Ordered a couple things from Burnt Ridge, wanted to make a few notes here:
Burnt Ridge is generally significantly cheaper than most of their competitors. On the flip side their trees tend to be a bit smaller. I’m cheap, I’d rather get more trees, and their trees have always done well, they just tend to be smaller. This year I got 5 Caroline raspberries which, true to form, were smaller. But I also got this:
that’s the honey jar I ordered, it was like $35. Very impressed with it. I don’t do caliper but it is like 4’ tall above the root mass
On the flip side, I ordered 10 Bud118. Last year I ordered B118 and they ran out, I complained several times (I understand, not their fault, but they put ME in a bind and told me very late. So this year I asked them to ship as early as possible, specifically because I was afraid of B118 going on backorder.
Here is my 10 rootstock.
I sent a letter pointing out that they are B9, but sent it late Friday. I expect they will ship 10 B118, I checked my invoice and the error is theirs, not mine, but will keep folks updated.
I also got 5 pear and 5 persimmon rootstock, all looking good but didn’t bother to take photos of those.
Burnt Ridge is also excellent for ordering scion wood. In addition to apples and pears, they have several choices of plums, peaches, cherries, mulberries, paw paws, persimmon, quince, apricot, nut trees and more. They update their inventory regularly, so this late in the season there are not as many varieties listed as there will be next winter. The scion wood is found in the “other products” section.
Burnt Ridge is known for smaller trees? I put in a late order. I was having trouble finding a Gerardi mulberry elsewhere. Hoping I don’t regret this choice…
maybe 10-25% “undersize” relative to competitors. Given they seem to be 10-40% under-price, I really don’t mind. They send good stuff, and I probably buy at least 80%of the stuff I actually pay for through them.
I just need them to correct this B9 thing. I love them except this would be my second year not getting B118 if they don’t fix this, which could be a deal-breaker for me. Like I said I expect they will handle it, just waiting for next week to come.
I’ve ordered quite a bit from Burnt Ridge. A couple of my mulbs I did pot up for a bit for special attention (it was already hot here when I got them bare root) but everything has done well. They were good about replacing a tree that was not what I ordered. I definitely will order from them again.
Back in 2012 when we were first ordered and planted trees we bought quite a few apples (around 15) and a couple of peaches from Burnt Ridge. There was a HUGE size difference between their trees and the big wholesale monsters (over one inch caliper and 5 feet tall) we bought through Orange County Nursery. Hubby called and asked in a kinda complaining way why the trees were so small, and why the graft unions were so high on some. He was assured they would do fine, and they did.
Everything we got through Burnt Ridge has been true to label, but I can’t say that about the Orange County Trees. At least three peaches from O.C.N. were misslabeled…a bigger long term problem and expense than a small whip of the correct variety.
My final conclusion is, Burnt Ridge trees are a good deal!
They did forget my Pawpaw seeds last year…but I was too busy to care…or even let them know.
Some St Julian rootstock I bought last year was smaller then expected. (I was kinda spoiled by big Copenhaven Farms apple roots.!)
Gonna go graft some Persimmon scions from Burnt Ridge today.
I emailed Burnt Ridge Friday and again on Monday. no word back, which didn’t surprise me, I am sure they are swamped.
I called today, spoke to a woman who located my invoice. She said they even had a note to be extra-careful, I was apparently flagged from my experience last year with B118 running out at the nursery. She apologized, and said they would send the B118, then asked if I had anything else I’d like since I was placing an order anyway.
Since she asked, and since I’m an idiot, I said to toss in 2 seedling Cornelian Cherries. She added them to the replacement order, and asked if I would be willing to split shipping. I thought that was a little weird, but also realized the cornelian cherries probably added to the box size she would have to use, plus I’m keeping the Bud9–even though I don’t want Bud9 I will graft some stuff to them as placeholder rootstocks, and give them to friends as they get older…shipping is 10.50 so I basically got my 10 Bud9 at a buck each.
Overall, I am satisfied. I work customer service (sort of), and were it me I wouldn’t have asked to split shipping, but I was also afraid they might dig in and insist I shipped their B9, and we’d have some long, drawn-out pissing match, and it certainly didn’t come to that.
As a company, Burnt Ridge made good. Their trees have always done well for me even arriving on the small side in most cases, their rootstocks are good, and they clearly flagged me as a semi-disgruntled customer in the past, so if I’m still placing orders next year (weird, but every single year is the last year I’m gonna order…till the following spring) I’d continue to buy their stuff without question. I absolutely had more issues with another, bigger Washington nursery four years back when they botched my Ashmeads Kernal order…
Last year’s Jefferson Hazelnut treelings were very nice. This year they have held my order whilst Winter takes its sweet time getting the bleep outta here (SE Mich) - which is just fine by me.
I got a call about an hour ago, and like 2 after posting my prior update. Same lady, she was very nice, and she told me they did some research on THEIR end. They spoke to the box packer, they looked at the photos I sent, and they are 95% certain the rootstocks I got were actually B118 and the guy screwed up–he said he remembered my invoice because of the “don’t f this up” notes attached, and he thought he had B9 on the brain for whatever reason and mis-wrote the tag (the bundle of 10 WAS hand-tagged.)
In addition, looking at the rootstocks they felt confident it was not B9 because the roots were pretty thick and vigorous, and not what they observe typically and particularly this year in their B9, which were “whispy.”
She asked me if I still wanted the additional 10 B118 to be sure of what I had, and they were still free for my splitting shipping, so I actually ended up (PROBABLY, will graft my lower-interest apples on the questionable B118s just in case) with 10 B118 for $10.50, plus was probably (again, PROBABLY) Ok in the first place.
I’ve ordered from Burnt Ridge for about 25 years. About a third of the trees I get are small, about a third are average sized and about a third are larger than average.
Hey guys so i got 30 B118s and 10 G222s coming from Burnt Ridge, I just got a notice that they aren’ sending me mine until 4/27ish, expected to arrive 5/4 because of ‘national weather issues’.
Temps in Onalaska, WA where they are at have been 40s & 50s for over 6 weeks. My spring is in gear today at 50 and, 60s starting Sunday. I realize its only 2 weeks from now but it seems odd they are using weather as a reason when their rootstock should have been accessible for awhile now and there isn’t weather concerns to ship today?
where ya at? I asked them to ship my stuff early, after last year I think they basically humored me.
I typically got my stuff from them around Mothers Day, shipping to upper Midwest. Their concern isn’t the weather in Onalaska, it is the weather in-transit (i.e. a FedEx truck sitting overnight in the Dakotas…)
I grafted rootstock from them last year on April 2nd. Basically a full month later this year, i know the northern weather was crazier this year however.
