Comments regarding National Arbor Day Foundation

I have gardened in western VA for over thirty years. I grow vegetables, fruits and flowers. I am educated. I read and research. I signed up for the free trees with this organization. It is very cold here now and the trees have not been delivered. I looked on their website to see when they planned on shipping. This organization (who deals in plant material!) has me listed in the wrong ag zone. I emailed them. The reply was that I am wrong about what zone I live and have lived in for all these years. The map they use for shipping is incorrect - at least for where I live. Yet they refuse to accept that fact. Do not fall for the free trees. I consider this organization a scam. Even if they sent the trees now, it is too cold to plant here.

I ordered trees for our school and was promised delivery for Arbor Day. Arbor Day was approaching and there was no delivery. When I contacted them they said there was a delay and shipping wouldn't occure until 17 days after. The school year would be close to over by then. I told them this was not acceptable. They pretty much said "Tough Luck". I contacted them via email and told them I wanted them immediately. I got the run around. I called and said I wanted a refund. They still wanted to charge me shipping even though the trees were never shipped. Do not do business with these crooks. There are better places to get trees from with better customer service. They refuse to let you talk to a supervisor. They refuse to follow the law. So... I'm taking them to court just to cost them the added expenses. NEVER do business with this place.

I never received the free trees as promised--what a let-down.
I wonder how they decide who gets them and who doesn't?

I am just appalled at the amount of paper this organization -- of ALL organizations -- sends out. I got yet another mailing today with a phony "tree survey" that came in a big paper envelope with five sheets of oversized paper. Hey Arbor Day people, how about you save a million trees by NOT sending out these ridiculous 1970's-style mailings? Maybe the Arbor Day Foundation was a good group once upon a time, but they are antiquated hypocrites now.

I made the mistake of ordering 15 trees from their catalog BEFORE I received my 10 free "trees" as part of my "membership". I did search for arborday.org on this site, but I didn't realize it was "National Arbor Day Foundation", so I didn't find all the negative reviews.

Anyhow, my 10 free "trees" finally arrived in late June, in zone 5b, when they should have been in the ground by late April. And, they are 10" long twigs which are about 1/8th the diameter of a pencil. Needless to say, the twigs have done NOTHING since planting, nor do I expect them to do anything.

The 15 trees I ordered arrived a few days after the free "trees", and I was immediately dismayed. They were packed horribly and while the box was in perfect shape on the outside, the trees inside were very dinged up. Not surprising considering they were bundled all in one bag and the roots were all tangled together.

So far the witch hazel and forsythia are doing great. That's about it. The two azaleas and one lilac had some dried up leaves on them but they fell off while I was trying to gently separate each plant from the jumbled mess. NOTHING else has shown any signs of budding.

So...I'm out about $170 for 25 "trees" and all I've got is a witch hazel and a forsythia. There is zero point in complaining about the condition of the plants since no one ever answered my numerous emails about why my orders still had not shipped by May 31st, which was the last shipping date listed for my zone.

I will NEVER buy from arborday.org again.

This company is not a charity or an educational foundation. It is nothing short of a SCAM! They constantly bombard "members" with mailings that a professional con-artist must create. But the worst aspect of this so-called nursery is the horrible quality of their stock. Time after time we were sent the smallest trees imaginable, some devoid of life upon arrival. Out of 15 cedars ($4 for a 1/2 foot whip...are you kidding?), NOT ONE survived! Then the replacements they sent were just as puny, and guess what--NOT ONE survived! We will never ever do business with this fraudulent imitation of a nursery. Do yourself a favor and stay away.

