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On Apr 5, 2008, Idahoan Boise, ID (Zone 6a) wrote:
Thank you very much for a nice transaction! The plants are beautiful. Thank you also for carrying real fuchsias for Zone 6. The plants arrived safe and sound.
I found Big Dipper on line. I ordered more than usual for a new nursery. Hellebores, Trillium and epicedium's. The plants arrived in great shape and were good size for a mail order nursery. I will order again soon
This company lists a huge host of plants on its website and, yet, when you click on the plant, a message tells you that "no records for this plant." They need to do some regular website maintenance.
On Feb 8, 2008, LariAnn Miami, FL (Zone 10a) wrote:
I placed an order with Big Dipper for 3 Luma apiculata. They were shipped promptly and arrived in good condition. Only concern I had was that the plants had been cut back to less than 6 inches tall, although lthey looked like at some time they must have been well over a foot tall, based on the caliper of the cut stems. I'd love to have had the larger uncut size and would have been glad to pay more to get them.
I suggest that prospective customers call them and find out the actual size of the plants they will be shipped to avoid disappointment.
On Feb 7, 2008, kathy_ann Judsonia, AR (Zone 7b) wrote:
I have purchased perennials and hibiscus plants from this company, Plants are always nice looking and decent sized. Shiping is very expensive. Somethings you have to put up with to get nice plants that you can't find locally. This is a large web site and has plenty to offer. I was over all pleased with this company.
On March 11th, 2008, kathy_ann added the following:
I recently made another purchase from big dipper farm. Upon receiving my order and contacting them about it. They were more than eager to please me. Infact , they went out of their way. Their kindness and eagerness to please their customers made me decide that this is a great place, (my kind of place.) and I will come back, they have some nice plants. I appreciate their quick responses to my emails. You don't get that alot on web site purchases.
I placed an order and received half promptly, the other half was in transit for a week and did not arrive in good shape at all. Multiple attempts to get a response have gone unanswered. I will not be purchasing from this company again.
On October 24th, 2007, shaytoday changed the rating from negative to positive and added the following:
Computer issues at Big Dipper Farm and when contacted by phone were very helpful and apologetic. Good lesson, computers are not a replacement for good old fashion talk! Replacement for dead ferns on the way, thanks BD!
On Sep 8, 2007, lostintexas Abilene, TX (Zone 7b) wrote:
This is another site that every time I go to browse I end up buying something. I love the way the plants are listed on the front page in alphabetic order so they are easy to find the ones I want. And they have the common names also. I have ordered several times from this company and have no complaints. The plants come in a timely manner, are good sized plants and all have done well in the garden so far. No complaints, only good things to say about this company and I am sure I will be paying them another visit in the spring when I find out some of my plants did not make it through the winter.
On Sep 6, 2007, Ibuylotsonline Edgemont, AR wrote:
I have had such wonderful experiences with Big Dipper Farms that when I see plants I want some where else I go to their site and order. Every time I call I either get someone (sometimes out in the field planting) who explains and chats with me until I am finished. Their suggestions are excellent and their plants have always arrived in wonderful condition.
Last year I had a large order to arrive when I was to plant in the fall. I had surgery and could not plant so I just hoped for the best and put them in the garage in a window and kept them lightly watered. Planted in the early spring and "presto" the ferns burst forward and all the other plants grew like weeds. I was delighted. Very nice people and lovely plants.
I just received my first order from Big Diper, three echinaceas. The plants were well packaged and came in 5 in. deep pots with roots developed all the way down. The Coconut Lime even had a bud on it! They were shipped promptly and made it from WA to FL in 2 days. We are having very hot weather but the plants were neither dry nor soaked. As healthy as these are, it is all up to me! I am very pleased with the order process, communication on shiping/tracking, and the quality of the plants themselves.
On Aug 24, 2007, queenofthegarde Whittier, CA wrote:
I was grateful to find several plants on the Big Dipper website that are generally not available till January in my local nurseries. I wanted to get these plants in the ground now so that they will be established by spring. Unfortunately, the plants are smaller than I would have expected, not dinky, but definitely less vigorous-looking and definitely fragile-looking. It looks like I'll have to nurse these plants along till spring instead of getting a head start :-(
My order was processed relatively quickly (within 2 weeks). No substitutions seem to have been made.
On Aug 15, 2007, Cretaceous El Cerrito, CA (Zone 9b) wrote:
I ordered nine (native and exotic) ferns from Big Dipper Farm at the end of July and the order arrived today.
