Comments regarding Kigi Nursery

WORST Nursery I have ever dealt with. I ordered a Cedar snake tree, and they sent me a dead twig that was 4 inches high. Dead on arrival. Ordered a cedar snow sprite as well, that was expensive and was also, about 4 inches high but alive at the time. As soon as i planted it, all needles fell off. Shipping took forever, when they finally got around to placing my order. I got a cedar as store credit. The cedar literally had 2! 90 degree bends in the tree, it looked like someone threw it to the side and forgot the tree was there, and shipped it to me. That snake tree though. Anyone who would have seen this would have just laughed and be in disbelief that someone would actually ship that with a straight face.

They do not guarantee their plants. The plants I purchased did not survive. So, I recommend that you purchase plants from a company guarantees their plants.

I had ordered 2 trees from Kigi in June. A month later I received an email stating they were not in good shape and I would be refunded. It is now almost 3 months later and still have not received the refund. I’ve tried over and over again to email and call with no response. I would NOT trust this site!

I’ve tried poorly rated nurseries before and had great outcome. Not this time. Not entirely bad either, but finally had to cancel my order.

Justen Homer, the proprietor, has little interest in customer service. Emails went unanswered post-sale, although he was quick to respond pre sale. There’s zero excuse for blowing off your customers routinely.

I’ve farmed full time for decades, worked 100 hour weeks, raised a family, and I had to return my emails to be successful. Maybe this is just a hobby for him and he’s lost interest.

I would not feel comfortable - or good - about sending this guy any money. And if you need a reliable vendor, this isn’t it. This guy isn’t reliable, he’s got a bad attitude, and he gives me the impression he is not trustworthy. He’s willing to hold your money and string you along with empty commitments. When he responds.

I’ve already ordered the tree elsewhere, and won’t be going back to Kigi.

Ordered 4 plants on November 11 and recieved order confirmation email. I requested that they ship the first Monday after the order was placed since these particular plants were cold sensitive. I waited 2 weeks without a shipment email, before emailing them and simply asked when the order would ship, NO RESPONSE. I emailed a couple more times giving them time to respond, but again NO RESPONSE. I finally decided to go through paypal resolution center explained the situation, and simply asked they tell me when this order would ship. I recieved an email saying my order was refunded the day after I filed a problem with PayPal resolution center. What kind of lame POS company is this? Why still no communication? Not, were sorry we didn't have the plants you ordered, just refund. I mean were they not going to refund me unless I contacted PayPal resolution center? Were they just going to just ignore me and hope I gave up and forgot about the order? This company is a complete joke.

I placed an order in the amount of $369.50 on April 15th 2018. I expected to receive a conformation and receipt of the order. I received NEITHER. I have attempted calling, emailing, messaging via their FB page and now i have contacted Paypal with a complaint about non-receipt of the items i purchased. I would be happy to change this to a positive if the SELLER would CONTACT me and assure me the items will be delivered. If not i will escalate my Paypal complaint. I wish i would have read the reviews on the company. BUYERS BE VERY CAREFUL when dealing with this company.

I placed an item in my cart and then thought to check out Dave's Garden Watchdog, where I was shocked to find 25 negative reviews (almost a third). So when Kigi sent a reminder that I had something in my cart, I told them I wasn't comfortable buying from them with so many customer complaints on Dave's. Here's the reply I got from Justen Homer, and my response to him:

On Tue, Dec 19, 2017 at 9:19 AM, Justen Homer
wrote:
We also have thousands of happy return customers. The math works for us as we have strict policies to protect us from freeloaders.

Justen,

I'm puzzled by your reply. Are you insinuating that I'm a freeloader? Are you saying the 25 people who were unhappy with their purchases are freeloaders? Does your 1-year guarantee not apply to them? That's the poorest customer service I've ever heard of!

James Weinberg

"On Dec 19, 2017 9:23 AM, Kigi Nursery responded with:

I don't know why you would take offense to my comment when you have never ordered anything from us? All I am saying is 2-5% of people out there are not good. When people don't understand our products or kill our products from their ignorance or weather issues we do not replace their products, we don't have a 1 year plant guarantee and never will, we guarantee safe arrival of plants and work with customers if our products rapidly decline, this has always been our policy and always will be.

1 year plant guarantees were set in place by box stores and are quite ridiculous. I have seen first hand people returning annuals to these stores purchased 8 months prior, and their managers accepting them. What culture does this set for our industry. At some point a customer has to stop blaming where they purchased a product and just realize they may have killed it through ignorance, poor weather...

