Comments regarding Cold Stream Farm

I ordered 1 Amur Maple from Cold Stream Farm, it arrived with the top 1/3 of the trunk dead. I scratched the trunk lightly, it was brown underneath, I pruned it down to where it's now less than 8 inches tall.

I ordered 10 Amur maples from Chief River Nursery, all of them are thriving, growing 2-3ft a year. They were out of Amur Maples, so i paid $30 shipping for a half dead tree from Cold Stream Farm. I'm not happy.

I have ordered from cold stream farms for many years and generally had very positive results. However, the last 2 years have been very difficult. They used to ship early when it was cool. Now they ship later and it is too warm. Most trees are moldy and the stems on the poplars are trying to root out. It is very frustrating. I am hopeful that they will figure a way to ship in late March or early April to avoid these problems. I think if I get one more bad shipment, I will stop ordering from them all together.

I'm very disappointed. I ordered 11 bareroot deciduous trees (Bald Cypress, Beech, Sweetshrub) from Cold Stream. They were DRY on arrival. Seven were dead, only four leafed out. All were planted as promptly as the wet, wet ground allowed, and all were heeled in immediately on arrival. Their guarantee only offers store credit, which is of little help since I'll never order from here again. I recommend folks look at Botanical Garden plant sales near them to find a similar wide selection of natives that have a much higher chance of living.

I ordered a red mulberry from them, and one from another company (Sooner). The Cold Stream Farm mulberry looked like a lifeless stick. I planted it anyway, and it never did anything. The other - same care - is thriving.

Low prices are only a bargain if they ship viable plants. I was astonished that this one made it out of the warehouse. I mean, dormant trees look sorta dead, but this one was obviously DOA.

Pay a bit more, get something alive.

When I was getting started I ordered from the Ty Ty nursery folks, Arbor Day and even E-Bay before I stumbled into the likes of Musser Forests, Forest Farm and others. I've received plenty of plants which ended up not making it, more that did from all the above and they all had some life!

Finally this year, the third time I ordered a hundred metasequoia bare root seedlings I had a bad experience. Last two times from Musser they showed up and every darned one leafed out. They were for giveaways so I don't know how many made it but they all leafed out.

This time Musser was out so I paid slightly more and ordered from Cold Stream Farm. Oops. Some shipped without even buds, as of the end of May here 60 or so haven't leafed out at all. Most of the ones which have leafed out did not do so from the top. Something, probably cold, went wrong with these trees.

After weeks of picture trading of trees in pots the dishonest or stupid crooks at Cold Stream became concerned the dead sticks were in pots and offered me possible credit on the non containerized ones or something illogical.

So shame on you Cold Stream Farm. Hire a better person to answer questions or SOMETHING. Even a "tough luck buddy" reply would have been more logical.

I ordered a bunch of evergreens in early spring. They were dry when I got them but didnt look dead so we planted and watered as directed. All but one died and now they will not accept returns or refunds since it is passed June. Complete waste of money and time and very bad customer service.

"On Aug 26, 2016 9:35 AM, Cold Stream Farm responded with:

We do accept claims past June. We can replace or refund any item that fails to leaf or bud out after planting. Just email or call and let us know."

Bought several trees and shrubs including 4 viburnums. None of the viburnums leafed out. Contacted the company via their website with no response and no refund or replacement. They clearly do not stand by their warranty.

"On Aug 26, 2016 9:37 AM, Cold Stream Farm responded with:

We always stand by our warranty. Our 'contact' link on the website was unfortunately not working this past season (very sorry, we were not aware of this problem until recently!). Just ring us or email and we can refund or replace any of the plants that failed to leaf out."

