Comments regarding Camellia Forest Nursery

I ordered 4 camellias and was astonished at how quickly they arrived (in 2 days!). The plants were lovely and lush, and best of all there were no plastic pots. I hate all the non-recyclable pots I end up with at the end of the season, so this was a truly pleasant surprise.

I have a few fall blooming camellias I purchased from Camellia Forest several years ago, and while they took a long time to settle in and bloom, they have developed in to real show stoppers in the fall garden.

I have ordered camellias from Camellia Forest Nursery for over 20 years. The plants that I planted at my parent's old house are still going strong (camellias are really tough plants once they get established). Camellia Forest is the best in terms of variety and quality. They also have a number of very unusual non-camellia trees and shrubs (e.g., Emmenopterys henryi) that I haven't seen anywhere else. Thanks Camellia Forest!

I received my 'Kagirohi’ Camellia and it was very healthy and over 4' tall. I was very happy with this high quality camellia and would recommend 'Camellia Forest Nursery' to anyone!

I ordered a 3 yr old Autumn Spirit Cold Hardy camellia on May 6th. I grew up in the Camellia belt, but now live further north. I had some questions about the differences in care for the north vs. south and David Parks was kind enough to swap several emails with me loaded with information and the answers to all my questions. He helped me choose the "right" camellia and planting spot for my zone. The Camellia arrived in beautiful condition (not one lost leaf or broken twig). These folks really know how to pack a plant for shipment!!! It's been in the ground a little over a month and is doing beautifully. It has lots of new growth and I can't wait to see it bloom. Now I just have to figure out if I have room for MORE!!!

I ordered five camellia plants from Camellia Forest Nursery which I'm very pleased with. Excellent packaging and prompt shipment.

Excellent, healthy plants! All three little leaf tea camellias I ordered were received in perfect condition, and I was very pleased by the size; I ordered two-year plants, but they are much bigger than I expected. Packaging was also excellent, the rootballs were still moist and no leaves were lost from shipping stress. Overall, a great experience.

remarkably good packing and packaging. the plants arrived in superb health. within a couple of weeks they are already sending up new leaves. i am very pleased with the quality of their plants and how carefully and inventively they packaged them.

Truly excellent trees and shrubs and friendly service make this a top notch nursery. I've both mail ordered and visited in person, and have been impressed each time. Some of the trees I've purchased, such as cercis canadensis 'Hearts of Gold' and aesculus x splendens (hybrid red buckeye), are tough to find plants that can be eye-poppingly priced. But not only did I find them, they were very reasonably priced at $20 and $10, respectively, and had huge healthy root systems. Both of these--and the dozen or so other shrubs and trees I've purchased from Camellia Forest--are thriving in my garden. If you're looking for healthy and tough-to-find plants at reasonable prices, you can't go wrong with this company.

"On Mar 18, 2009 9:33 AM, Camellia Forest Nursery responded with:

Thank you for your kind words, I enjoyed reading all the positive responses for our nursery. We are having Open House this coming weekend.

Kai Mei
Camellia Foreset Nursery"

I ordered a 3-year-old Camellia 'Survivor' this spring. The plant they shipped me was of excellent size and condition and has grown vigorously all season. It now has 20+ lovely blooms--I'm extremely happy with Camellia Forest Nursery!

Two years ago, I purchased four camellias from Camellia Forests (about $200 total, in 3-gallon and 5-gallon sizes). The camellias have been spectacular - blooming their first year, the second year (except for the one that the deer nibbled on), and they're preparing for a winter display again. (My favorite is the "Black Tie" variety - large, perfect, deep red flowers; like a perfect rose or a perfect dahlia.) I'm very pleased; visitors are always impressed.

Camellia Forests has an amazing selection of beautiful plants, in all sizes. In my opinion, it's the *one* place to shop for camellias.

Received 2 camellias - Ashton's Ballet - in perfect condition. The packaging was the best I have seen. Potted perfectly and at a shipping charge that was so low for the quality, I was amazed. The shrubs were at least the size described and are now sending off new growth. If you see a plant you want, but need a larger size, just ask. They may have it in stock. That's what happened on my order. I was able to order the largest size that is available even though it was not listed. Unless you are in the "camellia zone" belt you will never be able to find the selection of plants that are hardy for the northern zones from any other source- even your local nursery.

I ordered 6 cold-hardy camellias, which arrvived promptly, with some of the most secure packaging I have ever seen. The plants are very healthy, and a good size, too. This has been an excellent experience and I will order from Camellia Forest again.

Absolutely the most gorgeous plants you can order. I couldn't believe the size and the packaging was perfect. He actually put a flower in for me to see one of the plants blooms. I bought according to what he suggested. I will go back again and again. The plants were potted to hold for fall planting. Normally I would never plant first year pots directly but these are so gorgeous that I will put them in this fall. They are growing like weeds and never lost one leaf. I bought three of the different calycanthus and then two orange flowered sweet olives. Just can't say enough good about this company. Don't be afraid to order the larger plants, I did and WOW.

This was my first order with Camellia Forest, and I could not be more pleased!

I ordered two camellias for the very reasonable price of $12 each, expecting the 6-12 inch, 1-2 qt. size that they described. Of course, they do say that prices are based on age and sizes can vary, but I was still pleased when my plants arrived at 10 and 14 inches, and with gallon-size root balls.

My Calycanthus 'Venus' also arrived even further beyond my expectations in terms of size, since I ordered the smaller of the two options at $16. It arrived at an impressive 24 inches tall, with a hefty root system that would require a 2-gallon pot to contain it. This made me all the more gleeful, considering that I had originally ordered the same plant (under the name Sinocalycanthus 'Venus') at Wayside Gardens last July before I found it at Camellia Forest. I paid $30 for a 4-inch pot (!!), but it wound up backordered all the way until this spring, so I cancelled it. So glad I did, now that I have an enormous, healthy plant several times larger for half the cost!

