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I got three different shipment dates when I called/emailed and requested when my order was going to ship. When I did get it, I received less than what I ordered of each rootstock with no explanation. When I requested a confimation of my original order by email after delivery I got nothing in return. All but two of the lovell rootstock were dead when received, but the rest look fine. I was very disappointed in this company that appeared to have so much to offer.
Add another bad shipping experience. I spoke to them on the phone the last week of February (Tina?), explained that I was getting ready to be out of town for two weeks, and I really needed my 4 trees & 2 bushes mailed by March 2nd. I was assured they'd go in the mail on Monday the 2nd.
They mailed either Thursday or Friday that week instead, then sat on my porch for 10 days.
Add to this the fact that, compared to the trees I got from Peaceful Valley, the Raintree root systems were a joke. The Butterfly Bushes were twigs.
It took Raintree six weeks to complete an order, even with ASAP shipping requested.
I ordered various bare root from Raintree Feb 6th and selected the 'ship ASAP' option. After 2 weeks, when I still had not received a confirm e-mail, I called. I was told that they were so far behind that my order probably wasn't even in the system yet and to call back if I hadn't heard anything within a week.
I called back and received an order number at the end of February. Last week, FIVE WEEKS after I placed my order, I again called to ask what the holdup was. This time, I was told that my credit card had been declined. I decided that I had been patient enough, said that was fine but that I was surprised nobody had contacted me, and let's just cancel the order. At that point, I was told that they'd get it shipped out the next day. It arrived today.
On 8/12/08 I ordered two low chill Cherry trees.
Spoke to Raintree in October of 08, and was told that delivery was due spring of 09.
3/12/09 delivery, found that that the two cherry trees were unavailable.
If they had informed me that these trees were unavailable, I could have purchased them from another nursery.
This is the first and last time I will deal with Raintree, I have lost a years worth of growth.
On Oct 4, 2008, theaceofspades Brentwood, NY wrote:
I am a fruit tree enthusiast on Long Island and upstate NY, growing over 75 varieties from online nurseries. I have 27 more trees ordered through 7 nurseries. I am satisfied with these current orders except for Raintree. I placed the Raintree order on August 27 for several Pear trees. An automated e-mail was returned to me that said someone at Raintree would confirm my order. My credit card was charged $127.40. On September 3, a week later, I e-mailed about the confirmation. September 4, I received a reply that Raintree would soon confirm the online order. I e-mailed again September 11 and called on the phone. September 22, I received confirmation. If I known this order would be this much trouble I would have added similar pears to the other orders and saved half the cost and a month of aggravation. Actually I tried order the pears from Cummins but they sold them out during this fiasco. Raintree did appologize in their confirmation, so I may change to neutral when the (without delay) delivered trees leaf out ok.
I will say that my first and only shipment was wonderful although I had to call about one missing sea buckberry bush which they later sent. My main problem with them is that after several attempts to get this year's catalog, I have never recieved one nor have had any of my emails replied to. Now it is too late to order anything from them.
I have placed probably 8-10 orders, and spent approx. $1000.00 with RAINTREE nursery.
Like most of you, I have placed muliple orders through RAINTREE due to the exotic nature of the plants they have for sale. When my first order arrived, the plants looked great. By the time of my last order(s) arrived, I felt like the plants I ordered were from the "marginal pile" and if not for my placing an order, they would have been trashed.
I had to toss 4 high bush huckleberries the day I got them in addition to several other items that were in bad shape when they arrived
I can't say that 1 order has ever lived up to my expectations. None of my orders arrived in the time frame given, spindley plants, etc..
These issues repeatedly forced me to purchase from local nurseries (I have a small biz that I purchase for) while I was awaiting my order from RAINTREE, a fact that I'm happier with now as most PDX based nurseries now sell most of RAINTREE's items.
The straw that broke the camels back for me was an order I placed last September to be delivered this Fall. Since I had not received my order by November 30, I phoned to determine the delay. I was told that there was a slight problem with my order (the person on the other end of the line read the order back to me so the order was placed), and that someone would call me right back. No phone call.
It is now January 10, and after still no word, I sent an email asking that the order be cancelled and to remove me from RAINTREE's mailing list.
The response from RAINTREE was that I had no order placed and they would be happy to remove me from their mailing list. After spending close to the $1000.00 referenced earlier, I expected a better response than that. (They should have apologized, taken a new order, and shipped asap) As an small biz person, this response typically drives away business. Keeping customers is the goal of any business. If there is a problem, you try to correct it, not send your client base to another nursery.
