Comments regarding Whitman Farms

Last week I placed an order for five trees that I couldn't obtain from my favorite local nurseries. The plants arrived today, perfectly bundled and secured in a large heavy box.

After removing them and standing them up, I'm extremely pleased with their condition - very fresh and healthy.

Even with shipping, the cost per tree was less than what I would have paid to buy them locally, and about the same size. My only regret is that I didn't include a few more things with my original order, but I am sure I'll be ordering again. Thanks, Lucile!

Outstanding nursery. I do not like phoning in an order, I prefer Amazon-like purchasing, but the web site stresses "CALL ME", and that is exactly what you should do. It is amazing how much Lucille knows, and she often has new, unlisted varieties she can recommend. I do not think they update the web site very often, but if you want to great advice and great plants, she is the person to call. Just tell her what you want. I am sure there is no other place that offers the variety and quality of gooseberry and currant plants in the U.S.. I have not tried Whitman Farms for other types of plants, but I think it's a safe bet.

I received my order of a vine maple and mulberry last week and both looked good on arrival and were very securely packaged The shipping charge of $20 for two one gallon plants wasn't bad either. They are both all vertical (no branching) but they are about 3 foot tall and well covered in leaves. I would and probably will order from them again.

I ordered twice from Lucile already. Top quality. Very smart-looking beefy plants, clean, and consistently strong.

Thank you Lucile.

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The very best nursery to do business with!!
I ordered a hamamelis over the phone, the lady of the house answered the phone herself (!) and she had an answer to all of my questions.
The tree shipped out promptly, and will be here tomorrow.
This is how it should be, great customer service, friendly owner, she is such a sweet woman!
Will buy from her again!!!

I have ordered plants from many places over the years, but I don't believe I have received any in better condition or packed better than what Lucile at Whitman Farms' sent me. I will order again from her for sure. I appreciate when someone still cares about what they sell to the consumer. Thanks Lucile, I really appreciate it.

My Betula nigra 'Fox Valley' trees just arrived and they are in fantastic shape for traveling from Oregon to KY. I can't find a broken twig on either tree. The packing method ensured a safe trip for whatever was in the box. Communication with Whitman Farms was perfect and they wanted to make sure I was ready for the trees before they shipped them. We took into account the season and the long range forecast and the trees weren't stuck in a transfer warehouse over a weekend either. I'm extremely pleased with this purchase and will definitely be a repeat customer!

Just received a dozen black currants of four varieties selected by Lucile to thrive in my garden. Fast courteous service, excellent packaging, and beautiful bare root stock. Couldn't be happier.

I recently bought some gooseberry and currant plants from Whitman Farms. I called Lucile Whitman and left a message asking about shipping costs and questions about the plants. She called back very quickly and was very helpful, friendly and knowledgeable. She shipped the plants within a couple of days of the order being placed. The plants were large healthy and well packaged. I was very pleased. She called a couples of weeks later to say that she had a problem with billing my credit card and could I review the number I gave her. I did so and the question was quickly resolve. I just want to say how impressed I am with her service, quality of plants and her commitment to getting out orders in a timely manner. She is honest and trusting. I would do business with her again in the future and will buy from her again.

I ordered a Dove Tree, Sonoma variety, which are not easy to find, back in February. It was shipped exactly when I wanted it and arrived yesterday in good condition considering it went cross country, just needs some sun.
Lucile does an excellent job communicating with you, sending you a picture of the tree you ordered and giving you shipping status.
If you are looking for hard to find trees then this is the place to go.

This is one of the few nurseries in the United States that has Daphne Briggs Moonlight in a 2 Gallon size. Postage, via Fed EX ground was a bit steep to Connecticut and I wish they also offered USPS Priority mail which I suspect might have been cheaper. Priority would also arrive within 2-3 days wheras FED EX ground took 8 days. Otherwise excellent communications. The owner even send me a photo of the actual plant for sale when I inquired about the size!

From the initial conversation to the plants arriving this is a great nursery to deal with. I ordered two field grown plants and was very happy with the size of each. Both are late winter bloomers and I can't wait till next year to see them in bloom in Late Feb/Early March.

