bad experiences

[bookwormom]

I am pretty fed up with ordering plants from catalogs. we bought several trees from stark brothers, after all, it is a reputable company and we got little whips at a hig price. it will be several years until they grow to the size of the trees that lowes sells for less. My friend in Texas has the same experience. the funny thing, on the order they offered to prune the trees for a dollar extra. Heck, there was nothing to prune. yesterday an order came that had been 10 days in coming, looks like half is dead.

[Night_Walker]

Sorry to hear. Stark Bros. have always done well for me (last 9 yrs), and my dad (used them fm '77 through '89).

In fact, 2-yrs ago, I ordered a 5-in-1 apple tree which never came out of dormancy (as most, it was sent bare-root). Sent me a replacement without a quibble. For all they knew, I was ripping them off for a second tree (I wasn't).

Can't comment about the trees from Lowes. They may cost less, but you won't know about things like which rootstock (especially important for apples, which tend to be weak-rooted). Many of the major-name catalog trees (fruit trees at least) are grafted on to known good, strong rootstock... that's part of the premium price.

If your problems with a supplier are CONSISTENT, then ditch 'em.

[kawalekm]

I bought some trees at Home Depot that I mentioned on an earlier post about combination trees. *They were bare-root, bundled in moss, but I got them in January after they were in the store for less than a week. They are performing very well. Months later, I see a few remnents sitting in the corner of the nursery section, but I doubt they are still alive. I saved all the receipts just in case, but all the bareroots I bought are fine!

The name of the rootstock is attached to the trunk. *For example, the combination apple I bought was grafted onto a M111 rootstock. *That means my apple tree will be eventually about 15 feet tall. *By the way, I grafted some of the cuttings off of those Home Depot trees onto seedlings I grew, and now I have more than a dozen new trees sprouting out.

[lost1]

I was in the habit of ordering from Starks for years, but it seems they changed owners a few years ago and I believe quality has gone down greatly since then.

[Faye]

I order from them but last year and this year I have had several things die. They replaced them but the replacements died also.

[bookwormom]

how do you grow seedlings and how do you know if they are any good? I would like to try my hand at grafting.

[calliel]

Sorry your order didn't arrive as you thought it should. I have had great luck with Stark Bros and they do honor their guarantee.

I also bought trees at Lowe's last year - they aren't any larger than the ones that arrived looking little more than sticks from Stark Bros. now. I think the difference must be in the proportion of tree to roots. At Lowe's I got a large tree with very little root. The SB trees are a bit more in proportion. This is kind of like buying the tomato plants with tomatoes already on them and seeing that they don't ripen much before the little plants you set out the same day.

If you don't think you were treated well, I wouldn't hesitate to call them up and tell them so. Companies need to hear from their customers.