Comments regarding Cold Stream Farm

They sold me a Amur Maple Flame, but it's actually an Acer Tataricum. I found out today.

It's a beautiful tree though, very healthy and a vigorous grower..

My advice is when you get your plants from this place, make absolute sure what you've gotten is exactly what you ordered..

Theres good news and bad news......
The good news is the prices are cheap... and they have a very nice selection.
The BAD news is (in my experience), that bare root evergreen trees have a VERY LOW survival rate.
Especially if you order int the fall.
They say "Stock is guaranteed fresh and healthy upon delivery. FALL EVERGREEN SHIPMENTS ARE NOT GUARANTEED"
I have ordered several times from them and I have a 20% survival rate at best.
I suppose that is the only way they can keep the prices down and sell mass quantities.
I am no longer ordering bare root trees.

ordered 25 red osier dogwoods and 4 spicebush. i didn't expect to get much for the money, but the dogwood twigs were extremely thin, although they were all well rooted and almost all of them did survive. all of the spicebush appeared dead and have never leafed out after more than a month.

I was happy to find the exact trees that I wanted, and in various sizes. But when I went to check out, first I was told that shipping charges would be "Calculated During Checkout."

Then instead of them simply asking for my zipcode in order to calculate shipping charges, they wanted me to give all my personal information and register on their website-- with password and email address included. I rarely do that unless I'm actually about to place an order, and before I place an order I need to know shipping charges.

But-- I went ahead and registered on their website, expecting to be shown a final total including shipping. No-- I was then asked for my credit card and told "Shipping charges will be summarized in a pdf invoice emailed to you following checkout."

That's bogus. There is no way I'm going to give them my credit card and let them charge whatever blind fees they want for shipping, and then tell me afterwards. I do believe this practice violates their own state's consumer-protection laws.

bought 100's of trees from this company spring 2008 and fall 2008 with mixed results. first, make sure to count bundles as i have been considerably shorted more than once (on larger bundles of 25). second, size is almost always smaller than promised. for example, 3' -4' cedars are going to be mostly three feet with maybe one branch reaching close to four. in some trees, as the aforementioned cedar, there is MUCH size variation, and whoever is pulling them is doing a hack job on the roots. do not expect the full thick cedars from the garden centers. same goes for hemlocks with regard to size and thickness.
this company is positively responsive regarding replacements. i recieved about a hundred hemlock that were no good (sat in bags too long) and they replaced them with very healthy plants that were a size larger and i was happy.
all white pines, red pines, oaks, chestnut, white spruce, black spruce , balsam fir i ordered were good size and shape but shorted on some larger count bundles. avoid 25 count bundles and ask for bundles of 5 for everything and pay the extra stock fee for this.
this company is weather dependent so make sure to be flexible regarding arrival time of trees. spring 2008 was very late and so was available stock but that's not the company'ss fault.
overall, the stock is good, prices good, but there was always a count problem and unsatisfactory size variation with cedars and hemlock of larger size. i'm trying to find alternative sources but would buy again from them.

In the fall I ordered evergreens, dogwood, serviceberry, hazelnut, coral berry, oak, snow berry, bear berry and bittersweet. Most of the evergreens are recovering and the serviceberry, oak and one hazelnut leafed out. The coralberry, snowberry, bearberry, and bittersweet died. One of the hazelnuts and and the dogwood never grew leaves. i contacted customer service and they said they would send out replacements. I recieved a large box with a small bag with the bearberry in it. I contacted them again and they said everything should have been in the box and I told them it was not. Then they sent out a second box which contained the bittersweet, coral berry and snowberry. There was no packing in the box and the coral berry was broken. From the position of the bag, it looked like they had a piece of cardboard stapled over the top of the plants (the thinnest part). I wrote to them again and sent them pictures. They then sent out a coral berry dogwood, and hazelnut. These were secured with two strips of cardboard across the lower part of the plants and arrived safely.
They have good prices and a good selection, but seem to be having shipping problems. Their customer service did respond and send replacements, so I am giving them a neutral rather than a negative. It is a shame because I would have liked to order other plants, but I fear what condition they'll arrive in.

I ordered 5 trees. The box had been torn open (probably UPS's fault), but the trees arrived with moist but brittle roots and brown leaves. The trees were smaller than I anticipated, but perhaps I didn't read their website carefully enough. I contacted the company about the leaves and they claim that this is normal for winter-time. I'm going to place another order with a website I have more experience with.

Mixed review on company. Email ordering caused a problem - they do NOT note in return email that if you don't reply to them they will not send your order. We waited weeks, finally called them, found out our order hadn't been processed. Too late/no time to plant 100 redbuds by then. I did order American bittersweet. Was asked when I wanted it to arrive - and it came as promised. Only one broken whip out of a dozen. Some sprouting, will see how they do this summer. Delayed planting after arrival for two days to avoid a late frost. Husband was very upset by communication problem, which they acknowledged had been an ongoing issue for other customers. The CS guy said they hoped to rework the site/form to be more specific about replies for processing. Seems like an added hassle, but their prices may make it worthwhile.