I bought a red passionflower in bloom at my local Lowe’s box store onetime. It was in a pot labeled CLEMATIS, label was not removable- no chance it was switched. A $2 end of year clearance, checker told me it would come back year after year in the garden. hahaha 
I was one of those guys loading cars and pushing carts in the lot at Home Depot with my second job. I got trained on garden department because I was supposed to enter garden department but ended up leaving before I got my different job there. You did not have to know a lot. You just had to be able to handle heavy items and deal with being pulled in a bunch of directions at once which was the stressful part. For garden department my training basically was what is the difference of a perennial and annual, read the label, how to lead customer to and sell the entire project and some information on their machine products which I now forget. I don’t feel training is adequate at Home Depot but they realize that with most employees they leave in a few months and you will have nearly 100% turnover with those few who just stay still being there in a year. In other words I don’t feel like they think they have to invest in employees. There is also two types of employees at Home Depot. Those are have figured out how to walk around and do nothing and those who keep on pushing and trying to run all over. Those employees that push themselves and try to run all over get burnt out or hurt themselves. Our greeter when I worked at Home Depot got the job because he hurt himself pushing himself on the job. If I go to the store I can expect the right product but maybe just the wrong cultivar. I just expect self serve with shopping at the stores like Home Depot or Lowes. Online is just horrible though. I can’t think of a time I got a plant from Home Depot online and was satisfied.
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I just got 2 jujube trees (Sugar Cane & So Contorted) from StarkBros today and I got to say I’m impressed. The trees were very nicely packed with good roots for the price & shipping cost. So far, I think I got the best bargain from them out of 6-7 nurseries I’ve purchased from within the last 6 months. The sugar cane jujube were about the same size as the one I got from Womack but about half the cost. It helped that StarkBros has a promo code for free shipping.
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I received 20 trees from Cumberland Valley Nursery and am totally satisfied… spent the whole weekend planting…the weather was perfect.
The prices are excellent, the tree sizes were all 4ft give or take and had healthy roots.
The only oddball things about them is that you have to pay with a check…and they dont really know how to email a tracking number so they call you and tell you when you will get them. Also no website…all catalog order.
I think its THE way to go if you want to plant a big orchard for cheap.
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Googled them out of curiosity and got this catalog from 1928. Is this the same company? If so they’ve been at it awhile!
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I like how the trees I see from Stark Bros online are always these big trees that are bare root but most of these trees are these small whips in a small pot. In fairness Stark Bros does claim they will only be 3 feet max with most of their products. For me to get anything big from them I basically need to order a supreme size from them though. Free shipping does not mean much when your cost of the tree is as much if not more than a tree plus shipping from other nursery. Other than the Stark Bros exclusives I often find a better deal and a better sized tree somewhere else.
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I got something from Stark last Friday about a 50% off sale…but I don’t think I need to order any more stuff. (Besides, 50 off is about the price I can get from most places even if no ‘sale’ is on.)
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They look good for those prices. Somehow lately Jujube trees are so expensive.
Guess I’ll have to run by Tractor supply…some of their stores are opening green houses, too.
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The trees people tend to show look massive for the prices. Whenever I buy from them I seem need to buy their supreme size to get a tree that size which ends up being way more expensive. If you look at most of their products they send them potted and state they will be between 1.5 feet to 3 feet. They come pencil diameter which is not stated. To get around the same caliper as I have gotten from other nursery bare root it takes a year or two to get that big.
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My trees from OGW are even smaller than pencil diameter.
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You get a mixed bag from them…because they re-sell things others produce. I’ve got good stuff at times, but not every time. Overall, I’m not going to knock them.
The small trees are the stark bros are the small ones while the big trees are the ones from other companies. Many of which came at the same time. One of the big ones is a major pecan tree and the other is a toka/bubblegum plum tree and some of the small ones is a sure crop pecan as well as a bubblegum tree from stark bros. I took a picture of a Zestar! apple that I got last year from Stark Bros to show what a standard size potted Zestar! apple looks like after one year from stark bros.
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I guess I got lucky with my first experience with StarkBros. As for other nurseries, I find HoneyBerry send very small whips for the price. I got 2 romance cherries about 8-10" from them that were $25-30. I also find their shipping cost is fairly expensive, similar to Edible Landscaping. Womack shipping was highest at $35 for a $45 4-5’ jujube.
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Honeyberry sends small plants but they are more rare plants. They sell Baily cherry on its own roots, parts of the romance cherries that are hard to get and their arctic raspberries are much cheaper than some other sites I visited. I think honey berry USA charged me 20 something dollars shipping. Edible Landscaping charges a percentage and their plants are super costly so shipping is extremely expensive there. I do not buy from them unless I cannot get what I want anywhere else. One Green World charges me 23 dollars for shipping but I can put a lot of trees on an order. One Green World has very affordable prices though. Bay Laurel charge 33 or 35 dollars for shipping but is the same way as One Green World. Raintree charges a bunch for trees and charges 23 dollars per tree for shipping but they have nicer rootstocks for my area and have more rare varieties so you have that tradeoff. Trees of Antiquity has expensive trees and expensive shipping but their trees are quite big. Stark Bros has a lot of common varieties, expensive prices and no rootstock description. Some trees I get from them have had issues too. Their shiro plum tree I got from them had a bunch of white stuff on the roots and died. Other trees I want seem to never be in stock or come to stock. I have been on the waitlist for 2 years now for self fertile pecans other than the sure crop.
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I take it you’ve bought from them all. Good information.
My experience per HoneyberryUSA is their bare root plants are a good value.
But, the potted ones are very small, and probably nor raised by Honeyberry but by somebody else.
I look for options close to home first, but some things aren’t available close by.
I purchased my first honeyberries about 12 years ago…from a Univ. of Tennessee professor’s better half…I’m guessing he didn’t get his stock via any regular nursery but from friends in universities.
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