Comments regarding Willis Orchard Company

Las year Willis Orchards mistakenly sold me 6 flowering pear trees instead of the fruiting kind that I paid for at their local nursery outlet in Berlin Georgia. all these trees flowered beautifully then formed tiny one inch pears that remained on the trees until Fall. I shwoed one of the workers these small pears that dont fall and he agrre to replace them free of charge this spring. When I went back to willis orchards for my replacement trees last week, all the leaves and buds had been ripped off, and the worker told me they had to pull off all the leaves because of an unusually early spring. There were lots of migrant workers in the field surrounding the nursery digging up trees and pulling off the leaves and loading them on trucks. This seemed suspicious to me that they were replacing my wrong trees with trees that would be stressed and weakened by pulling off the leaves. Willis should be ashamed for practicing such shady ways!

"On Apr 1, 2012 12:04 PM, Willis Orchard Company responded with:

There seems to be a similarity and eerily suspicious connection between this post and the next. Not to mention the two towns noted are so close to each other. It's just strange when we have so so few customers from this area. Out of +20,000 customers a year, the state of Georgia ranks about 10th and 90% of the folks are from north Georgia. Yet one of our infamous competitors is located about 15 minutes from both Fitzgerald and Ashburn.
Just food for thought while reading some of these posts.
Best,
JW"

Posted on March 16, 2012, updated March 17, 2012
After driving down to Berlin, GA March 15th, 2012 in my pickup to buy some peach and plum trees from Willis Orchards, I decided not to after seeing all the trees were in full leaf. One of the migrant works said they would be happy to pull off the leaves and the trees after being planted would grow new leaves, and that this process was normal. The nursery was in shambles and weeds were already more than a foot tall in the tree rows where the workers were digging them up and boxing them up to ship out in waiting Fed-Ex trucks. I'm surprised that the government would let this place sell trees growing in these dreadful conditions, after returning home treeless, my wife and I decide I had made the right decision. I started looking around on the Internet to see if anyone else had a similar experience and found an article from the Moultrie Observer that Willis's manager, Garrett Adkins, had been arrested for forgery on over 60 company checks amounting to $48,000.00 written to and signed by himself. To read this article simply type Garrett Adkins Moultrie Observer Willis Orchards and see for yourselves.

"On Apr 1, 2012 11:53 AM, Willis Orchard Company responded with:

Mr. Jim,
Since Ashburn is only 45 miles away, you would have certainly known how hot it had already become by March 15th this year in south Georgia. You are certainly right that peaches and plums had already began to leaf out. That's why we had to suspend availability for so many products on our website, at least two weeks earlier this year. So with the unusually warm winter and most trusted employee/friend's theft, it has been a tough year so far.
But a few things I want to clarify. To grow grasses between field rows of trees is a common practice for several reasons. We are routinely inspected by the USDA and are one of very few that are certified to ship to the most strictly regulated state of California. Also, we are not a retail garden center that is set-up for shoppers. We are a national mail-order operation that grows most of our products in fields. We do however have many customers to schedule the pick-up of their order and they of coarse have the opportunity to inspect. To date, no customer has ever come to pick-up and rejected their order. Finally, there are no migrant workers here. All are US citizens. The four hard working and fine young men you profiled were born here and have never even been to Mexico.
Best,
Jason Willis - owner "

I bought the persimmon trees from them-the trees arrived with trimmed roots and were dead before I have got them!
They sent me the replacement with the same short cat roots already the THIRD!!! time!! But now the roots are like munched!!
I lost more then $150!! Because the company only give you credit-NO!! money back!
My suggestion for Willis Orchard-Don't even bother to dig the tree out! CUT IT! with knife by the ground and send to the customers just the stick! LOL

I should have read the reviews. i ordered 20 3 yr old $8 a piece raspberry plants from this company paid $40 in shipping and what gets to my house, pretty much seedlings mabe a year old, why did they charge me all that shipping i'l never know. phone calls and e-mails were exchanged and of course i was on the losing end. i had to pay to ship them back and was then told by sarah that no refund will be given that i will receive store credit.