Upon placing the order I did receive an e-mail confirmation stating that orders placed in July are taking 2-3 weeks to ship. In my case it took less than two weeks as the plants shipped on Monday and arrived today (Wednesday), so no problem there.
(It is not uncommon for nurseries to have a slight delay in shipping, especially during peak business times). And I did receive another e-mail notifying me that the order had shipped.
Anyway, the plants were healthy, well packed, and arrived in good condition.
I have noticed that in some of the feedback for Big Dipper Farm people have stated that the plants are small.
This was definitely *not* the case with the order I received. Given the price of the plants, they were no bigger, or smaller, than those I have received from other nurseries (and believe me, I buy a lot of ferns !).
On November 15th, 2007, Cretaceous added the following:
I recently ordered five more ferns from Big Dipper Farm. The order arrived today, and again the plants were healthy, well packed, and arrived in good condition.
I placed two orders this month- One to Big Dipper Farm and one to Lazys S Nursery- A few slight differences, but almost identical- They had both gotten good reviews here, had a great selection, so I thought I would compare the two-
Regarding THIS feedback- I ordered the plants July 26th, they arrived today, Aug 10th - their Website DOES say that they are expecting orders to take 2-3 weeks. (1) I ordered some ground cover (Soapwart) ONLY because they were offering it at a discount and I have a new large bed that I just put in. I received ONE out of the three I ordered. I would not have ordered it at all if I had known this to be the case. I had only settled for Soapwart because of the deal-
(2) This is MY FAULT, but they are offering Helleborus mix for $34.99- I ordered it thinking I would get a mix of plants/bulbs and I got one- One plant for $34.99 (quart size) - I could have gotten some nice heirloom irises for that! Once again, my fault- dumb me
(3) They did not have another plant that I had ordered- It is missing and just says Unavailable on the invoice-- and REALLY needed this for my new bed- So- I am going back to Lazy S ---Which I did receive almost the same order from Lazy S over a week ago, all of the plants were there and in great shape-, however the order I placed with them was for my father-in-laws house and I have already planted those, so I need to order more from them now!
I am not happy with the deletion of items from this nursery without any notice/chance for subtitutions- and I can say that I will not order again from them. When I layed out the plants that I spent $170 on I was really disappointed with myself.... but live and learn...
On August 15th, 2007, foofranay changed the rating from negative to neutral and added the following:
OK- I was a little bit hasty with my negative feedback-
Although I am still disappointed regarding plants being missing and dropped from my order, I have to say that the plants that I DID receive from Big Dipper Farms seem to be very nice. The root systems are really quite large and established, they seem to give great promise for being hardy enough to survive Michigan winter and will hopefully thrive next year.
I guess that if I wanted plants and couldn't decide exactly which ones, I would place another order and then not be upset when some of them don't come... I still think I'll stick to Lazys though.. their shipping was MUCH shorter, the customer service is excellent and the plants were great too. I decided to change the rating to neutral because there are MUCH worse companies out there!
On Aug 10, 2007, jrwbirds Elberfeld, IN (Zone 6a) wrote:
very nice plants sent at the time that I had requested - plants arrived well hydrated due to the excellent packing, despite the extreme heat that we were experiencing. This is my second time to purchase from this company and I will definately be back.
I purchased 5 plants. All arrived wrapped extremely well, still well watered and in excellent condition. All are thriving. This company is a pleasure to buy from. Plants were in the best condition and the biggest specimens I have purchased from any on-line nursery or catelog. In addition they were very well priced. I will definitely purchase more perrenials here! Thank you!
On Jul 23, 2007, maye20 San Francisco, CA (Zone 9a) wrote:
I am mostly satisfied with my first order from Big Dipper but am on the fence about ordering from them in the future.
I placed a small order (13 plants, $76 including shipping) and received the plants a month later. Packaging was adequate (though not as careful and secure as Lazy S's). Plants were small but in my opinion, were priced accordingly. Two plants that I had ordered were out of stock and I wasn't given the opportunity to select alternates, but they included a free lemon thyme plant; in total, I received 11 plants. I emailed Big Dipper to let them know that I would have preferred to select alternates for the out of stock plants, and I received a courteous and prompt response that they used to do so, but many customers did not bother to respond.
Two months later, 7 of 11 plants are thriving. The four that are not: three bare root raspberry plants have yet to show signs of life (the fourth is doing OK) and an asclepias tuberosa shed all of its leaves immediately and has not yet recovered. I am giving them the benefit of the doubt that this is due to my inexperience rather than the quality of the plants.
