Comments regarding Raintree Nursery

I placed two large orders with Raintree Nursery this year totaling just under $1000. The first order was for 25 blueberry plants and 4 fig plants. The shipment arrived without the most expensive item of the order-a medium Sierra blueberry. When I contacted customer service, the representative seemed skeptical that the item was omitted but agreed to send out a Sierra blueberry plant. I waited two weeks for a replacement before contacting Raintree again for the missing blueberry plant. After this second round with customer service, a single, dried up 18 inch tall twig labeled Sierra blueberry showed up. The $26.50 plant was advertised as a ready to produce blueberries. The brown, shrivelled up twig never sprouted a single leaf.

My second order was placed in late May due to changes in the landscaping layout on the farm. Raintree customer service sent me an e-mail that stated they were waiving the one year guarantee on plants due to the weather rapidly warming in my region of the country (I live in central South Carolina). Though they were aware of the temperature issues, Raintree would not expedite my order or give me any idea when my order would ship. So I informed Raintree that I wanted to cancel my order since they refused to give me a ship date and refused to warranty $437 in plants that cost an additional $109 to ship.

Raintree Nursery refused to let me cancel my order, but they agreed to remove the plant guarantee waiver from my order.

It took 3 weeks from when I placed the order for the second order to arrive. My entire order that cost $109 to ship was crammed in a single box. They bent the tallest trees in my order to fit into the box, and that resulted in 2 broken trees during transit. I paid a premium to have the larger and older trees, and due to careless packing from Raintree, that money was wasted. Also, the bundle of Eversweet strawberries arrived slimy, decomposed, and reeking of garbage. I bought over 2000 strawberry plants from three other mail order sellers this spring, and the strawberries from Raintree were hands down the worst.

Though Raintree has some of the largest selections of unusual plants, I won't be purchasing from them again due to slow order processing, lack of quality in some of the items, and the poor customer service. There are far nicer and more professional mail order nurseries on the internet that will be getting my future business.

I ordered 4 trees: 3 in 1 cherry, Peacotum, Illinois Mulberry and Pluot Grenade. I regreted that 15 days before the order was shipped I added the Mulberry and Cherry as they failed to sprout. The mulberry was thinner than expected when I recieved it, 6 weeks later the center look hollow, like bamboo. The 3 in 1 cherry seems like it wasn't dorman anymore when shipped as it had very brown pushed buds like they tried to come out, but died even before it was shipped but it was sent like that anyway. One of the grafts looks very skinny in comparison with the other 2. Upon receiving I notice it looked shrunk(dead). Peacotum even though it was like 4 ft tall, it leaf out only 1 ft above the ground. The rest 3 top ft are dead. Upon received it I noticed that the top part had big buds almost breaking into leaves, but they were dark brown(dead). It wasn't dormant anymore when shipped. It looks like a very weak tree. Leaves are very small and haven't really push any major grow. I don't know if is going to survive or even come back next year after the winter. The pluot is the only one that looks having a decent grow. Extremely dissapointed. Whatever the outcome is I'm going to lose a full year. Needless to say I won't buy from them again. The catalog looks incredible interesting with many variaties of trees I've not seen in other nurseries, but that's all. I should have stick with Adams County nursery which trees are growing very vigorously.

Great experience with these folks. I pre-ordered ten or so currants, gooseberries, jostaberries, elderberries, and figs. They came when promised, packaged well, and looked good (even with a cross country trip from WA to VA). The plants (minus the figs) were bare rooted. I planted them within a week and have been so pleased with their strong and healthy growth over the last couple months. Nice plants! Plus, with the pre-ordering, a couple of the plants were free. I'm very pleased with them and will order again.

Last year I received a bonus pack of 25 Shuksan strawberries, and this year I received a bonus pack of Myco fungi, I fertilized my strawberries with the fungi and they exploded with both leaves and blossoms, three months later I harvested my first crop.

This year I bought two bare root trees: a nectaplum and an aprium, both of my Flavor Delight aprium and my Spice Zee Nectaplum are growing like weeds, my Falvor Delight aprium has 11 inches of new growth, my Spice zee nectaplum has 12'. I am expecting some fruit next year.

I will be ordering again next year.
Thanks Raintree Nursery.

Ordered a few plants - a weeping Santa rosa plum, a yacon, and a cranberry. The Yacon and cranberry were as expected - four inch pots, ho-hum in size - but the tree looked great - over an inch in diameter, with a solid graft, and pruned to a single whip about five feet above the rootball. The tree arrived bare root (roots were trimmed, but well-formed), and packed in moist newspaper, but should be fine, as it is fully dormant. I'm excited to see what it looks like in a year.

