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Generally I'd say they are good. Prices are nearly as good as some wholesale places. I've only had one batch of bad seed, not bad considering all that grew well.
I placed an order with Banana Tree.com for a Dwarf Cavendish Banana. I spoke with them on the phone and they were very courteous and helpful. My banana plant arrived promptly and in good condition. It is growing very well. I am a satisfied customer.
I noticed comments about Banana Tree and want to add that I have bought a number of tropical seeds from them in the past. Few have germinated, although I am a pretty good gardener. For instance, I ordered variouspassiflora from him, but they did not germinate at all, although all the passiflora varieties I ordered from Thompson and Morgan germinated just fine with the same treatment. The few times I talked to the fellow at Banana Tree, he was quite snippy and made a lot of remarks about how he was too busy for me because he had orders in the 100s of kgs for seeds. I know from experience buying seeds from wholesalers that anyone who sells seeds in those amounts does not do any seed packets, but I said nothing. Spring of 2001 I finally ordered a batch of a single species totaling $70. They were quite small for their species and kind of desiccated looking. I got absolute zero germination on them. When I put them in water, most of them floated. Many were so dead that when I opened them, I could see that the innards had shrunk away from the shell. In the past, I had bought the same variety seed from him, and they had been fine. I knew the market for these seeds was tight at the moment, though, and figured he was just being a little greedy and selling old seeds. I called him, and as others have reported, he was very rude to me and said outright that I did not know how to grow seeds. The seeds in question are to be nicked to germinate; he claimed this was absolutely WRONG. I said I wanted some consideration about the dead seeds, especially since I had spent several hundred dollars on his business in the past. He said if I returned them, he would send me *half* as many replacement seeds from a new batch he had just got in. Although this meant the price was twice as much, I consented, because I needed them. I returned the seeds, and when he got them, he left a message on my phone saying he was crediting my card for the seeds and that he was NOT going to sell me seeds anymore. In a very nasty voice, he added, "I just hope you can find somewhere else to buy those seeds." As a matter of fact, the same day I ordered them from Companion Plants for the same price, and they were nice and fat, and had 80% germination.
I ordered the following palm seeds from The banana tree. Washington Filifera, most germinated. Trachycarpus Fortunei, none germinated. Phoenix Robellini, 1 germinated. Jubea Chinensis, none.
I was rather surprised by all the bad comments people have about Banana Tree. I ordered some seeds of Pride of Barbados, Baobob, Bottle Brush, Elephant's Foot and Mexican Blue Palm. The Pride of Barbados germinated immediately. All the seeds appeared fresh and didn't have that old dark look to them. Most of these seeds are reported to take between 2 to as long as 18 months to germinate, so perhaps most people just lose patience with them thinking they are bad. The seeds came clearly labeled with growing instructions in a padded envelope. Sounds as if not all customers are treated the same.
I asked if they would ever be selling a certain banana corm again and the owner emailed me back a curt reply that he only dealt in large wholesale sales for banana corms and he knew nowhere I could get the particular banana corm anymore.
I have placed and received several orders from the Banana Tree over the past several years (plants and seeds). I have NEVER had any problem getting their seeds to germinate and grow. I've ordered a lot of different types of seeds and have had great success with them. Each time I've received seeds from them, regardless of the amount ordered, they have always arrived in a padded envelope. I have never received crushed seeds from them either. Every time I've called there to place an order, the man I talk to is very nice. I've never had any problem with him being nasty or rude. I've been very pleased with the orders I've received from The Banana Tree, and I will continue to order from them in the future.
I live in the area. Stopped in to look around and perhaps buy some seed. After all I do live here so why order by mail...He told me if I was just window shopping, he was to busy with mail orders to wait for me to decide. If I had no knowledge of growing things from seed perhaps I should try Radishes. This is not a joke. He seems to do everything alone (and I really believe it best that way-who could stand to be with such a negative person all day?)
I used to order palm seeds from the Banana Tree, and got very poor germination. I assumed that I was doing something wrong. Then I ordered seeds from D. Orriel Seed exporters out of Australia. I went from zero per cent germination to sixty five per cent germination for Livistonia australis seeds. Others fared as well. I also found the owner of the Banana Tree to be very rude on the phone, when I called him about a problem. He told me that he likes to deal with the public as little as possible. Small wonder.
I have ordered from Banana Tree in the past. I had very poor germination of ALL seeds ordered. I have also ordered the same seeds from other companies (exact Genus and species) with much better luck. However, I will continue to order Voodoo bulb plants (Amorphaphallus riviera) from Banana Tree as I have had great luck with these.
I have ordered two or three times from Banana Tree, Inc. It was a bit of a let down to get the seed after reading such an informative catalog. However, I have not experienced any problems with the quality of seed. I have not run any controlled germination tests though either. Packaging could be improved and perhaps handling fees reduced. I will continue to order from Banana Tree, Inc. but will be more selective in my requests.
I've ordered a couple of times from the Banana Tree. Almost nothing germinated, but I had thought it was my fault. I live in Costa Rica, and we germinate a fair amount of seeds for the nursery, so maybe it *was* a problem with the seed quality.
Banana Tree ships seeds in small plastic bags, all pressing against one another, in an unprotected larger envelope. In each instance, Iordered several seed packets and required to pay their $5 or more minimum mail charge, and each time, they slapped $.29 on the envelope.The average seed amount is between 5 and 7 - usually 5. The majority of the seeds seemed to be quite old as viability was low and few sprouted - some of the seeds were crushed upon arrival. When I called to complain, they were rude and adamant that "I" was doing something wrong, even though I've grown tropicals ordered from J.L. Hudson, Brudy's, Logee's and even Mellinger's in summer, spring and even in the dead of winter over a heating pad, and have always experienced great success (many of these seeds were of the same kind ordered from Banana Tree, but of obviously better quality). Banana Tree refused to replace ANY of the seeds ordered, and the crushed ones were caused by poor handling of MY postal service, according to them, and not due to their poor packing. I regretted having sent in a second order, before waiting to receive the first, since sure enough, when it arrived shortly after, it was more of the same. All and all, my experience with Banana Tree has amounted to a lot of wasted dollars over half a palm-full of overpriced, worthless seeds.
