Nature Hills Nursery

What a joke. Ordered a rose tree for $ 75 — paid $ 7.50 for warrenty. Bare root tree was doa. Customer service required me to wait 90 days to report bad product. Am now applying for warranty replacement, have chosen a product $ 15 less than original — no remainder on instore product. Customer service advised I should choose a product closer to the original price. I have to repay for shipping AND they’re charging my credit card even though new product won’t ship for two months. Customer service advised that I could wait until closer to the ship date to order.

I’ve had pretty good luck with Nature Hills plants. They are not the cheapest, nor are their plants large. The ones they have sent are healthy and grow well. We order a Japanese maple, some boxwoods, and a viburnum. All were small but healthy plants that began growing right away.
For those who complain about the size, the trees are measured pre-​pruning. Of course that may be slightly deceptive, but it is stated on their website. Smaller plants suffer less transplant shock and recover more quickly than more mature ones, so in the long run you have a healthier, more robust plant that starts growing sooner.

I now understand why all the one-​star reviews. I ordered a 4 – 5 foot White Fringe Tree in August. I received it today, Nov 17. They get two stars from me because they had the sense to wait for it to go dormant. That’s where my generosity ends. The problem is that it was a bit short of the minimum of 4 feet. In fact if I include the root ball the tree had a total length of about 46 inches. In the ground it measures 37 – 38 inches… not nearly the 48 – 60 inches that I expected and paid for. The most puzzling part is that the tag on the tree said «White Fringe Tree 3′ ” and the label on the shipping carton said the contents was a 4 – 5 foot tree.
Oh well… Never Again!

bought 2 trees. they never showed any signs of life and they were planted proffessionally. No money refund due to THIER policy.

I have purchased many plants from nature hills. All of the shrubs came in excellent shape. Some were quite large and some very small, but all were healthy looking. They are all doing fine. So far, one of the trees purchased came with all the leaves dried and fallen off the tree. It was shipped in the summer which was stressful on the tree, considering I live in New York State which is quite a ways from Omaha. In the future I will request that all trees be shipped in the spring or fall. It is planted and hoping for the best outcome. I have three more trees on order to be delivered in the fall. Hopefully they will come in better shape because of cooler weather to come. Overall, I am happy with Nature Hills Nursery and if needed will buy from them in the future.

Absolutely the worst customer service.
I ordered a small tree and it took 3 weeks to get shipped out because of the ‘weather being too hot’.
It arrived with completely dried up leaves, they all fell at the lightest touch, basically leaving it leafless.
I called & wrote to the customer service team, got answers in the span of 2 weeks because they were just not prompt and kept telling me someone will get back to me.
The answer really was ‘You have to just plant it and it’ll come back’.
No refunds, sorry, not replacement sorry.
I didn’t purchase a tree from your website to arrive with dead /​no leaves and to plant it then nurse back to life.

What a horrendous experience with Nature Hills Nursery — POOR QUALITY TREES, EXPENSIVE PRICE and NO RETURN/​REFUND. What an awful business that they wouldn’t stand by their products for customer returns. I had made my order for 5 plants and all 5 have been huge disasters.
Their customer representatives are a joke. They would not have an answer for you as to when the plants would be shipped. When the plants arrived — they were in the process of dying and in poor quality. When I called to report, the representative could only read off the script of «take a photo for our review within the next 24 hours.»
The would not issue refund for the products. I am in the process of reporting them to FTC.

What a scam. My experience — they send products that are dead and then say they will replace them if you pay ½ the price of the replacement and shipping & handling costs. They are covering their costs BUT NOT TAKING RESPOSIBILITY FOR THE PRODUCTS THEY SEND TO YOU. They do the shipping so you have no control, but it’s your fault if the product is dead upon arrival. 60% of the trees I bought from them never responded [were dead]. I called them a month after planning and they told me to wait for 60 days. They are still dead and I still don’t have any trees. My wallet is thinner by hundreds of dollars.
I gave them 1 star because only 2 trees lived.

The customer service at this establishment is non-​existent. Also do NOT trust the zonal info provided in their descriptions of each plant. I was looking for a hardy fig tree and was delighted to find that the Violette D’Bordeux Fig tree was supposedly Hardy to zone 5, according to the description provided so I ordered. Within hours after doing a small amount of my own research, I found the VBD fig tree was in NO WAY Hardy to zone 5, and had issues with cold hardiness even in Zone 7! So I wrote them the very same day to switch the order to a different fig tree (Chicago Hardy) and then commenced to trying to call them for the next 4 days, but guess what? Nobody EVER PICKS UP! So here it is 4 days later, still no return contact except one return email to the 8 I’ve sent which only tells me TO CALL THEIR HOTLINE! To top it off today I received one item from them. The item was suppose to be Black Beauty Elderberry shrub, however I have no idea what this little sickly green plant is that I received in its place! Unbelievable! Black beauty elderberry plants have deep purple foliage. This is completely unacceptable! I will not pay for a plant I did not order & do not want! Can’t wait to see what else arrives over the next few days. Nature hills you should be ashamed of yourselves! Answer your darn phone or call your customers back!

