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On Apr 7, 2004, yardener Greenfield, OH (Zone 6a) wrote:
I found their selection excellant. Their prices may seem high, especially for those of us in the east, but the great quality more then makes up for it. (I actully feel the price isn't all that bad) The customer service is fantastic. They actually asked "me" when "I" wanted my order shipped, and it was right on time. I'm already planning a fall order.
On May 3rd, 2005, yardener added the following:
On time and in excellent condition, again! They are the best!
Pretty incredible. The selection is outstanding and then some. The health of the trees I selected was outstanding. The packaging very good. I receive each calatalog whether I've ordered recently or not. And the prices have me floored. Prompt, businesslike. Superb. Green thumb way up.
On Apr 1, 2004, TexasTatum Celina, TX (Zone 7b) wrote:
I ordered from Forest Farm last week. My plants arrived this week, in multiple boxes, over several days. I AM THRILLED WITH THIS ORDER!!! I placed a large order with
the sweetest lady at Forest Farm, she was kind, witty, and if she was not sure about something I questioned, she asked and found out for me. I LOVE the customer service here.
I also LOVE the plants, shipping methods, (the way everything was perfectly boxed, secured, and did not move a mm. during shipping:) I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO IMPRESSED WITH A MAIL ORDER PLANT SERVICE BEFORE. THIS ONE IS TOP OF THE LINE!!!! They have things I just cannot find at my local nursery, and this wonderful 512 page catalog that came with my order with 512 pages more of stuff for me to order LOL:)
Happy Gardening !!!!!! Texas Tatum
I think ForestFarm did a great job with my order. I placed my order on a saturday night and recieved my order the following wednesday. The plants were in great shape, as well as being larger then expected. They were packed well, although the box had a little wear and tear the plants inside were not damaged at all. I like the great selection and even recieved a card separately a few days later saying thanks for the order. I am impressed with their promptness and their personable attitude towards customers. I will definitly be doing business with them again in the future.
I have made several purchases from Forest Farm in the past and I was always a satisfied customer. I recently purchased a "Male," Northern Bayberry, which was really hard to find since most nurseries do not tend to identify the sex of the plant. The plant arrived in excellent shape and is already in the ground....I look forward to seeing my female Bayberry plants give berries with help of the male plant.
On Feb 21, 2004, CharredToast Ravensdale, WA wrote:
I ordered from Forestfarm 3 times last year. All the plants are alive and doing well. All the plants I ordered were rare or hard to find plant, and arrived promptly and in good condition. I love the selection at Forestrarm, and already have tons of post-its in their spring 2004 catalog.
5 gallon tree arrived in excellent condition (moist soil, no broken branches) 3 days after ordering. Tree looks excellent in quality. Price even with shipping was much less for a Bloodgood Japanese maple than I could buy locally (San Jose,CA area). Excellent experience, will buy from them again.
I've purchased a lot of plants from this company, and my experience with them has been nothing but positive. In a few instances when I've been disappointed with a particular plant they have rectified the problem to my satisfaction.
Great plants, superior packaging, and terrific service.
I highly recommend Forest Farm.
Praise from yet another happy customer. Their selection is simply mindboggling. I really like the tubes--the small size not only keeps the prices down, they're also easier to plant and establish quickly.
I ordered from Forestfarm for the first time in the spring of 2003 - four gallon sized woody plants. The plants were fine, the packing excellent and they arrived surprisingly quickly via UPS ground. The question for Eastern gardeners remains whether it is worth it to pay the high shipping costs. Forestfarm ships in 3 sizes of pots so the weight and thus the cost are high. I am in no way criticising this method. It is horticulturally sound and no doubt increases efficiency and thereby keeps the prices of plants reasonable. So, is it worth it? For something you just must have and can find nowhere else (my case), absolutely. For more readily available things or those which can be found closer to home with some searching, however, I don't think the quality, while excellent, is enough greater to justify sending pounds of potting mixture from Oregon.