Very similar experiences to other negative reviews shown here and elsewhere. Quite the hassle in getting the trees delivered. The trees that I obtained (I hope they are actually the varieties I purchased) were small compared to what I can obtain from my local nurseries. Cheaper yes, but it is the cost of caring for young trees that is the bulk of the cost anyway; so, it is important to start with good stock. The member 'trees'...LOL were tiny seedlings. None of the items shipped within the specified time window. Phone reps, although courteous, were clueless as to the status of the orders. The items did appear alive and I will see how they do in the spring and will post a followup if they break bud and if grow with any vigor. Nevertheless, after my experience, I will never purchase any trees from NADF again. I would rather take my business to local nurserymen anyway since they are usually paying attention to adaptability/success of various species and cultivars and have a more vested interest in insuring quality.
The Arbor Day Foundation's goals and mission statement of promoting tree planting appear to be there only primary positive attributes; basically selling a good meme. It appears that the nursery stock they sell and provide for free is second or even third fiddle to 'collecting donations', money needed to pay the execs who run the racket.

Similar experiences. Three dead orders. Zero live. Good customer service, promising to replace. OK replacements but on their timeline. I had called and said higher altitudes would see frozen ground by delivery time. Too bad. "Put them in your garage." Now one delivery is AWOL. Not worth the cheap prices. I think I'm done with the extra effort it takes.

As a dilettante gardener I do not expect a 100% survival rate for online-ordered plants. However, my experience from two orders with the arborday foundation is appalling: out of 18 plants/8 varieties, only 3 plants have survived at the 6-month mark despite following the planting and care instructions step-by-step precisely.
From this experience, I will definitely check Dave's garden reviews before my next online order.

I expected so much more from the likes of "the Arbor Day Foundation" instead of a worthless membership and waste of my time and money. I have never, ever had such a bad experience as this one, and I've dealt with the likes of Aaron's Nursery. I received not one, but two orders of dead Burbank plum trees. Now, I've lost a year of my life/one growing season due to this severe lack of quality control on the Arbor Day Foundation's part.

I have bought and planted thousands of trees on my land. Literally. I have bought from nurseries nationwide. Reputable ones, and even one sketchy one. But always, the trees have lived, or at least only a few died, and that over many years.

But the Arbor Day Foundation, an organization I thought would be professional and competent, one that presents a pristine, nature-loving image, let me down. In so many ways. Let me share my opinions.

1. Unreliable tree descriptions, particularly as to zone compatibility. I definitely was too trusting here; I should have researched sooner. Two examples: Sargent cherry is listed as a zone 4 tree. Yet, my research now shows it is not reliable in zone 4 except for named cultivars selected after successfully growing in that zone. The same goes for the Eastern Redbud which, except for a few proven named cultivars, also cannot survive zone 4 winters. So the unnamed seedlings I got have very little chance of surviving a test winter like the one we had this last season. If they ever break bud, that is.

2. Free trees incomplete. They only shipped two of the promised three free trees.

3. Incomplete order. I was shorted a tree I ordered.

4. Late ship date. The trees came around May 15. That means that they've probably been sitting in a warehouse in Nebraska for two months. Hence, problem #5.

5. Low survival rate. All five of the Eastern Hemlock trees I received quickly dropped their needles and died, and that despite rain every other day since I planted. Except for three oak trees, only one of the twelve other trees I received has broken bud. I'm not hopeful about the others, which show no signs of life. In fact, one is bone-dry dead.

6. Instant junk mail from unheard-of, schlocky garden catalogs. Since I've ordered from no other place this year, the conclusion as to the source of my address is obvious. The junk mail hasn't been overwhelming, but it is disgusting.

7. Unacceptable "Instant charge" policy. The Foundation charges your card at the time of the order, not when it is shipped. I should have seen trouble on the way when I placed the order and was informed of that policy. I suspect they had too many cardholder disputes from upset customers who had similar experiences to mine, and so finessed it by getting the money well in advance of shipment.

That's a pretty hefty problem list for one company. Not problems I will ever have again, of course. The experience certainly put a dent in my idealism about at least one do-good environmental organization -- a type of organization I'm otherwise prone to support.

Unfortunately I didn't come here before ordering as I have for other companies. I guess I thought that because it was a non-profit and nationally recognized I didn't need to worry.

I placed two separate orders for bare root dormant trees/shrubs this spring. Only one of the redbuds leafed out and then the leaves fell off. The free forsythias did leaf out nicely, though.

