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

I was a little concerned over comments I'd read, but Hirt's had something I wanted that wasn't always available elsewhere. I ordered and paid via the internet on Sunday, they called me on Monday to verify shipping, and my package arrived Tuesday in absolutely beautiful condition. Nice, healthy, well-rooted plants. I do a lot of mailorder plant purchasing and I'd have no qualms about ordering from Hirt's again. Very good experience.

I recieved some butterfly bushes from Hirts in June, the shipping time was fast, and the plants were in excellent condition. The soil was still moist.

Ok, I admit it, I should have known better, I read the reviews on Dave's Garden to late. I took a chance and lost. I ordered several bulbs on E-Bay that I really liked. Well, I finally got 3 of them up and one of those died and the survivors are small and won't bloon this year for sure. I took a chance and lost. This wont happen again. Thank you Dave and the many gardeners who keep us informed of those companies to avoid. Now wiser

I live just down the road from Hirts. Last year I was a first time customer and bought a truckfull of merchandise for a very large gardening project. It is a well established business in our community with an old fashioned reputation for excellence. I am impressed with their prices but unimpressed with their advice and labeling..They have an excellent selection of largely unknown perennials to our area..I was duped into thinking that certain perennials were in fact "perennials" for our zone 5 when in fact they were not....this was the case on almost 1/3 of what I bought and planted including Cortaderia Selloana and bunny tails. I am not a novice gardener and should have known better to do more homework before buying. Shame on me. I plant with great care before and followup with aftercare of all plants. I was dismayed when 8 large clumps of grasses labeled as Miscanthus sinensis Gacillimus I planted never came back in Spring. Zero Zip nothing......not a blade, nothing but dead patches. It was not my planting methods..(others a few feet away have returned just fine). I believe mislabeling runs rampant in this store... I returned to the store to inquire and got "gee, we don't know what happened!" I was out a large amount of money not to mention a lot of time. I had all my labeling sticks and a receipt and no offer was made for reimbursement. In all fairness, the many tufted hairgrass I bought and planted has done very well and is quite established for 1 year old plantings.

Bottom line, do your homework...known what your buying for what zone and this retailer should be o.k. to do business with.

I have ordered several times via eBay and their web site and have always been very happy with their plants. They ship very rapidly!

I purchased several plants from this company, and they all came in excellent condition very quickly except for one set of Habenero plants. When I contacted them, they immediately responded and replaced the plants free of charge, and even the replacements shipped quickly.

Ordered 3 Tirol Canna and one was wrong variety. Transaction via eBay. They offered to take them back ... yeah right after I had them potted and growing for 2 weeks.

Suppliers like this should have a higher order fill accuracy than what I experienced.

Bob

I placed an order with them through ebay, and due to the way the order was packed, both items were damaged. I emailed them and I recieved an email from them back immediately that they would replace the order. Not even a week passed by, and I had the new package here, and this time everything was absolutely perfect. Every business should be run this smoothly. They have wonderful customer service and in my opinion very good prices on excellant products. I will definately be ordering from them in the future.

I have paid hirts a long time ago for 2 red habanero plants and after 2 weeks I still have not recieved them. He has claimed that he has sent them to me 3 times now and he was VERY rude to me on the phone when I called to ask about my plants. HE said if I dont get them after the 3rd try then he's not sending me anything. I will probably just try to get refund out of this but the guy is very unprofessional and rude. His plants obviously have not been delivered even close to the time they were supposed to. I advise that people do not buy from Hirt Greenhouse & Flowers.

I just received 20 of the most pitiful tomato plants I have ever seen. The plants are small & limp. I have them under lights now & a couple have perked up, but I have my doubts that they will all survive.
Masking tape was used to hold the dirt in the rather flimsy cell packs. In some cases, the leaves of the plants was also taped to the pack!
Needless to say, there were damaged leaves.

These were to be distributed to family & friends. I have a feeling there will be some disappointed people.

I will NEVER use this dealer again!

Nancy

I ordered some Japanese Bloodgrass from Hirt's on Ebay.When I received them on March 26 I was very disappointed.I sent an email to them and within 1 hour I received a reply saying how sorry they were and that replacements would be shipped out on March 31.I received them today and they look great.Thats excellent customer service and I will order from them again in the future.

I ordered some perennial plants from Hirt's. They arrived very quickly and were packed perfectly. What healthy plants! I have them planted in my garden and they are doing wonderful. I can't wait to purchase from Hirt's again. Their customer service is great, too. No wonder they are one of Ohio's oldest greenhouses!
Nancy

I have purchase items from Hirt's 3 times now. The plants are excellent and far below other vendors prices. The seeds and bulbs I received are top quality and everything is growing fine. Their customer service is fantastic!
A++++++
Highly Recommended!!!!!!

I bought seeds from these jerks from eBay. Received seeds packaged (by another company) in 2000 for 2001 (it's 2003, folks!) with Hirt's label over the original label and Hirt's year sticker over the original.

What customer service, hmm?

"ButchPoodle purchased only 10 Gardenia Seeds from us on Ebay on 10/16/2002. Look at our feedback on Ebay (over 27,000 favorable feedbacks) from our customers. Hirt's has been in business since 1915 and has become very successful on Ebay due to our high quality, fantastic selection, and low prices. This makes our competitors very jealous! A few lies will not stop us from offering gardeners the best at the lowest prices!
thank you,
Alan Hirt "

I ordered hibiscus seeds from them thru EBay and the seeds turned out to be hollyhocks. I emailed them and was informed they have never sold hibiscus seeds. I emailed them back the EBay listing thru which I had won and received and abrupt response that it would be looked into.