I have worked with and occasionally for Raintree Nursery for over 30 years. The owners of RT are good people dedicated to the mission of finding and supplying the best edible varieties from around the world for home gardeners. They have succeeded! The care and support to their employees have always been foremost in creating a pleasant working environment and benefits for their employees as well as an educational and pleasant experience for the customers.
People being people sometimes some employees do not fit in and harbor resentment or frustration when this happens. Sometimes even the best of care on the part of the nursery some plants do not grow. The place to look is to the soil and to the gardener where most gardening problems originate. I am very glad Raintree exists and am grateful that I can easily get these plants delivered to my door year after year.

As far as the plants go, they look fantastic and I am very happy with my order, shipped at the right time, healthy.

This is the first time I have ordered from them and will do so again as long as I hear no more about treating there employees poorly, or customers..........

Nice plants.

I received shipment of our group's order of berry plants last week and they were all very beautiful, well packaged, and healthy. I'm still tentative about the bare rootstocks, but will have to wait and see how they do. So far we are all quite happy with the service provided. We will definitely order from them again!

I witnessed the owner openly talking about reprimanding an employee. I was looking around waiting for my order to be brought to me. The employee that was reprimanded, has always been polite and very helpful to me over the phone or in person. I was shocked to hear this Employee being bashed out in the store front! with me and a few other customers in hearing distance. I quickly stopped looking for more items and went to my car to wait for my order to be brought out to me. I have been told this type of action was not uncommon from the Female owner and is known to be .... not to nice. But to do this openly, with customers present, is SHOCKING! and unprofessional to say the least! If this is how they treat employees I would not be surprised or saddened to see this business not be open much longer. I have stopped shopping at Raintree and have shared my experience with friends and family. The actions i witnessed were wrong on so may levels! The only thing i can say is I am glad I found better Nurseries to conduct business with.
Shocked and Disgusted and now an Ex-Raintree customer,
Drako

I live in the Cascade mountains and needing help with deciding which apple tree would work for me. I also used their online advice from their horticulturist twice. All the calls I made were responded to with very helpful advice, while their horticulturist responded to me (email)promptly, and also answered all questions on several topics. I found this service very helpful. I ordered one tree and requested the tallest they could ship to me. It arrived when stated and exceeded my expectations. A beautiful 6 ft. tall tree, with several side branches, and very healthy roots. The packaging was great. I have ordered another tree, the last one they had. Would highly recommend and use this nursery again!

I ordered 6 strawberry plants. When the package arrived, the plants were well packed with cardboard pieces to hold the pots in place. Maybe the delivery people dropped the package or threw it, but one of the very thin plastic pots got pretty smushed, and the rest were compressed some. That, plus the fact that there was a slug happily crawling along one plant when I opened the package, made me decide to give a neutral rating. The plants are still semi-dormant, but they look like they will be fine.

I am a backyard orchardist. I have eighteen fruit trees, 15 of which I have purchased from Raintree. The negative comments do not do this company justice at all. They are a wonderful company. They have replaced trees for me, and sent the right order, on time, every time I have ordered. They returned my phone calls and emails. But then, I don't get angry or impatient. You get what you want with kindness and fairness. The company is excellent!

Very bad service and unfair to customers. If they run out of a particular type of plant, you may receive a "substitute" variety, instead of what you asked for and then get no refund. This happened to me.

They also sent me a sick plant, which died, and I received a refund, but in the form of store credit only. Also keep in mind that you do NOT get your shipping money back. You lose it, because THEY send you the wrong/sick plant!

Approximately one year ago, I ordered five apple trees and three cherry trees.
First, the bad: The first communication I received was a ship notice (several weeks after I placed the order, at the appropriate time for my zone) that stated one of my apple trees was sold out and had been removed from my order. This should have been stated on the website prior to my order, or, at least, I should have been contacted and given the opportunity to select an alternative (I would have).

Now, the good: All seven of the trees I received are thriving. I was impressed with the gauge (diameter) of the trees. They were well packaged -- the healthy roots were packed with damp shredded paper, and a bamboo stick provided additional strength. One of the apples and all three cherries put on blooms (that I removed.) I followed the included pruning instructions, and, by the end of the season, several of the trees were taller than me, having grown as much as four feet in one year.

I will absolutely order from them again. Their prices are a bit higher, but their stock is excellent, and their selection is great.