I had made a couple small orders in the past and was satisfied with the products and service. Last spring (2011) I placed an order for nine trees. It was late in the season but Willis made the decision to fill it. When I received the shipment I saw there were problems in the way it was poorly packaged and the bark on some trees had shriveled. We planted the trees properly and gave them good care. Only one, a small pomegranate tree, grew. I returned the bottoms and packing slip as requested and requested fall shipment of the replacements. They acknowledge receipt of the shipment with a list of what I had returned. Without reviewing it I filed it.
They did not honor my request for fall shipment and I finally called them and ask them to rush it to me, which they did, but it was mid winter by then. To my dismay they only sent 7 of the 8 trees. When I called them they said they would send the missing tree but I would have to pay the $17.50 shipping cost. She said I should have checked their acknowledgement for accuracy and caught their mistake before they shipped. So now it is my responsibility to manage their shipping department remotely. I just chalked this one up to experience. Be assured I will never order from Willis Orchards again. I don't do well in dealing with people who dishonest or who will not accept responsibility for their mistakes.

I ordered several expensive varieties of live trees via the internet in January 2012 and was having them delivered to my work location. During the check out process you are allowed to put notes in about your order. I had wrote that I wanted to have shipping day adjusted so that my order would arrive during the work week as I do not work weekends and did not want my order sitting in the elements to harm the trees (it is MI after all) during a weekend.

I finished the order process and received confirmation of my order. A few days later I received an email stating that my order would ship sometime in March 2012 and I would receive a email confirmation of the shipping date. This is normal business practice of any internet company.

I wrote an email back asking if I could get my order any sooner due to the process of inside planting and rooting to be able to transplant at the first opportunity. The email I received back stated that due to the time of year that they were concerned about the health of the plants during shipping. I agreed with the thought process and thanked them for their concern.

On 3/1/12, Wenesday, I received a email notification from FedEx that my order was shipped and would be delivered via FedEx Home Delivery on 3/3/12,Saturday. Sometime in March!?! Home delivery on a Saturday to my work location ?

I sent an email that very same day, 3/1/12, to a Jennifer Johnson asking her why had they done that? Why did I not receive an email as to when they were going to ship? Did they not read the notes I placed on my order? Were they not the ones concerned about shipping? Why was my order being delivered on a weekend?

I have received no response to any of my concerns which leads me to believe that this company does not take their customer's very seriously. I will NOT use this company or ever recommend them to anyone else.

Two seasons ago I purchased 10 Thompson seedless and 10 Black monuka seedless grape vines and I paid extra for three year old stock. The plants arrived in poor condition, but I planted them. The first year the thompson seedless did well with only 20% loss. The Black Monuka vines didn't fair as well with 80% loss. I followed the warrenty requirements, and returned the dead vines. Willis took it upon them selves to decide how many to return to me, instead of replacing all of the vines that I returned to them. I replanted, and ended up with 8 "Black Monuka" vines out of the 10 that I planted, none of the Thompson vines made it the second year. Well the third season arrived and I was pretty stoked to see the large berries developing on some of the 8 vines. When they ripened, I was pretty disapointed. Of the 8 vines, all of them were white seeded grapes of at least three different varieties. Just wanted to let everyone know, BE CAREFUL with this place!

Posted on December 27, 2011, updated December 29, 2011
I bought several trees, Kiwi and a grape vine. I was shipped short my grape vine. When we waited for our order after several weeks passing by, we called and they said that they would ship our order when it was time to plant. Once it was ready it to ship, they would charge us on our card. We saw the charge and waited. we did not receive that plants. we called and was told the plants have been package for shipping and was ready. They plants arrived and it was short a grape vine. I called to request that they complete the order. They requested a photo graph for proof. I can somewhat understand but I have control of what is in the photograph, but okay. I submitted the photo and called to follow up and received rude behavior from them on the phone. This does not sit well with me. Further more, my wife was checking into planting the Kiwi and it is saying wait until to after the last frost or the threat of frost has gone. But we received our plants on December 24th!!!!!!!!! that we order in October!!!!!!!!Not to mention the plants I bought there before died, but I thought it was my fault now I am not sure............never from them again.......And I still don't have the plant I purchased............

