Comments regarding Willis Orchard Company

I purchased 10 apple trees and 2 peach trees from Willis, and they all arrived at the end of March. They were all planted the day I got them. They were all listed as 1" caliper, and the peach trees were all listed as "instant orchard." All the trees have started leafing out, so I doubt I will lose any of them. However, not a single tree is actually a 1" caliper. All of them came in between 3/4"-7/8". Also, not a chance that the two peaches are instant orchard. Neither one has a single bloom, and there is simply no such thing as an instant orchard tree that is 3/4" caliper. So while the Willis trees should produce some fruit eventually, I am about a year behind where I thought I would be production wise.

Very pricey little tree. One hundred dollars for a five foot crabapple. Really go somewhere else.

Neutral because 1 of the 4 trees arrived clearly dead and with very little root system to it (the pomegranet). Planted it anyway just in case. Never did come out of dormancy or develop at all. I figured that was ok-ish since the other three came out of dormancy and did well the first season, so didn't persue refund. However, a little over a year later only one of them overwintered. Neither the apple nor peach came out of dormancy this year. So now I am down to 1 of 4 trees alive 15 months after ordering. Both peaches and apples do quite well here, and I've raised both for decades. So I'm quite disappointed, and now out of warranty.

Posted on November 25, 2014, updated November 25, 2014
I attempted to place an order this morning. The woman answering the phone was so hateful that I chose not to. I have sent a personal email to Jason Willis. Will revise if I hear from him. I do not want to deal with this woman if my trees should die!

I ordered Elberta Peach, Blenheim Apriocot, Shinko Asian Pear, Shinseki Asian Pear and Meader Kiwi from Willis Orchard. I ordered all 6' trees and received varying sizes and paid approx $140 for the lot. They were dormant, packed well scheduled for March 24th ship and received 1st week April 2014 when here in MA we were subzero worst winter conditions. Couldn't find the Meader Kiwi - it was under the peach tree and was DOA, I called for replacement (May) and was told it would ship dormant Nov-Apr. Also I specifically asked for trees that were not pruned as I wanted to use for espalier. After several emails I was assured I would get trees with branching low on the trees. NONE of the trees had been pruned 40"+ inches up the trunk - so much for the assurance. I successfully nicked the trunks and was able to encourage low branching. I agree Carrie Linden, the woman handling the phone is rude and totally not helpful. During the summer the Elberta peach never did much beyond 2-3 buds that tried to leaf but NOTHING. Dead. So out of six fruit trees - two were DOA. I tried to put in a claim for the kiwi right away, sent multiple emails, couple of phone calls and even asked for a replacement - grape and was told they would ship in fall. The two pears and apricot are growing fine and are healthy and vigorous. I think they have descent stock at good prices - I have friends who have ordered from them and are happy. The problem is who ever is harvesting the trees in not checking to make sure they are vital. So it can be a crap shoot whether you get live trees if not checked. Overall I think Willis Orchards is a viable source for trees and ordered two more trees this month - both EZ pick. I'll ship back the Meader kiwi and Elberta peach roots and ask for a couple replacements. I'll update my post with that outcome.

Posted on February 1, 2014, updated May 21, 2014
Posted on January 28, 2014, updated February 1, 2014
I purchased some 1-2' bareroot crab apple and persimmon seedlings to start in the greenhouse over winter. The customer service was pretty good in that my order was acknowledged right away and I even requested they ship it earlier than I had originally requested. When I received the order I was surprised that the stock had bascially no root structure at all. I have ordered thousands of bareroot trees in the past and these were more bare than root. I treated them with rooting hormone and planted them like you would a hardwood cutting, time will tell if they produce any buds.

In their defense I did not call and ask for replacements so I cannot say if they would have replaced them or not. The order for me just wasn't large enough to bother with return/replacement calls and efforts. I generally like to place small orders from new companies to test their stock before placing large ones, this was probably a one time purchase company for me. My experience was what appears to be decent customer service but I was not impressed with the stock received.