I also ordered elderberries, which leafed out, only to be what I think are Rose of Sharon instead, which will have to be pulled out because I am landscaping an area of our property with only natives to keep it natural. I am just going to consider my purchases a donation and move on.

Extremely disappointed.

I sent in money plus a small donation to receive a membership and the ten free flowering trees plus one red maple, approximately 6 or 7 months ago. When I didn’t receive my trees I contacted them via email. They said I only donated 6 dollars. I have scanned 6 to 7 months of bank statement and can’t find anything, which means I payed via cash. Each time I try and explain this they just tell me to contact my bank. The thing is, I already received a membership number, the tree book, and the chosen free gift of personalized address labels when you send in your money for the membership/10 free tree deal. I tried to explain this also in multiple emails, to no avail.

I should have taken these reviews into consideration before I ordered. This organization is a big scam, or at the very least a mis-managed organization.

Instead of owning up to their mistake and satisfying the customer by sending what I paid for, they were indignant. Now, they lose hundreds of dollars of my business and support and will receive a bad review on every site I can find.

Posted on December 26, 2017, updated October 10, 2018
I ordered a dwart Stayman Winesap apple tree from Arbor Day in 2010. The tree languised, but finally produced fruit in 2017. The apples were yellow!

I could give the Arbor Day Foundation the benefit of the doubt, but the "free" tree they allowed me to order, a red maple, wasn't a red maple.

They went oh for two in filling my order, which tells me they really don't care. I now view the Arbor Day charity as a ripoff.

As my friends know it takes a lot to push me to this point. Arbor Day Society customer service is TERRIBLE!! I bought more than 50 trees from them in September. They waited to ship the small small trees until December. Way too late to plant. Not long enough to have them adjust. Their first suggestion you should have put them in pots and kept them inside. Second conclusion I must have soaked them in water too long. No Einstein it was too cold. Fall planting occurs in September and October. Maybe early November. I planted most in my raised bed gardens and they are dead. I even provided them with pictures. I have been a long time customer but no more! Small plants, disregard for proper shipping times , and TERRIBLE customer service. Not even the free trees lived. #arbordaysmalltreespoorcustomerservice

I placed two orders last fall. The first contained trees with insufficient root structure for planting. The second wasn't shipped because the NADF could not correctly place my zip code in the proper zone, which is pretty egregious for a national mail order company of trees. I did not get a satisfactory response when I called and followed up with an email. I have received no response to my email. I have canceled my outstanding order and will not be ordering again.Nor will I sign up as a member again, despite the multiple opportunities to do so.

This company uses the same scam MO as the "Name a Star After Someome" scam does. Meaning this: this business' angle Is that it tries to come off as being somehow "official".

I received their survey in the mail, complete with such pertinent questions as:
"Have you ever climbed a tree?"
"When you were a kid, did you ever play in a tree?"
Even the question "Do you think the Hemlock should be the official state tree of Pennsylvania?" is ridiculous because, do you believe that the guy who started this buisness cares one way or the other? Does any of this do anything to protect trees?

In fact the whole "survey" is just filled with meaningless questions that do nothing other than to make the recipient believe they are providing important information to some "official" organization. And after all, I was specifically chosen! I was one of the few percent! Think about it, they could not possibly send this "survey" out every household in the country, so YES it's true, that only a small percent received this spam.

And let's not forget the "FREE" GIFTS (that you receive if you "donate" money to this buisness). Sure ill send you some seedlings too, if you "donate" $10, $15, $25, $50, __$more. I will also name a star after you for an additional $50.