I ordered a Japanese magnolia from Willis in early August, but by mid-November it hadn't arrived. The ground was starting to freeze here, so I called them and told them to change the shipping date to March or April, which they said they would do.

For who knows what reason, they sent it to me a few weeks later, and it showed up on my porch in Chicago on December 21, a day when it was 28 degrees and snowing. Figuring it had a better chance of surviving in the ground than in a box, I planted it and mulched it heavily.

Today, I emailed them to tell them what had happened. A few hours later, they sent me a reply that failed to even acknowledge that they made a mistake, instead lecturing me that I shouldn't have planted it.

Apparently, if a mail-order tree business staffed by people with no understanding of the North American climate sends you a tree in the dead of winter, you're supposed to leave it in your basement or garage until spring. Of course, if the same company had sent the tree when they were supposed to, this wouldn't be something you'd have to worry about.

Posted on December 12, 2011, updated December 12, 2011
I live in West Palm Beach, Fl and ordered some strawberry plants from willis orchard on 11/16/11 and was given a preference date of receiving plants.. My preference date for receiving shipments was 11/28/11. On 11/28/11 telephone call made and was told by Sarah that they were not shipped because they had some many orders, but assured me they would be shipped by the Friday 12/2/11. Call made again to check the shipping status, again was told that they were working on my order as we were speaking and that I should received them by Monday or Tuesday of the next week. Again call made and was given pretty much the same answers as before. I then requested that they refund my money back into my bank account. They agreed and upon checking today, only $64.26 out of $71.40 was placed back into my account. Upon speaking to Sarah again regarding why only $64.26 was put back into my account. Was told they charged me a cancellation fee. I explained they never shipped the strawberry and there is no cancellation made by me and that the problem was on their end. Sarah wouldn't let me speak after that and hung up the phone. If I had known the reputation of this company, never would have ordered anything from this company. This company is being investigation by various agencies on their operations.

Let me start by writing:

DON'T ORDER FROM WILLIS ORCHARD CO. OR THEIR AFFILIATES!!!!!!!!!!!!

After dealing with Willis Orchard Co. and now reading all the posts, I am in complete concurrence with the negative posting consumers. And if it wasn't so absolutely frustrating dealing with this company it would be laughable at how absolutely inefficient they are!

I placed a very large order in April 2011, had to call the 800 # because their order form wasn't clear for the items I wanted, being spring & fall plant deliveries. The rep placed two orders, one shipping "immediately" and one shipping fall 2011. The first one came in June! I should have known then to cut my losses...

That order contained 2 very wilted and pathetic kiwis "plants" about 12" tall - much smaller than I ordered & paid for - and a sickly guava that soon died as well. I contacted Willis and was told to package the root balls up and send them back, with instructions on the credit, since I had several email communications stating I did not want more kiwis or guavas, but would like to use the credit toward more fruit trees. No problem they said! No communication for weeks...then received 2 more kiwis, again as pathetic as the 1st shipment! I emailed and said I was not paying for another return postage, they screwed up, I want the credit as agreed upon and wanted to order even more fruit trees. (Yes at this point I have to say I became a little insane myself for wanting to do this). After a couple of cryptic emails, they actually accused me of lying and not including a note but then saying "if this was our error..." and agreed to the credit against this 3rd order.

Again, weeks - actually months - passed with no communication. I emailed on 11/4 asking about the refund and the fall order, did not mention the 3rd order because now I finally became convinced I did not want to do more business with this company and they seemed to have forgotten anyway! I received a reply from Jennifer a day later that the order would be sent "within the week" and she asked about the returned & reshipped kiwi plants, obviously "forgotten" the arrangement agreed upon for the credit, and then mentioned the guava as well, stating she wasn't aware until just now that I had returned a guava as well. She said she would issue me a credit for the guava only, completely not honoring the previous emails and kiwi credits.

