Comments regarding Bluestone Perennials

Bluestone Perennials is hands down the best mailorder perennial plant sales company there is. The quality of their stock, and their packaging technique is the best in the business.

The prices are a little steep, but you get what you pay for, along with a rock solid quarantee.

This was my first year with Bluestone. Thanks to the contributors here I decided to order from them. And, seeing their selection and prices I was tempted to order much more than I originally planned. Everything arrived in perfect shape, took off as soon as they were planted. There was only one mistake, Bluestone corrected it in a week after I notified them. They answered questions, considered recommandations - I was really happily amazed. I definitely will order from this company in the future.

I was very pleased with the quality of service and plants. I ordered 3 Hydrangea "All Summer Beauty", and was accidentally shipped Rose of Sharon (probably because hibiscus is next to hydrangea in the greenhouse). When I called to let them know, I was given an immediate apology, and my replacement plants were shipped out the same day, no questions asked. Even with the mistake, I had my new hydrangeas in the ground 10 days after my initial order! I also appreciate the detailed planting instructions and coupon packet!

I have ordered from Bluestone for 3 years now, and it has been a very good experience. Plants arrive healthy and in great shape. I love the specials they offer. Their catalog has a wide variety, and prices are very reasonable. My shipment included lots of coupons for future orders. This company is my favorite.

BEEN BUYING HERE FOR YEARS. EXCELLENT VALUE AND TIMELY SHIPPING. EVEN GOT 3 EXTRAS FREE ON LAST ORDER.

Excellent! They recycle their shipping peanuts! They pay for return shipping! They send coupons with their orders! The plants were green, healthy, and beautiful. I couldn't be more pleased.

I ordered from Bluestone Perennials after seeing it rated so highly on your site. I just received my plants today and they look WONDERFUL. I really didn't know it was possible for mail order plants NOT to arrive tiny, wilted and often- dead (my experience up until now...). These folks really have their act together. Planting instructions are written well and the peanut recycling program is just fantastic. Prices were best to be found just about anywhere - I'm just afraid they might get sick of me as I plan to order only from them for now on!

I ordered from Bluestone (my first experience with a mail-order nursery ever!) because of all of the positive feedback it received here. I am VERY pleased with just about every plant I ordered. My delphiniums and foxgloves look great, my butterfly bush was bigger than I thought it would be, and although my groundcover (Mazus reptans...never heard of it, but their Web site was very informative about it!) looked a little ragged, it's perked up beautifully with watering...and I haven't even gotten around to planting it yet! The only slight disappointment is my snow-in-summer. Out of 6 plants, only 1 was completely green. The others are yellowed, and not looking all that great, but they are growing, and one is blooming it's little heart out. So it's not that they're not growing, they just look a little ragged because of the yellowing. All in all, I'd order from them again...in fact, I'm going to this week!

I received my first order from Bluestone a couple of weeks ago. I am VERY impressed! Excellent plants! I will be using them again, that's for sure. I highly recommend them to all!
Nancy

I ordered twice last year and received my plants in no time at all, and all were in good condition. They all have done quite well. I only lost two out of the two large orders I had. The people over the phone are very nice and helpful. I will be ordering again from them.

I just ordered several shrubs from bluesone this spring all arrived in good shape on april 19th and are already growing nicely. They were small but I expected that and I think it will be easier for them to adjust at there size anyway. One of the viburnums I ordered sufferred a small injury to one of its branches but I removed the broken branch and plopped it in a pot and it seems to be rooting already. Overall I think this company is great the damaged branch I think was my fault removing them from the box. They also e-mailed me 2 days before I recieved the order to let me know it had shipped which I really appreciated.

I have enjoyed a really positive experience with Bluestone. I lost some of the hydrangea I bought from them last year and they replaced them with excellent plants this year. Their plants are very good and they are very polite, helpful and efficient.

I'm delighted to see Bluestone so highly rated. They are the best as far as I'm concerned when quality, variety and cost are taken into account. There early season deals can't be beat. And I appreciate their ecological consciousness - their willingness to subsidize your return of the peanuts!

GREAT FOR FIRST-TIME GARDENERS!

I am as neophyte a gardener as they get, a city gardener (NYC) to boot, and had every expectation of failing miserably at my first attempt to bring a bit of green into my world. But the experience has been nothing but joyful, thanks in large part to Bluestone. Their Perennial Starter Garden was ideal for me -- a great price and, they promised, virtually error-proof. The plants arrived carefully packed and in great condition. The thoughtful instructions and garden plan included with the order have been enormously helpful as well. I would highly recommend this company to a new gardener, and will surely order from them again.

I'm very happy with my order from Bluestone. Everything arrived looking healthy and happy!