As a nursery we count on 15-20% losses throughout the year due to weather and such, as a customer if you order 20 plants and one dies 8 months later do you demand a refund?

I have been involved in this industry for over 25 years and most of our customers understand and accept our policies. Like I said "The math works for us", you will never please everyone!

Happy Gardening
Justen "

Posted on August 31, 2013, updated October 16, 2017
I purchased a 'Fernspray Gold' golden Hinoki cypress and am entirely pleased with the plant, the speed of shipping, and the packing. The plant is healthy and doing well. In no way was I disappointed in Kigi Nursery and I intend to make additional purchases from them in the future. Their plant selection is outstanding.

Ordered two conifers, paid 86 dollars including shipping for two plants so small they fit in palm of my hand. The box they shipped in fit in my mailbox and they charged 26 dollars for shipping!!! These were not bonsai or tiny dwarfs or liners. Now I see why Kigi will not post pictures of the actual plant that you buy (or may buy). Never again especially since having good success with other mail order nurseries.

I have placed many orders over the past few years with Kigi and have usually had a good experience. However, this has recently changed with my orders this year. I only received part of my order and had no explanation as to why. Apparently they were out of stock on the other plants I ordered but did not explain this to me until I had to take the initiative and contact them. Also, the plants I did receive were in poor shape or already dead. The ones that were alive were barely twigs. Not sure what has happened with Kigi but their prices have gone up while quality has definitely gone way down. I will not be placing any future orders with Kigi. Seek your mail order conifers elsewhere as you can get larger and better quality plants for the same or less money.

I am very disappointed with my order from Kigi Nursery. I have ordered from several nurseries and always was pleased with my order. This is the first and last time I will order anything from Kigi Nursery. I paid $25 plus handling and shipping for a Japanese Maple tree and what I received was a twig. I emailed them to let them know my disappointment but never got a response. Save your money and shop elsewhere.

Very disappointed with my order from Kigi nursery. I paid extra to get a specific tree( Weeping Alaska Cedar) for a specific place in my new garden. The advertising says the tree will grow, on average, 14 feet tall in 10 years. Maybe this tree will have some bamboo DNA, because when I received my 7 year old tree, it was only 40 inches tall. This means that, "on average", the tree will need to grow 10 feet, 6 inches in the next 3 years; not very likely.
If you are going to purchase a tree that is important to you, shop somewhere else because this was a total waste of money and now I will need to purchase another tree for that special place in my garden. BIG Thumbs Down for Kigi.

I ordered a couple of trees for a property I have in NE Ohio(z5) along with instructions to ship as early as possible. I didn't think anyone would be dumb enough to ship to that part of the country until at least April, but I was wrong. They sent the trees in early March and we've had 2 snowstorms since their arrival and almost constant rain when it hasn't snowed. The company had the nerve to tell me that this was a good time to plant, yet the ground is still pretty much frozen and way too wet on top. We had to build, in the middle of the night, a makeshift greenhouse out of scrap lumber and plastic just to try and keep the trees alive. As if this isn't bad enough, there were no labels attached to the VERY small trees nor instructions of any kind. I think this outfit is more concerned about moving their inventory than they are about satisfying their customers. Luckily, I can get everything they sell somewhere else.

It's been about 5 years since I last ordered Japanese maples from Kigi Nursery. When the 4 trees arrived today, I remembered why it had been so long. To call them trees is misleading, because they were no more than little twigs with roots. They should really be ashamed to ship these pathetic liners for $25 each, plus shipping. The Kigi product must surely be the worst value on the internet. BUYER BEWARE!

I wish I would have read Kigi Nursery's reviews on this site before ordering from them. I ordered 5 Round Dwarf Colorado Blue Spruce from this company. They were 1 year growth and were VERY small when I received them. 1 looked 1/2 dead and the others seemed to be fairly healthy. I took great care in planting them...researched where & how to plant them. Within a month all but one is dead. I contacted Kigi and was told "We guarantee safe arrival of products only. If you want a discount on a re-order we can do that?". I responded questioning this business practice and did not hear back from them. They DO NOT GUARANTEE their products. I paid $20 per tree. Why would I want to risk spending more money on trees that died within a month of planting them. I do not recommend doing business with this company.

