I was viewing their website. It looks like a different website than the site I remember them saying they don’t ship so I could be thinking of 2 similar names. That being said I did notice their prices were steep and their stuff is certainly exotics. I did not see too much for down here in zone 5 or 6.
I bought mostly persimmons from them. Them and Bob Wells are my favorite on line nurseries. Their prices are steep because their product is advanced and really nice stuff.
Agree, since they arrived DOA, you would not know the difference, a money making strategy!
Stark Bros is really popular with Missouri growers because it’s “local.” Much of their stuff is grow elsewhere by other growers and shipped into MO. They also don’t give you choices on rootstocks, which is a big strike against them for me. I ordered once from them years ago and wasn’t super happy with the tree I received for the money I paid. This year I decided to order two Hinno Red gooseberries from them because that clearance deal was too fantastic to pass up. They canceled my order a week later just like yours. I don’t understand how their inventory counts could be off so badly since they were using that clearance sale to get rid of what inventory they had left.
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Boy this year a lot of my plants ordered from my reliable nurseries was much lower quality. Half of one order was dead on arrival, another 1 out of 3 was dead, another were nut tree with very minimal roots but seem to have survived. The quality I have got this year was really bad. Fortunately all did the right thing either replacing or refunding so there is that. But always check return policies as some while charge you shipping to replace and others don’t. Frustrating because I go for large orders to minimize shipping costs, then get hit with a huge shipping bill that costs as much as the replacement plant. In such cases I just go with a refund and get set back a year, and I am not getting any younger! Even my best more reliable sources had quality issues. I guess maybe demand is high so they are sending out junky stuff, I don’t know. Not a great year in the ordering department.
Stark has high prices. I suspect the shipping costs are rolled into each plant so they charge a “lower” official shipping. So if you get the free shipping with orders over $100 or whatever you are basically paying shipping. If true then the more plants you buy the higher the shipping goes up the more plants you buy, whereas at other places shipping will start to level out the more you buy. Or maybe their high prices just allow them to eat the shipping costs, either way I never find it cheaper to buy there. Even their current sale only brings their prices down to the general level of other nurseries and yet are still higher.
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People have the logic of buying local you can pay more a lot. When nursery were charging 20 dollars for a cherry tree The Tree Farm was charging 120 dollars for a Juliet bush cherry. My Bush Cherry from HoneyBerryUSA are massive in one year and I likely paid under 120 dollars for 5 plants and shipping. I recommend HoneyberryUSA if you ever want to go for some of that more uncommon stuff that is uber hardy. I would argue that uncommon stuff is why people use online nursery anyway. In regards to Stark Bros their stuff that comes later in the season tends to do great for me. Their spring stuff has been a mixed bag. It is deceptive because it looks horrible a few days after I get their fall stock and will lose all their leaves but 1. They will then bounce back with a vengeance next year.
People have made videos on free shipping and free returns. The philosophy of it is that the more charges we see the more pain receptors in our brains we get. It looks much nicer to our evolutionary brains to include free shipping. Even better if you get a bundle because then our brains trick us into thinking we got a deal. Same with free returns. The reality is they are factoring the returns they get into their price tag. The more they return the more they charge for it. Plus these free returns are often times not being resent out to new consumers. Often times they are discarded into the trash. Some places offer refurbished for a discount but I always wonder why they are returned and in most cases it is not worth the risk. I see Amazon often offers a few dollars discount for buying a returned version but I buy the new one more often than not because I don’t trust the returned version and after working at USPS I really don’t trust the returned merchandise at Amazon.
Very true statements. Plus our psyche plays a part of that was well, i.e., and item is $15 PLUS $5 shipping you think twice about that. Same item is $20 and FREE shipping you think it is a deal. We can do it to ourselves. I know I do.
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Just got some carpet blueberry from Hartmans. I was confused by how the site works at paid 40 dollars plus 15 shipping for 4 and it was only one plant and the sales rep Erin actually changed it to 4 each because of my confusion even though the confusion was likely on me. Plants came today and look amazing and are already fruiting. If you don’t mind having to buy a lot of them it appears to be quite the nice website with unique stuff.
