Comments regarding Raintree Nursery

I wish I had known about Dave's Garden before buying from Raintree Nursery. I own a fruit farm that has been producing fruit for over 100 years and I have been growing fruit commercially for 20 years, over the years I have learned how to plant and grow trees so they survive, grow and produce fruit.

I ordered about 25 trees from Raintree and 25 trees from another nursery (trees of antiquity) in order to start a small experimental orchard to see what other types of fruit can be grown in my area. I planted quince, medlar, persimmons, figs, jujube, pawpaw and mulberry trees from both nurseries.

Raintree would not let me specify a delivery date and insisted their horticultural expert would determine the best time for me to plant trees in my orchard. The other nursery let me decide when to ship my trees (every commercial nursery I have ever dealt with for my main orchard not only lets me determine a ship date but insists on it).

I planted the trees from the other orchard in March when we normally plant. I sent Raintree several more emails asking to please send my trees because I was afraid it would be too warm by the time they sent them. They replied but would not send them early.

I received my trees at the end of April and planted them soon after they arrived. All the trees from the other nursery leafed out, grew and now at the end of June have 6"-12" of growth. Three of the Raintree plants did not even leaf out and out of the ones that did, none have more than 1" of growth and most don't have any new growth (just leaves from then buds). I am skeptical how many will be living after winter if they are not established this summer.

I would not use Raintree again and don't even want a credit toward next year because trying to grow their trees is a waste of my time.

Not only "no", but "H*&^ NO" Not again. I paid extra for 4-5 foot bare root apple trees. The industry standard is to measure from what is OUT of the ground to count against that measurement. All told I spent an extra $78 for taller trees. When they arrived, my TALLEST tree was only 41 inches and the shortest was only 30 inches from the dirt line to the butchered tops.
Speaking of which. THESE are NOT professionally pruned. Your trees are bundled up (broken branches), wrapped in damp shredded newspaper (your neighbors will LOVE YOU if it's windy out) and then the tops are put into a giant guillotine and made all the exact same length for inside the box, and more loose paper is tossed in.
The shipping was over 100$ to go two states over, which is absurd for how they came (in one box about 12 inches square by 4 feet long).

When I called CS about the size, she had no idea how the tree size was measured, something they should know right off the cuff for CS at a tree nursery. She had to ask. SHOULDN'T someone who works CS at a nursery know this BASIC question?! She was also curt, frustrated, and obviously not ready to be working a CS line. And I was quiet and kind, and understanding! Heaven forbid they get a mean person. She came back to say that the HEIGHT of the tree included the root system! HA !!!! They must have floating trees like they do on Avatar.

I hope they take off and grow like weeds, because as of right now, I am not a happy customer.

Horrible - I paid in October for trees that should have been sent in February in order to make sure they would get their best start. All the other trees from other vendors that I ordered came in February. I canceled this order and was told I would get my money back that was 10 days ago- They even lied to me and said they could not give me a refund back to my credit card - I wish I had looked into this company better than I did because there are many complaints online. There are better companies out there that care about the customers - I will be filing a formal complaint for fraud if my money is not refunded as promised

I think these guys are probably okay for a walk in customer but the online experience for me was not positive. I ordered in January. Shipping was supposed to start in April, I didn't receive my order until mid-May just in time for hot dry weather to start.

Order was not complete and there was no packing slip or any paperwork at all in the box. Packing was very poor with a heavy pot in same box as strawberry and asparagus crowns with only a handful of padding so the asparagus and strawberries took a pounding due to heavy pot sliding back and forth.

Only when I called them did I find out that due to a quality problem they ran out of the variety I wanted but nobody bothered to contact me, they have still not processed my refund and now is too late to order a different variety as replacement plus freight cost for a small order is too high and there was no offer from Raintree of giving me a break on freight.

There were no planting or care directions in the box with my order. The bamboo plant looks diseased but this is my first time buying bamboo and maybe that is how it looks during winter.

Otherwise, the plants were of acceptable quality. I'd consider ordering from these guys again but not until I've tried more of their numerous competitors.