Ordered 5 pine trees and received a free maple as well. The Arbor Day Foundation ships trees on their timeline, supposedly the best time to plant for your area. Well, my trees arrived the first week of December, which here in northwest Florida is a *terrible* time to plant, as we regularly have hard freezes throughout the winter. I thought this was insane, but they give customers no choice in delivery time. I had no choice but to plant them, as they arrived as bare root *twigs* (which was disappointing as well. I expected a little more for my money than 10-inch bare root twigs). Two days after we planted them, sure enough, we were hit with a cold spell that plunged nighttime temps down into the teens for several nights. We covered each twig with a bucket and blankets, but every single one of the pine twigs died. Only the maple twig survived, but it went on to die the following summer, for absolutely no reason at all. So we had nothing left to show for our order and expense. We called when the pine trees died and asked to be sent more trees, since there was a guarantee they would live. They required us to dig up and return the dead twigs first! Which we declined to do, as that would've been more expense on our part. So the guarantee is basically worthless. The trees ship out at terrible planting times, and they arrive as bare root twigs. I am someone who can plant *anything* and it end up growing and thriving, but every single one of their trees died on me within the first weeks or months.

I ordered a sargent crabapple tree from Arbor Day. I planted it this spring. It's dead. I won't order from this company again. I didn't like how it was packaged. It never grew into anything more than an ugly little dead twig.

I have purchased membership with NADF for several years because I believe in their mission; however, I will not be renewing because the quality of the last few orders has been very poor.

They state that they guarantee delivery of healthy trees. My first order for 2016 was the 10 free trees and 8 redbuds are still alive. The second order included a variety of trees that I purchased: maple, magnolia, beech, sourwood, and aspen and 3/5 are still alive.

In 2017 I ordered another batch of 10 trees: oaks, viburnums, crabapple, tulip, hawthorn, spruce, viburnum, dogwood, and river birch. All of these were dead on arrival except one of the viburnums.

Finally I ordered hazelnuts in March and only one tree is alive.
All trees were planted correctly the day I received them.
Meanwhile they continue to solicit me with offers to order stock. I plan on writing them and asking them to remove me from their lists.

The trees and shrubs from this outfit are better referred to as "rooted cuttings". For what you get, the prices are high. Places like Musser Forests sell better quality trees and shrubs at a much better price. I ordered river birch, red maples and forsythia from Arborday last fall. They were well packed. A few of the red maples survived, none of the river birch made it and the forsythia made it but with significant die-back. I have planted hundreds of trees and shrubs from various sources for decades. In all those plantings, I have never had a single plant fail - until I put in those from Arborday.

I became a member and also purchased a dozen trees. They have not shipped the ten trees that come with membership yet, though they keep promising to. They just can't get order of a dozen trees right. They sent four, I complained. They sent one more. Every time they send all of these free trees (junk). Just send the trees I ordered and paid for. No need to send part orders or free junk trees. I would think counting trees would be an integral part of business. By the way, nothing has survived.

I would never waste my time again. For a few dollars more I can buy a one gallon tree locally, and they live.

I ordered several red maple trees from Arbor Day in 2014. When the leaves developed in spring 2015, ALL of them were silver maples. I don't want silver maples, so I emailed customer service with pics of the leaves and they sent replacement "red maples" this winter. The leaves are now developing, and guess what? They're all silver maples! I've gotten oaks, elm, and sourwood trees from them with no problem. But they can't seem to pull off maple identification. They'll get no more money or support from me.

I've ordered from this organization twice, and never received one tree. They promised, for two years, to correct the mistake in the next season, and never did, even with repeated phone calls and e-mails. My sister had the same experience. I will not be trying again, ever.

Posted on December 3, 2015, updated December 15, 2015
Back in August 2015, I paid the membership to get the 10 free trees AND I made the mistake of ordering 2 forsythia, a Japanese maple & 6 hydrangea. Now it is December 3rd & I am being told my order has been moved to the Spring shipping schedule. They only told me this because I CALLED THE ARBOR DAY FOUNDATION. They did not reach out to tell me there was a delay in my order at all. I have cancelled the order & have informed them I will never renew a membership. They have said, however, I should get my "10 free trees by December 8th" I'm not going to hold my breath on that one either.