Posted on October 16, 2014, updated July 23, 2015
Posted on May 16, 2013, updated October 16, 2014
Posted on May 16, 2013, updated May 16, 2013
Ordered a conifer and the stock automatically dropped to no longer available,so he has one of each plant.Not good odds to get a nice one,also seems to be distracted with other things rather than tending to business(the landscaping in his name is a tip off)tends to be out of town when packages need to be delivered.Refunds are not a problem however as it seems this is easier than filling an order.

"On May 16, 2013 5:59 AM, Kigi Nursery responded with:

Actually on most varieties we carry between 10-100 at any given time. We don't start doing landscape jobs until shipping slows down in June, we left town to deliver a large order of trees. Please do not order unless you are willing to wait for us to ship an order when it is best for the plants to survive the shock. When our trees are pushing new spring growth is not a good time to ship and you may have to wait a couple weeks. As stated above we would rather refund than deal with impatience."

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!"

There will never be a twice. In April 2015, I ordered a 4 year old Round Dwarf Colorado Blue Spruce for $88 w/S&H. Very disappointed in the size of this 4-yr old. I should have gotten it from any local garden center for less than half that price. Too much money for too little plant!

On the plus side, it is a very healthy plant.

Posted on December 21, 2014, updated May 22, 2015
I recently received my order of conifers and maples from Kigi nursery. Plants are healthy and were packed very well.
This is the 4th time I've ordered from Kigi and will continue to do so.

On 4-28-15 I placed an order for a 2 yr old black pine, after seeing on Dave's garden that Kigi Nursery had the plant I was looking for. Kigi website did not have a picture of the actual plant or actual size of the plant. I paid $50 (including $15 shiping). I received a tiny plant just about 8" tall . Emailed Kigi the same afternoon I received the plant (5-6-15) but never got a response.

Same problem as others have commented on here, very small plants at a high price. I do not recommend this seller. I would not buy again from Kigi Nursery.

Posted on May 6, 2015, updated May 6, 2015
Posted on May 6, 2015, updated May 6, 2015
Posted on May 6, 2015, updated May 6, 2015
Posted on May 6, 2015, updated May 6, 2015
I ordered a dwarf yew from Kigi. They had options for 1 year, 3, and 10 year. When I called Kigi, the rep (I think it was Jason) and inquired about the size of the plant for a 3 year growth, he said it would be a 1 gallon size plant. I went ahead and ordered the 3 year growth and paid $16.50 for shipping plus $45.00 for the plant and was expecting a nice big package (size of 1 gallon) to arrive at my door. When the shipment arrived, boy was I disappointed!!! A small plant that was wrapped in some dirt with a plastic wrapping around it!

When I called Kigi, the guy said that is a three year growth and we don't ship them in gallon size containers! What a rip off!!! I have ordered from other places like Monrovia and a gallon size on the website was a gallon size when it arrived!

My recommendation to you is before you buy from places like Kigi please read some of their reviews...They don't have very good positive reviews....I would recommend buying from reputed places like Monrovia, Great Garden Plants in Michigan etc.

Buyer's remorse!

"On May 6, 2015 1:54 PM, Kigi Nursery responded with:

We go out of our way to make reasonable customers happy! We obviously cannot please every customer and understand this. When a customer can't understand that a 3 year dwarf yew is not going to be "a big full plant like Monrovia sells" whatever that means... and wants us to return it so he doesn't get in trouble with the wife... Please, Please, Please understand the products you buy from us before we ship. A little research can avoid the "Buyer's remorse!" We are always happy to answer questions via e-mail or phone!

Justen"

I placed an order with Kigi Nursery in November of 2014. I was disappointed to receive such small plants, some no more than 6 inches tall, even though they were called 2 year plants. After the Acer p. Aka Hosada failed to leaf out this spring and I realized it was dead, I contacted Justen on 4-8-15 about a replacement and he replied on 4-9-15 with " I would be happy to send a free replacement with your next order." Against better reasoning, I proceeded to request another small order just to get a replacement for the maple that I lost. After several emails I have yet to get a response from the nursery. I would recommend anyone considering placing an order with this nursery look elsewhere. You can find bigger and healthier plants and spend less at a nursery that actually cares about the products they ship. ( On a side note, many other small Acer palmatums that I ordered at the same time from other mail order nurseries are growing well and look great.)

"On May 6, 2015 2:02 PM, Kigi Nursery responded with:

"You can find bigger and healthier plants and spend less at a nursery that actually cares about the products they ship."