If you have been on the fence about buying from this company you should not, you won't be disappointed.

Ordered 2 blackcurrant bushes from Whitman Farms this year. I'm very pleased with the plants. They are bareroot, and have many buds and a strong root system. Lucille was very pleasant to deal with. The bushes were shipped on time. Very good transaction. I highly recommend this company.

I ordered a white fruited mulberry from Whitman Farms last spring. It was a very smooth ordering process, a good price and a very nice tree. I was so mad at another mailorder place, which is why I signed up here, I forgot to add a positive review to a company that deserves it. The plant had berries and I discovered that I don't really like the taste of the white mulberries (no fault of the grower), but the birds do so I'll leave it.

Very satisfied with the entire process at Whitman Farms. Lucille was very patient with me, taking photos and letting me describe and pick my ideal specimen. She even went back for an extra round of photos to include a few more options and to thank her, I bought an extra 1 Gallon maple. The trees were shipped promptly and were well packed. The only hiccup was that one of the trees came with a 6" branch broken off, which was somewhat disappointing, but they were healthy and vigorous.
I would not hesitate to order from them again.

This is my second time ordering currants and gooseberries from Lucile. Both experiences were fantastic. Everything arrived promptly and in good shape, and all four plants are already leafed out nicely in my berry patch. I appreciate her willingness to spend time recommending varieties.

I too had a wonderful experience with Lucile. My little dwarf mulberry arrived well package with berries on it. It is thriving in my garden and I am very pleased. It was the perfect mother's day gift!

Lucile at Whitman Farms has great customer service. She promptly answered all my emails, sent pictures for me to choose from and delivered a full, healthy, beautiful Autumn Moon maple that looked better out of the box than any tree I could have picked up at the local nurseries. My tree was well packaged and came out of the box without a single leaf damaged. I am VERY happy with my purchase. I was impressed and will be back for more!

As a repeat customer I am always impressed with the service I recieve from Lucile.
The prices and selection are great and packing is secure.
Very few nurserys take the time to send pictures which is a huge convience.
I ordered 1 gallon and 2 grafts ,and they arrived in perfect condition....all the way from Oregon to Maryland !!

I was excited to receive my order of three 1 & 2 gal. maples. I had read great feedback and spoke to the very nice & helpful owner. She emailed me pictures of the plants. Beautiful. However, when the trees arrived, 2 were grafts, the other a 1 gal. The tops of the grafts were crispy, all the leaves of the one gal. were brown and fell off within days. I did get a quick "I'm sorry" email, but that's it. I didn't get the impression that sending pictures of the trees out of the box would make an impression. Grafts aren't an appropriate fit into the planned area , so I am out $ and still need to replace with larger trees. I am very disappointed, I had intended to buy many more from the company.

"On May 25, 2009 4:16 PM, Whitman Farms responded with:

When this customer e-mailed to say that he had received the wrong size plant, he did not mention any problem with the quality of the plants. Had he done so, I would have replaced or refunded immediately. As for the size of the plants, he did not order soon after I sent him pics so I had no recollection what I had sent pics of and when he ordered later, I (obviously incorrectly) thought he wanted grafts. I am very sorry to have disappointed this fellow. "

I just received my currants and couldn't be happier with the plants. The are all very healthy and survived the shipping in great shape. My order came in a week. They are the best looking bare root plants I have ever gotten through mail order. A++

I visited Lucile Whitman at her nursery and was very impressed with her knowledge, friendliness, and personal attention. The variety and volume of products is astounding. Service was prompt and the plants arrived in perfect condition.

The plant was large, healthy and had been so carefully placed into the wrapping not a leaf was ruffled. The customer service was so personal I couldn't ask for a better company. I don't have a big yard or I'd buy lots and lots, but have to choose so carefully and was really glad I chose Whitman Farms.

