Arrowhead's Ordering Information

Saxifraga

Arrowhead Alpines
General Ordering Information

How to Place an Order
1) Download and print our complete 2008 catalog or just download and print the order form. In order to download and print PDF files you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download for free by clicking here and following the download instructions. 2) Read the ordering instructions on this page. 3) Complete the order form in the catalog. 4) Fax the form to us at 517-223-8750 or mail it to Arrowhead Alpines, PO Box 857, Fowlerville MI 48836. Make sure that we can read your writing, and that we have a clear shipping address and a readable credit card number. If you are paying by check, remember to include it.

How to Pay for your Order

We accept VISA, MasterCard, Cash and Personal Checks. ($50 minimum on credit card orders)

When to Order
You may order at any time; however, if you desire spring delivery orders must be received early enough that we can still ship them. We generally stop spring shipping around the second week of May; orders received after that will not be shipped until fall. We try to ship to warmer areas of the country first, as seems best for the plants and your climate. We will try to accommodate special shipping instructions but use some discretion and make it clear, otherwise your order is likely to ship out with all the rest in your area. We do not send out order confirmations. We do not ship in summer. Much of our stuff simply does not ship well in summer heat. If you want plants in summer, you are welcome to come and shop the nursery. It is a fun way to spend a day.

Items Marked With an "*"
Catalog items marked with an “*” will be shipped either in early- to mid -March or in late August to October when they are dormant. Be sure and check your preference on the order form. We cannot alter these ship dates. If the plants are not shipped before they break dormancy it is a problem to pack them, and they simply do not cold store once they start to break dormancy. If you cannot deal with plants that arrive in March then I suggest you opt for late summer-fall shipment. There are two boxes at the bottom of the order form that ask your preference for “*” plants ship time

Early Shipping - If You Have a Greenhouse - Or Just Prefer It
There is a box to check for those of you who have a greenhouse or other means to deal with plants at a time earlier than would normally be considered seasonable for your area. If you check this box we will ship to you just after our wildflower ship is complete at the beginning of our perennial ship, when we would normally only be sending plants much farther south. Taking early delivery can help you get a jump on the season not to mention you get the best possible selection. Hey, the best plant is the first picked. Many gardeners realize it is safer to ship plants in cool weather when they are mostly dormant. Plants in soft growth do not like to be put in a box in hot weather, cooking is much more dangerous than freezing which seldom harms anything.

Shipping Preferences Box
There is a box that asks for the earliest possible date that you can dig in the ground; this is not the same as the date of last frost. This is not a requested ship date, it simply helps us better schedule when to ship each area. We also would like a suggested ship date, if it seems reasonable, we will adhere to it. Orders received past the safe spring shipping season will be automatically deferred to fall ship. Please try to use some common sense.. There are also two boxes at the bottom of the order form that ask your preference for “*” plants ship time, we can either ship in the early to mid March period or in late summer as things become dormant. These two boxes apply only to the “*”plants shipping and not to other plants in the catalog, please read the above sections so that you understand how our system works.

Shipping and Handling Charges
Before I got into the business, I thought nurseries got rich on shipping. We have no desire to rip off our customers or even make any money on shipping, but shipping is expensive. We also would like to avoid making the whole thing overly complex. We will continue to have no minimum order but shipping will be proportionally higher on small orders. Please note this is a shipping and handling amount and covers the cost of boxes packing materials and the labor involved in packing the order, as well as postage costs. We send virtually everything either UPS or Priority Mail. We pack plants carefully so even if they are delayed in transit they virtually always arrive in good condition. We ship Mon. - Wed. so plants are unlikely to be held over a weekend. If it should happen, don't panic! Even two weeks in transit is seldom fatal.

$0 to $36.00 add $8.95
$36.00 to $50.00 add 25%
$51.00 to $100.00 add 20%
$101.00 and up add 15%
West of the Mississippi add an additional 10%

Quantity Breaks
Long time customers will notice that we no longer have letter price codes. Instead we now just list a price next to the item. As always quanty pricing only applies within a species and only if you order through the catalog. Quantity breaks are as follows:

