Comments regarding Southmeadow Fruit Gardens (Grootendorst Nurseries)

I ordered 5 M7A rootstock to do my own grafting and two one yr old antique variety apple trees. The one yr old trees were 1 foot high with a 3 inch scion grafted for ~$25.00. The root stock were fine and healthy. The grafted trees were very small and frail looking - one with dead leaves on the top. I planted one in the orchard and the sickliest one in a pot to give it extra care. Watered well, etc etc. (I've been growing fruit trees for 20+ years and know how to plant.) Neither tree ever leafed out. I called and was told I need to take pictures and write a letter - which I did. No follow up. Two calls later I received a call back and was told I had to pay for new trees and was interrogated on what I did when I planted them. Unfortunately Mr. G. has a "the customer is always wrong" policy. By comparison, after seeing how small SMFG trees were when I got them, i ordered the same variety bare root tree from another supplier (and it was 4 ft tall, 5/8 cal, for $26.00). This tree was planted one week after SMFGs and it leafed out nicely and is doing well. Also, my own grafts took and are doing fine. All under the same conditions. I read all of the pos and neg comments on this site and decided to take a chance and got burnt. I will not pay someone (again) after spending well over $100 with their company for trees that arrived in no condition to ever grow and will not be doing any more business with SMFG. The facts are here - you decide for yourself.

Unique and fantastic selection. Beautiful, healthy trees. Completely inept customer service. The previous commenter describes the company and its problems very well. If you decide to order, pray that there are no errors or omissions in the original order. Attempting to get a refund or rectify an error is a long and extremely frustrating process. Keep good records and keep on top of any problems! Seems unready for the 21st century, with lots of excuses and little inclination to accept responsibility for shortcomings. My good nature and the great condition of the trees I received nudged my rating out of negative and into neutral range, but I will never order from this company again.

Posted on July 5, 2010, updated July 19, 2010
Well, I've read all of the recent "new and improved" comments about SMFG, but I'm afraid my experience doesn't support them.

On February 22nd of this year (2010), I mailed an order form and a check for two apple trees, as Southmeadow was the only company I could find on the net that still claimed to have Pink Pearls in stock. My check was cashed almost immediately, but I then heard ... nothing. No acknowledgement of the order, and certainly no trees. I placed inquiries about the shipping time in late March, early May, and finally placed a phone call near the end of May, to tell them that I would not be around in June to plant any trees that arrived, so that my order should be canceled if they could not get the trees to me by the end of May. The first week of June rolls around, and no trees, no response to emails. I called again, and had a pleasant conversation with Peter Grootendorst, who said he could find no record of my order anywhere. He asked me to send him PDF copies of the cancelled check, which I did the next day, along with the address to which my refund check should be sent. Needless to say, the email received no response.

One month later, and I returned home, and no refund has been sent, nor any communication made. I sent a notice yesterday indicating my attention to refer this to the state attorney general and the BBB, as I feel at this point that my $70 has been stolen.

If I do in fact receive a response (and my refund), I will happily post that as an update to this review, but under no circumstance will I ever order from these folks again. You may make your own decision.

I ordered two one year goosberries (Hinnomaki Yellow and Poorman). They arrived in reasonable shape with fair packing. They have somewhat small roots and stems. I will see how they grow and update as appropriate.

I checked the ilex vertillicata and the bayberries I bought from them 2 years ago, and they are still going. They came as tiny little things, but they have survived a hard winter and a fairly easy one in northern Illinois-allegedly Z5, but it gets colder than that. I ordered some other conservation plants at the same time, and they never showed up. I called and emailed but no response-I figure they nicked me for $10.00, and it is too bad they went to the bad, because their catalog was interesting, and the stock I got was hardy.

I have had a good many praises about Southmeadow's trees so I placed an order. After several weeks I received a partial shipment and some weeks later received someone else's order. I sent 2 e-mails without a response, tried calling and sent a certified letter saying I had someone else's order and would like to know how to handle the trees. Southmeadow never responded to my attempts to communicate with them. I must say that they only cashed my check after the shipments of trees even though my order was partially filled.