Burnt Ridge has better prices.
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Yes, much better prices, even before the big increases this year. Part of the reason I felt half guilty allowing them to reimburse for the mislabeled DWN persimmon. They can’t have big profit margins with their prices.
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I’ve chatted with them a bit recently about some of their apple tree varieties and they’ve been very responsive via email and one employee even called me to give more info when they were out of one of the things I was interested in. The Oly farmer’s market is less than an hour from our house so I’m going to order and then pick up at the market. I’m also intrigued by their scion wood list! I’m hoping to have some luck with grafting over the next year or so!
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Dennis- does Fowler nurseries keep an updated tree list on their website or do I need to call? I only see info for 2019
You know I am not sure, I heard about Fowler from another member as a source of Adara. So I only called them to find out how I could get that specific plant, was referred to Marghareit and she filled out my order, so I suggest speaking with her, she was very helpful.
Dennis
Has anyone bought trees from Burnt Ridge that didn’t grow? I bought a bunch of Illinois Everbearing mulberries that did not and I recall also buying an heirloom apple that didn’t plug in well at all so I stopped considering them for unusual fruit varieties.
Raintree stuff has not been a problem. More important than customer service is lively trees. But my sample size is way too small to establish a trend.
The only thing that came close was a Bella Gold Peacotum.The top part died,about a foot above the ground,but recovered.The tree though,hasn’t grown into fullness.
The next year,at a Seattle plant sale,Mike Dolan,the co- owner of Burnt Ridge was there,selling some things.I told him about what happened.He said,the tree should grow,but looked for another,as a replacement,but there wasn’t one.
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I was reading about that type of tree last night after seeing it on their website. Do they typically grow well in western WA? I’m intrigued by the description but always thought apricot-type trees didn’t love it here.
I tried several apricot trees about 15-20 years ago thinking they would do well here, both seemed healthy upon planting, neither made it to fruiting time due to borers and cankers. It may be possible to graft them onto an existing more durable stonefruit trunk. I can say the same here in Kent, for most peaches that are not frost free, they typically die a short life. My neighbor has a peach tree that is about 20 years old and it is dying back at all the top limbs, with only the very bottom limbs still growing and drooping down to the ground. So maybe one more year it will go.
Most plums seem more resilient here, so I am converting all my sweet cherries to plum, and all peaches must be frost free. So far out of about 8 plum varieties I have never had to spray chemical, and we always seem to have more than the family needs, so I am increasing my plum, pluot, plueery varieties and wild plum varieties year by year.
This year on one of my Puentes I grafted a nectarine just as a test to see if it does well as a graft. I still am somewhat reluctant to try anything close to an apricot, but if the nectarine performs as well as my frost free peaches, then someday I may venture to try an apricot branch.
Dennis
Kent, wa
I’ve bought from Burnt Ridge a number of times and have not had problems with their quality. I think I had a couple of black walnuts that I let get overwhelmed by weeds that died, but I don’t recall anything I’ve bought from them that didn’t leaf out. I do have a problem with getting things shipped at just the right time here from them because they say stuff ships through Chicago to get here - the weather may be fine here and there at the time I want to ship but freezing in Chicago so it won’t work. Last time I asked to prepay for them to ship later but then they went ahead and sold out of what I wanted and had ordered months before. I try to use mostly local/regional nurseries but Burnt Ridge has stuff I can’t find around here so I still use them.
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I don’t recommend getting a Peacotum,because,for a number of people,including me,they are difficult for fruit to set.If fact,mine never has,so other Peach types were grafted on and they have done moderately well.
A branch or two of the original was left,for a possibility in the future.
That’s what I was worried about. I think I’ll stick to plums/plum crosses and apples for now!
I think all my stuff from either of those nurseries comes through Chicago…as does rootstocks out of Oregon.
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I ordered 2 bare root Virginiana persimmon seedlings from them. One didn’t leaf out until June or July, the other never. I don’t hold it against them.
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I think whenever you buy a bare root tree it is kind of iffy. I bought 5 cherry trees last year from Grow Organic Peaceful Valley. Other people on here suggest them. 2/5 did not grow. What was the reason for that I don’t know. Heck you can have something out of control happen like late frost or animals that can kill it. I just got 3 Gold Saturn Peaches from Stark Bros. I netted the two in the open and the other was in the dog kennel so I thought nothing would touch it. I went outside only to find out a deer or some other animal had taken off pretty much the entire peach tree.
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I buy about 200 trees a year wholesale and sometimes I will have some failure with apricots, but peaches, plums, apples, nects, cherries and pears I don’t get more than one or 2 failures a year. Bare roots shouldn’t be that iffy.
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I’ve used both. Raintree would be my preferred nursery, all things being equal, but it’s changed hands. So who knows? Both are reputable.
My best tree lately has been from Trees of Antiquity. Very big although dormant, and bareroot. I definitely paid top dollar for the experience. I don’t think that I would have paid the premium price if there were an alternative quality supplier for what I wanted.
I got a lot of good trees from Bay Laurel, but they had already broken dormancy when they arrived here in Z6. I don’t think that they have a refrigerated warehouse. If you happen to live in a warmer zone with earlier planting dates, that wouldn’t be a big deal.
The Raintree offerings were consistently bigger. That’s not a dealbreaker if it’s a variety I want, but I would definitely insist on a reasonable discount to Raintree if they both sell the same tree.
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Burnt Ridge has the better Blueberries. More disease-resistant selections.
I had a problem with all the Raintree multigrafted cherries I bought in 2020. I’ve been buying fruit trees from them for 5 years now and never had an issue. They seemed to have changed hands? Anyway they would not make good on the cherries and I haven’t bought anything from them since. I don’t trust them anymore.
There are so many other good nurseries out there like Trees of Antiquity, Willis Orchard, One Green World, Burnt Ridge, Cummins, Fedco, Rolling River that I haven’t had trouble with.
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I used to buy a lot from Raintree, but after it sold a couple years ago their plant list plummeted. I hope they get back to where they were. I’m new to Burnt Ridge but so far I’ve had great results.
I live on the East Coast so shipping from either is high, but not too different. I like Burnt Ridge for stuff that Raintree never has such as nut seeds and scion wood.
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