On 11/22 I emailed back saying to cancel the fall order completely, now over 2 weeks later and still no delivery, and please issue me the full credit on the 3 returned plants. On 11/28 she responds, a week later!! and mentions the credit but does not acknowledge the cancelled order. I emailed back and insisted she acknowledge the cancellation, now, a $190 order that I wanted money back on immediately! That was my primary concern as the ship has sailed on the other order and getting a refund or credit is going to be another long battle, I can tell. She then emails back saying she didn't realize - again! - that I had an unshipped order pending which I wanted to cancel. How do they not realize this? And since that was the original intent of that email string, what is wrong with these people??? She then stated she would cancel immediately, minus a 10% cancellation fee - this isn't even legal!!!! After all of their mishaps and bad handling now on top of it I am being punished again by losing almost $20. I am waiting for the refund to go through, then filing a complaint with every consumer action agency I can find. This company should be out of business.

Posted on November 21, 2011, updated November 22, 2011
Posted on November 7, 2011, updated November 21, 2011
I ordered two jujube trees from Willis Orchard in Feb, 2011, a Li and Lang. They sent me a wrong tree. There is almost no customer service for this company: no email reply and the right people always not in the office when calling them. Very frustrated. Will never do business with them anymore.

"On Nov 8, 2011 2:24 AM, Willis Orchard Company responded with:

So wrong. Aways 3 or 4 peaple in office, including at least one manager, from 8 to 5 Mon. - Fri. Emails are answered daily. He sent pictures of a lang jujube fruit that beared the first year of planting, which was one of two ordered. He says its not like the lang he has in China, not as sweet as he remembered. Although eating while still green. Sorry he's frustrated but doesn't justify a negative review. This is a prime example of DG's negative reviews, although few relative to the 25,000 plus customers per year we serve. Do the statistics before making final judgement. However, we did do all we could to assist this gentlemans issue. We are a small family operation that appreciates and strives to please all our customers....despite the many false posts on DG. Notice 90+% have only a single review. Humm?"

Sorry I did not look at this site first! The Willis website looks pretty good, but THEY are "con jobs."

They sent the tree "cuttings" near the end of winter, because , for some reason, they had to...? I don't know why,
so the "cuttings" sat in the garage for another month until it was time to plant them where I live.
Every one of the trees died. I bought some local bareroot trees they lived, so it was NOT my lack of skills.

Willis sent CUTTINGS of twigs (cut off the shoots), most likely from viable fruit trees, you know ,they trimmed or pruned the branches off and SENT those "as trees."

I bought local fruit trees AFTER WILLIS sent the garbage it did. I pruned the trees once I got them into the ground. I was amazed that their LENGTH was the same as the "trees" WILLIS sent me for the "deal price" I thought I was getting.
I got RIPPED and it appears, so did many others. There are a bunch of these "rip-off" tree companies from the South.

Why do they DO BUSINESS like that? They were "real nice" alright, when they took my order.

"How may I HEP you PLEASE? (literally). Well, Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. That "downhome yokum," does NOT makeup for shady business practices. They "sound" good, they "look" good, BUT do they "DO" good? You decide.

I too will be send back the twigs I received, but it appears, having read the comments of other people, there will be little chance WILLIS will do ANYTHING about it.

And the BBB? What can they do? Nothing.

DO NOT USE WILLIS, disregard what "cousin Billy Bob,"or "Aunt Peg," have told you, "oh THEY are sooo great...would do business again," THOSE are more con jobs.

THIS MANY people complaining is not a lie. And a "D" rating with BBB?

ordered 4 trees, all came poorly packaged with hardly any roots. all 4 died, contacted company. were less than friendly. told me there was no guarantee, said they would send a one time, one tree replacement. doesn't do much good when they all die. out 80.00 dollars. trees extremely tiny compared to trees of the same variety from other nurseries for about the same price. buyer beware!!!!

The paw paw trees I ordered this spring from Willis Orchards arrived without any roots and were dead on arrival. Besides eating my money doing business with Willis orchards set me back a year in my ambitions for this garden project and disappointed me emotionally. I'm not going bother to return the deceased trees because I don't want to deal with this company ever again, as I would just expect to be disappointed again after having this previous experience.