I just came back from visiting Whitman Farms and all I can say is WOW. The green houses are full of a vast array of unusual,beautiful and healthy specimens. I went there to find a tree that had to fit a certain criteria and so far, after much investigation I had not been able to make a decision. Lucille heard me, pointed to a small pot in the green house and then proceeded to take me into the fields so I could see the impact of a large specimen. It was a Ulmus procera argenteo-variegata that stood around 14 feet tall in all its splendor, planted in a root control bag that was sunk into the ground. We tagged it so I can pick it up in October. Lucille is like a walking dictionary, freely sharing her knowledge peppered with a good dose of humor and unbelievable customer service.

After having a bad experience with Gardener's Choice, I was in search of a strawberry tree to plant next to my recently purchased blueberry tree. I called several mail order outfits and was told that I'd need to wait until next year. I tried one more nursery, Whitman Farms, and found the most wonderful woman who was willing to go out in the nursery and see if she could come up with one for me.

Within 30 minutes she emailed photos of two strawberry trees to choose from, including price and shipping. I decided between the two, called her, gave my credit card number, and was told she'd ship my tree out the next day. This was Tuesday, and much to my surprise, my beautiful strawberry tree arrived today (Friday), and it looks even better than it did in the photo.

I could not be happier with the service provided by Whitman Farms, and I highly recommend them to everyone.

Just received the order today and the plants look wonderful.
A very lovely, leafy young Oscar mulberry and a beautiful bundle of currants/gooseberries arrived as promised.

Lucille was a very helpful.

I am extremely pleased to be able to find such a reputable company.

What an absolute joy to do business with this nursery. First of all, they had a fairly mature Kamagata Japanese Maple that I was looking for that was difficult to find elsewhere. When I inquired about it I got quick answers and Lucile even sent me a photo of the actual tree. Where else does that happen? I had a most pleasurable albeit short phone conversation with Lucile who told me she felt her tree was "getting a good home." When someone says something like that you know they love their plants. Lucile seems like the kind of person you could talk to for hours.

Anyway, she dug the tree for me, and put it in the cooler to keep it dormant until it was ok to ship to my zone. The tree arrived today and it is glorious. Incredible packing job and phenomenal tree. The expensive shipping was worth every penny to get a specimen like this, the likes of which I would never find around here

I only hope I can do right by Lucile's incredible tree. Probably my best mail order experience ever. What a pleasure!

I ordered a field-grown Hamamelis 'Jelena' last Fall and received a very well-branched 5-foot tree. It bloomed spectacularly from January through March--I couldn't be happier! I would definitely order from Whitman Farms again.

I ordered a Davidia involucrata "Sonoma" (AKA- Dove Tree, Handkerchief Tree) from Whitman Farms last October (10-2007) and was very impressed with the friendly, helpful, and professional customer service I received. Thanks Lucille!

Communication was excellent, I knew exactly where and when to expect my tree that was shipped via DHL all of the way from OR to KY. I chose Whitman Farms over other nurseries because of its high ratings online and the fact that it appeared to supply high quality plants at a reasonable price. Lucille answered all of my questions and made the transaction a simple and pleasant experience.

The tree was grown in a root bag and had a very well developed root system. It was packed very well and despite some rough handling in transit it looked stong and healthy when it arrived. I live in a borderline zone for growing this tree and I've tried growing the species from smaller plants but they were too small to get well established and died due to winter freezing. I was hoping the larger, more mature tree would fare better plus the cultivar "Sonoma" is supposed to be hardier.

It's finally spring and my Dove Tree is breaking dormancy and is beginning to leaf out! We had a heavy and late frost a few days ago and some of the leaves/buds were nipped, but the tree is strong and I'm certain it will have no problem overcoming this little setback. It made it through the winter freezes like a trooper.

I would highly recommend Whitman Farms for their quality products and excellent customer relations.

A perfect transaction!

I purchased two Japenese maples from Whitman Farms - a field grown 'Fireglow' and a large 'Coonera Pygmy'. Both trees arrived healthy, beautiful, and well packaged. It was a delight just to speak with Lucile on the telephone. She even followed up on the trees two weeks after purchase. I will purchase from Whitman Farms again.