I placed an order with Willis Orchards at the beginning of March. I was fairly happy with their selection of wine grapes as they had been difficult to find at the time. We ordered a lot of plants from them: 2 wine grape varietals, a hazelnut tree, walnut tree, dwarf peach, 3 raspberries, 1 golden raspberry, 1 kiwi vine, 1 blackberry. Everything seemed to go fairly well, although it did take awhile for our order to get shipped. We assumed it was to better time planting in our zone as other nurseries do the same thing, just with a little more notification. I sent them an email on April 1st inquiring about my order and when we might expect it to ship, but I never got a response. That was a little disconcerting, and that's when I found all of the awful reviews here...

Either way, our plants shipped the following week and arrived as expected. We weren't able to unpack all of them to check our order for a few days. When we did, all of the roots were bundled up together in the same sort of gel aquatic plants are stored and grown in. They were taped up, so it was a little difficult to unpack them. But, everything seemed to be alive and in good shape. Nice root systems on everything except the hazelnut and walnut trees. We expected a little more there, but for the price they were acceptable. They did forget to send us our pinot grigio grape vine. My fiancee called them up and even though we were outside their window for making corrections to the order, they sent us our grape vine free of charge. It's set to arrive this Friday.

I'm leaving the review as neutral due to the lack of online custom service. If you're going to do online sales, you should be a little more responsive to customer emails. But they were pleasant on the phone and the plants are in good shape. We may order from them in the future if they have something we can't find elsewhere.

Posted on February 5, 2014, updated February 6, 2014
I ordered 3 yr old plants and got twigs. They didn't make it and I was promised replacements in the Fall. They didn't come and when I inquired they said I'd have to dig them up and send them back or take pictures and pay shipping. Even though I'm out $50 it wasn't worth it to deal with them any more.

Plants came with washed rootballs, all bundled together with sodium poyacrylate gel and a bit of rotted pine bark potting soil wrapped in black plastic. Not much to look at, but that's how they keep down shipping, I'm sure, and the plants seem to be in decent shape after being potted up. Overall, if you can find the specific variety you are looking for at a local place, you are probably better off going there, but if you are looking for less common varieties and willing to nurture small plants along, Willis has alright prices for small plants and a pretty wide selection of edible plants and some ornamental trees. Be careful on trusting their range maps - they are just the USDA zone maps, and don't really take local conditions into account (i.e. their Zone 8/9 cherries might do fine in California, but probably wouldn't produce in the humid Southeast).

Posted on April 15, 2013, updated April 17, 2013
Unfortunately I'm worried. I do not know if they are a broker... I didn't think so by the catalog on line. 3/31/13 ordered $666.20. 6 large plants. Invoice on Net/do not reply, e-mail orders. OK Money snatched out of account. 2 E-Mails latter have not heard back from them. If you have a mail order business you should have good customer contact. Beware I think they are a broker ! Will put note to shipper to require signature. Not Happy !!!

l ordered two 6-7' heavy branched fruiting sized apple trees. they arrived in a somewhat untimely manner...

These trees are no where near ready to produce fruit...

The pruning on some of the branches was terrible... the lower part of my Arkansas black apple tree only had branches on the left side... All of the branches on the right were pruned off making its shape look hella foolish.

The tops were pruned abruptly nowhere close to the nodes and almost all of the root system was missing... the granny smith looks ehhh.... and alot of the branches were broken in delivery.

i bought a tree for the same price at home depot this year that is already budding with flowers... i would buy from willis again but only for rare variety's the local garden center wont have...

Also for the record l bought a baby cherry tree from gurneys.com 2-4 ft with a way larger root system the 7ft fruiting size tree's from Willis orchards...

l would only advise buying smaller tree's

Posted on October 11, 2011, updated October 20, 2011
Posted on October 9, 2011, updated October 11, 2011
Posted on October 3, 2011, updated October 9, 2011
I ordered 2 types of guava trees from Willis Orchards about a year ago. This year when I got my first fruit off the tree I realized that they sent me an indian yellow guava instead of the indian red guava that I ordered. I first notified them last week. They requested some pictures then promptly notified me that the correct item was in the mail. Sara made this the quickest and easiest customer care transaction that I have had with any company. It was unfortunate that I got the wrong plant but in the end I am extremely happy that the yellow guavas are delicious, willis orchards made right by their mistake and I also get the red guava that I should have gotten. By the way. Their indian guava plant is my favorite of all the plants in my tropical garden. The plant is attractive, low maintenance and the fruit is the best guava I have ever tasted.