On April 27th, 2004, dpf58 added the following:
I ordered four Japanese maples this spring (2004). They were shipped FEDEX ground on 4-15 and arrived on 4-21. All were much larger than indicated in the catalog and arrived in excellent condition. In light of my previous thoughts on shipping from Oregon to the East coast: First, the maples were incredibly reasonable compared to other places (two at 25.00 each and two at 29.00 each). Maples of equal size and quality would have been at least twice as expensive from any Japanese maple supplier I know of. Second, the shipping charges were around 33.00 or approximately 25% - no more than I would expect to pay at an East coast nursery. Third, Forest Farm was kind enough to call me with the news that one of the plants I had ordered was not available so I could select an alternative to fill out my 4 gallon order. What more could anyone ask of a mailorder nursery?
I have dealt with this company for many years and have been very happy with their plants. I have a large garden (6 acres) and can not afford the cost of large plants. They offer tube sized plants which adjust easily and grow rapidly and which are very affordable. Recently I emailed a request for a certain plant which was only in their catalogue in a larger size. I inquired as to the possibility of ordering it in the smaller size. The owner emailed me back a day later after he had gone out to his nursery in the rain to count exactly how many he had of this plant. He found he had it in the smaller size but in too small a quantity to include in his catalogue. He also counted those available in the larger size. I believe this service was truly 'above and beyond'. I deeply appreciated his efforts so ordered all of them. I can't wait to get his 2004 catalogue with all its new offerings. They have an extraordinary variety of selections of fantastic plants. I heartily recommend this company. They ship when you request shipment and their plants are packed well.
I've ordered small, tube-sized, plants from ForestFarm several times. The selection is great; shipping was prompt; they kept me informed about the status of the order; packaging was very secure; and the plants seemed very healthy.
On Oct 28, 2003, buggz Peyton, CO (Zone 5b) wrote:
After reading the wonderful reviews about ForestFarm, I decided to try them out myself. I was impressed with the great selection of shrubs and trees that they offer. I found everything I was looking for, all at great prices. The shipping was a little high, but the total cost still turned out to be cheaper than my local nursery would charge for the same-sized plants. I ordered a total of 5 shrubs. They arrived well-packaged and very healthy. The sizes of the shrubs were quite impressive and worth every bit of the price that I paid. They sent along a free catalog with my order. Wow! They certainly do have quite the selection! I'll be ordering from ForestFarm again. I'm very pleased with this company and highly recommend ForestFarm to others.
On Oct 17, 2003, dougrobnyc New York, NY (Zone 6a) wrote:
I found Forest Farm to be very professional and courteous. The tree was exactly as stated in the email to me. Shipping was very reasonable. I would definitely order from them again!
On Oct 9, 2003, berrygirl Braselton, GA (Zone 7b) wrote:
I received my order today and was well pleased. This is the first time I've ordered from them but it won't be the last! I only ordered one plant and it was wrapped and packaged so securely it took me 10 min. to get it out of the box!! The plant is nice and green and in excellent shape. They have a huge selection of things that I haven't seen offered anywhere else. I think the prices are VERY reasonable for the quality of the plants and the care they take when shipping. I was a little disappointed with their catalog not having photos, but it's probably impossible given their huge inventory. the cat. was over 500 pgs. as it is!!!! I will def. be ordering again!!!
On March 31st, 2005, berrygirl added the following:
I just received a replacement plant today of a plant that died last year.
This plant is absolutely HUGE and so lush!!!
It took DH quite the struggle to get it out of its box. These folks really know how to SECURELY package a shipment!! If the UPS truck had been in a tornado, this plant would have survived intact- LOL!
I really love this company and would recommend them to anyone.
I've been drooling over the Forest Farm catalog for a few years, now, but until a recent move, had no room for any more plants!