I ordered grafted grape plants 2 years ago from Raintree. 1/4 of the grafts failed (which I noticed when I got the wrong grapes on some of the plants). I emailed their horticulturist re this and got no response. I called their "customer service" representative who was very officious and unhelpful. Her comment was that "it is common knowledge that you must check for below graft growth. Raintree won't honor its warranty saying that I must just buy new plants. Very poor company with which to do business.

I just got my order the other day and while Raintree didn't get the order completely right, I got a jumbo hardy kiwi instead of a red; they went above and beyond to make things right with me! I will be ordering from them again. Also did I mention the plants came in looking great! I have ordered from other online nurseries before and raintree's quality was superior. So over all I will say a positive for me.

This was the first time I ever ordered plants from Raintree-and I will continue to order from them for fruit bushes and unique plants. The fruit bushes I received are fantastic. They are very nice sized bushes-an elderberry, a lingonberry and a aronia. Their website provides great info on the plants and they send a planting booklet with the plants. I'm excitely waiting for a second order I placed for a goji bush and wasabi plant.

Great communication and customer service. Plants arrive din great condition and very securely packaged. Will be ordering from again!

Posted on April 4, 2012, updated April 21, 2012
I'm giving this company a positive mainly because their catalog is so informative and interesting.

Their trees have been good, although their customer service has only been fair. I ordered something last year, and simply never received it, even though they billed me. I contacted them again, and they at least acknowledge they have to send it to me this spring, so there was poor communication, but nothing really bad.

But, with a very informative, and I do mean very informative, catalog, excellent varieties, and good quality trees, I have no issue giving them a positive.

I have no complaints. Wonderful healthy plants arrived in great condition, packed well and customer service is terrific! Will certainly buy from again. Highly recommended!

Posted on January 29, 2012, updated February 27, 2012
Ordered Top Hat Blueberry April 2011. Flowered and maybe 40 blueberries couple weeks later. Cant wait for this growing season.
Here is a picture from January 2012
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I received an order of plants from Raintree on Feb 9 2012. These folks really know how to produce blue ribbon champion roots on the plants they offer. I received what they called a seedling rugosa rose- it was four feet tall! I also received a rare and hard to find Carolina sweetshrub, to plant in my yard in memory of my mother and greatgrandmother, who grew one in the yard of the house where they lived and where I was born. Also I received two beach plums with roots heavier and larger than the plants themselves. The packaging included shredded paper, and the roots of every plant arrived in Louisiana from Washington state moist and vigorous. Put me down as a breathtakingly impressed customer. Their prices are just right for someone on a fixed income. Their mail order catalog is a virtual encylopedia. If this place were a restaurant in New Orleans, these people would earn five stars from me. I live in Lafayette (Scott) Louisiana.

Posted on January 25, 2011, updated August 30, 2011
I ordered a petite negri fig several years ago that has done very well. Their customer service has been good when I've called with questions, etc. This season, I've ordered a dwarf mulberry and will update this post once the order is complete.

Posted on June 19, 2011, updated August 23, 2011
Posted on May 17, 2011, updated June 19, 2011
I ordered plants for about 180 USD with them around New Years, got an email that they ran out of one grape, which they replace with another variety I liked for free ! 6 days before shipment I got another email preparing the arrival - very nice and plenty of time to do soil prep steps. Day of delivery the stuff came well packaged and still wet around the roots. All the potted plants looked really good, they are in the earth already and the shoots come out - great. The freebies I got were surprisingly high quality, lots of roots (bare), good height already and actually one more than announced. The only concern I have were the two additional grapes I ordered (again the freeby looks great). I saw mold on the bare roots of the two purchased and they are tini-tiny, maybe 2 inch above ground and 3 beneath - only few roots (looks more like rootstock to me). Obviously I can not say yet if they will survive and grow, but I have not much hope for these two. That would be 20/160 USD or 2/14 plants - not bad. I made pictures of the mold around the roots and have not complained yet and will wait if the grapes actually do survive, so can not comment on their refund policy yet.

If they do survive, I would say I am blown away from the overall quality that I got. If they die, I am still OK since the rest exceeded my expectation by far.

I would recommend buying the higher priced items and potted plants (enjoy the freebies !), but skip the cheap mass production stuff (aka grapes).

Will certainly buy again here.

Posted on August 5, 2011, updated August 8, 2011
Posted on July 25, 2011, updated August 5, 2011
Posted on July 25, 2011, updated July 25, 2011
When I first called Raintree to place an order, I was quite happy. They answered the phone quickly and were really nice about placing my first order. I didn't expect what came next.

