Hey, Big Vendors!

As I finished last week's column I signed off with, “Be careful who you shop from, though, and know who their relatives are.” This theme comes from my deeply held belief that we should all be informed consumers, and while we would like to think that the world of horticulture is pure, ethical and organic," there are some sinister players.

So how do you know who they are, and can you always avoid them? And does it really make any difference where you buy your plants and seeds? In a word, yes!I think your first source for good information should be your gardening friends. We tend to be a sharing group and they (we) will probably be very free with information on who they buy from and who they have issues with.

On the internet there’s Dave’s Garden (davesgarden.com), where you can find out other gardeners' experiences with individual plants and just about any mail order nursery or horticulture vendor. One regrettable absentee is Consumer Reports, which I wish would do work on garden chemicals and fertilizers as well as mail order nurseries—but I’m glad they at least rate lawn mowers, garden tractors and snow blowers. Be careful of what you read on the internet, though. Too many believe that if it’s online it’s true. As you will see shortly, that’s not the case.

Things began to go bad in the seed and plant world 15 to 20 years ago when a number of family businesses that we had come to rely on and trust began to fail due to poor business planning and younger generations of owners simply losing interest. The greed for profits overtook the need for quality and trust, as we’ve seen in other enterprises. As the businesses began to fail, profiteers saw an opportunity to rape long-trusted trade names to bring in the dollars. What may have resulted was numerous nurseries and seed houses appearing to remain independent while in fact they were controlled by the mother ship.

This became painfully clear last summer when I called a customer service number to inquire about some plants that had arrived quite dead. The woman who answered the phone complained about being swamped with phone calls and in frustration she admitted that she was a central "customer service" call center that actually served six or more "nurseries" that I knew were owned by the same parent company.

So after a chat she apologized for the plants having been shipped six weeks late and for the plants having arrived dead. She assured me that they would re-ship the plants “as soon as they are available” at no charge. And sure enough they did, another month later, and of course they arrived dead, in the middle of a summer heat wave.

Well, what are these relationships? Totally Tomatoes, Roots and Rhizomes, Vermont Bean Seed Company, Edmund’s Roses, McClure & Zimmerman, Seymour’s Select Seeds, Horticultural Products and Services (HPS) and R.H. Shumway's Seeds are all incestuously related. The second group, owned by yet another umbrella company, includes Spring Hill Nursery, Gurney’s, Breck’s Bulbs and Gardens Alive, among others.

There is yet a third group that includes the Park Seed Company, Wayside Gardens, Park's Bulbs, Park’s Countryside Garden and possibly Jackson and Perkins. Many of you may remember the days when Wayside Gardens was one of the premier mail order sources for perennials, trees and shrubs, but it’s been a while since they’ve worn that mantle. Yes, under the new Park’s organization their offerings are tempting and they seem to be making an effort to restore their former position, but based on one order I placed two years ago, I’d say the jury is still out.

This all makes the life of a mail order buyer a tough one. Roots and Rhizomes has some tempting varieties in their catalog, but right now there’s no way in hell I’ll buy from them. Wayside is even more tempting and they have some plants that are not available from other vendors, but they are so few and far between that my experience with them has me waiting a few years before I try again.

Then there’s Burpee. This was once the premier seed company in the U.S., but it too came on hard times and Burpee was bought by George Ball. Mr. Ball has a family history in the seed business that goes back generations, and while you may not be familiar with the name, the Ball company has been a major seed and plant material supplier in the U.S. for decades. When George Ball had the opportunity to buy the Burpee Seed company, he saw a potential business prospect and went ahead with the acquisition. But some serious misinformation about Ball and his new acquisition began to show up on the internet and it appeared to be a kind of misguided corporate character assassination.

George Ball fought back, though, and I’m so glad he did. His response to these attacks that attempted to bury Burpee have not and should not succeed. Please take the time to read his response to these attacks and a bit of his personal and corporate biography on the Burpee Seed website, or use this link http://goo.gl/CSb48y.

Now some practical help. It serves no purpose to buy plants by mail if they arrive dead or nearly dead. There are those nurseries that have great shipping methods and those that don’t. For starters, though, if you are buying anything from the West Coast, then Priority Mail or UPS two-day are the bare minimums to ensure the plants arrive in good shape. If your nursery is in Virginia or North Carolina, then shipping should be done before the end of May and via Priority Mail or UPS ground, but later in the season UPS second day.

Also consider costs. Packing and shipping can add as much as 30 percent to your order. Also be aware that some items may be shipped in late summer through the fall even though you may need to place your order now. Some of the items that fall into this category are some lily bulbs, peonies and iris.

Based on the vendors I’ve dealt with, Klehm’s has the best shipping in terms of the size of the material shipped, packaging and the material arriving in great shape. Bluestone Perennials also gets top grades, with one caveat. Most of their perennials come in a natural fiber pot that I find can break down very slowly. These pots need to be either removed before planting or slit vertically with a knife in several spots from top to bottom before planting.

Plant Delights is a mixed bag. Clearly they try to be the most environmentally sensitive when it comes to packing material, but in their zeal to be eco-friendly I’ve had several plants rip out of the pot when unpacking, so be very careful when the plants arrive and unpack slowly and c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y. Lazy S’s Farm Nursery (lasyssfarm.com) has the most reasonable shipping rates and everything seems to have arrived in good shape. Hostadirect seems to take a simple approach and they will ship late into the season and even through the summer, but get faster shipping the later you wait. Also be aware that they ship hostas in three very different sizes.

Many of these vendors have tempting sales early in the summer. If you take advantage of these sales, try to get two-day shipping and request Monday or Tuesday as the shipping day so your plants don’t sit in a hot truck or train over the weekend. Keep growing.

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