Also it is likely worth noting both roses are fruit trees/bushes are likely both considered luxury plants. Roses require specialized care to thrive so are expensive all around. Specialized fertilize and roses are certainly not cheap. Every year I go to get the annuals from Ol Tools my grandma and my like in the plants I go to the rose section. It smells so wonderful and you see all these very pretty roses in bloom. The only time I bought one was years ago when I was still a teenager and my grandma paid 30 something dollars for it and this was likely 10 years ago. It lived and bloomed all summer but never came back. My mom was gifted a wild rose that they sell at King Soopers (our.local Kroger) and that rose has come back and thrived every year. I think it is because it is a wild rose opposed to a cultivated rose. The reason I mention fruit trees/bushes being a luxury plant is because I learned fruit trees are overwhelmingly in wealthy areas this year. I learned about that by watching a news story. I guess there have been companies that have started up selling fruit trees as discounted prices to low income areas and have fruit drives every year to sell those. It was something I had never thought of until I watched the news story and then I thought wow that does seem to be the case. In my area where people are middle class and up people have fruit trees in their yards but whenever I go into a lower income area I never see one fruit tree.
I am guessing the place in Ithaca NY selling trees for 18.95 is Mehraybean nursery or however you spell it. I canceled my order last year with them so I canāt speak to their trees but I can tell you their customer service and prices are amazing. They called me back after business hours to discuss their trees. I have heard good things about them from other people on this forum who have gotten trees from them though.
Itās Mehrabyan Nursery. Havenāt tried them, myself.
I have bought most of my apple trees from Century Farm Orchards. Their tree stock are great and I have never had any issues with their nursery stock. Very reasonable pricing for quality trees.
I have been interested in ordering some trees from Grandpaās orchard but it is always has been a bad gamble for me because the trees I want are either " out of stock" or not in the rootstock I want. I have not heard of anyone that has ordered from Grandpaās Orchard, either good or bad.
You get some ugly graft unions from Century Farm. And both David Vernon and Tom Brown over in North Carolina use M-111ā¦and going back 7 years Iāve never yet gotten the first apple from any tree on M-111. My Niedzwetzkyana from Trees of Antiquity 10 years ago is the only M111 Iām happy about. Suckering and burrknots are also common.
Cummins has some ugly budding jobs, but at least most of the size controlling trees have bloomed second or third season.
No, Iāve not done business at āGrandpasā eitherā¦so if anyone has insights to shareā¦go for it.
Iāve had good luck avoiding those here with MM111 by planting deep enough that the graft union is only an inch or so above the ground. Dunno if this would be as effective in your environment.
Iām about to place my next year order for one hundred Budagovski 118 rootstocks for apple for $1.55 each plus shipping, say $175 to make up a number. I love the 1-gallon panda bags, one hundred of those for $13.30. Not counting dirt that has the potential of creating $2 trees, more likely $4 trees. Is it that fruit trees are expensive or that the instant gratification, fancy large trees you rather have, are expensive?
Iām lazy so about 50 or so of those rootstocks are going to be sold as just that, rootstocks for $4~$5 a pop. Thatās going to pretty much wipe out the materials cost. I will sell about 20 trees at $30 each, which will give me money for my other garden shenanigans. And of course I hope to end up with the new trees I wish to plant myself.
You guys could have a group buy for rootstocks to be delivered in the spring. I would offer to run it but from Alaska some of the less expensive shipping options are not available.
I would like to be able to pick up but will also by shipping. Some of the small companies that have a good reputation are sometimes out of reach for price. I donāt want to mention names because a lot of people buy from them, but $50.00 and above is just not doable. If I were looking for single tree to buy I could buy from them. I am looking to start a small orchard of peaches, nectarines, pears, cherries and fig. In the past, I tried apple trees but the cedar rust was just too much for me.
onlineorchards.com has some good prices and free shipping. not a great assortment but ive got several trees from them and they are good quality. im eying a frost peach. anyone grow this one? says its z4 hardy but i have my doubts.
I bought from online orchards via Home Depot. I was not as impressed as I was with other online nurseries. There was hardly any roots on the tree but there was a good tree size. Issue is I could not see how the roots could support a tree of that size. Also the trees were not labeled so if you got two different kinds of tree cultivars there was no telling what the trees were.
I donāt disagree with your points, but I also consider cost and number of available varieties important. Iāve also had excellent customer service with David.
The wait for MM111 can be frustrating, even agonizing. For me, just knowing I didnāt do anything wrong that delayed my harvest was very reassuring. I honestly think a mix of dwarfed trees and MM111/ seedling is a great way to go. Some faster reward of fruit combined with large beautiful stately trees.
Honestly I really like M111 rootstock. It has some really good traits. It is well anchored allowing it to handle high winds and heavy fruit load, is somewhat dwarfing getting 15-17 feet and most important of all is drought tolerant. These may seem small but here in CO it gets so windy it blows down fences and it is super dry. I am debating getting a transfer to the Grand Junction or Palisade area after my 18 months are up at my office which will be even more dry with the lack of snow. Either way summer is dry anywhere you go in CO. I am fine with waiting a few more years for fruit if it means less work overall.
