Comments regarding Trees that Please Nursery and Tree Farm

Trees That Please (TTP) sold me 16 six-to-seven foot Austrian Pines that were scraggly, turkey-necked, bent, and that refused to grow. The cost was $1850.00 plus $50.00 per tree (another $800.00) to have them planted by the employees of TTP so that the full guarantee would be in effect. I complained about them initially on planting and every year thereafter. I was told they would "fill-in" and look good in a few years. After the third year I complained again to the TTP nursery manager. I was told she would check and get back to me. She never did. Several months later I called again to complain that I was still so unhappy with the trees that I planned to pull them out. I was told that there was nothing that could be done. I called the owner of TTP, Michael Melendrez, and complained. He lied about the circumstances of the purchase, about the time-line of my complaints and about the TTP guarantee on my trees. I told him I did not appreciate being called a liar -- and Michael Melendrez hung up on me in mid-sentence. He has not called me back or made any response to my complaints. The trees were so awful that I dug them all up, threw/gave them away, and bought replacement pines from another nursery. These new trees are full and beautiful and doing well--- planted in the same soil in the same location on my property.

Since then, in talking to present and former employees of Michael Melendrez and Trees That Please, I have found that as employees they avoided dealing with Michael Melendrez whenever possible, and that he had his employees lie to customers about the trees that TTP sold. My experience was not uncommon.

Nurserymen in the area were very familiar with TTP and Michael Melendrez, referring to his "soil secrets" products as "snake oil" and referring to him as "the mad scientist."

I spent thousands of dollars over a three year period on his "soil secrets" products ("Premium Earth Magic" and "Protein Crumbles" to name two of his products) to "improve" my soil. There were no visible results either in improved plant growth or in soil structure. Nurseries in my area had tried his "soil secrets" products in the past with no results either.

Michael is a great salesman without a good product. He is deceptive and changes his guarantees (and his products) yearly. He is succesful primarily by constantly expanding the edges of his sales region as the old customers either run afoul of him, his temper, and his changing "stories"; or they find that his products do not perform as guaranteed--and that there actually is no guarantee.

Over the three years I dealt with Michael Melendrez and Trees that Please I spent over $20,000.00. I had some good experiences with TTP and I do not wish any ill to anyone--but I wish I had been able to read someone's cautionary post somewhere, and have done my homework a little better. If you do business with Michael Melendrez and Trees That Please make sure you've researched everything carefully and understand what you're getting into.

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As the owner of Trees That Please and a Managing Member of Soil Secrets LLC, I'd like to first thank Dr. Jenson for her kind remarks about me personally and my life's work growing trees and fixing soil. Unfortunately, the negative remark made on this site was not bogus or from a competitor, as it was indeed from a client of our business. So I’ll now need to defend the decade’s long honor and reputation of Trees That Please because of one person who we had a bad experience with.

First I will say that since this person used my name in his disparaging remark, I on the other hand will not stoop to such a low and unethical level and give his name.

This individual did indeed purchase some trees from our business, but he did so with a huge discount on the items which I allowed as a favor since he was the family doctor of one of my employees. We priced the trees at well below wholesale value much less a true retail price. On an average 6 foot tree this person saved about $72 below what these trees were being wholesaled for! These were trees we were growing for several Albuquerque contractors and retail nurseries and we grew several thousand of this particular lot number. The trees were grown from seed and were about six to seven years of age by the time the good doctor asked for a favor. Since the trees were sold at a discount, no warranty other than they were grown by us and were true to species name is ever made, as that has been my rule on any product discounted for any reason. Since that rule never changes, this client and all clients are given a handout explaining the policy along with how to plant and care for their new tree. On multiple occasions, my employee who was also his patient was called by the doctor to make a special trip at no compensation to look at his trees and provide advice and council. His home is about 8 miles from our business. When he was not satisfied at having a mere employee come to his beckon call, he requested the owner – that’s me to make a special effort to service him. Again no compensation was ever offered for this special treatment. On each visit by me or my employee he was told to not water the trees so much since his soil is a heavy clay and the poor drainage was damaging his trees. Austrian Pines – Pinus nigra do not like wet roots! He had some losses and wanted free replacement trees which we made the mistake of providing. Give an inch and some will take a mile! But we did explain that we were making an exception and to please refer back to our warranty paper since these trees were sold at discount. Each time he said he was not aware of this policy and it was never clear to him, regardless of us giving him the paper initially and repeatedly with each visit. I personally made several visits to his property and each time had the paper at the ready to give him.

I did indeed hang up on this person at it was apparent he was intent on using us when he asked me to purchase the trees back and to dig them at my expense. He wanted perfectly shaped and identical pine trees which of course genetic diversity will never provide when trees are not cloned but rather are grown from seed. The final straw was when he called my personal cell number on a weekend while I was out of town visiting and having lunch with my elderly father. When I explained to him that I’d wanted to call him back during business hours, that was not good enough for him and he wanted to continue debating the fact that he was not clear as to my warranty. At this point I told him goodbye and I hung up! On Monday morning I instructed my staff to not let this person ever come back into my business and if he did and refused to leave on his own, call the police. Needless to say my staff was ecstatic because they were all sick and tired of dealing with him. And I personally was tired of his abuse!

About Trees That Please: Trees That Please grows trees native to New Mexico's high desert region and does so from seed. This is unique for a retail nursery in the Southwest! We are dedicated to using an organic only program and therefore chemicals that fail to meet the USDA NOP benchmark for organic approval are not sold in our nursery. There are likely over 1 million trees in landscapes all over New Mexico, the Southwest and the Rocky Mountain Region that have been propagated and grown by Trees That Please over the past several decades. Soil Secrets LLC is a company that evolved from the research and development done by Michael Martin Meléndrez -founder and owner of Trees That Please, Dr. Michael Karr - Soil Scientist, along with other professional staff members of Michael's business. Today, Soil Secrets is recognized across North America and into many other countries for offering soil amendments and biological soil inoculum products that meet the highest efficacy standards in the industry and has been awarded recognition for this achievement by several institutions of science. Today the products of Soil Secrets can be purchased across the continent and can be viewed at http://www.soilsecrets.com. Michael is often in demand as a speaker at conference's put on by the USDA, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Oak Society, the Native Plant Societies of the west, the United States Green Building Council's State Chapters and many more organizations. Along with Trees That Please and Soil Secrets, Michael has developed over the past 22 years the Arboretum Tomé, a botanical garden with one of the largest species collections of the genus of oaks – the Quercus, in the Untied States. The arboretum has thousands of trees with many native to the Chihuahuan Desert Region of the Southwest, along with many rare, endangered and very exotic species from all over the world. Each year the Arboretum Tomé is visited by plant and soil scientists from all over the world, many to work with Michael and some to see his tree collection. The arboretum is Trees That Please and Soil Secrets walking the walk and talking the talk.
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