Fruit Lover's Nursery

Buying from Fruit lovers was a decent experience for me. They have a wonderful selection of tropical fruits for sale, and it was easy to see what was currently available without having to go into each plants description, which was nice. The ordering and shipping seemed a bit unfriendly, all I got as an order confirmation was a Paypal reciept, and when my order shipped it was entered into the system as part of a batch, so I was unable to track it until my postman received it on delivery day. I live in a hot climate so the seeds ended up cooking a bit in the mailbox. Being mostly fresh seeds they came in plastic ziplocs with a bit of moist vermiculite, which was thoughtful, and one batch was so eager to be born they were already sprouting, and being they were the most expensive seeds of my purchase I'm happy with their exuberance :) All in all I would order from them again.

I placed three orders with this company. All three orders were a negative experience. One of the orders, Marang, was in season, but never sent. Durian seeds were black on the outside, rotten at the tip. Seeds that were shipped were in plastic ziploc bags, with no vermiculite, in an envelope. When I received the first rotten order, I thought it may have been because it sat in my mail for a little under two hours. When the third order arrived in the same condition, with my receiving the shipment directly from the mailman, I was able to determine that it wasn't my mailbox. I kept a cross section of one of the durian seeds, for future reference, to compare it to other Durian seed shipments from other seed suppliers. As for communication, with the second and third order I asked for the Marang seeds to be sent, knowing that they were in season, and thinking that maybe the seller had just forgotten. There was no reply to emails. When I received that third order and was sure that it was not my mailbox cooking and causing the seeds to rot, I contacted the seller. No reply. I filed a complaint on Paypal, including pictures. I was awarded a refund for one of the orders. Then I received several replies from the seller. I'll leave it at this: The seller is not very pleasant, and doesn't like it when people report the poor quality of their product. I purchased seeds from this business based on the review of a trusted nursery, and that there were 100% positive feedback here on Dave's garden. I've since done a google search on the business and found 100% negative reviews elsewhere. I've also been attacked on a fruit forum (without my ever mentioning the business name) for not being satisfied with this business. This has caused nothing but more dissatsfaction for this business. The one good outcome of this bad experience: It motivated me to ignore resellers, and go directly to the people who grow the cultivars that I like. It wasn't hard for me to get the permits to import seeds. https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/planthealth/import-information/permits/plants-and-plant-products-permits/plants-for-planting/ct_smalllots_seed My local agricultural representatives are a pleasure to talk to, and a great source of information. I'm also spending far less in going directly to the people growing the fruit. Another bonus is seeing pictures of the actual fruit that produced my seeds, and hearing what it tastes like from the person who lovingly raised it! That is wonderful, and makes me so happy. So I'll have to thank this business for being such a bad experience, that I'm now doing something I should have done all along, and support good people, who grow good fruit <3

have been ordering from Oscar for years now. I've had excellent germination rates, and his selection is second to none. I highly recommend his nursery as a source for rare tropical fruit trees and seeds.

I recently bought a five seed pack of araticum cortiça (Annona neosericea). Ten days later they arrived in a neat little package containing a clear plastic bag, along with germination instructions. One thing I had worried about is that the seeds would be dried, and therefore dead. Instead they were packed in a moist substrate, and germinated in just six weeks. I am satisfied with my order, and will definitely be ordering again soon!

Fruitlovers is a regular over on tropicalfruitforum.com, which is how I heard of his site. I had a rather tricky order timing-wise, in that the seeds had to make it to my parents place as close as possible to a specific date, but not over, as my parents were flying to meet me on that day and were to bring the seeds with. Fruitlovers pulled it off. The seeds were all professionally packaged and I've been getting good germination rates from them. He gets a positive rating in my book. :)

Seeds were shipped fresh and when they said they would be available. They were well packaged and survived the trip from Hawaii to NJ in early fall. These were highly perishable seeds and gave me a 100% germination rate - 10 sprouts out of 10 seeds. While it is true that they are not cheap but with these people you definately get a high quality product and well worth the money.

About six months ago, in April, I ordered a mix of seeds and plants from Fruitlovers. I'll describe only the plant-related issues here. There were some problems with the shipment. Fruitlovers was unable to send me all the plants I ordered -- they informed me of this after the shipment had been sent. Also, they delayed the shipment for a while (due to weather, which I appreciate) but then sent the package without informing me first. By the time I got the shipping notification, I couldn't rearrange my day to be home for the package delivery, which required my signature (this signature requirement was noted nowhere on Fruitlover's website or in their communications.) So the plants got stuck at the post office overnight. I'm pretty sure this explains their condition -- some of the plants actually had crispy leaves. Make sure to pick your plants up on time! However, some of the plants' injuries were probably not the fault of my tardy pickup -- the mangosteen, for example, had their taproots truncated. This is very nearly a death sentence for mangosteen unless the grower is very experienced. As the plants were droopy-leaved as well, there really wasn't any way to save them, though I certainly tried! The lychee which was sold as an established air-layer didn't seem to have grown roots outside the main ball at all, and no trace of actual dirt was evident (just the tight-packed moss that air-layers start in.) When I emailed and described the problems I was having, the response was that since mangosteen are self-fertile, if I could get one to survive, I'd still have fruit. I was also told that the air-layered lychee really was well-established and to keep the humidity high. Neither communication helped much at all. About a month ago, I asked for a refund for the plants and seeds that could not be shipped, plus the extra shipping cost I was charged for them. (Originally I asked them to keep a credit, as I hoped to find something else from Fruitlover's I wanted to purchase.) To my knowledge, the refund has not been provided (though it's possible their check may still be in the mail.) Overall, not a particularly great experience. I know other people have had much better success, but I'm probably not going to be a repeat customer.

Excellent company, all the tropical seeds that were sent to me in various orders were viable, even the ones that are only viable for a week. Quick, prompt and cheap shipping. I continue to do business with these people.