Numerous emails later and no response, guess it's not worth it to them to give customer service. Stupidity, cause I spend a lot on mail order.

Let me start out by saying that I have bought alot of plants from hirts thru ebay. The plants were ok and customer service had been good, until my LAST order which was in spring 2002. I ordered some tomato plants. I did not receive them until late august, much to late to get anything from them had they been viable! After about 30 emails to the guy. Everytime I emailed he would reply with what plant didn't you get or what was the order number, this went on back and forth but I persisted. I had included all that information in the first 10 emails. He did however finally refund my money but only after I told him I was not going to send one more email or answer one more question, because it seemed like he was just trying to put me off, and that he would just get negative feedback if this was not resolved. I finally received the refund check 2 weeks later after that I received the something that at one time was supposed to be plants. I don't know if they were held up by mail, but to give me such a hard time after I had spent hundreds of dollars on prior sales and to not be able to keep track of the orders or to track the package? He was not very professional at all. I see alot of plants listed for him on ebay but I will not be buying from him this year because numerous emails I had to send just to get a refund for 2 tomato plants!

I was pleased with some Japanese Bloodgrass I ordered from this company through eBay. The plants were well-packed, healthy & shipped quickly. I would do business with Hirt's again based on my initial experience.

I had a bad experience. I ordered seeds through their website, but didn't get any answer. Fortunately, the didn't charge my credit card (I hope...) I even sent them an e-mail, inquiring, but did not receive response.

Moris Polanco
Guatemala

"We do not ship seeds to foreign countries through our website. Moris was sent an email explaining this. Perhaps the e-mail service is poor in Guatemala.
thank you,
Alan Hirt "

Bulbs never grew.

I emailed in advance asking if the kyoto moss spores could be placed in full sun... oh sure they said... So I ordered them. Quick shipping. Have had the spores for 2 months. there is a tinge of green. However, every time I attempt to put them near sun, (as far as I know they only like shade) they shrivel up and die.

They seem to have a good thing going, just abyssmal customer service and uninformed order techs.

I ordered hollyhock, delphinium, and meadowsweet from this company through EBay. Each variety was sold for $17.99 per 8 plants. They arrived in 3-4 days and were packaged carefully. HOWEVER, the plants were very small for the price paid and did not appear to be well rooted. Four of the hollyhocks had all yellow leaves w/ blacks spots, obviously diseased. I emailed Hirt's and they said they would send replacements but have not received. What ticked me off is that he did not offer any apologies for the inadequate plants. I will not order from this company again b/c I can get better through Bluestone or my local nursery.

I have ordered through this company a number of times on their eBay sales and have had very good results. Promptwith customer oriented communication. I have had very positive dealings with this company and hope to do more business with them soon!!!

I bought a water lily from Hirt's on Ebay in March 2002. Received one that was dried up and nonviable. Requested replacement - received one excuse after another ("oh just give it another week, it'll be fine"). Gave up after eight weeks and numerous emails. Have never heard from them again, no replacement ever arrived. Don't do business with these people!

I bought a water lily from Hirt's on Ebay in March 2002. It arrived completely dry and nonviable. I requested a replacement, received one excuse after another - and after eight weeks I gave up. Have never heard from them again, no replacement ever arrived. Don't do business with this company!

I ordered some thornless blackberry plants from these folks; got them within the week and they looked very good. As the plants were a difficult cultivar to obtain (only recently available at all!) I am very glad to get them. In the past I have gotten all sorts of absurdities pawned off as valid Rubus plants; these were (saving one I bought locally in a gallon pot) the biggest bare roots ever. Well worth my time and money.

I found some perennials on e-bay that were listed as "hardy" in their listings, which once would have gooten them a sale, given that Ohio isn't that far south of me in northern New York.

But I've been burned before and checked the plants in question only to find that, yes, they were perennial in zones nine and ten--the very deep south.

Confronted with this obvious deception -- trying to sell southern semi-tropical plants from ohio as "hardy" -- they simply said, yes, my information was correct: they were hardy in zones 9 and 10.

My suggestion that zones be included was not followed and this deceptive [stuff] continues. I have no idea how good a plant they produce, but northern buyers should beware.

Just because it's described as a "hardy perennial," and just because it is being offered from a greenhouse in Ohio does not mean it will "live" in Ohio, New York, Virginia or about 90 percent of the rest of the country.

Starting out in perennials I only got burned about ten dozen times from being ignorant and from buying from farm stands etc. that were probably just as stupid.

Since I've learned, though, I've become vigilant, trying to aleart others who are bound to make the same mistakes.

My best advice: get a good perennial book, keep it with you wherever you buy plants, check the zones and spread the word about deceptive practices like this place employs.

I have used Hirts for a number of orders - all using eBay. I've always had prompt responses and shipping from them. I've ordered both seed and one plant - which is growing fine (just breaking dormancy).

I ordered from this company last spring by way of ebay. I purchased 12 Strutgart cannas. It took over two monthes before I got them and as they grew not one was variegated. When they flowered they were different colors also.
I emailed them several times and never got a responce and even wrote to them and still no responce. I would never buy from this company again !

I purchased my items with this company through Ebay. My items were promptly shipped and of good quality. They had forgotten to include the instructions for one plant, and when I emailed them they responded the next day with the information I needed.

Bulbs I received were rotten, when I wrote they e-mailed back that they were sold out, would replace with other bulbs; never received; wrote again, said they would ship that week; never received.

Great experience. Excellent products. Thumbs UP.