I have probably ordered 20 items from them over the past few years. Mostly OK, sometimes surprisingly good roots, some duds - last year put in three cherries and all died. Some Chinese Chestnuts have done great, Customer service mediocre at best. My other main source is Raintree, but wanted to order more locally. Raintree is more reliable. Willis is neither so bad that I avoid it nor so good that I choose them with confidence.

I planned to buy several fruit trees from this company as they had the best selection of large trees in the variety I wanted. Luckily their website was horrible and didn't work properly so I decided to wait a while. In the meantime I checked out davesgarden.com and found all the negative comments regarding Willis Orchard Company. Wow! Am I glad I didn't complete my order! Thanks to all who sent in their comments, you saved me from a costly mistake. I ordered from Stark instead.

A previous commenter suggested that negative comments about a company are much less significant than praise, because "people who are angry always complain, but people who are satisfied rarely say so."

Here are some stats from the Garden Watchdog main page:

"Since 1994, 3,918 companies have been reviewed in the Garden Watchdog, and 60,684 comments have been posted (42,251 positive, 7,453 neutral, 10,980 negative) by 31,477 customers."

The ratio of positive to negative comments about mail-order firms on this site is close to 4 to 1. So most of those posting on GW are satisfied customers who want to support companies that treated them well (the great majority of my own reviews have been positive as well)..

I have never been able to figure out why someone would read a large volume of complaints about a firm on GW and jump to the conclusion that it's the customers who are at fault for doing something wrong.

In January of 2010, I purchased two Garden Prince Dwarf Almond Trees. They arrived in excellent condition (dormant) ready for planting. The packing was done fairly well; however, one branch was broken at the top where Fed Ex dented the box during shipment. The root systems looked healthy and the trees were "green" under the top layer of bark. I planted the trees two days after arrival and watered them two times per week while still in the dormant state. For some unknown reason, both trees failed to develop root growth and died. I noticed that the roots of both trees were "balled up" in a circular state, as if the trees were "container grown" and not "field raised."

Last week, at my own expense, I sent both dead almond trees back to Willis Orchard for "replacement credit." I decided that I wanted to try to grow "larger and stouter" specimens of the Garden Prince Almond Tree cultivar. I asked for an "upgrade" from my original 4 foot 3/4" caliper Dwarf Garden Prince Almond tree to the semi-dwarf Garden Prince Almond version (7 foot & 1.25" cal.). Willis Orchards gave me some grief about an upgrade in size but eventually relented - as long as I agreed to pay the price difference plus cover ALL SHIPPING COSTS myself. I was not happy that they would not give me any credit for the freight charges I already paid for the first shipment to arrive. In order to get the "upgrade," I had to agree to forfeit the freight charges already paid. To me, it seems fair that I should pay for the added cost of the larger size trees and the added cost (not the full cost) of the freight charges. NOT SO, in the minds of the customer service department. I was told that it is WO's policy is to never give credit for shipping charges if the customer selects an "upgade" in size in lieu of a replacement. It was explained to me that the shipping charges posted on the website for the larger size trees are prices that do not really cover all of the freight charged by Fed Ex. If this is true, it means that in the case of their larger size trees, the cost of the tree is "subsidizing" the freight charges.

Even though I was not happy about the "extra" added freight charges, I placed my replacement order for the bigger trees. Time will tell if I made the right decision. If these trees die, I get nothing of value for the $192.41 that I spent.

I will add that one of the people that I talked to over the phone named Cynthia had a real attitude problem. She was "defensive" and had a short fuse. When I tried to tell her why I felt that the extra freight charges were not fair, she would have nothing further to do with me. She started acting like the "SOUP NAZI" from an old "Seinfeld" episode. I had to deal with Shannon to get the order placed.

