zuzu's blog: Brent & Becky's Bulbs vs. Holland Bulb Farms

I placed an order with B&B because they were having a half-price sale.  The website informed me that there was a surcharge for shipments West of the Rockies because the cold-weather season had begun.  The surcharge turned out to be a hefty one ($25.00), but it guaranteed delivery within 2 or 3 days, so I agreed to it.

A few days later, I received an e-mail from B&B, informing me that some of my choices had already sold out.  I called and added some things to the order because it stuck in my craw to pay more for shipping than for the merchandise.  The grand total came to $95.46 -- $54.20 for the bulbs and $41.26 for the shipping.

I then placed an order with Holland Bulb Farms.  These were also on sale, but not at half-price.  The total was $36.32 -- $27.37 for the bulbs and $8.95 for the shipping.

The two packages arrived on the same day.  They had been mailed on November 30th and arrived on December 5th.  They weighed the same - 5.7 pounds.

The photo has to be enlarged for the comparison.  The bulbs on the left are from Holland Bulb Farms and the ones on the right are from B&B.  There are more bulbs in the B&B order -- 90, in contrast to 64 from HBF, but most of them are smaller (not because they're deficient or inferior in any way, but because they're little species tulips rather than big double ones).

The bulbs are of comparable quality, they weigh the same amount, and they took the same amount of time to get here (6 days instead of the 2 or 3 for which B&B charged me an extra $25.00).  Is there any good reason that the package on the left cost $8.95 to ship and the one on the right cost $41.26 -- almost 5 times as much?  It didn't get here sooner and the excuse about the cold weather just doesn't wash:  B&B is in Virginia and HBF is in Wisconsin, which is no one's idea of a balmy tropical location!

Guess where I'll be buying bulbs from now on.  Holland Bulb Farms also included a coupon in the box for $5 off my next order.

So here's a list of what I got, just in case the tags get lost later.  From Holland Bulb Farms (all tulips):  12 'Lucky Parrot,' 10 'Belicia,' 10 'Carnaval de Nice,' 12 'Focus,' 10 'Miranda,' and 10 'Wirosa.'  From Brent & Becky's:  Narcissus -- 5 'Delnashaugh,' 5 'La Belle'; Tulips -- 5 'Monsella,' 5 'Toronto Double,' 5 'Rem's Favorite,' 5 'Queensland,' 5 'Flaming Parrot,' 5 'Uncle Tom,' 5 'Annelinde,' 20 'Little Beauty,' 5 humilis 'Alba Coerulea Oculata,' 10 whittali; 5 Corydalis solida 'George P. Baker'; 5 Trumpet Lily 'Pink Perfection.'

I don't want to lose those Pink Perfection lilies, so I'll note here that they're planted in the gopher baskets previously occupied by Priscilla Burton, Feu Joseph Looymans, and Special Occasion.  Everything else is in containers.

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