My girlfriend joined the Arbor Day Foundation and donated the $10 because she wanted the free 10 flowering trees. About a week later I decided to join and donate to get the 10 bird lover trees. It's been 2 months and neither of us received any trees. We contacted the company and they said both of our orders had been shipped out and must've been lost in the mail, but that now they couldn't ship us any trees since the Spring season was over and we had to wait until Fall. Curious as to how many others this happened to, I went online and did a search. Sure enough, with the thousands of other people this has happened to, it seems to be quite a scam that has netted them a whole lot of money and there is nothing anyone can do about it except to use public forums to let others know.

I've ordered trees from Arbor Day last year and although small, each tree was nicely shaped, no broken branches, well packed and alive. I'm sorry to have to say that the trees I received this year did not live up to last year's shipment literally. Supposedly two Douglas Fir replacements are on the way (only ones I reported DOA) and as for the others, pin oak, tulip tree, sugar maples, a plum and a red bud, to date I have not seen one iota of life. Before receiving this shipment I also ordered a sweet bay magnolia. It also arrived with each leaf dried out and turning brown. In the future, I'll spend the extra money to get a nice, well packed tree from Spooner Farms. Should they fail me, that's it for buying plants online!

I wish I would have read the reviews. I got the 10 flowering tree package. I'm not too confident they will survive. I think one of the Washington hawthorns was dead on arrival. I also ordered 3 other trees and was supposed to receive a free red maple. I'm not sure what happened with those. Haven't seen them.

Joined as a member in the spring and received 10 bare root Colorado Blue Spruce seedlings. Once summer rolled in, they began to perish, one by one, until only one seedling had survived in the fall. Also, ordered two American hazelnut bare roots in the summer, but did not receive during their fall shipping. Later, customer service told me that my credit card number on file did not work and as a result the seedlings weren't shipped. However, no one at the organization reached out to me to let me know there was a billing problem until it was too late to ship for the season.

Posted on April 30, 2014, updated June 5, 2014
I will update my review as time goes on but for now I'll list it as neutral. My husband and I submitted our $10 donation to receive 10 free trees and 2 free shrubs. Months later they arrived, around the date of average last frost for our area, so that was to be expected. The bag of water the roots were sitting in was very brown, milky and smelly. None of the trees or shrubs were broken but they were all very thin and small. We planted them in pots and will update on their condition, no change in them yet.

I would never have suspected a place that is supposed to be so very special about taking care of our planet and about trees to be so very very very *disappointing*.

Oh my gosh! I was excited about ordering trees from "The National Arbor Day Foundation". I had grown up hearing how wonderful this organization is. I even paid the extra money to not only order trees but to join it.

But what I got was shocking. I was shocked by how awful the items I got looked and I felt the quality was horrible. I feel as if all I did was waste money on stuff that looks as if any of it lives and/or grows, will be a miracle.

I am not talking about the trees they send when you join National Arbor Day, but the trees and shrubs you order from their tree nursery website. //shop.arborday.org/content.aspx?page=tree-nursery

I am totally disgusted that a place I trusted sent what I got.

NEVER again will I trust them, NEVER again will I order anything from them.

And I strongly recommend no one else buy from them. I hope to save anyone else the experience I had with The National Arbor Day Foundation trees you order and pay for from their website.

I ordered fruit trees from this company/organization some years back. The cherry trees that I ordered were very small and took years before you could identify them. I was so disappointed to find out that the 2 bing cherry trees as well as the 2 black Tartarians were in fact all ornamental cherry trees. :( Being the Arbor Day Foundation, you would think that they would send you the right trees. I contacted them with pictures. After they examined them, they still said it was the Bing trees I ordered even though I told them the cherries were bitter and the size of a very small pea. Then, I invited a member of the local agriculture dept. to take a look. At this point they did reimburse me the $40.00 I originally paid for them years previously, but I was sad about this too because they grew sturdy and tall and all that time wasted to find out they were not what I ordered. By the way,they were all the same and I ordered 2 different varieties.Also I bought 2 different plum trees methley and damson, well years later, I have 2 identical plum trees with thorns and very small plums. I will never buy from them again and would not recommend buying from them.