Posted on August 8, 2010, updated October 25, 2010
I was sure I checked Daves Garden before ordering but I guess I must not have. In February , I decided to order some fig trees for my new High tunnel . I found Willis Orchard in a search and ordered three fig trees. An Italian Everbearing, a Brown Turkey and a Desert King and also a Russian Quince. The trees arrived very nice but severely pruned. The Quince was just a very long stick with not much root on it. I planted all four. The figs are doing very well and now in August there may be 6-8 leaves on the quince stick. My problem is my Desert King fig tree isn't. It has 28 dark blue figs on it. Desert King figs are supposed to be yellow. The brown turkey fig also has figs on it but none are ripe yet so I am not sure if it is correct to type. There are no figs on the third tree. I am sure Willis had a way to contact them on line back in February but that link is now gone. I will try to call them again tomorrow because no one is answering the phone today. I will not be mailing back my "Desert King" fig but I really would like to know what kind it is.
Linda

First of all - Every single plant I purchased arrived so ++

out of the 6 I purchased only 2 where as advertised..size wise.

oNLy those 2 live today..rest failed to live...which is pathetic on their part

And for you that say can't please all the people all the time...Give me a break

They don't please 80% of the people all the time LOL

So don't try to shovel crap--If you don't know who gets it

I would avoid because the company is for sale...

//www.buybusiness.com/Businesses/13803/Multi-Million-Dollar-Mail-Order-Nursery-for-Sale-Top-Nationally-Recognized-Company

"On Jun 23, 2010 2:22 PM, Willis Orchard Company responded with:

Oh how much Ty Ty owner wishes. But too bad. We get too much pleasure from supplying our thousands of repeat and new customers to sale. Of course, if they want to give an exorbitant amount of money we may think on it. LOL

Note that Georgebb has never used this forum except to make this villainous post. Wonder who it could be?? lol, again. "

I order yellow raspberries 2 years ago. the first plants I received were the size of a tiny dowel with no roots at all. I planted in fall and all died through the winter. when I called to report I was told to return plants. Received next shipment and they were returns from somewhere else. they were much larger and had already leafed out. of course, none made it. I am now told too bad, only one time replacement. I have a difficult time taking all the responsibility, since I own 2 acres that have prolific red raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, etc. I did request a refund at one time but was told replacements only. I will order elsewhere!

I took a look at there website.
I wasn't real amused I think if you want to sell something you should offer as much information as possible about what you are offering. There is no mention of suggested growing zones and I just don't think I should have to go else where to find that information. You know like growth habit, size, ect... I gave up within a minute or 2 at there website.

"On Dec 24, 2009 11:44 PM, Willis Orchard Company responded with:

Actually, every single item page has its own customized map of the U.S. that shows the growing zones for that particular tree/plant. The growing zones are clearly highlighted and numbered on every tree's page. Hard to miss. But we welcome any helpful suggestions you may offer by calling or writting. Best wishes to you."

I ordered 22 fruit trees this spring and received shipment in late March. Most of the trees were larger than expected as I'd ordered the smallest sizes. So that was nice. Most of the trees also had very little in the way of roots, so that wasn't nice. I had no experience planting fruit trees though, so I went ahead, hoping they had enough root to make it.

I don't entirely blame the trees for their failure. I have a new house in a new addition and the soil where the trees went in was unimproved. We had a terrible spring here with a month of heavy, heavy rain followed by a month of average temperatures around 95. Although I watered (when it dried out from all the rain) and mulched and did what I could, 16 of the 22 trees failed. Some budded out and then shriveled and died. Most of those that failed didn't bud out at all. I believe though that they would have done much better if they'd had better root condition to start with.

When I ordered from Willis, I was aware there was no refund and only replacement, so I wasn't surprised or disappointed by the policy. In July I sent the trees back with a letter explaining what made it and what didn't. Today I called them to verify they'd received it. They were nice and said the replacements would ship in November. I hope that fall-planted trees will do better.

I don't know if I will order from Willis again. They had a range of varieties that allowed me to get nearly everything I wanted from one place, but the survival rate was very disappointing. I liked their price, but Lowes had about the same price for their container trees after they went on clearance. Admittedly, a clearance tree isn't the best - but then again neither is bare root with very little root. I suppose my continued patronage depends on the survival of the fall-planted trees. If they do well, then I simply won't buy in the spring in future and I'll buy in the fall.

