Well, my first fruit tree order was to Willis. $1,000 worth. Supposed to ship in January per email and our agreement. A week after the order in early Nov. my trees showed up unannounced. Dried out warehouse leftovers from the prior year. Didn't know any better at the time.

The only things from them still alive from 3 summers ago are 3 loquats that turned out to be seedlings despite assurances they were grafted, and 1 Comice pear on unknown rootstock (another problem with Willis). They effectively act as a middleman from nurseries around the country. Most things never broke dormancy. Did have success with four cherry trees from them that died from Cotton Root Rot which is not their fault. But the list of what is was extensive.

Expensive lesson well learned.

This post was edited by Fascist_Nation on Mon, Nov 17, 14 at 18:44

Fair enough, and it is only right that people should hear both reviews so I completely respect your decision to put it out here. I readily admit that yours is not the only bad review I've read on them. Not sure if I just happened to get a great employee, whether the company is genuinely evolving and working successfully to improve customer service in recent times, or whether my experience was a fluke. I just know that my request to redeem my warranty on several trees could not have been handled any better and my replacement trees would make anyone proud. But I think its helpful for people to hear the good and the bad before deciding on which company to order from, so thanks for your experience. Hopefully others will share too.

I try to avoid ordering from large companies.The turn-around time is longer.

By all means possible to get fall shipment, just my opinion. I just do not trust any sellers who sell the left-over stocks stored in warehouse from November to March. Get the fresh fall stock if possible.

As for vendor reputation, you do not need many to ruin the reputation. A lot of people just do not want to complain or report.

You may get warranty replacements, but you wasted a season, or at least a few months.

Well, for some people, there is no option. Konrad can tell his story. Feel sorry for him....

I ordered a bearing size green gage plum three years ago from Willis. It is around a three inch caliper now and seems to be doing well. It is my largest tree and has suffered less from black knot than other E plums I've planted nearby. I had another green gage next to it from a small, very reputable nursery that died after this winter, but that was probably my fault for planting it in a wet location. It seems to have lots of fruit buds for the first time this year so I'm hoping for some fruit this Spring, and hoping that it is true to type.

Ztom- Green Gage is one of the trees I ordered from them! Based on what I've read here on GW, Green Gage no longer means much more than "some kind of greenish plum" to most nurseries these days . I hope that isn't true but those I respect here say it probably is and we don't have the old-style green gage that I read so many good things about it made me want one. However, since you got yours from the same place I did, I'd love to hear your opinion on the matter- any idea if its the real deal? Also, I hear most Euro's take longer to fruit. I don't suppose yours has produced yet has it? Thanks.

thecityman -
Actually, I was concerned about this last year and posted something. I have the link below. This year the leaves looked larger, darker and greener now. Hopefully this will be the year I find out.

Here is a link that might be useful: Willis - green gage -garden web

Although I have had good service from Willis on three orders, my best experience is with Hirts Garden. I ordered a Arkansas Frime Freedom blackberry and recieved a Ark. Prime 45 instead. It was a beautiful plant, properly packaged and they refunded my money and allowed me to keep the ...45. I still want a Freedom, but I have to create room.

Big nurseries can be decent. I ordered one plant from Willis, and it was great. But that is little experience.
Often they have so many plants, and if stock is good, you get a nice one.
The best biggest blueberry I ever got was from Stark Bros.
But recently they will only send plants in your zone. And restrict some for unknown reasons? I asked them about Chandler blueberry why they could not send it, they blamed the state of Michigan, but I checked and it is allowed. MI restricts new cultivars for some time till they check out. Usually though most are eventually allowed.
Also this was not a recent change, last year they allowed Chandler in MI. So??? That is the plant I got from them that was gorgeous.

Glad they gave you a no hassle replacement, but 7 out of 9 of the original plants died? I'd take the replacements, then vow to never order from them again.

Out of all the bareroot plants I've planted, I've had exactly one that never leafed out. That was a Fuyu that died from winter injury. That's no expertise on my part - I think that's due to receiving good stock, a lot of which is shipped across the country.

The other concern I'd have is that you won't know what you've received is what you actually ordered until the plants begin to fruit.

I'm not trying to be negative, but rather realistic based on all that I've read about Willis. There are a lot of other reputable nurseries out there.

This topics comes up many times. One of the extensive and still on-going is my friend Konrad's odyssey in the far North.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fruit/msg050012202514.html?61

There are different sides of the story. One thins I'd like to add is that: do not take too much risk and put yourself in a difficult position.

It is a risky business to buy and sell bare root trees. The trees should be fully dormant and the trees should be still in very good condition when they are sold. Trees go dormant from late October and the latest spring shipping season is about late March. So it is normally 5 months. The trees may stay in storage for that long. Some tree farms have excellent coolers, but a lot of them do not. Also, we are talking about several hundreds varieties and tens of thousands of trees.