I should have read the reviews first. If you are wiser and reading this review know the following:
1. Do not expect to receive plants from your order. You will receive twigs.
2. The 10 free plants are 10 twigs about 6 inches in length shipped as a bundle. These are not potted plants. They are shipped without any soil.
3. I expected that at least the tree saplings that are listed with longer lengths will be shipped with proper proportions and as living plants. No, they were twigs too, tied together in a bundle.

I don't know whether these will grow at all, I will try anyways.

Do not spend your money thinking you are spending it after a charitable cause. This company from all accounts and my own experience seems to be running a scam. If you feel charitable, donate money to a good charity organization. If you wish to help with reforestation, do it yourself. If you want to grow trees on your own property, find a good local nursery.

I really hate to say it, but I can no longer in good faith support the Arbor Day Foundation based on the last two years of plant performance from this organization. The first year I became a member, I received my membership trees about a month later than is optimal for planting in my desert region. By the time the bare root 'sticks' arrived, daytime temps were approaching 90's which is pretty warm for a struggling little seedling. Although not one of those trees lived, I chalked it up to it being late in the season with soils just too dry to support early growth. On that occasion, I did not complain or request replacements.

So, this year, I contacted the ADF twice to request an earlier shipping date and they did in fact comply with my request, sending the free trees in mid-March which was perfect. I went to great lengths to plant these quickly and under perfect conditions but despite my experience with and care of these bare root plants, only 2 of the ten have leafed out. The rest are officially dead and I suspect were never viable to begin with. In attempting to request replacements, so far I have been getting the email run-around from the ADF and they are still suggesting elementary things like 'do a scratch test' despite my explaining two weeks ago in my initial inquiry that the cambium of all the remaining seedlings was dry and brown. What it comes down to is this: if the Arbor Day Foundation showcases its wonderfu contributions to conservation, then they'd better factor in the millions of gallons of precious water that people are pouring on dead seedlings.

I joined the foundation because I love plants. Even sent the foundation $20 dollars so that I could get the 'free' plants they were offering. What happened, nothing!! Did not get any plants but I did get the offer to send them more money. This foundation is BS!! Do not join! Do not send money!

About 6 years ago I joined, the Arbor Day Foundation. I was very excited and bought several trees including 2 Sweet Cherry Trees (Bing and Black Tartarian). After a few years they were 8 feet tall with a 4 feet spread, they gave flowers but did not give me any fruits for a few years. I decided to wait a few more years, got a few really tiny berries one year and then the same the year after that.

Never found out what kind of tree it was, but I know one thing it was not a Bing Cherry. So I cut them down and used them for fire wood. Sorry I had to wait so long to find out that this company was running a SCAM!!!

got my trees yesterday. of course ground is frozen and there is snow on the ground. shouldn't the arbor day foundation know this is not the time for planting trees?

I just received an offer from the Arbor Day Organization that promises me I will get "free" trees for completing a survey. After reading the offer more closely, I could see that I needed to make a donation of at least $10.00 in order to get the trees. They tried to disguise their offer by saying I could redeem "free vouchers". I would have been more likely to send them the money if they had just been honest about their offer. The trees can't be "free" when getting them requires a donation. Why couldn't they just say that they were giving me the opportunity to purchase some trees for a small price? I bet that the survey is a meaningless part of the offer and they aren't interested in my opinions about trees. They just want my money.

I placed an order for several trees and also for a one-year membership last month. The price can't be beat but in reality, the chances of receiving viable trees is 50-50 at best. Several of the deciduous trees I received had no sign of any life (despite being mid May). The hemlocks I ordered were devoid of a single needle on any of their small branches and were obviously dead. Some of the other trees appeared to have some buds and may yet survive.

I had joined Arbor Day and paid for a one-year membership a few years ago too. At the time, I merely took advantage of the "10 free trees" that they always offer with membership. Of the 10 small twigs they sent back then, about half never showed any signs of life. A few others died almost immediately. Three actually survived. I didn't even bother ordering the 10 free trees offered with my membership this time, opting instead to order from their catalog instead. However, I don't think I will bother with them again though.