I've spent the spring and summer researching trees, and planning my new gardens, and have made several trips to more local nurseries (up to a two hour drive) to fill my "wish list" of rare and hard to find trees. Never having ordered trees by mail before, I was a hesitant to order from FF. The price of the trees in some cases being less than the price of shipping was also daunting!
But, having searched far and wide within any reasonable driving distance, I was left with no choice: If I wanted some of those trees, I'd have to mailorder them. Honestly, if you add the shipping costs to the plant prices, they're still totally reasonable.
I contacted Forest Farm in August to reserve a Prunus serrula, and then a few weeks ago added 5 other trees and various shrubs to the order, and have spent the time fretting and worrying about the poor things being stuck in ground shipping.
Through the ordering and waiting process, I emailed Ray several times, and always got very prompt and friendly replies, ditto with the one call I placed, to initially find out about sizes of the prunus serrula.
So, today I finally got my trees! I am THRILLED! They are all as large or larger than I expected, were packed amazingly well, and look like I just drove them home from the nursery (or actually better than a few trees I drove home with!). Beautiful, healthy trees.
From start to finish I can only rave about the service and the product, and I will be sure to order again!
I ordered hydrangeas for the first time via mail order this spring. I ordered from three different companies. The plant I received from Forest Farms was by far the best of all of them. It was HUGE and the roots were well established. I would really recommend them to others. The care they showed in shipping was great.
On May 13th, 2004, tjgillham added the following:
Last spring I ordered a 5-gallon Hydrangea Kyushu and was very, very impressed. This spring I ordered three one-gallon plants (one hydrangea 'Little Lamb' and two Astrantias). I also ordered several tubes. I was a little nervous about the tubes but they are very developed for such small plants. I am very pleased and will order from them again in the future.
I ordered a Catalpa tree from them (it was very hard to find smaller ones in my Wisconsin location which I could plant myself--most were 12 feet and would need a 3' x 3' hole) and it arrived in very good condition. It was planted within a few days of receiving and is healthy and doing very well. I ordered the 6-foot tree which came in an approx. 5 gallon pot. The shipping was more than the tree!, but even so, I thought the price was very reasonable. I would order from them again.
On Jul 28, 2003, picealuver East Wenatchee, WA wrote:
Don't get me wrong--we love forestfarm and will continue to order from their very complete selection. However, we have begun to notice a trend in that their grafted cultivars do not always do well. May not die right away, but we've lost several over six months to a year.
On Jul 28, 2003, Forestfarm responded with:
"We appreciate the fact that "picealuver" still enjoys our plants. However, it would have been nice if we had been given the opportunity to respond to their concerns directly. There may be circumstances beyond all of our control that may be causing problems. We would certainly like to be given a chance to rectify the problem before the customer felt compelled to give us a negative rating."
On Jun 27, 2003, Terry Murfreesboro, TN (Zone 7a) wrote:
Their catalog is big enough to be a doorstop, and it's single-spaced text with only a few line drawings scattered throughout. I had college textbooks with less substance to them.
Nearly any species and variety of ornamental plant can be found at Forestfarm. I ordered several shrubs ("tube" size) this spring. They arrived in very good condition, and exactly when I expected them. Now that they've been in growing on in gallon-size containers, the topgrowth is excellent, and the plants may be ready to set in the garden a year ahead of my original schedule.
Two small problems: I failed to include a plant in my online order, and I sent them a followup email requesting to have it added to the order, which it wasn't; and a glitch with my debit card was straightened out with a quick phone call. All in all the plants were a good value and I'm sure I'll be a return customer.
This nursery is by far the best I have found, especially for woody plants - incredible selection, healthy plants, and reasonable prices. I have consistently been amazed by the quality of the plants received, especially when compared to the undersized and overpriced offerings typical in the mail-order trade. I have begun to turn my 3-acre yard into an ‘arboretum’, which wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t found ForestFarm. In thousands of dollars of orders, I had never had a problem, but when we had a miscommunication about shipping method on a recent order, Ray was extremely helpful at resolving the problem. This is a nursery that really cares about the plants and the customers.
