F.W. Schumacher Co., Inc.

I ordered seed in April of this year for my business. It arrived (with no invoice or receipt) and was correctly labeled. It was subsequently treated and germinated. Germination was poor, but more importantly, it was not the species I ordered. Correct genus, wrong species. I have been working with the genera in question for 30 years and I am certain it was mislabeled. I contacted Schumacher with questions and possible replacement. NO RESPONSE WHATSOEVER. NONE. I have used them sparingly in the past as they rarely carry the seed I need. However, I will not check their site again. Poor (non-existent) customer service and careless sourcing.

I've ordered and germinated oaks, magnolias, cherries, rhododendrons and others from F. W. Schumacher. One time I had no success with their seeds. I contacted them; they investigated the problem; agreed that the seed was bad; refunded my money; and updated the listing to reflect no stock. I couldn't be much more impressed.

I spent a few hours to go though their catalog, once i placed my rather large order I was told that most items were not even available. Waste of time. Catalog needs updating and availability date would be nice. Not impressed.

I ordered seed via their website in December 2016. The ordering process itself was labored and a bit contentious. After placing the order and emailing my Paypal info, (as per one of the payment options offered on their website), I received a phone call from Schumacher requesting payment. I said I was using the Paypal option as described on their web site. This was met with expressions of displeasure regarding Paypal payments. Well -- if it's a payment option offered on your website -- don't badger customers who try to use it! Finally, I was told (grudgingly) that they would send a Paypal payment request. The same song and dance occurred when I ordered more seed a couple months later. When my seed order arrived, one of the items on my order was omitted. Another red flag (I realize mistakes happen sometimes, but it wasn't a large order and their customer service had already proved itself suspect). I emailed Schumacher, who later sent the missing item. The seed itself did not live up its relative high price. Germination was poor on a couple items (which which I have repeatedly had good success previously). Moreover, some of the items that did germinate were misidentified ("Chaenomeles sinensis" seed proved to be Chaenomeles cathayensis, for example, and "Pseudolarix amabilis" is a Taxus of some sort). I would be reluctant to order from this company again.

F.W Schumacher the worst company I have seen. I tried several times to make their order. In my letters do not respond. Once a month sent a bill that was no longer needed. I do not recommend them to deal. There are many other suppliers.

I just ordered small quantities of two varieties from FWS. I'd probably order from FWSchumacher again (especially because they sell so many things I wouldn't know any other sources for), but some details of my experience were kind of negative. Delay was one thing. I ordered in December -- I think it was right after Christmas, but I can't remember the exact date in December -- and the order was postmarked January 18 (meaning I didn't receive it until several days after then.) I generally expect a quicker turn-around than that. The other thing was shipping costs. Postage was $2.29, and I was charged $5.79 for "postage & packing." The only packaging was a bubble envelope. Maybe "packing" means more than just packaging and includes a handling charge. There was also a $1.50 "small order charge" I wasn't expecting. These aren't unreasonable amounts and I wouldn't mention them at all except that they came unexpectedly and didn't seem as transparent as they should have been. Like I said, I'll probably order from them again despite these things.

I ordered a pound of pawpaw seeds from F.W. Schumacher this year and have been quite pleased so far. The order was quickly shipped back in February and there were no signs of damage in transit. In late July, the seeds finally started pushing up leaves, which is a normal time period from what I’ve read. Out of the 300 or so seeds that were planted, about 70 little seedlings have broken the surfaces, which is quite respectable considering this was my first time stratifying and growing trees from seeds. I will definitely be ordering from F.W. Schumacher again.

I have ordered seed from F. W. Schumacher for years, and I have never once had a bad experience. I am a non-commercial customer, and I have about 2 acres of land on which my house sits. I used their seed (White Oak, Red Oak, Sugar Maple) to cover part of my lot with a small forest 10 years ago. Some of those trees, grown from seed, are now 20 feet tall. I also bought seed from them at my previous two houses. In fact, the first time I bought seed from them was in 1988. They are honest, prompt in filling orders, and very nice people to deal with. I would recommend this company any time, to anyone looking for tree seed.

I purchased seed from F.W. Schumacher and it's been a great experience to date. Orignally I had left a message on their answering machine over a weekend, and they called me promptly on Monday morning to follow up on what I wanted to order. I wanted several varieties of seed, some of which was in stock, some on order, so they quickly shipped me what they had in stock and will be shipping me the rest as it arrives. Packaging, speed, customer service have all been wonderful. Their inventory is awesome, too. I found Schumacher after I'd purchased in excess of two dozen seedling pawpaws from a grower, very healthy seedlings I might add, and I asked the grower who he recommended for seed. He indicated the pawpaws were grown from seed the grower purchased from F.W. Schumacher, and that his experiences with them had been consistently good. I've found F.W. Schumacher to be a good company with which to work. I highly recommend them. - john ferguson, kansas city

A very complete selection of woody plant seeds. Although they price their seeds in commercial quantities, they will sell trial packets for $3. However, as I am finding with any seed broker, the quality of seed can never really be guaranteed, hence the value of the trial packets.