i got some hardy kiwis from them. i have few trades going on on hardy kiwis, but just had to have something on my hand to get them started. i'll still honor trade agreement :) want to try cuttings and see how i do with hardy kiwi vs. figs.

any comments on their plants? figs or otherwise?

I ordered a fig from them, never received it. Sent emails etc but never heard a word back. I didn't get rude customer service, I got no customer service.
I had to open a case w ebay and/or paypal, I forget which. It was a small amount of money ($12 I think) but sort of a matter of principle.
I finally got my money back but will not buy from them again. 

Hirt's feedback history on Dave's Garden website:

123 positives
30 neutrals
99 negatives

Wow, it must hurt to shop at Hirt's !

didn't know it was that bad. i got two hardy kiwis. they are both rather small but health otherwise. hmm.. it was on sale to. i guess i'll look for better reputable nursery.

thanks!

Pete,

I ordered hardy kiwi from them. they were REAL SMALL and not all that healthy. I nursed them back to health only for the deer to eat them to the ground.  Worth a shot. 

I ordered an olive tree from them. I needed a microscope to get a visual on it. It Hirted my sense of fairness but I survived. 

what good nursery deals in hardy kiwis? i got fig thing well packed. i really want to try hardy kiwi. besides when my 8 yr old found out that i'm getting hardy kiwi, he got all excited. he loves kiwis and the fact i'm going to grow it get him all worked up.

Pete,

Monrovia makes a pretty robust hardy kiwi. They are 60 percent off up here in NJ and they are 4 ft tall. some even have kiwi on them

Pete,

Try Raintree nursery, they have 6 diff varieties. I got a male, Ana, and Ken's red from them this spring, they come in a 1/2-1 gallon pot and are pretty healthy.

I called Hirt's to inquire about their blue(black) ischia to see if they knew if the source was from cutting or tissue culture, the first lady was reluctant to be helpful but handed me off to another lady who was pretty friendly but she didn't know the answer.  SCfigfanatic, can you tell if your Blue ischia is from a cutting? I would think that with such a small pot you could see if it is. You don't use your name so I won't :)

Pete you want to contact Kiwibob in Seattle, he is the KING of the kiwi. I saw his amazing gold ones still green on the vines, but he got it down on how to grow them. He is a super nice guy also.   as to Hirts', I did not experience badly. I ordered from Amazon, and when plant never arrived I contacted them..and found great service. it turned out I never finalized the purchase Duh! So, I did it again and received a few days later mine little bitty tree. It was small, but it is doing very well, putting new leaves - it is a Hardy Chicago.   I have it in a larger pot, inside of a plastic bag with zipper, so it is still getting light and warmth, before I let it rest for the winter. The leaves arrived a  bit on the dry side, but have not fallen.  It is a cutty!

As to the Kiwi, Bob should help you!

I bought 2 four inch fig trees off of them .I agree with SCfigFanaitic They were not 4" pots. I live on Mary lane in Rochester ,WA My plants were delivered twice to Rochester ,NY. (WRONG COAST) . Getting ahold of anybody there is next to impossible . and when they actually did answer the phone they were rude and wanted me to pay again for shipping although it was their fault.

bullet08...  Get ahold of Kiwibob here on the Forum He has about 2 dozen varieties 

Thanks all. It seems kiwibob is the person to get in contact with. I'll send him a PM later.

TOTAL CRAP!!!!! All there fig plants are twigs,I ordered 4 plants and together they may have been 3 inches tall!!!! Had bad service,three died within a month.

are you sure tissue culture will get rid of virus? if the viral materail is within the cel wall, i would doubt tissue culture will get rid of it.

What I have read so far says that. Hartmans sells many different plants but they specifically talk about their blueberries and other plants being virus free due to the tissue propigation process. Wiki agrees also. I think it has to do with reaching a certain temperature which the kills the virus but the plant cells survive.

Pete & Calvin. It may also be that FMV moves slowly through the plant, from the base up -? A fast growing shoot may be virus free until the virus catches up. A culture taken from this the new growth of the tree might be FMV free.

I am not an expert though. Just relaying some stuff I've read in the past.

i bought a hardy chicago fig tree from them on ebay. the tree cam as a rooted cutting dormant. i orderd it in feb and had it inside until spring. i havent had any problems but i only orderd the one thing from them. thier shipping was a bit slow.

I bought a couple of Hardy Chicago trees from them too.  I ordered them around April or so, one for me and one for my dad.  Both arrived safely, and both are good trees.  It was my only experience with them, and it went fine.  (Likely my only time ordering there though, since I've found so many folks here to buy from and trade with).

Mike

I have ordered 4 trees from them. They were all small. The only one I was really happy with was the hardy chicago.



Blue Ischia












Hardy Chicago











LSU Purple....Very Small....I hope it doesn't die.











Magnolia.....Is currently Dying.

Wanted to open this thread back up.  A couple years ago I ordered a fig from Hirts through Amazon I think, but not sure.  It was claimed to be a Black Mission, but now I am wondering.  I has a very unusual growth habit.  It throws off so many skinny somewhat long twiggy branches that grow almost horizontally and never amount to anything.  I thought it might grow out of it, but no luck so far.  I'll try to post some photos tomorrow.  Does anyone know the typical growth habit of Black Mission?  Have others had figs grow like this?  Has anyone else actually confirmed that they got what they ordered from Hirts?

Main reason I ask is I"m running out of space and my trees are getting bigger so I"m going to have to start getting rid of some. 

@Rob,
How much sun is it exposed to?
To my experience, which is not much, more sun they trees are exposed to denser and stiffer the branches grow and leaves toughen up.

Hi Rob. Your tree grows like that because it is a tissue culture plant. Who knows why it happens, but it sure does. The best advice is to remove all but 1-3 healthy growths. My tree (Bought as BT from Florida Hill but most likely the same as your Mission), was frozen to near ground level and I am doing my best to limit the number of growths to the selected three, but new growths emerge from old stems daily.

Is it a Black Mission? Probably not, some clues point to what is shown as Mission on Agristarts website being closer related to Valle Calda. Not a bad reward if you can tame the growth habit. A rooted tip cutting might end up being a better idea if the growth habit is well established, like my tree with 20+ little stumps trying to regrow.

I bought  two trees from them in the past, Yes they come as very tiny plants, but healthy and vigorous. Mine grew fast and still looking healthy. It was my experience with them :) Hope it helps . Blessings