I ordered $100 worth of plants and was very happy with all the plants I received. The plants are good sized and very healthy. The prices are very reasonable and they have a great selection. I will defintely order from them again!

Ordered 2 orange azaleas last year from them. They had some kind of problem getting them to me, but notified me that they'd be sending them in the spring. Beautiful budding plants received. Now I can only hope that they'll survive; I've never had any luck with azaleas purchased locally.

Ordered the plants in February and they were delivered last week (April) in perfect condition. Prices are great when you consider the free plants offer. I ordered from this company because of the great reviews on this site.

Ordered and recieved a bunch of plants a week ago. Even though everyone talks about how tiny the plants are, I was suprised to find mine of what I would consider good size. The packing was much better than other companies and they offer to recycle the peanuts and give you free shipping if you send them back. I was particularly suprised and happy to recieve a coupon book for future orders! Good coupons for freebees and free shipping with no restrictions on use. All in all a very considerate and respectable company.

I ordered 3 collections last fall and they came small but well packed. I was very nervious to have such tiny plants to be outside over the snowy winter but now almost everything is coming up! Very pleased with the plants!

Because of the high rating for Bluestone on this site, I ordered five perennials. They came today and are beautiful plants. The packing was exceptional. I can't wait until next year to put in a large order.

GREAT!

Same as last year. Beautiful, healthy, interesting stuff.

The only problem I have with them is that they are causing me to run out of gardening bed space!

But, I will be ordering again next spring anyway!

This year I placed an order for approx $80 in mdse. I thought the prices were very reasonable. All items arrived in excellent condition, packed well. I was quite satisfied and will definitely order from them again.

I ordered 58 perennials. They arrived potted, fully leafed and rooted, in excellent condition. I've seen worse plants on local nursery racks. Most of the pots were in sturdy trays with individual supports for each pot or cell-pack. The prices seemed very reasonable (indeed, more than reasonable considering the outstanding quality of the plants). The plants arrived 5 days after I placed the order online (and the online site is easy to use). It took a little time to pick all the styrofoam "peanuts" out of the pots, but is was well worth the slight effort.

Love Bluestone. Ordered from them for the first time last year. Terrific price. Small size but all healthy. Being small, they adapted very well to our growing conditions in the Midwest. Buddleia and Caryopteris were very small, but bloomed the first year!!! So did several other kinds of perennials.

Placed a HUGE order this spring. Can't wait till they arrive.

I started gardening last year and 80% of my plants
were ordered from Bluetone with very good result.
They are on the small side when they arrive but
have better survival rate than the gallon plants
bought at the local nurseries. Plus the company
have good customer service.
I am very excited about a big order arriving next
week. I am sure I will have the same positive
experience as in the past. I recommend Bluestone
to anyone .

The plants are maybe a week behind other plants as far as size compared to other nurseries but the pricing more than makes up for it. I ordered lots of plants from them this year after reading the glowing reviews and it's all true. They also want you to send back the peanuts and will even pay for it so that is another plus. Nice company and nice plants.

This will be the third year I'm ordering from Bluestone, and every year, the size of my order keeps going up. The selection is wonderful, the prices modest, and the service, excellent. The plants may be small, but they are healthy with excellent root systems, and thrive once they are in the ground. The only plants that have died on me have done so due to mistakes on my part (with some help from deer), and they've always gladly replaced them. As long as I have space to garden, they'll continue to get my business.

Great company. I've been very happy with my purchases and highly recommend them.

I ordered quite a few plants from them last year after hearing so many good things about the company, both here and from other gardeners. The plants were all healthy and in great condition. They were on the small side, but well worth the price. They even sent a note that if I mailed back the packing box for reuse, they'd give me credit for shipping my next order free. I'm waiting for spring to see how the plants all did, and if I weren't 8 months pregnant I'd order another big order from them now. I'm tempted to anyway!

Their web site is also very useful with lots of great pictures and search engines that will let you narrow down plants by zone, height, color, shade, etc.

For my planting dollar, Bluestone has been my most trusted source. And you can't beat their guarantee!! I've had little plants arrive in full bloom. What a joy!

I'm a newbie here but am really glad to see that the best kept secret in the gardening world is out. I've been doing business with Bluestone for at least 8 years and heartily recommend them to all my friends. Like to see Bluestone as # 1 !

Hint--3 too many plants? Share with your friends--this is what gardening is all about!

This is a top notch nursery. Fine selection and great prices. Most important to me, though, is their prompt, friendly and helpful customer service. Whenever I've had a question or wanted to add to or combine orders, their response has always been prompt and positive. I recently had to cancel a rather substantial order due to an unexpected move. In less than 48 hours I received a nice
e-mail stating that the order was cancelled and a credit issued to my credit card. They even wished me luck on my move! Great nursery to deal with. They'll certainly have my future business once I'm settled again.