Pros: Reasonable plant prices and shipping costs. Excellent selection and informative web site.
Cons: Slightly longer-than-expected shipping time, no opportunity to select alternates when plants are out of stock.
I received 5 asclepias tuberosa 'hello yellow' last night. I had just ordered them June 18, so they came relatively quickly for busy season - and I hadn't been able to find them elsewhere. The plants were well-packed, in moist soil mixture with healthy-looking roots. The tops had been trimmed for shipment but were green and healthy. The only oddity was that they sent an apple mint plant as a free gift--it was dry, rootbound, and not looking too well. I'm not complaining, since it was FREE, but it seemed odd to me since the other plants were so moist and healthy.
On July 24th, 2007, vvesper added the following:
Ok, well I'm happy to note that the free apple mint is doing very well. I wasn't sure it would, but it's coming along nicely and looking healthy. The milkweed are all showing new growth as well.
On Jun 20, 2007, kkirschbaum Yonkers, NY (Zone 6b) wrote:
I ordered a few items from them online. Their stock list is very interesteding and varied, so it's hard to resist. It is a bit frustrating though that once you press the button to order you more or less have to wait patiently for the plants to show up in their own good time - they clearly discourage too much customer pestering about 'when will my order ship'. Nevertheless, everything arrived in good shape at a time appropriate for planting, and a gift of lavender was included. One buddleia ended up never breaking dormancy, and once I emailed about this, I received a refund check promptly.
On Jun 18, 2007, chickensrus Hartland, WI (Zone 5a) wrote:
I'd ordered a couple of plants, then decided to add a few more of a different variety and chose to send an email to convey this. The owner called me to clarify what I wanted and added it to my order right in the middle of what must be their busiest season. It did in fact take almost 3 weeks for the plants to come, but it's not like I'm not busy planting a bunch of other stuff anyway so it didn't matter (it's my busiest time, too.) The plants were little but really healthy and I expect them to do well. They were packed really well too - but shipping for 5 little plants was $15.00. Kinda steep.
I was so concerned about the Spanish lavender plants and buddleia I'd ordered from Big Dipper, as they arrived while I was out of town. That was a Thursday. On Saturday, I returned home and opened the package. What a relief to see how the careful packaging had kept the plants happy and moist. They're planted now, along with the graciously included freebie plant, and look strong and healthy. I'm very impressed with both the plants and the packaging!
Placed my order online and picked up at the BIg Dipper. It took less than a week from ordering and putting my new plants in my garden. Plant quality was good. I will return next year for more plants. Thanks Big Dipper and a special thanks for the lady that helped me Kimberly.
On Jun 2, 2007, rucereus Carpentersville, IL (Zone 5a) wrote:
I'll start with a neutral rating as I haven't received my plants which I ordered on the 18th. Their website says don't bother to ask them when your plants will ship because they have no idea. So I will patiently wait to hear from them as to when they will ship my order.So far not real crazy about the lack of communication, although they did say orders placed at certain times can take two weeks to ship. When I receive my plants I'll re-evaluate my posting.
On June 3rd, 2007, rucereus changed the rating from neutral to positive and added the following:
Well about 4pm central time I got a call from big dipper farms asking me if i would like to sustitute one of my plants for a different color as they were out of the color I ordered. Very helpful, told me my order will ship next week. I guess I jumped the gun with the poor communication posting. A personal phone call , in the age of e-mail was very nice!
On June 6th, 2007, rucereus added the following:
Received my order today. Everything looks great. I can hardly wait to plant them.I also received an English Thyme as a gift.Thank you Deidre!!On June 6th, 2007, rucereus added the following:
Received my order today. Everything looks great. I can hardly wait to plant them.I also received an English Thyme as a gift.Thank you Deidre!!
On May 21, 2007, psychloman Brooklyn, NY (Zone 7a) wrote:
This nursery is very caring and accomodating. They were very helpful in correcting a mishap that was not their fault. The plants I received were impressive. I will definitely order from them again.
On May 8th, 2009, psychloman added the following:
I order from big dipper every year, they send out great plants and are helpful if a problem arises.They e mailed me when my package was shipped this month and it arrived quickly. Their fuchsias are top notch.They're still one of my favoritesOn May 8th, 2009, psychloman added the following:
I just received my first order from "Ursa Major" and was most pleased. Plants were well packed, healthy, and of good size, with the healthiest roots I've seen in any order I've ever placed for bareroot plants. Do not hesitate to order from Big Dipper Farm.