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It is why they do free shipping, buy one get one free, free shipping after x amount, x amount off if you get x but if you get x amount more you get x amount more off. Sometimes these deals work out like Lodge had a get 25 off 50, 50 off 150 or something like that. It worked out for me because I was going to be buying cast iron anyway and I could combine existing deals with those huge savings so why not save on what you were going to buy anyway. Other times it tricks the brain into thinking buy more. I know Amazon is known for these tactics. They have you do 35 dollars or more for free shipping if you don’t have prime which encourages buying more stuff or spending 140+ dollars a year on prime membership and they pull the color scheme method. If you want something returned with Amazon they put store credit in a highlighted color and the return to card option is blending in with the rest of the page. Stores that are red like Target are labeled those colors to make you shop more at their store while blue is supposed to be a more relaxed shopping experience like Walmart. Even where they put things in stores are meant to subtly manipulate you. They do actual statistics on it. So many ways for stores/companies to trick you into getting you to buy what they want.
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Very true. You just have to watch and the sites and figure out if it really a " deal" or not. Like you said they get you to buy more to get free shipping or appear it is free. As we have figured out by now, or hopefully have, for the most part nothing is truly free. Buyer beware.
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Another thing people have figured out is some things are always on sale. I people have looked at certain websites and a good portion of items are always on sale or are almost always on sale. Like I mentioned above if you are paying full price for purple passion asparagus at Stark Brothers just wait a bit because it will likely go on sale for 4.99 or sometimes 3.99. Another problem is make sure you check prices on things before shopping on Black Friday or Amazon Prime day. What they figured out is companies often times just change the price so it looks on sale and sometimes they even change the price to a higher price.
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I second this. Purchased a Prime-Ark Freedom blackberry plant at full regular price last year. It went on sale before being delivered and Stark Bros would not offer me a partial refund, so I only purchase plants from them on sale now.
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Buckeye,
David Hughes is a friend. I’ve seen some of his trees, and they are brutes!
Simmons Plant Farm, in AR, has been my ‘go-to’ for berries for years, but it’s been several since I ordered any. They’ve always sent big, healthy plants and reasonable prices. This spring, I bought an assortment of all rabbiteye and SHB types, to plant for our kids & grandson; also ordered some rhubarb and 5 each of Ponca & Kiowa blackberries. Most of the stuff arrived as expected - large blueberry plants with good root systems. But… they left out the ‘Delight’ blueberry and the ‘Premier’ blueberry looked DOA - no leaves, twigs shriveled and brown.
I notified them by email, and they immediately sent ‘Delight’ and a replacement ‘Premier’… which also looked to be DOA. I gave it a couple of weeks to see if it would push any growth (still none from either, 2+ months out), but none was forthcoming. Notified them, and they immediately refunded the price to my credit card.
I can’t say enough good about Simmons and their customer service. The plants I’ve ordered from them over the last 15+ years have alway been great… the two dead Premier blueberries make me wonder about some issue associated with that batch of that variety… prices are really good for the size plants they send, and service is better than most I’ve encountered.
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This isn’t exactly a nursery but this guy always sends awesome stuff and has a cool selection so I wanted to advocate for him a bit. It’s on TFF
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I will keep this nursery in mind. I need to buy some blueberry bushes. Looks like they are sold out for this year. Thank you for suggesting them and what good products and service you have received from them.
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Like mentioned above I would look into Hartman’s carpet blueberries. The claim they make is they spread 1.5 feet per year and combined with their plants after 5 years you are looking at 5 pounds of blueberries. The blueberries only get 1.5 feet and spread. Mine came already loaded. 5 pounds of blueberries in 5 years is a pretty bold claim I do say so myself. That is a pound a year. This tells me in 8 years and around 8-100 feet you are getting a cool 80 pounds of blueberries per foot if they stay the same amount of production.
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This is why I have so many cancellations on Stark Bros. They won’t offer a partial refund but they allow you to cancel if it is not close to being shipped. So you cancel it and get a full refund and purchase for less. The funds will be back in the bank account a few days later. Even if you use a canceled card but get a refund like I did with Burpee you can call the old card and request a check be mailed. It just takes longer and some of your time.
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Yeah, twice this spring I canceled and replaced an order for one set of 25 bare root strawberry plants. They kept lowering the price before shipping my order. Saved $8.55 on the third order compared to the first.
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