After reading all the reviews, I visited Bluestone's website and ordered the catalogue. I have a problem area--large and very shady and emailed for their recommendations. They answered back very quickly, with great advice and suggested I try only a few plants (rather than sell me dozens) that may or may not work for this area. The catalogue came within a week, and I placed an order. Bluestone's responsiveness and care has certainly sold me! Can't wait for spring and my plants!

I was very impressed with the quality of their plants. They may look small but ALL of the plant I ordered bloomed their first season in the ground!

I love this company. I have purchased plants, bulbs, and seeds from online catalogs for 3 years now, and Bluestone Perennial plants have always been the healthiest and have grown well. I have e-mailed them in the past to tell them how pleased I have been with their plants. Their catalog may not be as impressive as some but they have a great selection to chose from. The only thing I wish they would improve on, is to get pictures up sooner on their new selections on their web sight.

Well, add my voice to the many strongly positive comments about Bluestone! This is by far my preferred place to order perennials; their prices absolutely can't be beat even without their incredible 3-for-2 special. I have never found anyplace with such good plants, good value, and superb customer service!

I have ordered from them every year (usually a couple of times a year - not that I'm a plant addict or anything - he-he), and I've "converted" my gardening friends & family to Bluestone customers too, so I have lots of experience with them. The plants they send are small (but actually no smaller than most places that ship plants, and much superior to those from WFF), but they are usually very healthy when I unpack them. On the few occassions when plants have looked unwholesome or had an obvious disaster in shipping, they have immediately, cheerfully, and without argument replaced them. And in my experience, I believe that the small size of the container-shipped plants is actually an advantage; because the plants are young, and are grown in a cold-hardy place (Ohio), they adapt better to my conditions. They settle in very well, and seem to have less shock than larger plants or ones from cushier growing conditions (living in central New York, in borderline 4/5 zone, I swear I will never again order any plants that have had their start in North Carolina!). While I inevitably lose a few individual plants during the first winter (or summer, as in last year's drought), I figure that the overall cost of the surviving plants is still a better value than of plants bought elsewhere. Their shrubs, though, are very small - too small for me, and they will take a few years to amount to much of anything.

Bluestone still grows its own stock, and I am convinced they know what they're doing when they ship young, small plants. For the experienced gardener, who knows that most perennials take a couple of seasons to really hit their full stride, getting small but healthy plants and waiting a year or two for spectacular results is much preferable to the "instant fix" that most of us want when we first start out. Bluestone's packing is excellent, plus if you ship back the packing peanuts (very lightweight & cheap to do) you get free shipping on your next order - if you play your cards right & don't get so swamped planting your new beauties in the garden that you forget to go to the post office, you could theoretically only pay one shipping charge ever to order from Bluestone for life. And it's better for the environment. Don't neglect to look through the papers that come with your order for a fat little book of coupons for more great deals from them - and the offers don't expire! And for the ultimate cheapskate among us (me!), did you know that you can check their website and find many on-line only specials? You can totally come up with incredible savings on the best-ever plants if you work all these offers!

Perhaps Bluestone's best claim to fame, though, is its people you deal with on the phone; rarely have I met a group of people so consistently and cheerfully helpful! Some mail-order nurseries have been downright unpleasant to deal with, cranky and argumentative and rude, but I have NEVER gotten even a whiff of that from the folks at BLuestone. All my shipments (and there have been MANY!) have been extremely well-packed, and all my dealings with the company have been satisfactory. Sure, I sometimes want plants that they don't carry - they aren't all about the latest craze - but they do add new varieties every year, and it's worth waiting, because you know that when they offer it, it will be at a reasonable price and well-grown & tested in a northern climate.

I can only echo doghill's comment: "If they had everything I want, I wouldn't order from anyone else."

I have been ordering from Bluestone for the last 3-4 years and have always been delighted with what I have received. I've never taken advantage of their free replacement guarantee because I've chalked up failures to my own haphazard gardening style. In general, everything I've ordered from them has prospered. One batch of Coronation Gold yarrow had to be dug and divided after its second year in my garden!

It would be nice if they had some of the hot new varieties being hyped by some of the other nurseries. I've decided to wait a few years for Limerock Ruby coreopsis to give Bluestone a chance to offer it. I'd also like them to offer Purple Emperor sedum.

In general, I've been very happy with Bluestone and it is always the first place I check for perennials or small shrubs (more shrubs would be nice too). If they have what I'm looking for it gets ordered. I have no hesitation whatsoever giving my business to them.

I've never had a bad plant from this company in the 4 years that I've been ordering. Any plant that hasn't survived is strictly due to my inattention.

Although they neglected to send me a back-ordered plant last year, I have every expectation that when I mention it, that it will be shipped. Customer service is great and the 2 for 1 ain't bad either!