On May 11, 2007, got2Bgreen Coast range of, OR (Zone 8b) wrote:
Placed a fairly large order on May 2 only to realize one of the plants wouldn't be available until July. Contacted them about a substitution and they got back to me right away. Received the order today beautifully packaged and with a bonus plant.
I was extremely impressed with what I got. Everything was packaged wonderfully, tagged, and they gave directions for the bareroot stuff. I was surprised at how big half the plants were. They normally have tangerine sized root balls these things were the size of grape fruits! I also got a notice when they were shipped so I knew to look for them shortly.
The only item I'd concern myself with is to specifically specify what dates they should ship. I told them to "ship according to my zone" which around here May 9th is the safe frost date. I received them 3 weeks before that date. Granted, with the climate getting warmer it's been 10 years since there's been a frost since the date I received my order but, felt you should know. I planted them anyway and fortunately this is the 11th year straight no frost, and things are doing wonderful.
I placed a large online order back in January and since I never heard from them, I'd wondered whether they'd gotten the order in the first place. In April, I did receive a surprise shipment from them. However, they were not able to provide a number of items; I wished they had let me know about it before making the shipment. Most of the plants did not seem to be of good quality and were very small. Moreover, I was overcharged for some items whose prices had decreased at the time of shipment. I wrote to the company of my concerns, but again, I never heard from them. In all, a rather disappointing experience, considering the good reviews I'd read about them when I'd placed the order.
On Apr 2, 2007, ppiper Rockville, MD (Zone 6b) wrote:
I placed my first order with Big Dipper Farm this spring. I ordered several 'Sparkling Burgundy' heucheras using their online web site. Their site was easy to use and I encountered no problems placing my order. I received a prompt online confirmation of my order.
My plants were shipped USPS Priority Mail. They were packaged well enough to survive their long trip to the east coast. Each individual plant was correctly identified with a printed marker. I got them into my garden the day after their arrival. After two weeks in the ground, they are all looking perky and healthy.
I am very satisified with my order and will certainly deal with Big Dipper again.
I had a great experience ordering from Big Dipper Farms.
I ordered
Pinellia "Dragon Tails"
Agave americana "Spot"
Hibiscus syriacus "Purpureus Variegatus"
Yucca rostrata
origanum "kent Beauty"
Kniphofia nortjiae
Dracunculus vulgaris
They were all Labeled and neatly packed. Some were Dormant as I expected. I was very happy with what I have received.
All had extensive root systems and were very healthy.
The reason I ordered from Big Dipper Farm in the first place was because they have some hard to find stuff at lower than expected prices.
I will order from them again!
I wanted a particular primula and Big Dipper Farm had them on their website. I ended up ordering a variety of primulas, all of which arrived with huge, healthy root balls and looking very fine indeed. I'll reorder from them!
On Dec 29, 2006, DonShirer Westbrook, CT (Zone 6a) wrote:
This fall I ordered three varieties of perennials from Big Dipper I could not find locally. They arrived promptly in large pots, of nursery size and quite healthy looking. I'll wait to see whether they survive the winter for a final rating, but as of now I would gladly order from them again.
I ordered 4 plants (10 total) unavailable at local nurseries. Plants were quickly shipped and arrived as promised. They were well packaged and in good shape. One free plant had been included. Clear directions were included with the order.
On Oct 26, 2006, WayehMalamutes Spring City, TN (Zone 7b) wrote:
Ordered a mixed hosta collection (named hostas not just green ) and the price included shipping. I wanted to "try" hostas and this seemed like a good place because of their ratings and the price of this named collection seems reasonable as well -- especially with the shipping included part.
The website was interesting and easy to maneuver around. The ordering process was simple and straightforward. And my package arrived promptly and was WELL-PACKAGED, each extra tall hosta pot was bagged, rubberbanded, and had damp shredded paper on top. They are dormant and had a tag that said so, as well as another tag with their individual name. I also got a bonus rosemary which is lovely.
They will go into the ground tomorrow and we shall see what spring brings us.
The only minor thing was that their email shipping notice & tracking number wasn't recognized by the USPS link the email included -- not a big deal, and I wasn't worried enough about it to call them because my postal carrier knows to take plants to my neighbor if I'm not here, which I wasn't, so this is just a comment, not a gripe.
I would highly recommend them from my experience so far.