Count your blessings you all donāt have to pay the prices some places are asking here in Canada. I was stunned when I went to order 2 impossible to find Pluot trees from Nutcracker Nursury.
Check out these bargain prices from Nutcracker Nursury in Canada:
Flavor Supreme Pluot:
$90.00
Dapple Dandy Pluot:
$90.00
Subtotal $180. 00
Handling and administration fees $10.80
Shipping fee $169.13
GST (5 %) $18.00
TOTAL $377,93
Needless to say, I never placed the order. 
How do they stay in business charging those prices?
Covid has drained most of the normal fruit tree inventories in Canada. Much of the trees in Nurseries where I live have to be imported from the states. Most of these trees are now $75, up from $45 from just before Covid hit. The quality of these trees after being warehoused all winter before being allowed entry into Canada is not that great. Youāre lucky if these imported trees put on growth at all or even survive after transplanting. Forget about getting a free replacement for trees that donāt survive the first season anymore.
Finding trees that you want at local nurseries where I live is not easy. Fruit trees are in high demand and there is very little inventory to fill all the pent up demand since Covid arrived. So basically, many Nurseries feel they can keep jacking the prices of fruit trees because they can get away with it. As long as people are still buying we canāt expect price relief anytime soon.
Grafting your own trees is not so easy either if you are looking for varieties other than the most common varieties that are carried at all the normal sources. Finding scion wood is not so easy in Canada where I live, so your options are limited.
I had to catch 4 ferries last week to get to a small remote Island nursery that is not well known to get some varieties I was trying to find for a long time. I would normally not go through all that effort and expense, but when the trees I wanted became available I had to jump on it right away to ensure I got some of the varieties I wanted. Luckily this small Nurseryās prices were well below the $75 price I have to pay at home. I purchased 9 trees on this trip, so the cost savings on the trees covered all the ferry expenses.
There are still some reasonably priced Nurseries in Canada, but you have to look long and hard to find trees that arenāt your standard everyday varieties. The 2 Pluot varieties I was attempting to purchase are almost impossible to find in my part of Canada. Varieties that you take for granted in the US take forever to get approval for importation and sale in Canada.
I will be grafting as much as I can next spring to try and reduce my overall expenses for trees Iād like to grow. I purchased some rootstock this fall at reasonable prices that I intend to graft to varieties I prefer. I also ordered some seeds for plum and crabapple rootstock to grow some myself for eventual grafting.
You have no idea how lucky you are in the US to have all the different varieties and sources you have to choose from.
I imagine it doesnāt take as many sales to pay the bills 
I assume it was supposed to be 90 dollars Cad. Keep in mind that Cad is not worth as much as USD. You can find nurseries here selling pluots for 30 something dollars or 65 dollars for the 4 in 1 pluots but find options just as expensive like Raintree sells them for closer to that cost. Shipping was the real downside to that. Only nursery I have found with close to those shipping costs was Restoring Eden and I will likely not purchase from them again and likely should not have purchased any items from them. I believe pluots are a Zaiger family introduction which I believe works for or with Dave Wilson which is based in the USA. It was the same reason the romance series cherries was so hard to get down here. Importing is costly so not as many people may have certain varieties of plants. I also agree fruit trees at nurseries have been more limited since covid at least locally. Our local nurseries get fruit trees in late April or May and sell out of fruit trees by the end of May anymore and do not get more in. Online is different though. Online I found trees for sale into April or May last year. In 2020-2021 they sold out quickly and seem to be selling out quickly this year. My guess is the plant/tree buying is going to get into ebs and flows online. I am guessing the people who bought in the 2020-2021 season have realized those trees donāt get as big as they thought they would so are adding on. For example if you bought a plum on citation or semi dwarf apple it will get 12-15 feet. A 12-15 feet seems big until you realize it is only about the size of 2 or 2.5 adult guys. Once you realize that you realize you can put quite a few trees in on your property.
Learning to graft, if you donāt already, is one way to lessen the expense of fruit trees.
Even sell a couple to the neighbors if you make too many.
I just found out my graft of Giant Korean pear took, I see tiny emerging growth. But Iām not really looking to save money than save space. If I can do 5x1 tree, I can save a lot of space.
I agree grafting is more space than money unless you are getting a lot of trees. Grafting helps if you have a cheap scion place but a bare root fruit tree is 30 something or 20 something dollars USD in the USA if you buy bare root and shipping will depend on vendor. Those vendors are selling 2 year old trees so it saves time too. I can see why people multi graft for space though. The reason I got the 4 in 1 pluot both zee sweet and regular is because I could get 8 pluot varieties in a 24 inch space giving much longer harvests and a much more diverse crop. I have never grafted myself. I would rather layer my trees like a forest situation than graft. Cummins Nursery does not even recommend multi grafted trees because they can fail and take more astute care.