The Kwanzan Flowering cherry that come from Willis Orchards in may come 3ft. shorter than what I paid for and they said they had prepruned the tree before shipping it. I could send it back if not satisfied but thought the plant would die shipping it back during the heat of June so I kept it as they suggested. The tree had a few leaves on it at first when it came but the cherry tree did not bloom after planting and now is totally dead in august. There is no green on it and no leaves and I did not see an invoice on the box when it came. Willis wont refuse my dead cherry tree or send a replacement and Im out over 100 BUCKS and very unhappy that they dont keep copies of there sales invoices.

I ordered two each of apple, cherry, pear, and peach trees for my fruit tree orchard from Willis Orchard. No sign of life or growth in Spring or Summer of 2011 on all fruit trees planted and shipped during fall of 2010. Willis Orchard sends replacements in fall but I fear they will die if they strip all the leaves off in November like they did last time. Inferior weak replacements are forcefully my choice even tho I wanted a refund that they wont do, so I am their victim for the last time.

I ordered a HoneyCrisp apple tree over a year ago and they shipped it in a timely manner last fall. I paid for one of the larger trees, which came to about $80. I was pleased with the size and quality of the tree when I opened the box and planted it, the same day it arrived. This spring most of the larger/longer branches leafed out and I was pretty happy with the tree and the company. Then, the leaves on the longer/larger branches started to dry up and die and those same branches died back. I now have a small shrub looking tree that is about 30 inches tall. I contacted the company and eventually sent pictures of the tree. The response was that the branches must have "not made it through the winter" and that I should trim them back so one of the others would become the leader. I paid a LOT of money for a tree that may or may not make it and the "year guarantee" will be up in October. So, to make a long story short, DO NOT BUY FROM THIS COMPANY! The guarantee is worthless and you will NOT get your money back or even a replacement. The latest response -- "We do have a one year guarantee for plants that die but we surely can't be responsible for pure acts of nature. Were we in any way negligent I would understand your position." What do they guarantee? If I had purchased this tree at a local nursery (if it had been in stock I would have), the guarantee would have been good for two years and they do cover winter death. I have been gardening since I was old enough to walk with my Grandma and Mom and was raised on a farm I know a thing or two about gardening and I am VERY disappointed with this company. I learned a lesson the hard way -

My jujube tree from Willis Orchards Co was a mess. They really arrived too late in the season for planting due to their delay in shipping even though I called every week and got multiple excuses each time hearing something different.

The roots were healthy looking so I assume they were alive. The main trunks were dead looking even though Willis claimed they were dormant. The Jujube plants were planted in full sun even though temperatures reached 100 degrees. Now the green sprouts coming up from he base are dead also. There is no sign that the Jujubes have any life, well I don’t have much hope. I’m taking Willis Orchard off my fruit tree ordering list for this dismal disappointing order. I was raised in Georgia near Thomasville, before leaving the state, so I was glad to put some money back in my home state. Especially disappointing was the careless treatment I got on the phone each time I called getting conflicting miss-information and rude voices sometimes!

I bought two pecan trees and 6 blueberry bushes from Willis Orchards. When the box arrived in early June, I noticed right away that the box was very small, around 3 feet, and I had ordered blueberries 3-4' and pecan trees that were supposed to be 4-5'. I did open the box and all of the plants were inside, but no where near the size I had purchased. I called Willis and was told they pruned my plants free of charge and that about 1/3 was removed from the tops. These tops couldn't have had more than an inch pruned from them as skinny as they are! I think this pruning thing is a rouse to send smaller trees so Willis Orchards can make more money!

Willis Orchards sent me an instant orchard size order for 2 pear trees in 2009. Both were received planted and both trees formed pears this year. They were ordered as Asian pears, Chojuro and Hosui Asian pears. As it turned our they were definitely not Asian Pears at all, which have a round shape and not pear shaped. I have grown Asian pears before and their flavor is much superior to other pear types and the flesh is softer. When I called Willis I was told that they could only offer a free replacement next season but next season is 2012, and I will have to wait till 2014 to see if their replacement pear trees are wrong varieties like the first order. That means overall that II have to wait 5 years to see if Willis is still unreliable after 5 years. Willis says it offers no refunds so I am out a lot of money and remain a very unhappy customer. I believe the law or a judge should punish such unethical nurseries!