I'm going to reiterate the problems TheFluffyOne posted, the big problem with these guys is the shipping is ridiculous. I ordered trees mid April and they took 5 weeks to get here! That's way too long, I can see a couple weeks when you're busy season is on but this is crazy.

In addition they were packed very poorly so the package arrived completely mangled and falling apart. Fortunately the trees didn't appear to be damaged but only time will tell if they survive.

The consistency was also an issue, some of the trees were 4 ft tall and pruned, one was only a foot but with leaves on it. Just all over the map, I doubt I will order from them again.

First of all I will say, I have bought form Raintree on and off fro over a decade, tat being said it is very hit or miss. They have great customer service and are easy to cancel orders with or they are good with refunds when they are in error, the trouble with Raintree is their logistics and field operations.

By that I mean, they have some bizarre system where they ship once a month or something. So I ordered something teh end of march and they tell me i will not get it till the end of april of early May. The item in question was apple rootstocks for grafting, which would be too late for my area. Also there dramatically raised their prices and it was much easier to go to a specialty grower and at half the price with far more reasonable shipping.

In general Raintree has fairly poor rootstocks. Around 15% of an order (in larger quantities of 50) are useless(essentially just a stick with no roots). i base this on several orders over the year. However they are good about refunding the price of bad rootstocks if you send them photographic evidence.

On the other hand some of the plants they have are excellent, the trouble is you don;t know what you are getting. I ordered several gooseberreis and they were huge,vigorous plants and i ordered a couple of cherries that were too large in diameter for my purpose (espalier) and yet some trees were typical whips, so consistency is they issue.

That being said, when Raintree gets it right, it is often very right.

So my rating is negative neutral. There shipping and field operations seem to be challenged at best. I would avoid them for rootstocks unless you are in the west as I know people who buy in the west and they get far more developed rootstocks then what they seem to ship later in the season to the midwest.

On the other hand they offer a wide diversity of plants in a one stop shopping venue.

I ordered a 'package' of cherry trees as well a 'package' of apple trees.
After waiting several almost a month for the order, I contacted customer service and discovered my credit card had been declined (it was a gift Visa). I would have waited forever for the order because customer service would have not contacted me to let me know! I took care of it and was told my order would ship in a few weeks!
I explained that to the customer service rep that we were almost to Summer and really needed to get the trees in. I did receive my order within a week.
The Customer Service Rep had a very terse clipped communication style. I had to pull information from her. It was not a pleasant exchange.
When the trees arrived, several looked like sticks (I took pics), but I was hopeful.... After a month I knew they were dead sticks. I contacted the same rep and didn't hear back. After approx 10 days, I called the 800 number and was given a credit for those trees. It's now a couple months later and I'm sure several more trees will not make it.
Because the fruit tree packages are designed to cross pollinate I have no clue what's going to produce fruit.... If any end up living!
I have successfully grown many types of trees - both fruit and ornamental. I have healthy trees from other companies planted this last Spring - I'm quite sure the issue isn't anything I'm doing.
The thought of having to pay shipping again to replace my trees makes me feel ill.
A friend ordered from Raintree as well. His order didn't arrive until after he had to call and ask where it was. He had the same experience with poor Customer Service communication and attitude.
I really want to support local. However I expect a company, large or small, to be professional, communicate, and have polite Reps who know what Service is.
I'm so disappointed. :(

I ordered two flowering apricots, a Sunset maple, a Gold Locus, and a Santa Rosa plum. All arrived in a single box with the terminal buds sawed off. Small branches had been torn/ripped, not cut, from the Santa Rosa. All were sticks. I called to ask why the terminal buds had been removed from the shade trees and was told that they were always cut off so the trees would fit in their box. I was told to call back and talk with the horticulturist. I called back the next day and talked to an extremely hostile, rude, woman who offered to refund my purchase. I accepted the refund. However, we will not do business with Raintree again.

