Breakdown of scores from each of the 10 factors we evaluate. You can read details on what each category means and how we score it here.

BrighterBlooms.com Review 

Brighter Blooms rating went up 1/2 of a point; their grade stayed the same as last month. Brighter Blooms made a few updates to their layout & design, especially on product pages and we like the look. There's been a few other tweaks recently, they are constantly testing & trying to improve the user experience. There's also a lot of content on each product page for planting, care, pruning, etc.

Brighter Blooms (www.brighterblooms.com) and Fast Growing Trees (www.fast-growing-trees.com) are owned by the same company. They are a classic online nursery in that they have their own fields where they bring in & maintain their plants until sold.  They're not open to the public, all sales are online (or over the phone). Brighter Blooms is relatively young. They ranked 19th out of 25 sited reviewed for years active.

Brighter Blooms selection of evergreen trees & shrubs is 4 fewer then last month. It's kind of typical this time of year for items to start going out of stock.

Brighter Blooms has a decent selection of sizes.   Most are 1 or 3 gallons although we noticed a few that listed a height but not container size. Free shipping seems to be offered most of the time but with varying minimum order amounts to qualify.  You can view all website promotions & coupons here.  

Brighter Blooms boast next day shipping on most plants if you want your plants shipped right away.. They do have a page titled; "Shipping Charges" but it doesn't list any shipping charges. Just trying to explain how well they pack & ship plants.

Their 30 day guarantee is actually spelled out in a little more detail then their sister site, fast-growing-trees.com.  It simply states; "If for any reason you're not 100% satisfied at any time in the first 30 days, simply contact us and we will replace the plant or tree, free of charge.". They will cover the cost of the replacement, you will need to pay ship charges.

Brighter Blooms 'Terms of Service'  is long and says this; "Certain plants may be root pruned or have excess dirt removed in order to save customers money."  I think they should say in order to save them money. I can't comprehend how pruning roots helps you out. The 'Terms of Service' is pretty long but it is easy enough to read.  Non of the dreaded, hard to read all caps legalese I despise.

Brighter Blooms is based in Fort Mill, SC.  Their grow zone is 8. They have evergreen trees and shrubs for sale online that were rated between hardiness grow zones 3 to 11.

What were the red flags?  

• Listing heights of evergreen shrubs with no container size.
• They charge up to 50% of the plant cost for shipping if you don't qualify for free shipping.
• Buried in their Terms of Service it says they might prune roots, remove a container and even possibly remove dirt.