I placed a fruit tree and berry plant order with Willis Orchard Co last spring not realizing the BBB had a D rating for them and a file full of complaints against them and more than 50% negative complaints on Dave's Garden. The plants and trees ordered looked weak on arrival and the apple trees leafed out but wilted shortly after and don't look like there is any life left in them. Check the BBB and Dave's Garden before ordering fruit trees and don't buy anything from Willis Orchard Co.

This company is a jerk. I returned a dead tree root for replacement according to their policy. I called them two weeks after I mailed it out and I was told they did receive the dead tree root and would send out the replacement soon. However, I haven't got anything two months later. I called them again and again, and I was told they didn't got the dead tree root which I returned. I was asked to show them the receipt from post office, this is really ridiculous because I just put the envelope in the mailbox and no way to get the receipt from the postman when he picked up the mails.
Be careful with this company, I will not buy anything from it.

My blueberry order from Willis Orchards is ALL dead. I was hesitant ordering blueberries this late in the year but wanted to complete my berry patch. The order arrived with leaves wilted and planted right away and watered well but the plants remained wilted and after a couple of days the leaves turned brown and fell off. The stems of the blueberries turned black shortly after and are completely dead. I have now lost a whole year of hoping to eat blueberries from those plants and think that a refund is in order since Willis Orchard sent me plants that had leafed out prematurely but they don't offer refunds in their policy, only replacements. It is too hot to get replacements in June and they sent my original order too late in the year anyway. I am disappointed in Willis Orchard Co and do not trust them anymore and will contact the BBB to help me.

I am disgusted and made sick to my stomach that I called this company and ask for hardy highbush blueberry plants and I was sent twig/sticks that have since withered and DIED because they were NOT the highbush I had requested but mislabel rabbit-eye(?) blueberries. My plants are all today dead and Willis Orchards is guilty of sending me blueberry plants for the south, not new york. They offer replacements, but rabbit-eye blueberry plants don't live in new England climate so, I will refuse them! I want a refund.

All four of my palm trees have died and Willis refuses to refund my money!

I moved into my home almost three years ago, on a nice size piece of property. I couldn't wait to begin an orchard. I was a complete amateur, and unfortunately the first website I found was Willis. I ordered dozens of fruit and nut trees, as well as grapes and berries. As of today, only four trees remain. They have replaced some dead trees, (shipped back at my expense), and those were either dead or died quickly. Two replaced apricot trees from last year arrived with canker, (as I've now learned to identify), and today I threw in the towel trying to save them and tossed them in the fire. I've given all my trees good soil, plenty of sun, water, and regular spraying, but the products from Willis always seem to be weak, abused, or diseased.

I also suspect they don't give you the actual variety ordered. My "sugar pear" from two years ago (replaced) gave me a large, hard, deformed fruit which looked nothing like what a sugar pear looks like. My hosui asian pear hasn't yet flowered, but it looks IDENTICAL in every way to the "sugar pear" tree, my asian pear from Stark looks very different from my european pears, hmmmm...

Sorry Willis, but my overall experience with this company has been largely negative, with lots of wasted money, but even worse, lots of wasted time.

Posted on May 10, 2011, updated May 25, 2011
This is the worst company I have ever dealt with!! I ordered 10 raspberry plants from them and all 10 of them were dead!! They refused to give me a refund so I am out $85.00!

DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY!! THEY HAVE THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE AND LOW QUALITY PRODUCTS!! BUY FROM SOMEONE ELSE!!

bought two apple trees last season, both never did anything. Wanted my money back as I was so disgusted, I lost a year's growing season. Would not refund money so I had to pay for shipping the roots back and now, if the replacements don't take, I am out another growing season

Last Spring I ordered over $100.00 worth of banana trees from Willis Orchard. The golden African banana tree arrived soft and mushy and never formed a new leaf and was later dead. The so called pineapple banana tree, the lady finger banana tree and the ice cream banana lived but all three appeared to be the same kind of tree, looking identical in color, leaf and height. My next door friend is a collector of banana tree varieties and a member of a American banana society, and he tells me that the Willis Orchards alleged marketed names of bananas on the Willis website are all generic terms, meaning in descriptive terms- that the ice cream bananas are used to make ice cream, the pineapple variety tastes a little like pineapple to some people, and the lady finger fruit is shaped like a ladies finger. My friend says Willis Orchards is trying to sell customers these different banana trees but is pretending to actually have three distinctly different kinds of bananas. In my opinion the act of continuing to do that is fraud and I think that someone ought to investigate their misleading practice. Its plain dishonest!