But yet they wanted to place a second order... Some customers you just have to walk away from... As always we stand behind our products and customer service!"

They where running a promo to get 20% off in 2014 so thought I give them a try as I've been hesitate based on their high prices. I had several plants in my cart and had a question. Question answered quickly within that same day.
I then had a follow-up question but took almost a week for a response and at that point the coupon had expired by 1 day. I asked if I could still get the 20% off since I had been waiting for a response and only 1 day past since the coupon expired and they said no. Pretty lame if you ask me especially when I emailed a list of all the plants I was going to buy. My wife had an open order with them and cancelled it after I told her about my experience. She agreed that it was pretty crappy what they did.

I ordered an Acer japonica Acontifolium--a size 2 on Dec. 11, 2014. I usually order maples from Greer Gardens in Eugene (they are my go-to fav) but they were out, and the plant lust was relentless, so I went for it with this new to me mail order source.

Very disappointing results...the tree came in a timely enough fashion, but when it arrived I could see there might be some trouble down the road with this plant. Many (at least half) of the buds were knocked off, and while the size was not bad, when bud break started here 2 weeks ago, sure enough, 2 of the 4 branches have died back and the tree is half dead. The graft is sturdy, so I will eventually get something, but the form is messed up (leader dead) and I feel I paid way too much for what I got.

Will never order from them again.

What an absolute Cluster F&*# of a company. Without going into extensive detail. VERY poor packing, got the crap beat out of the plants. Tried to work it out with Kigi. Awful communication, tried to ignore the problem. Finally got an agreement, in return was sent the most awful Cedrus that I have ever seen. Had no needles, no leader, a contorted bare stick. Worst plant I have ever had shipped to me. This after paying extra for a larger plant (and it wasn't larger) to try to be fair. I tried to save the poor thing, but no luck. Otherwise Kigi tried to pass off another species as an additonal plant I had ordered to help the spread shipping costs. What was sent wasn't even the correct species, let alone the correct cultivar. After which multiple attempts at contact with Kigi were fruitless. Completely ignored.

Oh, and then there is the supposed "refunds" that my bank didn't have a record of having happened.

If you still order from them... well you deserve what you get.

I ordered six trees last month from Kigi. They looked to be in good shape. I planted them all promptly and gave them proper care. One died two weeks later, though. I emailed Kigi a week or so ago and asked for a replacement. I haven't gotten a reply. I then called Kigi a couple days ago to reiterate my concern, and left a message indicating that I would appreciate some kind of response. I still haven't heard back from them.

To me, this is poor customer service. I am not certain what their policy is about replacing dead trees, but either way, I expect a prompt response to my legitimate inquiry. It's the least they can do after I spent over $100 on an order from them. I won't be doing business with them again.

Ordered two 7 year growth silberperle miniature dwarf evergreens. Purchased 2 last year at a local nursery. They were 15-18". The two from Kigi Nursery barely reach 6-8". These are not 7 year growth plants. Made them aware of my concern. Just an email telling me that's just how it goes.

Buyer beware.

Amongst several trees, I ordered an Acer palmatum dissectum ' Tamukeyama 2 years of growth for $30 and an Acer palmatum ' Sango kaku 3 Years of growth for $45. Received two sad looking trees with wilted leaves, the first 1ft tall, the second about 3ft. This is my first time ordering online so I went to a local nursery to compare prices, and found that equivalent priced trees were about 2x the size and 3x foliage of what I bought from KIGI. Kigi should be clearer about the actual size and growth of the trees it sells. I am very disappointed, and unfortunately, I don't think the maples will survive if I return them, so I feel a moral obligation to keep them, but I wasted my money.
Don't think I'll shop online again,

I agree with most of the negative comments and add my own. I purchased numerous plants and approximately 30% died. I would expect maybe 5% mortality. The last order took over one month to arrive (and in poor shape). The size of the plants is mostly pathetic compared with other on line companies. The talk about producing "real" (I think they put it) grafts is nonsense. The size and quality ought to be twice (at least) as good as they are. I am an expert in the field (for over 40 years) landscaping, growing my own plants and propagating, etc. and am very sorry but they have lost a customer.

