
'Big Dipper Farm
News-ette'
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Phone
360-886-8133
garden@bigdipperfarm.com
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Ordering / Shipping / Payment Policies
The catalog is entirely online. We do not print catalogs, which
helps us keep plant prices down.
We ship to every state but Hawaii and only within the U.S.A.
There is a $25.00 minimum order, excluding shipping.
How to Order and Payment Options
- All orders must be made on the website. Payment can be made online
via PayPal or Credit Card. It’s very safe to use credit cards directly
through our ‘secure server’. We accept Visa, MasterCard, and American
Express. Discover is available through Paypal. Do not ever send credit
card information through straight email.
- We can also take credit card info over the phone if you wish, but
not the order itself. We don’t have the telephone staff. In the checkout
process, choose ‘Credit Card Transaction Via Telephone’ and call in.
Leave a message if necessary and we’ll call you back. It is also very
safe to fax the card info to 360.886.8261.
- If mailing a Check, Money Order or Gift Certificate be sure to write
your Customer ID number on it. You still must enter a completed order
into the website shopping cart and choose payment option, ‘Check or
Money Order’ or ‘Pay with a Gift Certificate’. We need the automation of
label making, packing slips, etc. so we cannot accept hand written
orders. Thank you for understanding. If a partial refund is due to you,
a check will be sent to you either with your order or shortly
thereafter. We charge a fee of $20 for any check returned by your bank
for any reason.
- An automated Order Confirmation Email will be sent to you
immediately. If you do not receive it within 30 minutes, check your spam
filter first and then send us an email from the Contact Us page. Be sure
your email address is accurate so you can receive order problem
questions, shipping notices, etc. We keep all of your information
private!
- Please email questions. It is much easier and more effective for us
to answer emails than phone questions. Be sure to include your
order/customer ID number, if you have one, in the email. We’ll get back
to you as soon as possible. IF YOU MUST CALL the nursery please be
patient as all available staff are with customers in the nursery or are
handling plant material. Please do not call the nursery to ask for a
status of your order. Be sure to check out the info at the top of your
order confirmation email and see below; ‘When will it Ship?’
- Nursery phone 360.886.8133 fax 360.886.8261 email:
garden@bigdipperfarm.com
Shipping Rates Sorry, we don’t
ship to Hawaii or out of the USA.
The shipping times below refer to how long the shipper
has it, travel time. Not the order processing time.
Priority Mail (2-3 days) |
To All
Other States Not Listed Below. |
22% of
order, $15.00 minimum |
Priority Mail (2-3 days) |
To All
Other States Not Listed Below. |
Orders
over $200 - 18% of order |
Ground (1-3 travel days) |
Available to the following Western States ONLY: WA,
OR, ID, CA, UT, NV, MT, WY, CO, AZ |
15% of
order, $8.00 minimum |
Ground (1-3 travel days) |
Available to the following Western States ONLY: WA,
OR, ID, CA, UT, NV, MT, WY, CO, AZ |
Orders
over $200 - 12% of order |
Just a Note on the Shipping. This is our highest expenditure
and our policy is strictly a break-even effort. We don't charge for
boxes, packing materials or labor to wash and pack. Very often, we'll
pay more to ship an order than we charged. Due to the enormous new Fuel
Surcharges and Postal increases, we do regular cost comparisons and
we’re currently sending most of the packages through Priority Mail,
USPS. They estimate 2-3 days but we have found that more than 90% of
them actually arrive in 2 days. Depending on several factors we may use
a different carrier but if you absolutely DO NOT want a particular
carrier, (USPS, FedEx or UPS), mention it in the comments box. Ground is
cheaper but can be very hard on the plants so we can only offer Ground
to 10 Western states where they will arrive in 1 to 3 days. ‘Ground
delivery’ may be through FedEx, UPS or USPS depending on several
factors.
California Residents: Please note that the Calif. Dept. of
Agriculture conducts routine inspections of many plant shipments
entering your state. This is hit & miss and may cause a significant
delay in your delivery, which is completely out of our control.
Sales Tax
Any shipment going to a Washington State address will have 8.5% sales
tax added on all items except gift certificates. No sales tax will be
collected on out-of-state shipments.
When to Order and Ship Dates
- Spring ship orders may be placed throughout the Fall, Winter
or Spring. Spring shipping begins in Feb and continues through summer
for most of the inventory. Certain plants can only be shipped a few
months of the year. Watch the ‘Available’ dates on each plant. We can
ship plants to zones 8-11 all winter.
- If you want an order delayed for any reason you must request that
in the comments box at the end of checkout.
- Fall ship orders may be placed from June forward and you
must ask for a Fall shipping week in the comments box at the end of
checkout or your order will be processed when received. The Fall
shipping season begins Sept 1st through the end of November.
- Holiday Plants & Greens ship through Dec 15th.
- Hardgoods, books and garden art can be shipped anytime.
When Will It Ship?
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Orders placed pre-season will be shipped on
your requested week or by your zone in the chart below as long as
your plants are ready, Mother Nature willing.
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Orders placed during peak shipping months, April,
May & June, may take 2 or 3 weeks to pull, charge, wash, wrap,
pack and ship. The rest of the year, we can typically ship within
7-10 days.
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With that in mind, you will have an opportunity
to make a shipping date choice during checkout: ‘Spring, Fall, a
specific week, etc.’ Requesting ‘As Soon As Possible when
Plants are Ready’ means we’ll ship as quickly as we can in the
order it is received, which still means 2 or 3 weeks in peak
months.