Got two different trees in 2007. Trees were excellent quality trees that had been trained and grown with care, better than average that would find at a nursery. Well packaged and the best trees I have gotten shipped by far... other trees I've gotten shipped from other online dealers all needed a lot of growth to start looking good and strong, because they are thin and mis-shapen. The trees I've gotten from Whitman farms were already strong trunked with a heavy rootball, well branched ready to look good the first growing season. Worth the price to get what you want, highly recommended, this is specialty tree shipping done right.

After many failed attempts to grow the weak sticks of Daphne "Briggs Moonlight" sold by the "glossy catalog" plant retailers, I decided I needed to start with a better established plant. I had almost given up when I found Whitman Farms. They had 2 gallon plants! Shipping was expensive but appropriate given the weight and distance (from OR to NY). The plants arrived securely packaged and extremely healthy. I had never seen the type of pot/root covering before that these shipped with. It was an ingenious sort of cloth type pot. It held the roots, dirt and moisture well. The side "lacing" allowed me to remove it with minimal disturbance to the roots. The two that I ordered have done extremely well. All this and I had a lovely chat with Lucile too. She is wonderful. My only disappointment was that the two plants had very different forms. One was better branched with a more wide spread shape and the other quite narrow and uprite. Given that I had ordered two, It would have been nice to receive a better matched pair; however, I did not ask for them to be so. I am certain that had I asked, Lucile would have been more than accommodating.

The best recommendation I can give is that I'll be ordering again this year.

Proof that size isn't everything, Whitman Farms had terrific selection and wonderful tree stock. Dave's Garden should list this nursery in their Top 30 list. The five trees that we bought are very large and in excellent health! Lucille is a fount of knowledge about each of the trees she carries and willing to let you know what will and what won't work for your conditions. She is very honest about a plant's shortcomings. I will not hesitate to do business here again.

I recently ordered a Dove tree from Whitman's and Lucille is a dream. I can't have shipping until fall so after pouting some, I gave Lucille my card number and told her to charge it now, or I'll forget . If the tree is as wonderful as Lucille, then I will die happy. Thanks much for the conversation and laughs. Will update once my tree gets to me.

The absolutely PERFECT nursery mail-order experience! Purchased 2 Acer campestre Carnival grafts and were truly thrilled with their condition upon receipt! Ms.Whitman business deserves our hardiest recommendation, she is knowledgeable, informative and professional, we will be making many MORE purchases from her, she's a FIND.

Simply awesome company. I ordered a field grown tree (Cornus kousa 'Wolfeye') and it arrived in great shape and was huge, especially considering the cultivar is a slower growing one. The root ball was large and in great shape also. Very nice to talk to on the phone and was a pleasure to do business with. I highly recommend them. I can't wait to order from them again.

Today, I received my Cornus mas Variegata from Whitmans. It is in bloom, has many branches, and is 55 inches tall, from the ground up. There are many feeder roots, it will be easy to plant, and will take-off like crazy, because of Lucile's root ball bag. All of the nine trees I have received from from Whitmans have been like this.The "high risk" ones in my zone 5 garden such as 2 'stewartia pseudocamellia'
have survived and thrived unlike the ones that didn't from 2 other plant growers.I believe the extra good root system, and field growth from Whitmans made the difference. If you love unique trees, Whitmans is best in my experience. I'm looking forward to next year, because I'm going for some of Lucile's exquisite Japanese Maples!! Ordering from Whitmans is always a real pleasure from beginning to end. Thanks, Lucile!

Lucille of Whitmans Farms is ABSOLUTELY, along with Della of JD'sb Backyard Nursery, the best person to deal with for japanese maples PERIOD end of story...her prices sizes and personal attention are unsupassed... If your not impressed by your dealings with her you will not be impressed by ANYONE. I cannot say enough about her and her nursery and her trees ***** (5 star rating) DA BEST... Buy from her or Della you won't be sorry David

Lucille was a pleasure to do business with and was more than helpful in finding the perfect trees for me. My Paperbark Maple and Purple Smoke tree arrived today in great condition and much larger than I thought. Will be doing business with them again!