Posted on December 7, 2010, updated May 11, 2011
Posted on April 22, 2010, updated December 7, 2010
Posted on April 10, 2010, updated April 22, 2010
After renting for the better part of a decade, in the summer of 2009 I finally had land to call my own and I was determined to put in a small orchard. Around September or October I put in an order to Adams County Nursery for 13 apple trees, 3 cherry trees, 3 pear trees, 3 peach trees, 3 nectarine trees, and a plum tree. In general I went for trees in the $13 range. Mid-November, all the trees showed up leafless and in good condition for being bare root. The trees were planted the day they arrived, and all winter I hoped for the best. It was also readily apparent that whoever prunes the trees at Adams know a thing or two about how to properly train a tree for fruit production.

Since Adams County Nursery was doesn't carry grape vines and they were out of apricots until the spring of 2011, around Christmas time I put in an order with Willis Orchard for 10 grape vines and 4 apricot trees with a March delivery date. Since I was running out of land, the apricots were ordered as preemptive replacements for when and if the other fruit trees die, I ordered the smallest varieties available for the grapevines and apricots. The apricots were in the $8 range, and the grape vines were in the $6 range so I expecting something only a little bigger than a bare root twig. Willis Orchard sends the FexEx tracking numbers, so the trees and vines arrived the day they were expected. The trees seemed to be trained better than the trees you'll find at Home Depot or Lowes, but they're not in the same league as Adams.

Adams also seemed to do a bit better job of packing the trees, but it appears that both nurseries did a sufficient job of packing the trees since almost all of the trees and vines have produced leaves. From Adams, it looks like the plum tree may have died back to the rootstock, and from Willis one of the apricot trees has yet to produce leaves. Either way, over 90% of the trees and vines ordered from the both nurseries have produced leaves and that's far more than I was expecting...so my patio is now overrun with apricot trees in very large pots.

Overall, I was happy with both nurseries and would order from both of them again. The trees from Adams seemed to be of somewhat better value than the items from Willis, but Adams is geared to be more of a wholesale operation, and they charge and arm and a leg if you order less than 25 trees, and they don't carry grapevines.

My recommendation is that if you're not interested in grapevines and you can put together an order of more than 25 trees (find a couple friends who want apple trees), then you're better of ordering from Adams County Nursery, however if you only want a few trees and a grapevine or two, then Willis Orchards is the way to go.

"On Nov 8, 2011 3:01 AM, Willis Orchard Company responded with:

We are are one of few eastern U.S. Nursery companies granted certificafion to ship certain plants to California. More inspection is required and disease/pest free grounds are manditory but given our general practices, it's not a problem for us. Despite the ridicule we receive on this particular site, other notable sites such as "Google Checkout" and Customer Lobby reviews seem quite contradictory. Google customers give us 4.3 of 5 stars and CL is around 85% in satified customers. The dissatisfaction always comes when a tree dies, not based on the quality when received. Yet that's nature, growing practices or circumstances beyond our control. But at least these are actual customers that we can varify.....not anonymous posts by competitors or the 0.001% that could never be satisfied or have unreasonable expectations. Or posts about things that aren't even relevant to ones purchase. These thing should make intelligent readers question the validity of such a site as Dave's 'Dog Somebody' Garden. Take away the anonymity and our reviews would be in line with the other review sites I mention, which require such disclosure. "

dont waste youre money with this company I ordered 5 tulip poplars and all 5 are dead. Terrible customer service and no refunds!!! order somewhere else!!!!!

My order in March arrived at my neighbors house on block away, not mine! After opening the box the order looked o.k. except my 3 fig trees were missing. My several phone calls to Willis Orchards did not solve my problem or get my 3 fig trees. No refund was received and no second box arrived and every time I called no one seemed to care about completing my order and the woman acted like this was the first time she had heard about my incomplete shipment but a promise was made each time that resulted in nothing being done. This company should be investigated.