I purchased to fruit trees, not-inexpensive mind you, and they did not leaf out despite looking strong. I apparently waited just a couple weeks too long in the spring to decide they weren't going to survive and Raintree was unwilling to replace my trees. I would give it 0 stars if I could. They did offer me a partial (approx 1/3) refund.

I guess if you purchase anything at Raintree to have it replaced before their 1yr warranty period is up whether you're able to determine viability or not.

Note that the 1yr warranty does NOT begin when they arrive, but when you place your order - making it more like a 6-10mo warranty.

Looking at the comments here I should have known better then to order from Raintree. When you see this many negative reviews you have to know that a company has a very serious product or customer service problem.

The first order from Raintree I made was for a small thomas black walnut tree. This was a 2' whip and it never came out of dormancy. This happens and they did refund me so no harm no foul.

However the second time I ordered from raintree I decided to try and get a thomas black walnut again. I actually ordered two - 2' tall pollinators and a 4' thomas black walnut. When the tree came it was packed in newspaper shavings which are impossible not to get everywhere when opening the package. They were just thrown in there and actually did nothing to fill the void of the box. It was just like someone emptied trash into my package. The roots were also packed in shaved newspaper. Horrendously messy and I spent quite a bit of time trying to pick the shavings out of the gravel in my driveway. The tree itself looked horrible, bent over like a bow and looked like it had been cut off 6" above grade and grown out of the side. When I emailed a complaint it took almost a 1/2 dozen emails to get them to finally send out another replacement. I specifically said do not send it in shredded newspaper.

When the replacement came it was again packed in shredded newspaper and the replacement looked as bad as the one they sent me. I couldn't believe this, especially after so much prodding to get them to send me a replacement and specific recommendation to pack the next one in a tiny bit of soil.

Raintree is absolutely ridiculous, terrible customer service and they do not listen! It's a shame because their catalog is so vast and beautiful, but I would never trust my wallet with them again after getting burned twice.

I ordered 3 trees from them about a year ago. They sent a windmill palm that had a completely dead spear. It was literally black with rot and not even attached. They sent a eucalyptus that was the most rootbound plant I've ever seen. I don't even think there was a particle of dust in the pot, just tightly packed tangled roots.

In fairness the lady I talked to was friendly and replaced the windmill palm. She offered to refund the money on the euc if I wanted her to.

Still, I won't take my chances with them anymore. I'll stick with Forest Farm from now on.

I ordered a fig in a 1 gal. What was received was a tiny twig in a 4 inch pot. Repeated emails and phone calls (left messages) and no luck. So far it looks like I am stuck with something less than I ordered and no recourse.

Ordered a black bamboo from Raintree, the catalog and website both showed a 1 gallon pot. A tiny, less than 2 foot (giant black bamboo?) arrived in a 1 qt or half gallon pot. It's been a week since I contacted them twice and have yet to get a response.

Didn't expect something gigantic, just something in a 1 gallon pot, sized appropriately and pruned for shipping. At least the canes being more than 1/8th inch thick.

On the upside, their product arrive in great shape and super healthy. Just very disappointing.

I ordered 15 rooted cuttings of Agria grapes. The shipping cost of 15 little sticks, by size of a pencil, cost me $21, plus $90 for cuttings. They were 6" long, instead of 12" long. Most of them had only few tiny roots; one had no root at all. I contacted them, but got only two replaced. Today, three years later, only 3 survived and barely alive. I will never again order anything from them!
I ordered about two hundred rooted grape cuttings from http://www.nevinesupply.com at the same time and they produced about twelve 5 gal buckets of grapes last year.

I ordered a climbing rosebush for $14.95. When it arrived it was barely 7 inches tall and dead.
I am furious!
My advice to other gardeners: Never order from 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.

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

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!

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.

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!

