I’ve had good experiences with Fedco trees, Gurney’s, and Stark Bros.
Fedco has sent me some amazing trees, much larger than expected, when I’ve ordered early in the season. However, I recommend skipping their end of season clearance, as I purchased discounted trees once, which were so tiny that they looked more like small bushes than trees. A year later, they remain smaller than many of the bench grafts I made this spring.
Stark Bros has sent me some gorgeous trees (especially a moorpark apricot that I adored until our mower guy backed into it and then a derecho finished it off). My only complaint here is lack of rootstock info, which others have already noted.
Gurneys has also sent me some decent apple trees, about the size I expected.
I’d like to add a few additional positive experiences- all the scions I’ve bench grafted from Derek at Hocking Hills Orchard have taken and he has a great selection. He tends to send extra if they are small and will throw in a free stick if you order at least 5. Additionally, the scion I’ve received from Steven at Skillcult has been quite vigorous and produced great trees. Finally, Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, IA will send you scion from any of their trees if you contact them. They send several sticks for a very reasonable price.
Against my better judgement I purchased a Crimson Blush this year at the lower price and found a promo code to take a few more bucks off. Currently shows shipping in a week or two. Hopefully not a dried crispy cane like last year in the website reviews.
Just received my 3 blueberries from Fedco Seeds today. The gallon pots were $19 each plus $25 shipping. They were stacked tight together and some branches were stuck down the soil of the facing pot. Quite a few branches were broken. I’m not impressed with the packaging and there doesn’t seem to be many roots from the one that fell out of the pot. Guess I have to wait to see how they’ll do this year before I decide if I buy plants from them again.
I’m surprised they didn’t tie a bag around the pots. Also a bit confused why they didn’t send them bare root… shipping dirt around seems like a waste. And now I see that the heavy dirt can also break branches…
unless it’s dead lol.
