Stark Bros has two new trees for sale this spring

You mention Just Fruit and Exotics and I have ordered blueberries and blackberries and have 2 figs coming from them, but they are the only place I have ordered from that shipped live roaches with the items. Not sure if this is common, but my blueberries were littered with roaches in the mulch.

Ewwā€¦ It wouldnā€™t stop me from ordering from them, as the plants they have sent have been very nice (especially their jujube). But I think Iā€™ll open them in the driveway next time, rather than in the garage.

1 Like

I have order several Asian pears and apricots from Stark. Their Asian pears are in good quality with high caliper. One of them fruited for me the 2nd year. But the apricots died back with unknown reason (everything looked good, but suddenly all leaves died). Hope this year they wonā€™t die back again.

Stark used to be just about the only place I was familiar with to mail order fruit trees. So, thatā€™s where I ordered from. All of the trees Iā€™ve gotten from them over the years have been healthy and had not problems establishing - with the exception of those I received from their clearance sale this past May or June. I wrote about my concerns in another thread when they arrived. All of those trees struggled. Going straight from cold storage to over 3 months of temps in the 90ā€™s and 100ā€™s degree range was more of a challenge than most could withstand. The three apple trees and a single asian pear struggled through. The ghost white leaves on the other 11 greened up quickly when kept in a protected area away from intense sun, but didnā€™t have enough vitality to survive more than a few weeks. The apples and pear that did survive did exactly that - they survived with negligible growth. I spent the summer kicking myself for being fool enough to order trees that time of year for planting in this hot location. I felt their demise was my fault as much as that of the supplier, because I know how hard summers here are on even established trees.

Starkā€™s customer service, however, does stand behind their trees. Even though I felt guilty reporting my losses to them, they immediately offered to replace or refund all of lost trees. My replacements will arrive a month from now. February plantings are much more successful here than June.

1 Like

I like to know what rootstock my trees are grafted on.

For those looking to add a supreme twocot apricot as a dwarf or standard size, they sold out last sun. but still have their reg. size trees in stock. Their peggy asian pear is still in stock but if you are looking at ordering a supreme, I bought it for $32.99 and then on sun. they jacked the price up to $39.99. They did the same with 3 or 4 of their other supreme trees, a $7. increase! :open_mouth:

1 Like

I might be crazy, but I think Raintree raised some of their prices after the new yearā€¦

Raintree has been a bit erratic lately. Starkā€™s changes hands regularly, alternating between Wall Street Wheeler-dealers and nurserymen.

I would approach their proprietary varieties with great skepticism based on my personal experience. The Starkcrimson Rhubarb is just fine, though.

1 Like

I received my Peggy asian pear on Wednesday this week from Stark Bros. I ordered a supreme tree and received it being 40" tall from the graft union and a caliper 3/4" to 7/8" depending on where you measure. At an inch above the graft union it is 7/8" and around 3" above the graft union it is 3/4". Will post pics of it later this weekend.

1 Like

Hereā€™s a pic of peggy that I received from them showing the roots and all.

Peggy Asian Supreme

3 Likes

I ordered this past fall two apple trees, one CandyCrisp and one Sept. Wonder Fuji which both were supreme trees. They both were the caliper that that they were suppose to be at least/just making it. I also ordered a Hardy Giant Asian supreme pear that they sent me which didnā€™t measure up to their specs. I sent them an email about it within a week last fall and never heard a reply back from them. This spring I sent another email to them about my displeasure with the tree that they sent me with a pic showing a measuring tape. I told them how I measure caliper and gave them the benefit of doubt by measuring 1" above the union graft and it still fell short. I also in my email said that I would leave negative feedback on DG if I didnā€™t hear back from within 3 or 4 days and guess what? I hear back from them with that time period and they sent me a replacement tree. The tree they sent me this spring is 42" tall with a caliper of 1" at 3" above the union graft. :grinning:

I know this is an old thread but I just noticed it searching for Peggy. I read about it in a Stark catalog I just received in the mail. How well did yours grow this summer and I assume you didnā€™t let it fruit. The marketing sounds good but like many other Starks products its a sport of Arirang (which Iā€™m not familiar with). I donā€™t know if itā€™s an illusion in the photo but it appears that the Peggy shown in the picture has a faint red blush which is not typical of Asian pears.

1 Like

I am a Stark Bros ā€œdetractorā€ as their refusal to disclose rootstocks greatly irks me.

That aside-- You are in for a treat; the Candycrisp apple is a phenomenal variety. I tasted these last fall at an Amish market in southeast PA and they blew me away-- really yummy apples.

speedster1
Peggy didnā€™t do as well as the replacement Hardy Giant Asian did because of the deer around here. I spray all my trees with deerout at the same time and maybe I was a little late doing a follow up spray with the new growth. Some of the leaves and growing shoots got munched on a couple of months ago but the new shoots rebounded some. The first pic is of Peggy and the second is of the Hardy Giant. As far as Arirang goes my F,B&N book Ed. 4 has Starking Hardy Giant as (Olympic Cultivar) etc. and says it is trademarked. The heading for Korean Giant has (A-Ri_Rang, Dan Bae, Muk Gul, Olympic Giant, Large Korean) as the same tree. The heading for Olympic has (A-ri-rang, Korean Giant)- Korean pear. If you ask me, they sound like they are all the same tree with different names. All the different nurseries I have seen have a tree with just one name for it and take your pick from any of the above for it.

Peggy

Hardy Giant

1 Like

Matt

I know what you are talking about when it comes to stark and their rootstocks. When I listed all my trees on Garden Register I had to use the old post by somebody on the GW website that did get an answer back from them about the rootstocks they use. My Candycrisp did grew pretty good this year but canā€™t say the same about the Sept. Fuji that I planted 8ā€™ away from it. The deer left Candycrisp alone and munched on the leaves and shoots of SF. I have to spray all my trees that are not within a 6ā€™ tall chain link fence in my yard for deer. SF is to the right of the tree in the pic and Kiddā€™s Orange Red is to the left next to the green t-post.

Candycrisp apple

1 Like