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In my past few dealings with this company I'd say I've only ever been about 25% satisfied. Mostly I've order Cypripedium orchids and found them to be well under blooming size despite being listed as 'Blooming sized'. The only nice blooming sized division I ever received was a Cypripedium henryi. The parviflorum i received surprising managed to bloom on a very very small plant (growth achieved about four inches), but was obviously not a pure parviflorum and looked more like one of its hybrids (which would also explain how it managed to bloom on such a immature plant). The Cyp. formosanum was a very small division about three inches long with four roots the longest of which was two inches long. The bud on this quickly rotted off shortly after growing about half an inch.
My email correspondences have always been unsatisfying. Questions and concerns about the plants I've received were typically curt, while trying to pass off poor health quality as just the plants "challenging to grow" status. Their insistance on having my US social security number to pass customs is questionable as well. In my dealings with Planteck, another Canadian orchid company, I have never been asked for my social security number and the plants made it through customs without a problem.
My overall assessment; A company with a wide variety of very interesting plants, but lacks consistant health quality, does not consistantly deliver in regards to advertized plant size, lacks good customer service, and has questionable procedures in dealing with US customers. Only use if you simply can not find that particular rare plant anywhere else and at your own risk.
I ordered five species of trilliums, 16 plants total. With one exception, all rhizomes (roots) were tiny, one quarter to slightly over half an inch, what I would expect on a two year seedling. So tiny they need to be brought on four to five years in a greenhouse which I don't have so mine will probably die. One species had a soft growing point, meaning that it will be another year before they even make a leaf if they don't complete rotting before then. Packing consisted of plants twisted in a few scraps of dry newspaper and very loose in the box; all stems broken and all leaves crushed. Prices are a little on the high side for mature, blooming plants. Fraser's response to contact is that the plants I received are blooming size. Packing and damage were not addressed. The email was curt almost to rudeness. Guess my $278 US is down the drain.
USE EXTREME CARE IF YOU ARE ORDERING PLANTS FROM THIS NURSERY AND YOU LIVE IN COLDER ZONES (1-7) !!! I ordered $800.00 worth of Cypripediums, Arisaema, Helleborus, Bletilla, and other hardy orchids last fall. Had fabulous snow cover this winter, 2 ft. deep for months. Despite this protection, $200.00 worth rotted or never came up. Other plants appear much smaller than the listed size or maturity level. The owner (who has never seen my yard) insists the plants were being grown in wet soil, and thus rotted. Hmmmmm, that's strange, I wonder why my 7 other species of Cypripedium, 10 other Arisaemas, and various other Bletillas and Orchids are up and blooming just fine?? Did Nature have a special pair of x-ray glasses that saw the little red message "kill me" on the Thimble Island plants?? Don't you just hate it when the owner of a nursery insults your intelligence? When the plants arrived, one Helleborus had very bad roots and was clearly dead. The one tree peony I ordered looked dead on arrival and proceeded to just make growth from below the graft in the Spring. The owner supposedly sent a refund for these 6 weeks ago, but so far I haven't received it. Will update this review when it arrives. The "skinny" on this nursery is that it is virtually in a subtropical climate when the average winter low is 20-30 degrees F and temperatures below 15 degrees are exceptional. The plants are "wimpy" and clearly are not used to the cold. Do yourself a favor and avoid a lot of misery.....THINK TWICE BEFORE ORDERING FROM THIS NURSERY IF YOU LIVE IN COLDER ZONES!!!
On August 12th, 2003, dave12122 added the following:
I would like to report that refund check for Helleborus that never came up and tree peony that grew from below graph was sent about 2 months after initial complaint. However, company is avoiding the major issue of MANY Cypripediums that were supposed to be mature blooming size plants and turned out to make 1-4 inches of growth, with no blooms. I do not buy their explanation that the "plants are hard to grow". Other Cypripediums I purchased as blooming sized plants from different nurseries came up and bloomed this year...I consider that "normal'. If the Cyp. species Fraser's has are THAT hard to grow, perhaps it is irresponsible to sell them. Based on the small root system on the Cypripediums I received, it is much more likely that plants were smaller than the catalog listed size, and I should be compensated for the difference in the cost of the blooming sized plants and the cost of the smaller plants I received. But the nursery doesn't want to hear this....so I'm stuck with plants that will probably take 2-3 more years to reach blooming size, yet I paid top dollar for them. Does that sound like good business to you?