I have spent my last dollar with these guys, and believe me, there is nothing like picking your own plant stock. I suggest Shorty's as I have found everything there that I purchased from RAINTREE, and get to pick my own stock.
Perhaps RAINTREE needs a few savvy business people working for them as well as nursery folk.
Good luck to those of you who are having success with RAINTREE. You can take my word that once they think they have you hooked, the customer service goes downhill fast.
This was my first time to order from this company. I had ordered 3 wolfberry vine in gallon pots and ten tristar strawberry in four inch pots. When the items arrived, I discovered that the wolfberry was in four inch pots, and they were barely rooted, "needle-thin" caliper seedlings (cuttings?). The Tristars were plugs that had been replanted into four inch pots. Four Tristars had barely sprouted roots!
Since I had been charged for gallon-sized wolfberry vines, but received four inch pots, I called the company to ask for a refund of the difference on my credit card. I have yet to see the refund on my credit card statement.
2 years ago I ordered grafted paw paws and grafted ginko's. they all arrived out of dormacy when my area still had below freezing temps. they all managed to survive going through the summer, but they didn't really grow. the next spring 3 out of 4 were dead from the graft on up, and the 4th was just dead! a phone call to the company pretty much got me an, "oh well". WILL NOT DEAL WITH THIS COMPANY ANY MORE!!!
On Mar 17, 2007, daedelus902 Charlotte, NC (Zone 7b) wrote:
We ordered some of the European plums from Raintree, (Kirke's Blue and a Gage). They came in beautifully tended and in a heavy caliper, (over 1"). The root systems were trimmed a little more than I had hoped but they were healthy. We will order from Raintree again next year.
On April 11th, 2008, daedelus902 changed the rating from positive to negative and added the following:
As a followup to our Raintree order last year, we ordered 30 various rootstocks this year. The order came in fine, the timing was fine. The rootstock was really quite bad. We have ordered rootstock from One Green World and Cummins and all were acceptable grafting rootstock. The Raintree rootstock was notably bad. Some of the Geneva30 apple rootstock had only a single 4 inch root-strand. The Marianna rootstock was dry and over 1/2 caliper, much, much too thick for rootstock. Guess the culls got pawned off on yet another expendable customer. No more business from me Raintree...fool me once...
I have ordered from Raintree for years and have never been disappointed - untill this year. I ordered loganberries and tayberries in the fall hoping to allow for winter root growth and maybe get a few berries this year. The plants they sent were mere twigs. Although planted in compost and well cared for, two were obviously dead in February. I phoned to report this & after paying further shipping I received replacements. These were just as puny as the original plants & were severely root-bound in tiny pots. An email of complaint has been ignored.
Not good value - you can do better elsewhere.
On Jul 8, 2006, sunflower22 Salt Lake City, UT wrote:
We placed a large order for lingonerries, raspberries, etc. with Raintree. Raintree kept changing the date our plants were to be shipped. When they finally arrived, some of them looked terrible. The plants were small and the roots were spindly, curled-up looked rotten. When customer service was contacted, we were told to plant them as they would soon take off. After planting them, the leaves dropped off and most of them died. When customer service was contacted again, we were told that the time to return our plants had passed and nothing would be done. The only remedy came when we contacted the credit card company we had used to purchase the plants. In a three-way conference call to raintree with my visa rep on the line, we again contacted Raintree, the Raintree staff person was very rude, told us that while our money would be refunded, that we'd would not be allowed to ever order from them again--as if we would. Stay away from this place!!
On May 30, 2006, dontbuyraintree West Bend, WI wrote:
I ordered apple trees and raspberries in 2005. The apple trees were smaller than I was promised in emails asking about the size. The columnar apples only leafed out on the top foot - the rest of the trees were blank sticks. I was told that this was the way they were supposed to be. The dwarf apple trees look like a stick man drawing. They have almost no leaves. Once again, it's me, not their products. That's not the way either of the tree types are pictured in the catalog or on the website. The raspberries arrived in poor condition and died completely within a few weeks. Raspberries in the same location obtained from another source flourished. Of course, I was told to wait until 2006 for a replacement. For a mere $ 12.95 they will ship replacements. Why should I pay shipping charges for defective plants? Customer service has been slow. You'll do much better going to another company.
My negative experience had mostly to do with customer service. After reading positive reviews on this site and getting a recommendation from a colleague, I was excited to order from Raintree. I put in a large order - 4 trees and 9 berry plants. My first problem arose when I received conflicting information about when my order would arrive. I would get different information depending on who I was dealing with. The order ended up arriving quite a bit earlier than expected, so I had to drop everything and really scramble to get everything in the ground.