1 - $4.50     3 - $12.42     6 - $22.95     12 - $43.20
1 - $5.50     3 - $15.18     6 - $28.05     12 - $52.80
1 - $6.50     3 - $17.94     6 - $33.15     12 - $62.40
1 - $8.00     3 - $22.08     6 - $40.80     12 - $76.80
1 - $12.00     3 - $33.12     6 - $61.20     12 - $115.20
1 - $15.00     3 - $41.40     6 - $76.50     12 - $144.00
1 - $19.00     3 - $52.44     6 - $96.90     12 - $182.40
1 - $24.00     3 - $66.24     6 - $122.40     12 - $230.40
1 - $29.00     3 - $80.04     6 - $147.90     12 - $278.40
1 - $35.00     3 - $96.60     6 - $178.50     12 - $336.00
1 - $39.00     3 - $107.64     6 - $198.90     12 - $374.40

Gift Certificates
Yes, we do offer gift certificates! They make a great gift, especially if you are trying to find a gift for a plant fanatic and you are not one. If this catalog seems like so much gibberish and you don't have a clue what to get for that special someone, get him or her a gift certificate. Don't forget to include the name of who it is for.

Wholesale
We sell wholesale to the trade as well as retail. Contact us concerning our competitive wholesale pricing and availability. We will also contract-grow items that we do not normally produce in large numbers; however, some things will never be available wholesale due to production difficulties and long lead times. If you need a quote on a catalog item call us.

Foreign Orders
We will ship non CITES material to other countries regulations permitting, (Japan, Canada, Europe Tasmania we even had an order from the south pole). There is a $500 minimum order and purchaser is responsible for the cost of the phytosanitary certificate, Emery Air shipping charges, any customs fees or broker fees, and assumes all liabilities for loss, damage, or dead plants. We will not replace or credit foreign orders. THIS IS AT THE BUYERS RISK.

Plant Sizes
We try very hard to ship the best plants we have available, usually this translates to the oldest and largest on hand, although occasionally we deem a younger plant is healthier and select that instead. Obviously, the same plant ordered for fall delivery will be larger that it was in the spring. Size is relative however and it is important that you know what you ordered. Don't bitch that its tiny if it is supposed to be tiny (have you ever seen a 2 yr old Androsace vandellii?)

Claims
We are happy to replace plants that were damaged in shipment or in the unlikely event that they were packed to wet and rotted. We check this very carefully; three different people look at the plants before we ship them. Once when we pull the order, once when the plants are prepared for boxing and once just before we actually put them in the box. Out of the vast volume of orders we ship every year, we average only a few claims. Of these the majority consists of plants that the customer thought were dead but in reality were just dormant. When plants are placed an a box they will often become a bit chlorotic or start to go dormant, dormant plants may start to wake up and send up some very white shoots, this is normal, the plants should green up when they get back in the light. When we get plants shipped to us, we unpack them immediately, repot them if needed, place them in a partly shaded place and water them in. Any yellow leaves are picked off and if there is any fungus from being in a box, we spray them with a broad-spectrum fungicide. We also understand that some plants resent shipping more than others, and will often sulk for a while until they settle in. These are often the most rare and choice plants, it is tempting at times to remove plants from the catalog because they resent being shipped but with a little care especially in terms of watering they usually do ok (it is very easy to overwater new plants). We want satisfied customers, in the rare occasion that something goes seriously wrong we need to know immediately so we can take steps to see that it never happens again. We therefore require all claims be made within two days of the arrival of the plants. If you feel the entire order is bad then we need to see it to determine what went wrong and will in most cases ask you return it to us immediately for a refund or reship. Other problems will be handled on a case-by-case basis; usually there is just a single plant in an order that may be of concern. In most cases we reship or send a refund automatically for this sort of thing but depending on what plant was involved we may want to see it to determine if it was actually dead or how it was mis-packed. If something happens and you cannot accept the order, please send it back to us immediately. For us the problem is more difficult than for many nurseries because we offer a number of plants that are very challenging to grow, even for experienced growers. It is inevitable that some of these will die. The deal is, we send them to you alive and well, after that its up to you. Probably the best thing you can do is to propagate new plants as soon as possible, then if you loose the original plant you have a backup (we do this with all new plants). We are happy to provide cultural advice, which may or may not be useful; so much depends on individual site conditions. We will not replace plants that have died months later or plants that the customer left sitting in the sun for a week before he got around to planting them. We do our best to quickly refund or reship damaged orders, occasionally re-ships have to wait until fall. Please be patient, spring is crazy and there are just not enough hours in the day.

Arrowhead Alpines

Bob & Brigitta Stewart, Owners
PO Box 857

1310 N. Gregory Road

Fowlerville, MI 48836
Phone: 517-223-3581

Fax: 517-223-8750