Updated October 1, 2021
Great Garden Plants Grade: B+
Overall Rating: 89
Top 25 Rank: #1
Our recommendation: Good place to buy
Website: www.greatgardenplants.com
Location: Grand Haven, MI
Why do we list location? This is so you can know, in most cases, where the evergreen shrubs you buy are coming from.
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.
| Category | Rating |
| Years site Active | 9 |
| Prices | 9 |
| Return policy | 9.5 |
| Reviews | 9 |
| Warranty/Guarantee | 9 |
| Selection | 9 |
| Range of sizes | 8.5 |
| Ship Times | 8.5 |
| Ship Costs | 9 |
| Usability | 8.5 |
| Red flags | 0 |
| TOTAL SCORE | 89 |
Great Garden Plants Nursery Review
Our 4 new plants!
Great Garden Plants rating came with an 89, putting their grade at a B+. They’re just 1 point away from an A grade. Great Garden Plants is our #1 ranked online nursery. We placed an order on greatgardenplants.com in mid-April of this year. Our Great Garden Plants unboxing pictures and review is here.
The woman who owned Great Garden Plants and her husband, have good reputations within the industry. Having worked in the online plant nursery business for 10+ years, you see a little bit of everything. I’ve never met them, but they seem to genuinely care.
They both retired and sold their business in January, 2019 to a subsidiary of Spring Meadow Nursery. Spring Meadow is also family operated and they also have a very good reputation within the industry. Spring Meadow is a grower/propagator. They do not sell retail.
New Site Design
Great Garden Plants has a totally new website design. It looks pretty. It’s obvious they put a lot of thought & time into the new platform. There’s a lot of new features available right up top with the sizes and prices. It’s great stuff, plant calculator, plant spacing chart, more info link to explain plant sizes, even a small image similar to plant soil tags you see in garden centers that shows height, sun, etc.
I traded a few emails with their Marketing Director. We had a great discussion and it is frankly refreshing to talk to someone in the industry who has such a strong passion and commitment.
Shipping Schedule
Located in Michigan, Great Garden Plants has some unique advantages and disadvantages due to climate. They have a Shipping Policy page that lists their shipping schedule broken down by grow zone. There’s no update on it when they might stop shipping. That makes sense, they need to react to the weather which is hard enough to forecast accurately for the next day, let alone months from now.
GreatGardenPlants.com seems to have a larger focus on perennials and ground covers but they do have a decent selection of evergreen shrubs. Evergreen trees & shrubs are listed together. We counted 47 when we checked on September 30th.
The sizes available online at Great Garden Plants range from 3” pots to 1 gallon sizes. Good range of sizes, just smaller then you can find on other sites. Their prices, however, are good!
We had mentioned in the past that we contacted Great Garden Plants customer service via email twice with no response. Their Marketing Director explained that between COVID-19 and the incredible growth for online sales that they were being reactive and had experienced some growing pains. I’ve been on the marketing side for online nurseries for 10+ years. I get it. It’s not easy to get people trained to learn about the plant world and throw them into the fire answering email or phone questions.
There’s not a lot of Google reviews, 57 total but just a 3.7 average rating is a little worrisome. You can view Great Garden Plants Google reviews here. We looked at just the 1 & 2 star rated reviews and they are from at least 9 months ago. Right around the time the new platform debuted and their sales grew faster than they expected. Literal growing pains. I expect the average to slowly climb.
No Risk 30-Day Guarantee
Their guarantee is similar to Garden Crossings. In other words, it is pretty good. They have a ‘100% No Risk 30 Day Guarantee’ that actually offers a refund, not a store credit. “We guarantee that you will be satisfied with your purchase and that your plants will arrive healthy, free of pests and diseases, and true to name. If for any reason you are dissatisfied, notify us within 30 days of receipt of your order and we will refund you.”
They also brag about their plants having larger root systems. “We ship jumbo size plants with hefty root systems that outperform smaller plants obtained from other mail order nurseries.”
Overall, quality people running a good site.
What were the concerns?
There appears to be some confusion over the new owners location versus the old location for Great Garden Plants in Holland, MI. The BBB has an alert listed on their Better Business Profile that Great Garden Plants in Holland, MI is out of business. You can view it here.
Great Garden plant new BBB listing with their current location has no such out of business alert. You can view the Grand Haven, MI Great Garden Plants BBB file report here.
Great Garden Plants Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Great Garden Plants located?
Great Garden Plants is in Grand Haven Michigan. Their street address is 12601 120th Ave, Grand Haven, MI 49417
Can you place an order over the phone?
Yes. Great Garden Plants will take orders over the phone if you call 877-447-4769
Is Great Garden Plants open to the public?
No. All orders are shipped to the customer.
Disclaimer
All the information on this website – www.BuyEvergreenShrubs.com – is published in good faith and for general information purpose only. Buy Evergreen Shrubs does not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability and accuracy of this information. Any action you take upon the information you find on this website (Buy Evergreen Shrubs), is strictly at your own risk. Buy Evergreen Shrubs will not be liable for any losses and/or damages in connection with the use of our website.
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