I am so deeply disappointed. I ordered 5 different fruit trees from Willis Orchards after carefully researching the types and how well they produce for my planting area. I planted them and by summer's end, 4 of the 5 were dead. (the 5th wasnt doing so good but it passed the scratch test so I kept it). They took longer than anticipated to send the replacements and I didnt receive them until late november. I had to plant them in the rain as soon as I got them, and the next day it began snowing and didnt stop until march. as of april 27, all of my regular trees plus one fruit tree I bought elsewhere all have green on them. all my willis orchard trees are now again either dead or they claim are in a shock dormancy stage. they said since these are replacements they will not replace them again. 300$ down the tubes. take my advice. go to your local nursery, talk to them about the trees you want and pay the extra few bucks. you bring home a live tree that stays alive. I'm so discouraged :(

Problems with the web order processing system. Slow yet expensive shipping. Dead plants upon arrival ... up to 40% losses, and that which survived struggled to recover. No way will I order again from these guys ... they make Gurneys look good.

In 2009 I placed a large order for fruit trees with Willis Orchard Co that arrived after one week, well packaged and boxed and excitedly I planted the trees in my fruit orchard, hoping for the best since I had never before ordered from a mail-order company but was confident that since the order was placed through Google checkout that the quality of the plants would be satisfactory but it did not turn out that way in the end. Some of the plants lived but the three kinds of brown and black fig trees all turned out to be the yellow Celeste fig trees that could be bought at any flea market. The exaggerated claims of delicious bananas to eat from growing your own banana trees were laughable and unjustified since the banana trees have done nothing but sit there taking up a weedy space in my garden. From now on I will buy my plants from Lowes or Home Depot where the trees can be seen and the varieties advertised can be trusted to be the right variety not just a grab bag of disreputable mongrel trees that should have never been sold.

Nurseries that Mail out fruit trees and grape vines that have no soil that have leaved out with new foliage in the shipping box seems like a bad idea to me, but that's exactly what I got from Willis Orchard. Willis did not inform me on the telephone that they were mailing out plants that were too late to plant in my area which they should have known. I thought since we had such a cold winter in New York that Willis Orchard would not send me grape vines, blueberry bushes and cherry trees that had crisp, shriveled-brown leaves on them when I opened the box. Cherry trees and apple trees dont leave- out in New York till April or May and I expected that certainly Willis Orchard would send me dormant fruit trees and seedless grapevines without sprouted runners pitifully dried out in the package. I plan to ship back all these trees for a full refund because waiting a year to nurse such horrible stock frankly means Willis Orchard is not on my agenda to consider for future ordering.

By phone, I ordered two multitrunk 7' (their most expensive) fig trees. A week later, I received two single trunk 7' feet and one single trunk 5'(much less expensive)fig trees. I drastically overpaid for what I received as their substitution. I planted them and they have leafed out, so at least they are alive. Won't order from them again.

I ordered banana plants from Willis and paid with my debit card back in August. The very next day the money was withdrawn. The following day after my money was taken, a representative from Willis called my home to ask for my credit card info. Huh? When I told him the payment had already been taken from my bank, he stated that Willis' system was down. So, I faxed the bank statement to them and had my bank also send them proof of the withdrawn funds.

For the next week or so I received rude and threatening calls from Willis orchard about payment (yes, they will harrass you like a telephone marketer) until finally I called my bank and reported Willis orchard for fraud. I canceled the order and for the next few months Willis orchard harrassed me with collection calls.

Thanks WACHOVIA bank for good customer service!
After my bank delt with them and I wrote a letter to BBB and I canceled my order AGAIN in writing Dec 13 via fax, Willis called me and asked if I wanted my order??!!!!! Then they expressed the plants ANYWAY Dec 18, after and despite my request to cancel the order.


I refused to accept the package AND WILLIS ORCHARD CHARGED ME FOR IT!!!!!
These people are swindlers and pirates and are on my bank's black ball list. Consumer beware.