Buyer beware of Hirts Gardens bulbs
jliddle13
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
I recently purchased four bulbs from Hirts. Three of the four bulbs were great, no complaints. However, the fourth bulb had its entire basal plate missing (see photo). I emailed Hirts and sent pictures. They responded and said I could ship the bulb back for replacement and they would also cover shipping. To their credit, I did receive the shipping reimbursement. A week later I still had not received the replacement bulb, so I emailed and they said it would ship the next day (pretty sure they forgot). Once I got the "replacement bulb" I found it was the exact same bulb I had complained about. When I emailed again to my dismay their response was "The bulb is perfectly healthy". I let them know this was not the case, but they are not responding now.
Why would they offer to replace it the first time then? And clearly as you can see in the pic this is not a bulb that can last more than one season.
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lokai99
6 years ago
jliddle13
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Burgess Nursery-Buyer Beware!
Comments (10)I ordered from them a few years ago, lured in by the low prices, which admittedly are hard to beat. Most of the plants were skimpy, some dead, some missing. My first package (I had several--over $200 in plants and seed packets) was of seeds, and some of them were not present, but the box did not include the information on the company's requirement for retaining packaging info in that package, so I threw away the outer packaging and was unable to submit it for replacements. After that I retained my packaging info with future shipments from that order and submitted for returns of each and every dead plant, and recieved most of them, to their credit. Another problem I had with them was the timing in which the plants were sent. I ordered in early spring, yet many of the shipments came in summer, when it was already too hot where I live (MD, Zone 7A) to make their survival viable. The pamphlet which accompanies their plants explicitly says that any time of year is a good time to plant plants, ha! I can see why they chose to include that little myth in their standard planting booklet! When many of the plants arrived late and didn't leaf out before winter, or their replacements didn't, I waited to see if they would in the following spring. After speaking to their customer service agents on the phone, one of them suggested I send a bank statement indicating the charge incurred in lieu of the cumbersome packaging info in my request for replacements. When I did this I did not hear back, and when I called to ask when my replacements would ship I was told my bank statement submission was not protocol and would not be honored, and that any resubmission would not be covered by their 1 year guarantee. The final straw was long after the one year guarantee was past, two years in when my 5 grape vines gloriously set fruit, and I found much to my chagrin that instead of 4 different red and green varieties, I had 5 concord grapes, which I dislike and had purposefully avoided. I guess I'm set for juice this year! Thanks, Burgess!...See Morebulbs and more bulbs!
Comments (4)beachplant, I,too, bought a Bolero at WalMart last week. The flower has opened enough for me to know that it is NOT Bolero. It appears to have red or pink markings on a white or creamy white petal. If I can figure out how to post a picture, I will when it blooms and possibly get an ID. Good luck with yours. I really don't mind that it is not Bolero, but here's hoping it's something I don't have!...See MoreYour favorite frugal gardening tip
Comments (52)Frugal has at times been a necessity here, but most of what I have done have been mentioned already. 1. Composting, whether spending matter or not, nothing is better than real good compost, and it is rarely if ever for sale. 2. Taking cuttings and suckers from roses. At times these have been my best and most interesting varieties; New Dawn, Alba Maxima, Charles de Mills, Comte de Chambord, Jacques Cartier, Great Western. Some varieties are even better ownroot. 3. Buying seeds from Ebay and places on the web. Sometimes a good offer for lots of Sweet Peas and seeds you need a lot of turn up. Buying seeds have made me able to have loads of pansies, violets, snapdragons, lobelia, alyssum. 4. Rainwater barrel in summer, we used to have a large one on the corner of the house, it was great to have in periods when the government ordered water saving. 5. The cheapest organic fertilizer here is pelleted chicken manure, I have used in on the lawn, for summer flowers with great success, but only ever so little on the roses. 6, Taking advantage of the good offers that present themselves in spring and early summer. They are often well worth it. 7, Remembering to fertilize spring bulbs as soon as the pop up in spring, they reliably bloom the next year, and sometimes multiply. Daffodils, crocuses, snow drops and some tulips respond very well to fertilizing. They will return for decades and decades then. 8. Years a go there was an area outside the garden that had really bad soil, if it even could be called that, nothing would grow there. I sowed a blend of greenmanure seeds and let it grow there for a few years. I think it was flax, red clover, white clover, grass, buck wheat, yellow and blue lupines. 9. I still pick nettles, yarrow and comfrey and make a sort of compost tea some times. It stinks, but its organic, free and plants respond to it like any fancy brand fertilizer. Using free manure where I could get it, horse mostly but cow and sheep at times too. Later I have read a lot of famous rose gardens does the same. At the cottage we collect seaweed, every spring we clean the tiny bay area where we have our boat. It is composted or used straight in the soil. Great soil improver. Taking advantage of tidy-up sales at the end of the autumn, here we often get the sacks of organic fertilizer at half price when christmas decorations start taking over the garden centers....See MoreDo you take advantage of late Spring bulb sales?
Comments (44)I do agree that growing bulbous plants and other geophytes from seeds is surprisingly easy. Many start flowering within 3 years...and some, such as anemone coronaria, ranunculus asiaticus, albuca, ipheon, calochortus, cyclamen, watsonia, can be flowering by the second year (or first summer). For some flowers, growing from seed is the only way to get hold of flowering plants. Dahlia, for example, will flower in the first season (from seed) and is a good way to get hold of species such as d.coccineaY or d.merckii. You mention t,sprengeri, Danny. These gorgeous tulips (my favourites of all) cost eye watering sums of money (If they can be found at all) because they have teeny bulbs with dropper roots which pull them deep into the soil (even escaping through the drainage holes in the pots). A nightmare for growers so they rarely, if ever, feature in merchant's inventories. However, you can sow them direct, somewhere which will be undisturbed, ignore them and they will be up in flower in 4years...with no effort whatsoever apart from the initial poke in the soil. Agapanthus can also be in flower by the third season. They don't need windowsills - I grow them on my outdoor potting table, on top of my worm bin, sitting on the empty winter benches and, of course, in the (currently freezing) greenhouse. I am a tad concerned for a bunch of current tiny seedlings...which are frozen solid. I put a tiny paraffin heater in the greenhouse...and am doing the 'candles under terracotta pots' trick. Still, the seed sowing season has just got going so any losses now can be re-sown later. I don't get the HPS seeds until March, so have to do a quickie forced stratification to kickstart a few of them into growth...or will wait till autumn. There are only a couple of months in the year when I am not sowing a few seeds... Have fun doing yours, Prairie - there are not many better treatments for seasonal drear, than sowing hope....See More
mariava7
6 years ago
dondeldux z6b South Shore Massachusetts
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agojliddle13
6 years agojoshuay
6 years agobossyvossy
6 years agojliddle13
6 years agonpublici
6 years agojliddle13
6 years agolokai99
6 years agohaweha
6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
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