I ordered 56 rootstocks for apples ,plums and cherries in January ,I was told then they would ship mid March, here it is almost the end of march and they haven't been shipped. I have called three times, te first time they told me they were shipping the following Monday and to call back then for my tracking # , I waited until Tues to call so I could get the tracking # only to be told they had not shipped and she could not tell me why or when they would...I only ordered from them as i needed the rootstocks to graft on and i had to buy my scion wood in Feb to get it if they dont come soon ive wasted over 100 dollars for the scion as it will be to late to graft them...I was going to place my order with them next year when i had the next 10 acres ready but not now will go somewhere else for the trees to fill it.

A bad experience, and I haven't even received my order yet. On February 2, I placed an order for a tree from Raintree, selecting the "ASAP" shipping option. I wanted to get the tree in the ground while we're still getting regular rain to allow it to establish roots while dormant. I received a response with my order information, saying that the tree would be shipped "In February". As it's the beginning of March and I hadn't gotten any further response from Raintree, I emailed them to find out the status. Their response was that there had been a snowstorm, and it would be AT LEAST 2 weeks before the tree ships--the tree will arrive mid-late March when I requested ASAP at the beginning of February.

I can understand the snowstorm was an unplanned event, but it occurred WEEKS after I requested ASAP shipping. Not acceptable customer service at all. And not an unusual occurrence based on others' reviews. Raintree is only a couple hours south of us, so we're well aware of the extent of the "snowstorm"--there's not really a good excuse for this delay.

If you are trying to time the planting of your purchases so that they can make the best start for your climate, you might want to consider another vendor.

Purchased a "Goumi seedling" several years ago that bloomed and set fruit last year. Unfortunately, the plant ID was incorrect. This was an Autumn Olive, a relative of Goumi that fruits in the fall. Last year when I contacted the company, they promised me a replacement plant this spring.

I received their Spring 2011 catalog last week and discovered that the catalog incorrectly showed a picture of Autumn Olive fruit in the section for Goumi, and incorrectly claimed that Goumi fruits in August, instead of the correct late spring for Goumi.

Because of these two errors, I was concerned that I would not get a true Goumi replacement plant this spring. (It appeared to me that the company either does not know the difference between the two species, or that a mistake has been made that they are missing). I sent them an email pointing out the catalog problem and also re-communicated the problem that I had with the previous miss-id on the Goumi. Their email response was to tell me that they had a Goumi "crop failure" this year and would send me a refund for the misidentified plant. No mention was made of the catalog problem. Interesting timing of the crop failure discovery as well.

I am particularly frustrated that they chose now to send a refund, claiming a crop failure. They should have reserved a goumi for me last year, when they were initially contacted and when they promised a replacement. They should also have refunded the shipping on a product they sent that I did not order. Lastly, I believe that they learned that their goumi are autumn olive plants and rather than acknowledge a problem, chose to simply not communicate.

I have been a regular Raintree customer going back almost 20 years but have noticed that their plants have been getting smaller and have been seeing more problems with them more recently. I have mostly switched to dealing with One Green World (because of these problems), which has larger plants and has never sent me one with the wrong ID. It is sad to see what Raintree has become, as they were one of the first nurseries to start specializing in unusual edibles (to my knowledge) and used to have an excellent service record and reputation.

Throughout the last 5 years Raintree has always managed to mess up one thing in each of my orders. Something thornless that had thorns, a forgotten raspberry, an incorrect gooseberry. I even tried picking up at the nursery, they hosed me there also, they wander off, put the order together with bailing twine and bring it out, so a two hour drive later you can figure out they forgot something. This year I would only purchase two things, they were both special. I had prepared the areas for them three years ago and waited until the soil was perfect, I only had one place that either would work, a south facing wall on my western oregon house. The passion fruit and White Peach thrived, grew better then imanginable, the location was perfect, until just now, when, you guessed it, it is not a peach at all, nor a passion fruit. I hate Raintree in a way I cannot articulate publicly. For God sake, use One Green World if you actually want to get what you order. Plus when you go down there to pick up the employees are quick, the plants are bigger, they get the order right, and they are not rude. I used Raintree because they had a better selection, and see what it got me.