I tried this company for the first time in 2014 with a small order - 3 Oregon Grape hollies. No problem with ordering or delivery but what I got was a box full of leaves and three leafless sticks.
I photographed the plants and called to complain about their condition. They assured me that the plants were "dormant" and would be fine. I put them up in 3 large pots and sent them to plant ICU in my greenhouse where after a month or more they looked even worse. I sent updated photos which convinced them finally that the plants had indeed expired.
I was told I would have to wait until the next spring (2015) for replacements. The new plants arrived and they looked marginally better. I planted them but as soon as they managed to push out one tiny leaf another died off.
Now it is spring 2016 and I have three small leafless sticks with no sign of life. I unearthed one and it had the same (minimal) root system as when I planted it.
I don't think their stock is viable. In two years I should have had a nice little shrub. I am not going to complain again - I don't want more of their plants.

This company sells weak and stunted nursery stock. I couldn't believe the diminutive size of the trees in my recent order. What I got would compare in size to the 10 free trees that arbor day used to mail people for becoming a member. In fact some of the trees arbor day used to send would be bigger than the trees cold stream ripped me for. In my opinion I was seriously overcharged for such small trees. If they live I'll be surprised. I don't like how they put masking tape around their trees either. Very difficult to remove from tiny trees. Previous orders were not successful. Only dealt with them the second time because they had a certain species that I couldn't seem to find anywhere else. Since I found a place that's closer to home with what I want, I'll likely drop Cold Stream.

I ordered 9 items from them on November 30, 2013 for Spring delivery.

9 items were delivered on April 17 and in slightly above average condition (bare root).

I ordered 4 varieties of Viburnum. Unfortunately, they sent me 2 Nannyberry and failed to send a Blackhaw.

I contacted them via email on

April 17
April 21
May 1
May 19

They have NEVER responded once.

Too bad for THEM as I purchase between 1 and 2 thousand $ of plants and seeds per year. My order in $ terms was not large as I usually test a new vendor and if happy use again.

They have a very decent and varied selection at very reasonable prices.

I will never ever purchase from them again and will NOT recommend them to others as their Customer Service sucks.

We ordered two white snowberry shrubs and one pink snowberry shrub. After not hearing anything for several weeks, I e-mailed about the status. They said they would ship in two weeks and they did. Unfortunately, they only sent one which was unlabeled. I asked where the other two were, they apologized and sent one more good shrub and one stick which is supposed to be a shrub. I asked if they could at least tell me which were the white shrubs and which were the pink shrubs. Their response was "(a)lso, as these are grown from seed, it is impossible for us to determine the flower color." This is still the case even though they sell both a pink and white variety. Snowberries can be hard to find, but it's just not worth the hassle to deal with this company.

I was sent half good plants and half very poor plants.
I gave it my best the good plants lived but the poor ones struggled and died.
They did NOT stand by their guarantee.
These all were supposed to be 2'-3' plants. BE CAREFUL!

I am about to throw in the towel on this company. After reading decent reviews here, I have been trying to place an order for weeks. No one ever answers the phone, and no one ever returns a voice message. I placed an order online, and after 5 days, Cold Stream responded but they were out of some of the sizes I requested. This is totally understandable, so I replied with an updated and revised order, and haven't heard a word since. They have the WORST customer relations I have ever experienced. I know it's a busy time of the year, but come on--just a quick "reply" to an email. Is that too much to ask. I was very hopeful of doing a long term business with Cold Stream, and I understand from the reviews their stock is pretty good, but if you have to spend day after day and week after week trying to place an order, it's just not worth it.

Placed an order back in October.
E-mailed to find out when my order would be shipped.
Their answer was "sometime this month" (November).
E-mailed them twice since then about cancelling my order and they would not acknowledge me.
Had to notify my credit card company to not accept any charges from them.

"

Unless a specific target date is given for shipment, orders are shipped as soon as the bare-root plant material is safe to harvest, which is weather dependant.

Any ship date can be scheduled for a customer. If material is not safe to harvest, the customer is then contacted and asked how to proceed.

Any order can be cancelled at any time prior to shipment, with no penalty."