ive had good luck with esty and even hirts. i got a honeyberry from them for $10 w/ shipping. that same plant from the other nurseries are $20 + shipping for the same 5in. plant. it put on 6in. of new growth last summer and i only got it late june.
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I have been buying from Burnt Ridge for about10 years now. I moved from CA to Tx so had to get some more for the new yard. I have only once got some dead plants (almonds) 7 years ago. Planted, didn’t leaf out, called them, no problem, they sent replacements no extra charge or even shipping (don’t know if that same policy remains). Since that time I have not had a dead plant in the past 7 years and been getting a lot from them. Burnt Ridge is the best quality and price point for me. And now in the past two years with price increase at other nurseries, their price point is even better than other places. Stark wants $65 for a peach that I can get (last I checked this year) for $30-35 from Burnt Ridge. Raintree is selling peaches for $60 so only modestly better than Starks, but a lot more than Burnt Ridge. So Burnt Ridge is my choice over Raintree.
Burnt Ridge shipping is reasonable but as always, plan to order all at once and the shipping cost is better if you buy a bunch at once. My latest order from a few weeks ago was 7 hazels, 1 chestnut, 2 year old pomegranate, so ten plants shipping was like $45 on a $220 order if I recall. So getting what you need all at once is the best price for shipping costs, but their shipping is still reasonable if you get like two trees but you save a little with a larger order.
Been a long time since I bought from Raintree and from many years ago I don’t recall issues with the plants. I just stopped buying from them as their prices went up a while ago so never went back.
I know I sound like I work for Burnt Ridge (I promise I don’t), but as I said, been ordering from them for 10 years or more with live plants, any issues resolved very much to my satisfaction with no hassle. Got a tree from Ison’s which was dead and their replacement policy is very time limited and many hoops to jump through AND you pay for shipping the replacement. So they are off my regular list unless I have no other choice. One Green World definitely has quality plants, the exception was one fig that I paid for larger quart plant but this fig was one taken from a 4 inch pot, and put in a quart pot, but the rest I ordered were healthy and as described. However their prices have bumped up in the past two years, but not to the extent of Raintree, Stark etc has so not the cheapest but don’t feel gouged. Burnt Ridge beats them on price in most everything I compared, OGW however has a larger selection though so I do order from then when I can’t find something at BR. Will be paying a bit more from OGW but at least for the most part it isn’t absurdly more, Fruitwood nursery I recommend for superbly priced starter plants, but they don’t have a lot and these are very small plants. Their pomegranate starter plants were $7, cuttings $4. Excellent price but note this is just a rooted cutting, not a 2 year old tree. Most cuttings I got were ample except one which was really too thin for rooting purposes, but the others were OK, starter plants all leafed out and growing fine. First time buying from them, so far so good except one cutting. Didn’t ask for a refund on that one cutting as it was just $4. Did a 60 minute drive to a nursery in TX for a particular Peach I wanted because that made more sense than the high shipping, $35 for the plant, $37 for shipping, so I just did the drive. With that in mind it can be worth the long drive in some cases to pick up plants rather than ship them if it available in your general region. Bought a few plants from Edible Landscaping for the first time, prices were comparable to Burnt Ridge, shipping reasonable. Plants were all fine, but don’t have a long track record with them. So far so good, but selection is not quite as good as Burnt Ridge. I ordered Chinese Chestnut seedlings from Perfect Circle Farm, all were reasonably priced, shipping was reasonable so that may be another option. Perfect Circle Farm does not have as big of selection of different fruit trees, and I have only got Chinese Chestnut seedlings from them twice. Again I have limited track record with them, so far so good, happy with the purchase.
Probably more than your really wanted to hear about but I know inflation is hitting people hard and some nurseries have prices increased to unreasonable levels that, at least to me, are not justified. With Burnt Ridge stuff goes out of stock as they sell so I always do a fall order for spring delivery and do a big order that save some on shipping to get a pick of the stock. If they don’t have what I need I check Edible Landscaping for another reasonably priced place but with bit less choice, then OGW at a bit higher cost but not absurd prices with probably the greatest selection. Fruitwood nursery for cuttings is fantastic, and for the few starter plants, quite small but very cheap, very limited selection. After that I start rolling the dice with other nurseries I have less experience with and hope for the best.
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Edible landscaping has such high shipping costs it ends up costing me as much as a Raintree or Starks to order from them. Another thing is every time I send in an order with edible landscaping my card gets compromised and there is no PayPal option. Stark Bros the issue I have with them is the supreme tree at Stark Bros is what you are getting at Raintree or many of these other nurseries. If you buy a regular tree you are buying a small whip. After 2-3 years they thicken to what somewhere like a Raintree would send. Burnt Ridge should be sending my order soon. I agree that their shipping is quite affordable and so is their prices.
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I agree. I bought 2 small 4’ potted nanking cherries for $24 and the shipping was $20.
Does this look like a $32 apple tree?
I don’t think so either.
I’d go for 39th Parallel. Nursery, or England’s Orchard (Kentucky).