I used to order from them back in the 90's. Their quality back then was excellent and it still is. My recent order arrived in good condition and the plants were very healthy. David is a wealth of information and the nursery is a great source of rare plants. Definitely worth a trip if you are a collector.

I ordered 4 types of Tea plants in April. They arrived very quickly, packaged well and healthy. They have been growing well and I expect by next summer they should be a good size to pick some leaves. They have an incredable number of plants to choose from and seem to be experts in Camellia's. All nurserys should be run like this one.

Called in my order a couple days ago. Since they stop shipping on May 10th I didn't trust sending it to them though the mail since it might have gotten there late. Rermarkably I got the order today. They must have shipped it as soon as I hung up! The tea plants I ordered all arrived in good shape and I'm very happy to now have seven nice varieties of tea plant in very good condition.

I just got my first order today and I'm quite pleased. The plants tops were considerably bigger than I expected. In particular, the ume plants were a good size, 4-5' tall. Everything was nicely packed.

This is a very nice nursery with a great selection, esp. of camellia and ume. The owners are very knowledgable, nice and quite responsive. Shipping is quite reasonable given the size of the plants.

One of the best family owned nurseries. Beautiful camellias arrived in blossom, exceeded my expectation. Great customer service and communications. David's nursery is one of the best places to mail order camellias.

Received my first order today. The gardenias were lush and huge. Prices very reasonable. Will definitely order again!

Got an order today. Superior packaging! Healthy plants! Robust beyond my expectation! Wonderful customer service! What more can I say? As a first time mail order buyer...I will order again!

Visited the nursery during their open house. Great plants, very nice people. They had everything in stock that I had selected on their website and were very helpful answering my many questions. Reasonable prices, highly recommended.

I picked up my plants from Camellia forest in April.
All were healthy and strong at that time. Now they grow
well on my garden, produce a lot of buds. Good people,
good nursery and good plants.

Very helpful staff. Fast shipping and EXTREMELY HEALTHY and robust camellias.

Placed order last week and it arrived yesterday. Beautiful healthy-looking plants larger and bushier than I was expecting. I will definitely order from them again.

My order was filled well- although they were out of a few rare plants I really wanted for my garden, the camellia substitutions were great. I love the peacock camellia! All of the plants were healthy, well packaged, and shipped quickly. I will definitely order from here again!

I placed an order with Camellia Forest for the first time last week and just received it. Shipping was very fast and the quality of the plants (two rare conifers) excellent. Highly reccommended.

I received my second order from Camellia Forest this week and, once again, I am most pleased with the plants I received. The camellias are larger than I expected and one is covered in buds, so I am excited about seeing the flowers this year instead of having to wait another year. I even had to call this company once to change the desired shipping date and address and they handled my request correctly, promptly and pleasantly. I would certainly order from them again and would recommend this company without hesitation.

We drive to Camellia Forest once or twice a year, both for camellias and for other interesting shrubs and perennials. They are the "real thing", with personal roots in southeast Asia, and know their plants. You will find Kai Mei and David helpful and their quality good. I have not ordered by mail, however. Their catalog is intersting and informative.

Very happy with my first order. Two big, beautiful camellias arrived yesterday. It's great to have a reliable place to order from!

I ordered two camellias, a one-year-old Black Magic and a two-year-old April Rose, and was very pleased with the size and health of the plants. Although the nursery had to reverse the sizes--sending me a one-year-old April Rose and a two-year-old Black Magic instead, both plants were actually larger than the catalog had specified that they would be for the price. I had also asked whether it would be possible to have the plants mailed a little sooner than the nursery's usual shipping season, and was very grateful to receive them two weeks early. Highly recommended.

I visited and bought some rare trees from them (psuedocedonia chinesis, and illicium verum) one year ago. They are reasonably priced and both plants are still alive.

I ordered a number of plants that you cannot find anywhere else on the web. All were nice size and well packed. Highly recommended.

I tried to buy a $50 order through this company but was told only 1 of my 4 plants were available. I gave more substituions but none of those were available either. I was refunded my money but I was left very disappointed that they did not seem to have any plants available for my zone.

I placed my first order with Camellia Forest this fall. My plants were sent promptly and were very well packaged. Both plants were larger than I expected, and had generous root balls. The camellia even had flower buds. In addition the company has a good selection of unusual plants, and their prices are reasonable. I am very pleased and definitely would order from them again.

I bought 6 camellias 2 years ago. I don't recall any problems with the order, they have great selection, but the web-site can use some improvement. I have 3 plants alive today, but I have never grown camellias before, and I believe it was totally my fault that 3 of the 6 plants died - I had them in a bad location. Since I moved the remaining 3 camellias to a more shady spot, they are doing great, two of them even bloomed this winter! I am deffinitely ordering from them again.

I have ordered from Camellia forest for years and have been very happy. I have gone to the Nursery a few times and been treated excellent by Kai Mei and David. A great place to deal with

I've ordered plants from Camellia Forest Nursery for many years and have always been very satisfied with what they've sent. Their Camellia cultivar 'April Remembered' is great.

I've ordered nine camellias from Camellia Forest. All arrived in good condition and have thrived (except for one screw-up on my part). The plants were shipped bare root, although I understand they ship in pots to locations other than here on the West coast. All were small (at least compared to what I've seen in typical retail nurseries), and so have only flowered sparsely so far (less than one year). However, they were also substantially cheaper than the larger retail camellias ($7-$13). Personally, I prefer to use my plant budget to buy more plants and wait for them to mature instead of blowing it all on a few larger plants. They have a more interesting variety of camellias than I've typically seen in the retail outlets, including a number of new introductions from China.