I ordered 5 Caroline raspberries by phone back in May. Once they arrived I was surprised by their small size. Clumping ALL five together gave me about the same rootball size as one Stark raspberry plant. Seriously....I have a picture. Their website stated that their raspberry plants were stocky and well-rooted. Maybe this is why they were on sale. If so, they should have stated that. Out of the 5 plants, ONLY TWO exhibited any new growth. Less than 50% were alive.

In June and July I tried contacting the company through their website contact form. I have yet to receive a response. I really want to get some berries going this season, so I could have a decent crop next year. Overall, I'm quite disappointed with my first purchase from Raintree. All I want are the three other healthy plants I paid for.

I ordered from RainTree for the first time early this spring after researching sellers of rare and interesting fruit trees. I ordered a Prune D'Ente tree, a clove currant, a gooseberry and three blueberries. All of them are doing wonderfully, and two of the blueberries even set (some) fruit this year.

As for the service, I needed to change some details of my order after placing it and customer service was very responsive to my emails. They then gave me a shipping window and stuck to it. Some of the plants were bare-root, which I had never seen before (this being my first time mail-ordering plants). My wife joked- "honey, your twigs are here." But as I said, once in the ground, they all took off and leafed out beautifully. Overall, I'm very happy with the experience and plan on ordering from them again this fall.

I ordered two Asian Pears, an Asian Plum, and a Pluot from them this spring. When all four arrived they looked a little rough and very dried out. I soaked everything overnight not just the plums. I planted them out and it took a little longer than expected for them to leaf out. A couple months later three of them have really taken off. One Asian Pear was struggling until recently. I put it into a tree shelter and now it has stabilized. It is starting to look real good too.

I have been ordering from raintree nursery for years. They have always sent me healthy plants that have grown well. No company can have 100% success with plants that have been shipped across country and may or may not be planted within a reasonable time and in a reasonable manner. My experience with this company has been very good. They have always treated me fairly. Great selection. Good prices. Shipping is done certain times of year to make it affordable to ship. If you have shipped anything across country lately you would know it adds up. If you are able to plan ahead and order early and provide good care of the plants you should have success.

I have nothing but good to say about Raintree. All my fruit trees grew. I have about 25 of theirs to date (all 2011) and more from another nursery which are good too. I had 3 separate orders up to May 15th. Their 4-5' trees are well branched and actually started blooming buds and have fruits the first year. I knocked off all but one on each tree just to see them grow and learn. The wips which were cheaper, but all they had late in the season, are growing nicely and will be well branched for next year. At first, their shipping to the east seemed high but when the package arrived it was well done and time consuming. The heavy weight boxes was 6' long and were quite heavy. I needed a cart. So I it if you want good healthy stock safely packaged, it is well worth it. Who wants to lose a growing season? Not an older retired person...ha. They have very hard to get varieties which will fit in nicely for a small orchard grower. You do need to do some prep work. Dig a nice sized hole "before" the trees arrive. Use some non burning lime and fertilizer (little), soak the trees for at least an hour before planting and spread the roots, water well to settle the tree, and finally don't be afraid to prune. Prune down at least half to a bud pointing in the direction you want the tree to grow. And finally keep the trees watered. I use a drip irrigation system set for 2 hours every 4 days automatically. Check the newer trees, they might need more watering since they were planted late. And, don't forget to use sprays. It's a bad world out there for these little trees until you get things settled down for them. They can't walk away or go to the doctor so you have to protect them. Use the internet for spray guides and read over the material. I found my pears like green light fruit tree spray (neem oil for mites? and they didn't seem to like captan), bonide FTS for apples peaches plums etc. However the later effects good bugs too and you might find using this more frequently to settle everything down where green light FTS might be better for you. And serenade for fungus. It works real well on bad diseases. it kills most and it's even a good suppressant for bacterial spot (peaches-plums etc.) and fire blight apples - pears. It's organic too. I will defiantly buy from Raintree again.

Good luck

I have been ordering from Raintree Nursery for the past 18 years and have always had a positive experience with the 35 trees I have ordered. The staff is knowledgeable, courteous, friendly and responsive to questions. Once when a tree did not grow, they replaced it for me. They offer classes, have excellent plant information in their catalog, and have informative videos on their website. Raintree is also very committed to assisting non profits to make the world a more bountiful place for all.

A couple a seasons ago I ordered 2 bare root plum trees from them. They have been in the ground a couple seasons now and are still the size of sticks. I called and said I wasnt happy with them and they said they have a only a one year guarantee. A fruit tree baring fruit, its first full season? I wish, especially from these 80 dollar sticks.