I have ordered a number of times from Forest Farms, mostly shrubs. They have an extremely wide selection of varieties that you can't find other places. I have to ecco what has been said here about their packaging. They are amaizing. I really do not know how they can do so much careful packaging for their shipping costs. I have ordered from a wide variety of web suppliers now, and no-one does it better.
The plants have come in excellent condition and all but one out of the dozen or so shrubs that I have ordered are thriving. The one that isn't is probably due to my planting rather than their selection or packaging.
Well, if I ever stumble over a Ming vase or an orc's egg, I think I'll entrust it to ForestFarms to pack. It took a good twenty minutes to extract my five plants from the packaging, but they were in superb condition and without so much as one bent leaf. (By happenstance I received a shipment from Directgardening the same day -- a rose bush that was stuffed in a plastic bag then in a plastic mailing envelope and sent via USPS. All its shoots were broken off and it looked like a sorry dead stick. Guess which company I'll buy from again and which company I'll avoid?)
Four of the five things I ordered from ForestFarms are flourishing and have withstood transplanting well. The fifth -- a veronica -- is sort of sad and stunted, but I'm trusting that it will come back once it's properly established. If not, I'm confident that the company will make it good.
As a side note, ForestFarms twice contacted me when selections I'd made were unavailable, and suggested I might want to order more tubes so I took full advantage of the shipping price. All in all, it's a pleasure to do business with this company .
I have ordered everything from tiny groundcover to shade trees and have had no problem. All have thrived. The few small perennials I have lost were due to my providing the wrong growing conditions. I think complaints about receiving disappointingly "tiny, thin sticks" may be from relatively inexperienced gardeners used to in-season commercial presentation of plants. I propagate perennials and hardwoods for a hobby and ForestFarms's look better than most of mine. Also excellent packaging and customer service. Lots of hard-to-find plants.
I ordered 6 specimen conifers in tube sizes and in one- gallon sizes. The box had been damaged in transit by FedEx but since Forestfarm had packed the contents very carefully, no plants were damaged. All seedlings/plants were in great shape (the soil was still plenty moist) and are doing extremely well. I will definately order from them again!
Two large orders in fall 2001 and fall 2002 were all in great condition and well packaged. Don't expect BIG plants but they are more than reasonable for price and selection they offer. ForestFarm is an invaluable resource for gardeners.
On October 6th, 2004, oregonzone8 added the following:
Very happy with order rcvd in fall 2004, too. Four great plants (all in gallons) -- actually quite good sized and incredibly well packed.
I ordered 4 tubes (perennials) at 35.80 (!) which was, I thought, expensive but I was unable to locate the plant anywhere else. The order went through, I received the tubes, and followed the instructions accordingly. The plants did not thrive and I contacted ForestFarm via email. I was told that their plants also did not thrive and that they would send a check at the "end of their shipping season." I appreciated their honesty about the plants but I felt that they were rather vague and not too businesslike regarding the refund. However, I was patient. A month later I still had not received my refund and I sent them another email. I was told that they had not forgotten and that they would send a refund at the "end of the shipping season." Grrr. Their attitude seems rather careless to me and, naturally, I want my money now not sometime in the nebulous future. I highly do not recommend ForestFarm. I do a lot of plant catalog ordering and this is my first experience with this type of attitude. So far, everyone else has been very businesslike.
On June 5th, 2003, tlknkr changed the rating from negative to neutral and added the following:
I received my refund today, 6/05/03. I do appreciate the response and the final acknowledgement with regard to my credit.
I ordered several shrubs and one tree from Forest Farm for the first time and I am very pleased. The packing was great and everything arrived in perfect condition. The service is wonderful and everyone is so helpful, even in the middle of their busy season. They took the time to answer several e-mails and questions by phone. Will buy from them again.