I ordered 3 cherry trees for my daughter's birthday last year and it was a bit late in the season to ship them, so Raintree waited until early spring of 2010 to send the trees. Since they were coming according to Raintree's optimal schedule and because they looked like good sized trees (3 to 4 foot) and because I had sandy loam soil and a good sunny exposure, I figured no worries, these babies will thrive! But actually they were all three duds--many of the buds turned out to be dead and the ones that did pop produced little limp leaves that soon died away. I gave customer service my customer identification number but they never took the trouble to pull up the invoice. Later, they asked for the invoice number which I didn't have, and for a photo of the trees. Well, it started to feel like more trouble than it was worth, and I was definitely getting the run-around, so that's why I stopped trying to get my money back and posted this note. My suggestion to Raintree's customer service would be to take the time to find the customer's order, believe them when they say that the trees were not lively or alive, and offer something palpable to even the situation out--an explanation, an apology, a replacement, a refund--anything!

Early last November, as part of a larger order, I prepaid for a Kirke's Blue plum tree and a 'Mirabelle de Nancy' plum tree (now identified by Raintree as 'Gras Romanesc'), as part of a 4 tree, European style, 2 story espalier to be installed on the south side of my house. Yesterday I received this email from the Inventory Manager:

I'm sorry due to a miscount we do not have the Kirke’s Blue Plum you ordered. I have removed the unavailable item from your order and refunded your credit card $32.50. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

A miscount? This leaves me (at the last minute) with only one plum tree (with no pollinator), no other source for Kirke's Blue, and past most nurseries' deadlines for fruit tree delivery. I could almost forgive them for making a stupid (and human) mistake, but besides the lack of any real sincerity or concern, there was no suggestion for another plum tree or another source, no "what can we do to make it right?"

Suffice to say I will never order from Raintree again. I could understand a crop failure, that's the way it goes, but quite a bit of sweat, time and money has gone into installing the espalier so that it would be ready for this year's neighborhood Garden Walk. I hope visitor's to my garden will appreciate Raintree's 'miscount' excuse as much as I do.

I got three different shipment dates when I called/emailed and requested when my order was going to ship. When I did get it, I received less than what I ordered of each rootstock with no explanation. When I requested a confimation of my original order by email after delivery I got nothing in return. All but two of the lovell rootstock were dead when received, but the rest look fine. I was very disappointed in this company that appeared to have so much to offer.

Justin, TX

Add another bad shipping experience. I spoke to them on the phone the last week of February (Tina?), explained that I was getting ready to be out of town for two weeks, and I really needed my 4 trees & 2 bushes mailed by March 2nd. I was assured they'd go in the mail on Monday the 2nd.

They mailed either Thursday or Friday that week instead, then sat on my porch for 10 days.

Add to this the fact that, compared to the trees I got from Peaceful Valley, the Raintree root systems were a joke. The Butterfly Bushes were twigs.

It took Raintree six weeks to complete an order, even with ASAP shipping requested.

I ordered various bare root from Raintree Feb 6th and selected the 'ship ASAP' option. After 2 weeks, when I still had not received a confirm e-mail, I called. I was told that they were so far behind that my order probably wasn't even in the system yet and to call back if I hadn't heard anything within a week.

I called back and received an order number at the end of February. Last week, FIVE WEEKS after I placed my order, I again called to ask what the holdup was. This time, I was told that my credit card had been declined. I decided that I had been patient enough, said that was fine but that I was surprised nobody had contacted me, and let's just cancel the order. At that point, I was told that they'd get it shipped out the next day. It arrived today.

On 8/12/08 I ordered two low chill Cherry trees.
Spoke to Raintree in October of 08, and was told that delivery was due spring of 09.
3/12/09 delivery, found that that the two cherry trees were unavailable.

If they had informed me that these trees were unavailable, I could have purchased them from another nursery.

This is the first and last time I will deal with Raintree, I have lost a years worth of growth.

