Old House Gardens Review

Rating of the Heirloom Bulb Catalog, Website and Company Information

Dec 4, 2007 Angela England

Old House Gardens Company specializes in heirloom bulbs. See the rating of their print catalog, website and overall company.

Each category will be ranked 1 (poor) through 5 (excellent) and the catalog, website and overall company will be ranked separately. This article will take a look at Old House Gardens Heirloom Bulb Company.

Old House Gardens Catalog Review - Examining the Printed Catalog

Number of Plants and Pictures: Rating 4. Old House Gardens' 52 pages catalog features over 200 plants but leaves heirloom gardeners wanting to see many more. The catalog is glossy, high quality print with pictures that display the flowering bulbs nicely.

Plant Descriptions and Cultivation Information: Rating 5. Gardeners will appreciate the detailed growing information and cultivar tables that help customers make wise plant selections.

Gardening Tips and Other Features: Rating 5. The Old House Gardens catalog is full of gardening tips and tricks that are woven throughout and heirloom plant lovers will enjoy the historical facts and research that is shared.

Prices, Discounts or Garden Packages: Rating 4. Most of the Old House Garden bulbs are very reasonably priced but a gardener who doesn’t understand the value of rare, heirloom bulbs may be surprised by (understandably) higher prices on select specimens. Two heirloom garden packages were available with one cross-species sampler for fall and spring and others were available within a single species (i.e. "Daffodil sampler"). This author would like to see more samplers available, perhaps by flower color.

Organizational Structure: Rating 5. Old House Garden catalog had an easy to follow organization with fall planted bulbs and spring planted bulbs separated in the catalog as well as color coded.

Old House Gardens Website Review - Looking at the Website

Number of Plants and Pictures: Rating 4. Again, heirloom bulbs can be difficult to track down, authenticate and produce in large numbers but gardeners definitely want more.

Plant Descriptions and cultivation information: Rating 5. Helpful information on bulbs in general, heirloom bulbs and more is available on the website.

Organizational Structure: Rating 4. The Old House Garden website is like a good cottage garden; a gardener wander in and finds hidden nooks they didn’t realize were there at first. Visitors to the site should be prepared for a leisurely browse or they should use the search feature.

Informational Articles and Other Features: Rating 5. Old House Gardens does a good job of customer education and has an Old Bulbs Gazette Newsletter with informational articles that are very helpful. Past issues are archived on the website.

Old House Gardens Company Review - Details about Old House Gardens Company

Years in Business: Old House Gardens had been in business for 15 years.

Number of Plants Total: About 250 plants.

Dave’s Garden Ranking: 100/100 makes Old House Gardens a Dave's Garden Watchdog Top 30 company. The owner and founder of Old House Gardens, Scott, spoke of the high ranking saying, “We're proud of our Dave's Garden Ranking and the relationship we have with our customers.”

Number and Prices of Catalogs: A yearly printed catalog is $2 but offered free with an order. Other publications include detailed growing guides with each order and email newsletters with informative tips and educational pieces.

How many new plants are introduced each year? The motto of Old House Gardens is “Save the Bulbs” so about 20 new rare and endangered varieties are added each year.

Selection Criteria for Plants, Special Features and Focus: Old House Gardens specializes in heirloom bulb varieties, rediscovering great garden plants with special quality. Typically bulbs are from 1950 and older with special attention to plants no longer available through mainstream sources, that are historic and at risk. Care is taken to authenticate each specimen and this author also appreciates that a large number of the bulbs are grown by small, individual growers in the United States.

How many exclusive to the company? Approximately 100 bulbs are exclusive to Old House Gardens in terms of being available to the general public.

Company Policy – Not happy? Please let us know and we will do whatever we can to make it right! Customer feedback helps us improve our education for clients, our shipping policies and overall company.

The copyright of the article Old House Gardens Review in Plants & Bulbs is owned by Angela England. Permission to republish Old House Gardens Review in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Kaiser Wilhelm Dahlia - 1893 Spring Planted Bulb	Carolina Primrose Gladiola - from 1908	Double Dreadnought Hyacinth: fragrant flowers 1899
Mabel Flame Tulip: stunning color from 1856	Excelsior Lily from 1952: A rare and fragrant lily