I think the most telling sign of whether a business is good or bad is not measured on the good transactions but how they mitigate and resolve problem/​error transactions.
This place is a circus of mismanagement and a poster child for incompetence. They should make this place a case study in business schools.
I attempted to purchase 2 X 3 gallon tubs of Boston Ivy (which are not cheap btw at $ 25+ a pop… for ivy), you know the one that climbs walls and turns red in the fall and drops it’s leaves in the winter and not the boring English kind that you can find anywhere growing like weeds.
Well, they sent me English Ivy. Hey, no big deal right? Simple fix, verify the pictures I took and emailed, send me a return shipping label if you want the error order back and send me the correct plant.
After 3 emails, 2 phone calls 2 weeks no response.
I mean, what planet do these monkeys operate in?
How the heck are they still in business?
Please, dear lord I hope business karma comes after you with vengeance and shuts your shitty operation down. Asap.

I ordered a rather expensive $ 66 American Sycamore in April. It was shipped bare root, planted immediately, well cared for, and should certainly have revived by now (late September). It was impossible to tell if the tree was alive or not when I received it, though Nature Hills tells me they inspect every tree, so are unwilling to entertain the notion that they may possibly have shipped me a dead tree (i.e., the business is always right).
In either case, the tree never came out of dormancy, or was already dead. Customer service says I can give them more money for a half price replacement tree that may or may not have the same problems. My loss, clearly. I have purchased nearly all my trees through online nurseries, but this is the first I’ve done business with Nature Hills, and the first time I’ve had such a bad experience. Can’t imagine why I’d want to roll the dice again and possibly receive another dead tree at my expense!!!
Guess it goes to show that just because you pay 5 times the amount for a tree than you typically would online, it’s no guarantee it will ship alive — or that good customer service is included in the price.
Go check their BBB page. I did this far too late in the game, but they have 60+ complaints logged against them. I would steer clear of this nursery if I were you.

I placed an order with nature hills and had to
cancel it about 2 weeks after placing the order. They are now charging me a $ 10 cancelation fee. They hide it in their terms and conditions! Very shady business practice.

Buyer Be Aware!
We bought 4 trees from Nature Hills Nursery under the impression that they warranty their product under one year. Four months later, 2 out of 4 three died. We contacted the nursery, and their warranty is a big joke! They will charge you 50% of the tree cost and plus shipping. Will not buy from this place again!

I ordered 11 trees in Oct. 2013. They arrived in December. They were bundled together in 2 long boxes with the roots entangled. When I called to inquire, I was told that all I needed to do was to keep the roots moist until I put them in the ground. After doing a lot of research on bareroot trees, I followed the plans I had carefully mapped out. Well, it’s May of 2014 and 4 of the 11 trees still look like sticks in the ground. I just received an email from Nature Hills informing me that they would replace the trees and replace them for ½ of the current cost plus I’d have to pay shipping both for sending back the dead trees and for the replacements. Phooey. What a joke. The cost of my dead trees is over $ 200. That means I’d have to pay over $ 100 plus double shipping. Shame on me for not researching their lousy warranty policy and for NOT ordering my trees through Lowes or Home Depot where they’ll replace them for FREE if they die within the first year.
Go local, folks!!!

I had a very unpleasant experience with Nature Hills. I had ordered a tree for my girlfriend for Christmas and after being informed that it was too cold to ship (which is fine) they had the audacity to charge me a $ 10 cancellation fee. I couldn’t believe it. I spoke to customer service and a woman very coldly explained that this is their policy. Unbelievable. On top of that, it took them over a month to refund my order! I will not be doing any business with them in the future.

After seeing so many negative reviews — here and Dave’s Garden — I wanted to add mine, since overall we had a good experience with Nature Hills Nursery. We did have trouble with the online order. It didn’t go through. When I called, I was told that the transaction was blocked by the fraud unit and that it would appear on my online statement for a few days, then disappear. I called my credit card company three times, who insisted there was no problem. But after a few days, the charges disappeared just as I was told they would. Christian at Nature Hills was very helpful and took care of reinstating the order — even gave me a 10% discount. We were told that the tree we ordered would be sent by 3-​day FedEx. Turned out it went regular FedEx ground, arriving in 5 days. But the tree arrived in good shape, healthy and exactly as we were expecting.

UPDATE — They sent an e-​mail asking that I contact them on May 1 — but I was in the middle of a very high volume work month and I didn’t have time to get back to them until today.
Turns out there was crop loss and they couldn’t send one of the trees I ordered. This makes sense, although I wish someone could have mentioned this in the first 6 weeks of my order. On the bright side, I was allowed to cancel my order and as long as I receive a full refund, I will count my lucky stars.
Maybe they’re a great company, with fast shipping and exceptional products. But I don’t have the guts or time to try again.

Recommended course of action for any potential customer of Nature Hills Nursery: Find a company with better than a B– BBB rating; one that has a reasonable and fair replacement guarantee and whose customer service can’t be defined as «thick as manure and about half as useful».
I placed a late season order for seven roses totaling just over $ 300, including shipping. Unfortunately, they were dormant upon receipt with dried buds and branches falling off. I couldn’t judge if these were going to be healthy plants and of course two of the seven didn’t come back. I spoke w/​Bill in customer service who told me I could have two replacements at half price plus shipping. What a rip off. They wanted to charge me $ 50 to fix their inability to ship healthy plants. Oh, it is June and I was told they also wouldn’t ship until «mid-​fall».
I have to take some of the blame for the problem above. They have an awful replacement policy and I should have gone to one of the many competing operations that will make it right. Based on the poor plants I received, their lousy customer service and self stacked service policies, each order is a potential disaster and I can’t advise anyone wait around for the train to jump the tracks.