I am a fruit tree enthusiast on Long Island and upstate NY, growing over 75 varieties from online nurseries. I have 27 more trees ordered through 7 nurseries. I am satisfied with these current orders except for Raintree. I placed the Raintree order on August 27 for several Pear trees. An automated e-mail was returned to me that said someone at Raintree would confirm my order. My credit card was charged $127.40. On September 3, a week later, I e-mailed about the confirmation. September 4, I received a reply that Raintree would soon confirm the online order. I e-mailed again September 11 and called on the phone. September 22, I received confirmation. If I known this order would be this much trouble I would have added similar pears to the other orders and saved half the cost and a month of aggravation. Actually I tried order the pears from Cummins but they sold them out during this fiasco. Raintree did appologize in their confirmation, so I may change to neutral when the (without delay) delivered trees leaf out ok.

I will say that my first and only shipment was wonderful although I had to call about one missing sea buckberry bush which they later sent. My main problem with them is that after several attempts to get this year's catalog, I have never recieved one nor have had any of my emails replied to. Now it is too late to order anything from them.

I have placed probably 8-10 orders, and spent approx. $1000.00 with RAINTREE nursery.

Like most of you, I have placed muliple orders through RAINTREE due to the exotic nature of the plants they have for sale. When my first order arrived, the plants looked great. By the time of my last order(s) arrived, I felt like the plants I ordered were from the "marginal pile" and if not for my placing an order, they would have been trashed.
I had to toss 4 high bush huckleberries the day I got them in addition to several other items that were in bad shape when they arrived

I can't say that 1 order has ever lived up to my expectations. None of my orders arrived in the time frame given, spindley plants, etc..

These issues repeatedly forced me to purchase from local nurseries (I have a small biz that I purchase for) while I was awaiting my order from RAINTREE, a fact that I'm happier with now as most PDX based nurseries now sell most of RAINTREE's items.

The straw that broke the camels back for me was an order I placed last September to be delivered this Fall. Since I had not received my order by November 30, I phoned to determine the delay. I was told that there was a slight problem with my order (the person on the other end of the line read the order back to me so the order was placed), and that someone would call me right back. No phone call.

It is now January 10, and after still no word, I sent an email asking that the order be cancelled and to remove me from RAINTREE's mailing list.

The response from RAINTREE was that I had no order placed and they would be happy to remove me from their mailing list. After spending close to the $1000.00 referenced earlier, I expected a better response than that. (They should have apologized, taken a new order, and shipped asap) As an small biz person, this response typically drives away business. Keeping customers is the goal of any business. If there is a problem, you try to correct it, not send your client base to another nursery.

I have spent my last dollar with these guys, and believe me, there is nothing like picking your own plant stock. I suggest Shorty's as I have found everything there that I purchased from RAINTREE, and get to pick my own stock.

Perhaps RAINTREE needs a few savvy business people working for them as well as nursery folk.

Good luck to those of you who are having success with RAINTREE. You can take my word that once they think they have you hooked, the customer service goes downhill fast.

Sign me "Used to be optimistic about RAINTREE..."

This was my first time to order from this company. I had ordered 3 wolfberry vine in gallon pots and ten tristar strawberry in four inch pots. When the items arrived, I discovered that the wolfberry was in four inch pots, and they were barely rooted, "needle-thin" caliper seedlings (cuttings?). The Tristars were plugs that had been replanted into four inch pots. Four Tristars had barely sprouted roots!

Since I had been charged for gallon-sized wolfberry vines, but received four inch pots, I called the company to ask for a refund of the difference on my credit card. I have yet to see the refund on my credit card statement.

2 years ago I ordered grafted paw paws and grafted ginko's. they all arrived out of dormacy when my area still had below freezing temps. they all managed to survive going through the summer, but they didn't really grow. the next spring 3 out of 4 were dead from the graft on up, and the 4th was just dead! a phone call to the company pretty much got me an, "oh well". WILL NOT DEAL WITH THIS COMPANY ANY MORE!!!

We ordered some of the European plums from Raintree, (Kirke's Blue and a Gage). They came in beautifully tended and in a heavy caliper, (over 1"). The root systems were trimmed a little more than I had hoped but they were healthy. We will order from Raintree again next year.