggested the shipment be delayed until the weather was more conducive to shipping. My suggestion was not heeded. When I opened the box, I found the orchid and the Alocasia completely black from freeze damage! The clivia and banana were fine. If the freeze damage had occurred during shipping, all the plants would have been damaged, so I knew Hirt's had boxed up severly freeze damaged plants and mailed them to me. I took photos of the plants and sent E-mails with the photos attached. An automated response said that, due to possibilities of computer viruses, messages with attachments would not be opened. When I resent the E-mail without photos attached, I finally did get a response. I was told that I should return the plants (at my expense) for a refund. Seeing the feedback here about refunds often not being processed, I didn't bother sending back the plants. The two freeze damaged plants did finally recover, so I let it go.

Too bad we can't post pix along with our notes here. I still have my photos documenting the freeze blackened condition of the plants upon arrival.

My suggestion would be, don't buy at all or, especially, don't buy in wintertime when you are likely to receive their frozen nursery stock.

Jeremy

I ordered banana plants on a Wednesday and they arrived on the following Wednesday. They arrived healthy and well-packaged.

Something interesting with this company is that my shipping charges costs matched their cost; unlike many companies that pad the frieght.

The only slight criticism is that I had asked for a delivery date so that I could be home when they arrived, of which I did not receive.

Anyway, very pleased with the plants and the transaction.

I read the negatives here, but they had a daylily (spacecoast scrambled) on ebay that I couldn't find anywhere else at an afforable price and I just had to have it ~LOL~.

I had the protection of paying via paypal and Hirt's has great ratings on ebay so I took a chance.

I was pleasently surprised to receive a nice double fan, packed well and shipped quickly. Now I wish I had made a multiple order to save shipping costs.