The plants arrived in good shape for the most part. Everything was packaged well, except for one raspberry plant that had snapped where the stem met the roots. The trees were a good size, but I was a bit disappointed that the trees didn't appear to have been trained much, if at all. Compared to a tree I got from another nursery which was nicely pruned, these branches were all willy-nilly with many weak crotch angles (less than 45 degrees). Also, the root mass seemed a bit skimpy compared with the tree received from this other nursery. Still, everything seems to be growing well so far, and hopefully I can prune and train the branches to a nice shape.
My main problem was that I received an extra tree and was missing one of the berry plants. I called right away to explain about the extra tree, and the woman on the phone was pleasant, said they would refund the price of the extra tree. I later followed up with email when I discovered the broken raspberry and missing berry plant. The person I emailed with was rather curt and unhelpful. She told me that they had filled exactly the order I had sent, and offered no resolution.
Now, while it's certainly possible I made an error in the ordering process, it seemed unlikely as I'm a cautious type and have made many online purchases before with no problem. Unfortunately, I had no way of confirming exactly what happened, because I did not receive a detailed, itemized order confirmation after submitted my order online. I had no idea an error had been made until the box arrived and I saw the mistake on the order slip.
I emailed back to ask for some sort of resolution, and to confirm that I would be receiving a refund for the extra tree I'd been charged for. No response to my email. I waited 2-3 days, then called. The woman I spoke with on the phone said she'd check on it and get back to me. She didn't call back, but I later got a snippy email saying that "since you were already told told you would get a refund" it would be taken care of. The whole exchange left me with a sour feeling, like I was being a "bad customer" and that they thought I was trying to cheat them or something. Having spent a lot of money already, and as a potential lifelong customer, I would have liked to have been given the benefit of the doubt. To top it all off, I still haven't received a refund, 9 days later - neither for the broken raspberry nor for the extra tree.
I'm rather disappointed, as this was my first large mail order from any nursery, and I had high expectations of this one. Hopefully my experience was an anomaly, but I don't think I'll be ordering from them again or recommending them to others.
On Feb 5, 2006, olddog Colfax, LA (Zone 7a) wrote:
OLDDOG 2/05/06 COLFAX LA.
THE TREES I ORDERED CAME ONE TIME AND LOOK VERY GOOD. THEY WERE PACK WELL AND IN GOOD SHAPE. THE WEATHER HERE IS IN THE MID 60'S AND THE BUDS ARE STARTING TO OPEN!
On February 27th, 2006, olddog changed the rating from positive to negative and added the following:
olddog Colfax La. 2/27/06
This order was the third and last. One good order out three is not good enough. I ordered raspberries E340 and received E335. When I ordered I was informed that if E340 was not ready to ship by the 1st. of March the order would be canceled and refunded to my card. To avoid canceling they subed. I waited three days for an answer to my email. No answer. I'm evaluating fruites and berries that may do well in our hot weather. When I order I can not use a sub,I need the type I order for the first trial planting.They have been removed from my book marks. NEVER AGAIN!On February 27th, 2006, olddog added the following:
olddog Colfax La. 2/27/06
After posting the above I received an email promising a refund. Thanks Watch Dog!
i have ordered from this company two times...and both were big mistakes! i ordered raspberies and currants as well as salmon berries. i was living in washington state at the time and the plants arrived very dry,the size of shoelaces!, NO ROOTS and looking as if they had been mulched. i called the company and , expecting a nice simple "oh, we will fix this right away"was "treated" instead by a nasty and completely unhelpful employee. i emailed and called and finally they admitted [a year later] that the raspberry plants were infected with a virus. their attitude was "oops...oh well". they never did fix the problem and i was left with money out of my pocket for dead and or infected plants, contaminated soil...and a very bad taste in my mouth.
NEVER BUY FROM THIS COMPANY....it's just not worth it to have your soil contaminated.
Last year I oredered 12 red raspberry plants and they all died. I did get replacements for those plants after waiting for a long time and experiencing several run around phone-calls, but here we are in the last of July and, none of those plants have made it. I'm disgusted and want my money back. They can't use that excuse that I ordered them out of zone, because I didn't. Also, I had my soil tested and don't have nematodes. That excuse is stupid.