I ordered three plants last fall from Raintree. They arrived by UPS. The box did not have labels identifying contents. I observed the delivery person to be quite rough with the package. After opening the box,I noticed a lot of loose soil which came out of the containers. The plants were quite small with VERY thin stems. Two of the plants were relatively healthy. The third plant was partially defoliated. In addition, judging by remaining leaves, it was not the plant I ordered. I followed their instruction and planted all three plants anyway.
This Spring, one plant greened up only partially, maybe an inch from the bottom. The second plant (the one partially defoliated) was dead. The last one looks ok so far. I contacted Raintree and they agree to send replacements if I pay the shipping. One of the replaced plants looks fine, the other had a single thin stem about four inch high with a couple leaves on it. The good...it was the right plant this time.
After reading some of the posts I decided to try the same order from Lazy SS's. The plants arrived last week. They were almost half the price of Raintree, but healthier looking. The packing was superb, so $20 S&H charge was definitely justified. Box was marked "live plants"
In conclusion, I would try another company before ordering from Raintree again.

Placed an order this spring for Akevia vines. I noted on their comments section that their shipping costs were somewhat high. I received a very weak response from their customer service department who also slipped in that they expected me to waive the warranty on my plants. I advised them that it was April, not particularly hot and that the vines would be fine if they just shipped them soon. They refused to honor the warrantee even though it is plainly stated on their web page. I refused to waive the warranty so they cancelled my order. This is clearly an organization that must be shipping out inferior plants and won't stand behind them, just want to take your money. Shop elsewhere!

This was my second year ordering from Raintree and I have to say I'm a happy customer. The dwarf apple trees I ordered from them last year arrived healthy and fully branched out and survived a particularly nasty Vermont winter with no damage whatsoever. This year's order was of similarly well-developed and robust trees. Raintree has a truly excellent selection of rare fruits like quinces and medlars along with hard-to-find European varieties of apples and pears and the prices are reasonable considering the quality of the plants. The only thing I don't like about them is that their catalogue makes me wish I lived in a more forgiving growing zone.

This was my first time ordering from Raintree. My order arrived on time and in wonderful condition. Bare-root trees had great root systems and were safely bundled with lots of wet paper shreddings, then double wrapped in plastic. Blueberries came with a wedge of soil attached, which made me very happy. And kiwis arrived in pots wrapped in plastic, and fully leafed out, which was a surprise.
The plant care guide included in the package was a wealth of information-- I'll be saving it for future reference, probably for years.
I'm already looking forward to placing an order next year.

On April 15, I placed an order on-line on their website and got an email stating that confirmation email with order number would be sent soon. When I didn't get it on April 18, I followed up with request and got a reply that it can take a few days to get an email with order number. It sounds weired because for other nurseries it takes a few days to ship an order. I asked them time frame when I may expect my order to be shipped and got an answer that it takes 2-3 weeks before the order is shipped. I had to cancel my order because for California it is too late to plant bare-root trees in May. If you have something in stock why does it take you up to 3 weeks to ship it? Just wonder.

I ordered several fruit trees and they arrived healthy and in great condition, though delivery was a couple weeks slow. I like their selection and the variety of root stocks they carry.

This was my first time ordering from Raintree, and I would definately order from them again. I ordered 12 fruit trees of 4 varieties and 100 strawberry plants of 2 varieties. The plants were very well packaged and arrived when I expected them. The roots were very nicely developed for both trees and strawberries. I really appreciate that the grafts were made several inches above the roots which allowed me to easily plant my trees at the proper depth without worry of burying the graft in dirt. I also enjoyed the multi-page planting instruction booklet that accompanied my order, it made for fast and easy reference prior to planting.
3 years ago I ordered from another major fruit tree supplier and I must admit Raintree's trees are much nicer. The grafts from that company were very close to the roots and I have had problems with rootstock trying to grow branches. The trees were about the same size but the roots from the first company were small and spindly, not very well branched. From that company I ordered 15 trees and only lost 2 but I feel these new trees will thrive and grow much more nicely than the others.
I did communicate with the customer service department via email regarding one tree, prior to shipping. One rootstock was unavailable but they had the same tree on a different (but just as adequate for my growing conditions) rootstock. I also called them prior to shipping to add more strawberries (origionally I only ordered 50, but later changed my mind). That call was quickly answered, order easily placed, and a confirmation email was quickly received.
Thanks Raintree!

I ordered a BlackGold Cherry on Gisela-5 rootstock. It was very well packaged, had a lot of roots, was well pruned. Lots of little buds. Looking quite happy in my front yarden right now. Will order from them again!