The catalog is entirely online. We don’t have a printed catalog, which helps keep plant prices down.
We ship only within the U.S.A. and to every state EXCEPT Hawaii.
There is a $25.00 minimum order, excluding shipping.

How to Order and Payment Options

• All orders must be placed on the website.
• Payments will be processed online via PayPal.  If you DO NOT have, or don’t want to have, a PayPal account, you can still pay using a major credit card on the PayPal site without signing-up with them.  Just choose to pay using PayPal and click the bar below it "Purchase here for..." but then, click the “Continue” link on the PayPal page pictured here:
  
  
  View Cart - Check Out
   
• If mailing a check, money order or gift certificate, be sure to write your Customer ID number on it. You still must enter your completed order into the website shopping cart and choose payment option, ‘Check or Money Order’ or ‘Pay with a Gift Certificate’. We’re a small operation and need the shopping cart automation for label making, packing slips, etc. so we cannot accept hand-written orders. Thank you for understanding.
• If a partial refund is due to you, it will be done through PayPal, or a check will be sent to you, either with your order or shortly thereafter. We charge a fee of $20 for checks returned by your bank for any reason.
• An automated Order Confirmation email will be sent to you immediately after placing your order. If you do not receive it within 30 minutes, check your spam filter first, 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. 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. It is much easier and more effective for us to answer emails than phone questions. 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?’
• Office phone 360.886.8253 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 travel days)	To All States Not Listed Below.	22% of order, $15.00 minimum
Priority Mail (2-3 travel days)	To All 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

NOTE: Shipping is our highest expenditure; our policy is strictly a break-even effort. We don't charge for boxes, packing materials or labor to pull, prep 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 -- we’re currently sending most of our packages via Priority Mail, USPS. The typical delivery estimate is 2-3 days, but more than 80% 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, UPS), please 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 1-3 days. ‘Ground delivery’ may be through UPS or USPS, depending on several factors.

Sales Tax

Any shipment going to a Washington state address will have 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 February and continues through summer for most of our inventory. Certain plants can only be shipped a few months of the year. Watch the ‘Available’ dates on each plant.
• 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 runs from September to November.
• We can ship plants to zones 8-11 all winter.

When Will It Ship?

• 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.

• Orders placed during peak shipping months (April, May & June), may take 2 or 3 weeks to pull, charge, prep, wrap, pack and ship. The rest of the year, we can typically ship within 7-10 days.

• 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 received, which still means 2 or 3 weeks in peak months.

• 2-3 day shipping refers to how long the shipper has it (‘travel’ time only.- not how long it takes to pull, charge, prep, wrap, pack and ship). We ship early in the week, so orders won’t sit over a weekend in a warehouse.

• 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, 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.

• The day your order 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.

• We appreciate your patience, and understand that you are anxious to get your plants. We are getting orders out as quickly as possible, first-come-first-serve.

• If last-minute problems arise and you need to change your shipping date, please notify us immediately. Email is highly preferable: garden@bigdipperfarm.com 360.886.8253

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.

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

• 'Sold Outs' & Shortages: The website inventory is typically 98% accurate. We do our best to keep the website updated as often possible. Plants can quite suddenly sell out, and the 'Sold Out' list grows rapidly in late spring-early summer. Temperature and weather extremes can suddenly make plants unsuitable for shipping, or they can also grow too large to ship. Plant breeders can have unexpected crop losses or production problems, and the elk will occasionally shear something down to the ground. In the event that something is missing from your order, we will only ship what is remaining. We apologize for any disappointment this may cause, but after receiving a VERY low response rate on substitution emails and phone calls, we're no longer able to notify you of a shortage (unless the order drops below minimum).
• Plants not sent with your shipment are deducted from your total charge, and dropped from your order. They are not back-ordered. We attempt to continuously re-stock what we can. Please check availability again later in the year; you can re-order at that time. If plants drop from your order, and your plant total falls below the minimum $25, we’ll try to contact you. Please respond as quickly as possible. A ‘below minimum’ order makes your shipping cost disproportionately high, and we’ll try to get an acceptable substitute from you before shipping (but we'll never substitute without your permission).
• 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

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 and/or horticultural societies in your area, or good gardening books for local gardening information. The following USDA zone lookup tool is not perfect! There are microclimate zones within zones, so the best information on whether your plants will survive there usually comes from other gardeners in your neighborhood.