On May 24, 2003, Sue_WA Seattle, WA (Zone 8a) wrote:
Forest Farm has a nice selection and I can usually find the tree or shrub I'm looking for. I keep going back to Forest Farm. Usually quick to reply to e-mails. Excellent packaging! I usually order from their website, and it would be nice if the plant you order shows if it is out of stock or not. Kind of a disappointment when the plant is not in the box when you receive them. Overall a solid 9 out of 10. Love Forest Farm!
My shrubs and plants from Forestfarm came packaged so well, I think that they could have survived a trip around the world! I'm extrememly pleased with the condition of my purchase and the speed with which they came. Great company!
paid an inordinately large sum (with shipping) for 2 trees for fall planting. Both did not revive this spring. Have yet to ask them for replacements, will let you know what happens.
On May 20, 2003, Forestfarm responded with:
"After several emails to and from us by " rjgmg", we have been unsuccessful in finding either him or his address within our system. We believe he may be confusing Forestfarm with another nursery. We had requested basic information from this person such as an invoice number, information from the plant label, anything to help assist in satisfying this person. Since he hasn't provided us with any further information, we are left with the conclusion that he in fact did not receive these plants from Forestfarm. "rjgmg" has not responded to our several requests that he modify or correct his posting about Forestfarm, so we are posting this response in our defense."
On May 19, 2003, Tiki Freeport, NY (Zone 7a) wrote:
This company has a wonderful catalog and supply of so many trees and shrubs at great prices. And they had no problem changing my order a couple of times before it was sent. I had ordered a few shrubs and a perennial.
When the plants arrived I had to wait a couple of days to plant them because the temp had dropped and we had some late snow. So I unpacked the plants (great packaging) and left them in the garage to adjust to the weather. Everything was planted and is thriving except my viburnum "mohawk". I had emailed Forestfarm two times (once in April and once in May) to inform them that the viburnum did not survive. I am still waiting to hear from them.
On May 19th, 2003, Tiki changed the rating from neutral to positive and added the following:
Just received postcard in todays mail. They're sending a replacement. THANKS FORESTFARM! Will order again next year. I already have a wish list.
I'm not really a conspiracy theory buff; but after receiving my Forestfarm order, I find it a little odd that other mailorder nurseries are still in business. Forestfarm ships plants in their tubes for a low price that compare favorably with "premium 3 gallon plants" I have received from other mailorder nurseries. If you can't find it anywhere else you can probably find it at Forestfarm,and if you can find it at Forestfarm, why order it from anywhere else?
SUPERB!!!!!!! This is the best mail-order nursery! They have great catalog, excellent quality plants, extraordinary customer service and THE BEST PACKING in the world! Highly recommended!!
My stewartia psuedocamellia arrived this afternoon and was unpacked (with some difficulty since the pot had been individually boxed and then stapled with heavy brass staples into the tall box that held the tree). It is in full leaf,four feet high and in excellent condition - if local nurseries stocked this variety it would cost several times as much. These people ship fantastic plants - the weeping pear I got from them a few years ago is now a substantial little tree. Shipping costs are high (the stewartia came Fedex) but because the original cost of the plants are so low, it still pays to buy from them. And the quality can't be beat.
I'm surprised after reading all the good reviews, that the plants I received were so small, much smaller than I expected. One was a tree that was only 3 inches tall... Also, I received an email from the company that my order was shipped on 4/7/03 but FedEx did not deliver them until 4/17/03, which I understand is not the companies fault. But one plant was completely dry and wilted over and I hope, if it doesn't survive, I can get it replaced.
They do have a very extensive catalog, but I don't think I will order from them again.
On Apr 15, 2003, GREENJEAN Lake Oswego, OR (Zone 8a) wrote:
I was really impressed with the size of the tubes. The eucalyptus is 4 feet tall! Really pleased with all of my stuff...hypericum, hydrangia and eucalyptus.