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2-3 day shipping refers to how long the shipper
has it. The ‘travel’ time only. Not how long it takes to pull,
charge, wash, wrap, pack and ship. We ship early in the week so
orders won’t sit over a weekend in a warehouse.
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We’re not able to give you an exact ship date and
there’s no way to track the exact progress of an order once it’s
out in the nursery to be pulled, charged, washed, wrapped and
packed, therefore, we can’t really answer ‘status requests’, but
please be sure to give us ‘Black-out dates’ when you cannot receive
your plants and we’ll be sure they arrive when you’re home.
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The day it ships, the carrier will send you an email
announcing it’s on the way. If you have an aggressive spam or bulk
email filter please keep an eye out there as well.
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We appreciate your patience and understand that you
are anxious to get your plants. We are getting orders out as quickly
as possible.
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If last-minute problems arise and you need to change
your shipping date, please notify us immediately. Email is highly
preferable:
garden@bigdipperfarm.com 360.886.8133
Pre-season orders are shipped according to the USDA
hardiness zone of your ‘ship to’ address. The following is an approximate
schedule on when we begin shipping to each area.
Be sure to protect your plants from weather extremes of both cold and heat.
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Map |
Lowest Winter Temps |
Spring Shipping Begins |
Fall Shipping Begins |
| Zone 3 |
-30 to -20 |
May 1 |
Sept 1 |
| Zone 4 |
-20 to -10 |
April 20 - 30 |
Sept 1 |
| Zone 5 |
-10 to Zero |
April 15 - 19 |
Sept 1 |
| Zone 6 |
0 to 10 |
April 10 - 14 |
Sept 1 |
| Zone 7 |
10 to 20 |
Mar 25 - Apr 9 |
Sept 1 |
| Zone 8 |
20 to 30 |
Late Feb - Mar 24 |
Sept 1 |
| Zone 9 |
30 to 40 |
Possible all winter |
Sept 15 |
| Zone 10 |
40 to 50 |
Possible all winter |
Sept 15 |
Back Orders and Plant Availability
- Plants not sent with your shipment are deducted from your total and
dropped from your order. They are not backordered. Please check their
availability again later in the year and re-order at that time. Plants
can quite suddenly sell out and we do our best to keep the website
updated as often possible but ‘Available: READY’ is not 100% accurate.
The Sold Out list grows rapidly in late spring - early summer.
Temperature and weather extremes can suddenly make plants unsuitable for
shipping and they can also grow too large for shipping.
- If plants are dropped from your order and your total drops below the
minimum, we’ll try to contact you. Please respond as quickly as
possible. A ‘below minimum’ plant order makes your shipping cost
disproportionately high and we’ll try to get an acceptable substitute
from you but we will never substitute on our own.
- Be aware of the available dates for the plants. You can complete a
‘current’ order and then go back into the cart and place a second,
pre-order for plants available later in the year. This will give you an
accurate total with shipping.
- Pre-season or advance ordering is recommended on especially on
hard-to-find or new plant varieties.
Plant Hardiness Zones
Plant Hardiness Zones
The hardiness limitations of the plants are indicated with the catalog
description but it is your responsibility to research which plants will
be hardy in your climate. We will ship any plant to any state (other
than Hawaii) and we offer many plants that are more challenging to grow
so we do not guarantee over-winter hardiness. It is a certainty that
there are some plants on this website that will not grow successfully in
your area! Your local County Extension Agency may be able to assist you
in determining exactly what your USDA zone is and what time of year to
plant any given variety. Here is a link to help you find the nearest
Cooperative Extension office:
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/index.html
Seek out garden clubs, horticultural societies in your area and good
gardening books for local gardening information. The following USDA Zone
lookup tool is not perfect! There are microclimate zones within zones
and the best information is usually other gardeners in your
neighborhood.
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You can also check the USDA zone map here:
www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap
There is also the Sunset Zone Map, which is completely different, more detailed
and was developed for the complex growing climates of the Western states. For
simplicity, the Big Dipper Farm catalog uses the USDA zones.
You can get your Sunset zone here:
http://www.sunset.com/sunset/garden/article/1,20633,845218,00.html
Botanical vs. Common names
Warning! Use Common Names at your own risk! We have attempted to list
common names in the catalog descriptions to help you in your plant searches;
however, common names vary greatly by region, country and even by the era that a
gardener is from! Botanical names help gardeners get the exact plants they want,
and help them communicate accurately with other gardeners.
Guarantee
- We guarantee our plants to be well rooted, healthy, ready to grow and
true to name. Please contact us within two weeks of delivery if there is any
problem with your order as delivered. The plants shipped dormant in late
winter / early spring are guaranteed to break dormancy which may take longer
than 2 weeks.
- We'll bend over backwards to solve any problem in an honest, fair and
reasonable way and we want you to be happy with your order. We cannot
guarantee over winter hardiness. Be sure to read the "How to Care for Your
Plants Upon Arrival" slip with your order and unpack your plants
immediately. We have no control or responsibility with what happens to your
plants after you plant them, or how and where you plant them or care for
them. Nor can we control Mother Nature, deer, slugs or your dog. Depending
on the situation, a replacement, refund or a credit may be offered,
case-by-case, at our discretion. We are not liable for more than the
purchase price of the plants.
- Please research the needs of the plant in your climate. We will ship any
plant to any zone. Decisions on a whether a plant is appropriate for your
zone are up to you. We also offer many plants that are more challenging to
grow than the more widely available varieties, therefore we cannot guarantee
over winter hardiness. Lots of us push the envelope on plant hardiness,
which is great, but we cannot replace plants lost to winter or those grown
out of their zone. Including attempts to grow outdoor plants indoors or vice
versa.
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