It's difficult for me to decide how to rate Shooting Star, so it had to be neutral by default.

The plants were small.

I know on the homepage it states the 3½-4½" container size so the size of the plants should be understood beforehand, but some of my plants were small even for that. A few of them (the Roseshell and Carolina Azaleas and the Redbud "trees") should have been labeled "rooted cuttings" because that is what they are- small rooted cuttings.

So on the positive side they are very cheap and a good variety of hard to find native plants. Marie was more than helpful to me and responded quickly to email questions even after I expressed my concerns with plant sizes.

Shipping was extremely fast and the packaging was done very well. I am happy that a nursery is interested in preserving our natives and providing me with a source so I want to support them with my business.

But all of these positives were tempered by my extreme disappointment when I saw the plants themselves. I've shopped online for plants for years and these were by far the smallest and raggediest I have ever received. It was a fair amount of money for such a small pile of plants- I just stood there wondering how I was going to justify the cost to my husband.

If everything lives I will come back and perhaps ammend or add to my comments. But when we plant some of these plants this weekend we are going to have to cage them simply to remember where they are and not mistake them for weeds.

So order in good faith but understand that you will could possibly receive very tiny cuttings.

Here is a link that might be useful: Shooting Star Nursery