When I purchase trees, particularly bare root trees, I'll try to:
1. Purchase and plant the trees the earliest you can. Fall season is great is you can do it. Then the trees will be the freshest.
2. Try all you can to buy the plants from farms close to you. You can certainly buy from farms in Texas or Florida. But they go dormant late, not hardened in the cold zone, and long transit time.
3. Try all you can to avoid late season purchase. The trees stores in for 5 months are not in their best condition, period.

I do not shy away from container trees. Of course there are some disadvantages, but one obvious advantage is that, the trees have a much higher survival rate, or close to 100%. If Lowe's has some nice fruit trees in conditions I like for $10 a pot, I'll grab one or two if I have space for them. I can separate the roots and I can prune the top. I know the tree is good for my zone, grown in my zone and will grow next spring. So I do not need to go through any ordeals like this again.

Sellers' warranty is not a cure-all. Buyers should know what you are buying. A lady here (In Praise of England Nursery) purchased some trees from England nursery in KY. That was early in the season and the large trees still have all green leaves. The trees will probably live, but they took so much stress when bare-rooted with all green leaves. Our Mr. Konrad purchased his trees in late May and the trees of course are in horrible condition when that late in the season.

Gardening is fun. Try to stay that way....

Many times I like to grow unusual items, so I have to go far and wide to find them. Just part of gardening once you start growing experimental. I don't like potted trees as they are often unsold bare root that came out of dormancy. And I avoid the big box stores as one guy buys for the whole chain often they stock trees not appropriate to my area. Some exceptions. I have found some trees can only be obtained from say Lowes. One example here is the Tri-color beech tree. One of the prettiest trees around. Almost non-existent online, but Lowes has it.

If you buy container trees, you still need to be selective. One year I bought two cherry trees in pots, but they were actually bare root ones just planted in pots in winter, not truly container grown. They did not make and I got my $ back. It is much easier to get refund from Lowe's and Home Depot. You also know what exactly you get at the spot.

Local nurseries and even Lowe's are very good at choosing the local varieties doing well. Of course they are on the conservative side and you don't find the rare varieties.

Personally I do not like to grow unusual or borderline hardy trees, just too many variables. I like to grow the old and tested ones before I experiment with things, just different approaches.

It takes so long for the fruits plants to grow. I can't risk another season. It is one year's harvest, not just a few $ for a tree. If I have enough harvest, I may want to try some rare stuff, but just not now....

I only have bad experience with them.
I ordered two jujube trees from them, one Li and one Liang jujube in 2011, but they sent me two Li jujubes. also one shinko asian pear, it never flowered and I do not what variety it is.
I will never do business with them anymore.

We'll probably can never tell if someone sends us a different varieties. Fruit trees takes about 3-4 just to set fruits....

willis seems to get it right the second time. i like it when you get it right the first time.

i order dorsett golden apple. it died in spring and they sent me a new tree (i believe in the fall of that same year). Anyway, the second tree took off and is one of my best trees today. It's only been in the ground three years and it's 2.5'' caliper and leafed out great this summer. It had bloomed first time this spring and set one fruit (my neice was visiting and picked it :( prematurely). Next year i expect a good harvest.

I ordered a grenade pomegranite - 1st one died 2nd one took. It is growing very very slowly (but so is my other pomegranite that i got from a local nursery).

ordered 3 sweet cherries that they "claim" to be approved for the south. first 3 were whips when i paid for larger branched trees. they replaced them and the second set are still growing 4 years later. They look ok but no sign of fruit yet. the cherries where Brooks, Coral and Tulare.

Order several grape vines and most took. the two that did not they replaced.

So, they get a C+ from me. They seem a little unprofessional as they don't list rootstocks and they hand write the tags that denote the variety. I give them a lot of credit for how they agree to replace dead plants without alot of fus. When i ordered from Stark Bros, they spoiled me to the point that I will not order from Willis again. Just don't trust they will get it right the first time and hand written tags make me question what I'm getting.

"3 loquats that turned out to be seedlings despite assurances they were grafted"

Change 3 to 2 and that is the exact same as my experience, including the "assurances" they were clonal (air layers or rooted cuttings would have been fine too).

Never again with them. (I have had excellent results from many other nurseries.)

WARNING. WILLIS ORCHARD, THIS COMPANY SENDS DEAD PLANTS AND WILL NOT RETURN YOUR MONEY. DO NOT IGNORE THE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK/COMPLAINTS LIKE I DID. YOU WILL GET RIPPED OFF.. REPLACEMENT OFFERED BUT IF IT DIED OR ARRIVED DEAD - THEY WOULD NOT DO ANYTHING.

THIS COMPANY IS A SCAM - LOOK UP THE COMPLAINTS FROM THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU AND OTHER SOURCES