On May 10, 2005, CritterCapers Spring Hope, NC (Zone 8a) wrote:
My order consisted of a Peter's Honey fig, 5 chestnut and 2 black walnut—along with a few "bonus" raspberry bushes. The raspberries were beautiful, large well-rooted plants. The chestnut and walnut, were nice until you looked at the "bare root" part. What roots? They appeared to have been chopped out of the ground and most of the roots stripped off. Three of the chesnuts and one walnut did leaf out, but will require several years of major TLC to survive. The fig was worse. It was the thickness of a Cross pen, dry, brittle, and the bark at root-level had rotted off. It was obviously dead. After almost forty years of gardening I can nurse just about anything back to life—except the already dead. Tina, at Raintree, seemed insulted that I mentioned the fig was dead at shipment (quality control problem?), but did offer a credit or replacement it "next season". I'm interested in seeing what I'm sent and will post the results.
I received an Eversweet pomegranate from Raintree as a gift two years ago. It failed to grow so they said they would send a replacement this year (they are bare root and were out of stock). In the meantime, my sister gave me a gift cert for Raintree for Xmas this year. I ordered a Moro Blood Orange. The orange shipped in April, and literature says it is a genetic dwarf. Raintree says it will grow full size. We'll see. It was $45.00 with shipping and I received a small 1 year old tree. I bought one twice the size in HomeDepot (from same grower, Raintree doesn't grow them) for $18.00. I also was entitled to free plants with my order (someone at Raintree told me I couldn't get free plants when ordering citrus, but apparently he was misinformed!) I got 2 raspberry plants, but only one of those grew.
The replacement pomegranate arrived in January or February, I followed the directions, but it also failed to grow. (My local nursery said pomegranate doesn't do well bare root, so they only sell pomegranate in peat pots. The nursery does guarantee their plants!) Raintree informed me that they will only replace/refund plants once. I am very disappointed, and will NOT order from them again.
I bought raspberries, grapes and a nectarine tree from Raintree this spring. I ordered 6 raspberries, bareroot, one of which was dead and suspected another being dead. I know when they are bareroot they look dead already, but honestly, they looked extra dead, if you know what I mean. They plants were dry and completely brown and crispy. I contacted them and the sent me a replacement raspberry which they weren't super quick about, but the replacement raspberry I got was HUGE. It's root system was about 10 times what I had received earlier. This irritated me, since the intial raspberries I got were alive, but very small and meager. I emailed them and stated, "how come all my plants don't look like this??". I then ordered grapes, all dead, nothing grew. I contacted them again and they had a horticulturalist "handle" me, implying I was a dummie and I didn't know what I was talking about. After several emails of describing the grapes the horticulturalist, she definately agreed they were dead and shipped more. Of course, I had to pay a hefty shipping charge for their sending me dead plants, both times. Took FOREVER to get my replacements and still only 1 grape was alive and is growing. My nectarine tree is was extremely healthy and is doing well, which I'm grateful for. I sent them an email stated my grievances with them and they replied saying they try to do a good job, but you know what folks, this took weeks for them to get it right and they still didn't and their plants aren't cheap. I've heard good things, but I was sorely disapointed in them. I've ordered all my other plants from Wayside Gardens and they put Raintree to shame with quality of plants and customer service. My Advice would be just don't order a lot...try Raintree out first and see how there plants are, I would give thumbs up on the tree though. Hopefully, they will use this review as a way to improve and do better.
I have ordered several times from Raintree over the last few years. Lately, their plant quality has been declining. My last order which arrived spring '02 contained a few disappointments: 1) two varieties of cane berries which were literally less than 1/4" thick whips (I routinely get 1/2" - 3/4" thick canes from other suppliers, 2) a dormant fig tree with a broken top (this perished quickly), 3) packaging which was substandard to protect the plants adequately.
The year before the sent a "super-sized" blueberry bush 2'-3' which was only a foot tall. I admit that they are good at issuing refunds, but why bother when you can do better elsewhere.
Bob
From all the other rave reviews I'm assuming they just give lousy service to the midwest. I suspect that no matter how early they take your order they give priority to the places they ship to first (the NW and W).For two years in a row now I order in January, they say they have everything, and then when ship time comes they don't ship half my stuff and claim "crop failure". Yeah right, I really believe that in January they didn't know exactly how many apple trees they had dug and had bare-root in storage.Worse, despite my always saying no substitutions they keep sending me substitutes I don't want, and charging me for them! Both times I've complained and they refunded me the charge leaving me with free trees I didn't want, but it really annoys me that they ignore my request for no substitutes. Also, they say right in their catalog intro that they send larder than typical plants. Theserviceberry I ordered this year can as a 4 inch just-rooted twig. The crab apple that they claimed would be a 3-5 foot tree was a 2 foot tall single whip no thicker than a pencil. I cannot recommend them in any way and will not be ordering from then again.