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I have gotten orders from Raintree and One Green World this year and in past years so can speak to them this year. I can speak for burnt ridge this year only. The root system seemed to be heavily pruned compared to other nurseries this year compared to other years. Pretty much all my holes were dug to that of what you would expect to be digging for a gallon root system but the walnut from Raintree and the pecan from Burnt Ridge. Trees this year tended to have a much bigger caliper size though. The only small caliper sizes I got were the Montrose Apricot and the 1 gallon bare root self rooted IE from Burnt Ridge as well as the fruit punch pluerry ad candy heart pluerry from Raintree. Everything else had massive caliper size other than ones you know are small like pawpaw. I would be more concerned about the crease on the apple. The first year I started buying bare root trees I bought 5 bare root trees from Grow Organic Peaceful Valley. I noticed a lot of them were like your trees and had a gap and 3/5 did not make it. One did not have a gap and made it and is still living. The other one that has a gap has made it but the gap looks super ugly. As the caliper grows so does the gap and it has never really healed.
It seems that way with most things you buy, so it must be a question of the business model. Certainly running a ‘brick and mortar’ store means a lot more expense, to serve a much smaller customer base than you get online. But also the local businesses tend to stock only the most basic varieties so you can get those anywhere. If I find something special that slipped through the cracks from their wholesaler I will usually buy it locally because I can inspect it well so I know what I’m getting. But that is very rare, and really is mostly an accident. I have offered to sell local nurseries some more special stuff, but they get antsy about the customers who only buy what they see everywhere else.
“Time ain’t money when all you got is time” - Greg Brown
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I saw Home Depot had bare root weeping Santa Rosa this year. I did not buy it because I already had one coming but it was tempting. For my local nursery issue I have with them is their cost as well as their cultivars. In my view if it is something no one sells but a few places and you sell it for a high price that is fine. Zee sweet 4 in 1 pluot is an example of you can charge what you want because few sell it. If you are charging a bunch for a honeycrisp, gala, rainier or bing we have an issue. Given market there should be extreme discounts on cultivars like listed below. Our local nursery claim they charge so much because they are big trees but so are the bare root I get.
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That would be tempting. Sometimes if they forget to take care of stuff or it doesn’t sell (price is too high) it will be around later in summer for the ‘get rid of it sale’. In fact, I see things in their dumpster I could save, but they keep it behind a fence. Probably a bored sales person would let it go for a few bucks, but I have never tied.
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My Home Depot keeps things in the freight department in the back of the building. I used to work there is the only reason I know where it was. These trees were bare root and it is almost May so I can’t think of too much longer until they have to put them on sale. Heck they should be on sale now realistically speaking.
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Who did you get this tree from?
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Here’s the rootstock from my Raintree Nursery order. The Raintree Nursery tree and rootstock is on the left. The rootstock on the right with the bamboo prop is from Cummings Nursery. I will not be buying from Cummings Nursery again. I am impressed with the quality of the tree I received from Raintree Nursery.
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I had a nadia cherry plum, fuji and white gold from cummins nursery that were of good size unlike the rootstock from them. That being said I got some massive size calipers from Raintree this year. I am not sure if my hand could truly fully go all the way around for 4 in 1 pluots from Raintree this year. They also sent me all 5 varieties of mirabelle on 4/5 multi grafted mirabelle. At first I thought it was just 4 but I recounted and it was all 5. The rootstock cummins sent you is what my male persimmon look like from hidden springs nursery. I bought 2 male persimmon trees from hidden springs nursery and 1 is about as big as my finger and the other the graft actually broke off when I touched it when planting other plants. I don’t think the graft was established from hidden springs nursery on my male persimmon.
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I will be surprised of the Cummins tree survives. I have had a few others grafted for me with scions that small and none survived.
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I can’t speak to grafting. All I can say is their trees are of quite a big size. It surprises me that the rootstock they send is so small when their trees are so massive. There trees are often 4 or 5 feet tall in my experience. I have not had a rootstock come from them due to me not grafting. I chose to just get plants.
Which nursery are you talking about?
Cummins Nursery. All Raintree, One Green World, Bay Laurel, Cummins and Burnt Ridge sent me big tree this year with the exception of the self rooted IE mulberry plants which were thinner but given they said it was 1 gallon I was not expecting too big of a tree from those. I have gotten trees that look similar to that size of graft though. The small grafting tree next to the bigger one is the levels of grafts I have gotten from both Stark Bros and Hidden Springs Nursery. It is the reason I complain so much about Stark Bros with their potted plants. It takes years for them to reach what I expect the size of the trees from a One Green World, Trees Of Antiquity, Cummins, Raintree or Bay Laurel will send first year and they will charge the same if not more.
It is either luck of the draw or depends on variety it seems. One Green World has sent me nothing but tiny deformed trees. They will never see another order from me.
The only nursery I’ve had no issues with is Ison’s out of GA.
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Most of my brambles from Isons has still not leafed out but I am keeping them in just in case. Meanwhile I have had great success with Raintree, Burnt Ridge, Bay Laurel and One Green World