Be very aware! I wish I would have read some of these reviews before ordering from Kigi Nursery in Kelso, Washington. On May 31 I ordered 10, 2-3 year grafted maples from Kigi. I used a credit card and they charged my card the next day or so. On June 16, I received 5 little trees and on June 18, I recieved 4. Only 9 of the 10 I ordered. I paid $39.99 for three of the maples that were (supposed to be) 3 year grafts. The other 7 were supposed to be 2 year grafts. I was informed a few days before delivery, after I emailed them to see when the delivery would be sent, that they did not have the some of the maples I ordered and that they would make substitutions, I sent them some suggestions, which they filled. None of the little, and I mean little) trees were three year grafts. They did refund $59.00 for the tree they did not send and for additional cost for the three year grafts that were not sent. They refused to allow me to return the order. Be certain that you can find much better places to order your maples online. Before ordering, you can check the size of these maples on by looking at the Scolopendrifolium or Winter Flame on my blog (Mary's Maples)

"On Jun 19, 2012 1:49 PM, Kigi Nursery responded with:

We made an honest mistake by short shipping 1 tree off the order, and refunded the tree along with the complaint of small trees. I explained to Mary that we grow all of our stock outside of the greenhouse environment and using slow release organic fertilizers, we will have smaller plants than other nurseries. Our stock is grown to be bonsai ready material and hardened off for clean shipping. Please don't order from us if you are looking for greenhouse pushed, chemical treated trees that are half their mature size in 3-4 years. I don't know why so many have been duked into thinking this is industry standard? We like to think we offer a true 1year 2year 3year... grafted material.

It just irritates me that we go the extra mile to provide the customer a quality product, just to be blown up on review boards for our honest growing practices. "

All the poor review are true for Kigi Nursery… despite what I read, I thought I’d give them the opportunity to earn my business. Well, I placed an order on their website but didn’t receive confirmation that the order went through. A waited a few days, giving the nursery a chance to confirm that they’d be filling my order… I would have called but there is no phone number on the website (this should have been a sign). I placed the same order again – this time I received an email confirming that my order went through. Even though I didn’t receive any sort of shipping confirmation (would have been nice so I could make sure someone was home), my trees arrived a couple of weeks later. The product was dried out but, for the most part, looked good. A few days later, I received the same order again… I checked my bank account and Kigi had charged my account again. I sent the Nursery an email (again, no phone number) and received an answer that they wondered why the same order was placed twice (they could have called) and that they’d refund one of the orders less all shipping costs ($20 total on a $60 order). Kigi recommended that I just keep the duplicate order stating that it probably isn’t worth shipping back. Too many professional online nurseries to give you my business Kigi… Sorry!

"On May 23, 2012 2:59 PM, Kigi Nursery responded with:

Customer ordered twice under two different names....yes if we had a large staff and charging you the customer all the overhead you are requesting from us... we offered you a return under our policy...sorry but we won't eat all the shipping charges because of your mistake."

This site offers many unique and difficult to find trees. The site is fairly easy to use, although it didn't like any other browser beside IE.
My daughter ordered me a Japanese Maple. The price was reasonable and the shipping was comparable to other companies. I received my small bare root sapling within a week of the order being placed. It arrived in fairly good shape. I did notice that some of the leaves had some black curling edges on the ends though. I hope that is just a result of being in a dark box in transit?
The reason for a neutral rating is that there was NO care or planting instructions included with my order. This is my first attempt at growing a J M. I know I can search online for basics, but it would have been nice to have communication from the seller so I'd know if the black curling on some leaves was normal, do I need to let it acclimate first, what kind of soil does it prefer, any special planting instructions, etc? I will do some research though and hope I give my little tree a good start.

I was browsing Japanese Maples on Ebay and saw a few beauties that were really familiar. They were mine! Bamboo Trader aka Kigi Nursery swiped my pics of 'Utsu semi','Okushimo' and AS 'Palmatifolium' from UBC. Had they sent a message requesting permission or a nice tree I probably would have had no beef. Since they copied them and did not respond to my diplomatically worded messages I have a negative view of this vendor. #1- Clearly the plant they are selling is not the plant pictured, #2-Ignoring my message and not acknowledging the source of the pic suggests a slimy character.

Wondered how others would feel. There are lots of excellent pics on Dave's. No doubt many have been pilfered. Would you be flattered or pissed?

I contacted ebay but the response was the typical, flaccid, canned nonsense they are known for.

"

This is the first I have heard of this. My website designer told me he has been gathering product photos from opt-in sources. I will work on getting these pictures changed right away. That is unless you will let us use them?

Justen Homer
Kigi Nursery"