I have improved the soil where the trees didn't make it, so they'll have a better chance next time.

I've placed two orders with Willis for a total of 10 trees (plums, pecans, pear, cherry, and magnolias) and 6 brambles. From these orders, 1 pecan, 1 plum and both magnolias died, and 5 out of 6 brambles died. All off those that died had insubstantial roots, except for the magnolias which were well rooted. After returning the dead plants at my own cost, I received better replacements in December (as well as two very large magnolias). When I called in Nov., the customer rep was nice and told me to expect replacement trees in Dec or Jan.

Although in my experience I certainly don't think Willis deserves the TyTy comparisons, I doubt I'll order from them again because I've gotten much better stock, with a much higher survival rate, from other companies (albiet for a higher cost and without a 1 year guarantee,). They honored their replacement policy, so I won't give them a negative. If rock bottom prices were paramount, then maybe I'd probably order from them again.

I had placed an original order for
(2) 3'-4' Desirable Pecan Trees;
(2) 3'-4' Stuart Pecan Trees;
(1) 2'-3' Desirable Pecan Tree
(2) 2'-3' Stuart Pecan Trees
all on 12-24-2008...I received the trees on 01-06-2009 and in inspecting the trees discovered that all the trees were sent correctly but (2) which were the 2'-3' Stuarts that I had received Sumners for instead, so I called Willis Orchard Company and spoke with Cynthia on 01-09-09 and she stated that the trees weren't very different and wanted to see if we would be willing to accept them instead of the Stuarts. The Stuarts were really what we wanted; I was placed on hold and she came back to tell me that if I could send a picture of the tags/trees that she would have them replaced with the correct trees. I offered to send the trees back if they they would pay for the shipping but she said that wasn't necessary. So I sent the email of the pictures as was asked. With all of that said I called to check the status of the trees today 01-26-09 and she answered and said there had been bad weather and they were behind on shipping the trees which was OK with me but she went on to comment that the pictures she received in the email looked bigger than 2'-3' trees that I had ordered, well sorry but I am not the one shipping the orders. She stated I could send the others back. I reassured her that I had offered to do that from the beginning but it wasn't necessary "remember". Anyway, this is to let everyone know that if you have to make a return/exchange/or/replacement WATCH OUT THEIR FRIENDLY GUARANTEE MAY NOT TURN OUT SO FRIENDLY! (Oh, no trees yet supposed to be on their way in the next 7-10 days)

Many of the trees I ordered failed to break their dormant phase, a few started to grow but quickly died, one survived. I found the warranty worthless. I followed all the instructions, mailing the plants and invoice to the supplied PO Box. I inquired how my case was being handled only to be told they had no record of my order. I will place my next order with Burnt Ridge Nursery, the plants I bought from them were larger and have nearly a 100% success rate.
Dan

I ordered 10 Sonderegger pine trees from them last fall. The trees came packaged quite well, and looking healthy. However, I'm simply not convinced that the trees are variety that I payed for. They are supposed to be hybrids of loblolly and longleaf pine. But look like plain loblolly, with even shorter needles. The trees also showed much winter damage, and are slowly growing now. I'm very confused on what trees I received. I guess I'll just have to wait and see if they will outlive my Slash pine, which is supposed to be less hardy! who knows!

We ordered 6 fruit trees from Willis Orchard about two weeks ago and received them in a timely manner. Their customer service is good and they did keep us up-to-date on expected shipping date, etc. The only problem we had was in the packaging. Like I said, we ordered six fruit trees, each was 2-3 feet tall and the banana palm is probably close to 4 ft. They were shipped all bunched together in one tall, skinny box. When we initially opened it, we thought it was one tree, then we noticed all the name tags hanging on each branch and realized there were six trees there. I knew they were coming without containers, but we definitely didn't expect them to all be shoved together in one piece of plastic wrap. All in all, our experience was just okay (the trees are alive...that's a plus) but I'm not sure I could recommend them to anyone.

"

As stated on our website, the trees are packaged in a bare-root state. They are bundled together in one root ball so that the water absorbent gel can be freely added. No plants are individually packaged, as it is not cost effective nor necessary."