OT-consumer revolt & bad sources

On Sat 14 Jun 1997 you wrote:
>But I must speak in cautious defense of Springhill, which has also been 
>spoken of in this forum as a bad or deceptive source of bulbs, rhizomes 
>& perennials. I have never bought any iris from Springhill & am also too 
>new to the iris "family" & its vast numbers of species, hybrids & named 
>cultivars to comment on whether this mail order source is wrongly 
>identifying their offerings.
>
>However, I have bought a number of other things from Springhill in the 
>past 3-4 years & received just what I expected for their prices; that 
>is, small but healthy plants that thrived for me & decent-sized bulbs 
>that grew well & bloomed as described/pictured in their catalog, 
>whatever cute names they may bestow on them. (I've noticed that they've 
>started including latin names in all their listings, which is useful 
>because they still don't list any best-guess as to zones & I have to 
>look up everything I haven't yet grown in my location.)

Marte, I have to agree.  While I really doubt that my Spring Hill's are all
correctly named, they were inexpensive and pretty, and I never had a
problem with orders being incorrect.  They've even been wonderful about
honoring their guarantee on their plants, even at times that I don't think
the problem was with the rhizome but with my garden (I just find it
difficult to believe that 18 different iris from them were defective and
all died the same year.  Along with everything else in the bed.  Rotted away.)


>Like a lot of people, I have little cash I can devote to these efforts: 
>I grow as much as possible from seeds & cuttings, increase thriving 
>plants by divisions & trade with other gardeners. I also buy from the 
>excellent local nursery (lots of natives & well-adapted "foreigners") & 
>at plant sales (Denver Botanics annual sale is a mecca for me) & from 
>several mail-order sources that have proven themselves to me, at least, 
>among them Springhill.
>
>I often can't justify the strain on our budget of buying things from, 
>say, White Flower Farms or the wonderful High Country Gardens in Santa 
>Fe, both of whom I have purchased happily from in the past & will again 
>when my desires outrun my frugalness. It's just that I have to keep a 
>grip on it all & price does influence where my orders go, no question. 
>But I don't expect to get the same quality, range of choice or the plant 
>& bulb size from the "discount" sources that I would from the top dogs. 

And another "I agree."  If I could afford to fill my yard from Cooley's or
White Flower Farms, I'd do it.  I have a few "good things" in my garden,
just like I have a few in the house, and then a *lot* of other things to
keep it from being too bare until I win the lottery!  Since I'm not into
hybridizing or showing (so far <g>), I'm more interested in how it looks
than in the pedigree.  

Funny thing, though--most of the iris people I know have at least one or
two "unnamed" or "guessed at" plants floating around.  They belonged to
Grandma, or were there when they moved in, or maybe they were so pretty in
someone else's yard that we stopped and got a "chunk" from the little old
lady who was glad to share.  I look outside hoping to see a sea of pretty
colors and petals fluttering in the breeze, regardless of what the name is!

But Michigan Bulb could fall into the ocean tomorrow and I wouldn't miss it!

Angie Rayfield
Olathe, KS  Zone 5
"I don't know what that pink thing is, but could I have some of it?"
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index