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Here is a link that might be useful: Search results for: gurney

Walter:

Gurney's was bought out by a larger company, but they still seem to be as reliable as they were when independent. I would rate them at least as good as Stark Bros., which was also bought out, and more than once. I think you will be satisfied with nursery stock from Gurney's, and if not, I am pretty sure they will make good on it.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Most stock I've gotten has been decent, but, as mentioned above, the principle benefit they offer is the no-questions-asked lifetime return or refund policy. I definitely wouldn't order from them without using their "buy $25, get $25" coupons because everything is marked-up to cost nearly double what comparable stock would cost at other nurseries (although most of these can't afford to offer such a generous return policy).

Since Gurney's was bought, they have an ABSOLUTELY DISMAL reputation. Apparently their return policy is worth far less than the paper it's written on. Always check Garden Watchdog. I wouldn't consider buying from Gurney's even with a half off coupon! Check out the link below.

With all the reputable companies out there, why would anyone take a chance on a place with more complaints than satisfied customers?

Here is a link that might be useful: Gurney's Garden Watchdog Page

Brandon:

With all due respect to services like Garden Watchdog, you have to bear in mind that indignant, wounded customers are far more likely to post their views than satisfied customers, who might constitute the vast majority. The numbers shown on the Garden Watchdog site do not seem like an overwhelming judgment to me, given the thousands of orders processed and shipped.

It is also true that some customers, particularly beginners, either do not promptly and properly handle living nursery stock, or plant it in conditions where it is nearly impossible for it to prosper. When this happens, it is not the fault of the nursery, but that does not stop people from expressing their unhappiness.

I view the consolidation of the nursery industry into a few large firms as an unhealthy development, but the nursery business is no easy money goldmine. Competition is tough, labor is expensive (labor is far and away the largest expense of nursery operations), and the alternative for many of these smaller firms would have been to go out of business entirely. There are fewer fruit tree nurseries left that grow all or even part of their stock. Most use contract growers, and that applies to some of the highly regarded operations like Raintree.

I don't like doing business with any firm connected with Gardens Alive!, but the trees I have received from Gurney's in the recent past have been beautiful.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

There are better places to order from, with a wider selection, than Gurneys. I too ordered a Pixie Crunch apple tree from GurneyÂs last year after the discussions here on Gardenweb. It came around four feet tall with a less than one inch thick trunk, around nine branches 1-2 inches long. A year later, the trunk and height are about the same, the nine brances 3-4 inches long.
In contrast, most of the trees I ordered from Fruits of Antiquity, including Suntan, (similar to Sundance?) came with 2 inch trunks, around nine branches 3-4 feet long. The Pixie apple from Kuffelcreek sounded similar to the Pixie Crunch, perhaps even better, and a year later, grew from a benchgraft to six feet with two three inch branches- two feet taller than Pixie Crunch was last year on arrival.
I only order from GurneyÂs if there is no other choice. Otherwise, Apples of Antiquity is first choice, Raintree- second choice, and KuffelcreekÂs bench grafts- third choice. At my age, buying time, i.e. older trees, is worth the extra expense. Otherwise, I would buy all my trees as bench grafts from Kuffelcreek.

Don, the problem with your logic on this one is that most nurseries on Garden Watchdog have a good rating. Many have 100% perfect ratings! It wouldn't make sense that all the Gurney's customers would jump on the site to badmouth that company while most of the other companies had only customers with praise. Also, read the comments. Sure there may be a nut or two that would unfairly rate somewhere poorly, but if many many customers feel ripped off, then something is causing this.

If you will research Garden Watchdog, I think you'll find that it can give a pretty good idea of widespread opinion. If the nursery is reputable, they will usually post a response to any negative feedback. Most, if not all, good nurseries have excellent GW ratings.

Your experience with Gurney's may be perfect. Others may also have good experiences. But, when a company has a rating that much poorer than most other companies, and has a number of ratings, you can be ABSOLUTELY SURE there is a problem!

With all the reputable companies out there (with great ratings), why would anyone take a chance on a nursery with such a high percent of negative ratings? If you want to roll the dice, go ahead. But the original poster probably doesn't want to take a gamble or they wouldn't have asked in the first place.

Another great source you might try is Urban Homestead. They don't have either of the varieties listed, but it still might be worth a call just to see. They may have some that aren't listed. I recently placed an order with them and the owner was very helpful. They do have a 100% positive GW rating BTW.

Here is a link that might be useful: Urban Homestead

One indication to me that the Garden Watchdog ratings are reliable is that the % positive correlates very well with my own ratings of the nurseries based on my own experience.

By the way the ratings for Starks have been very good lately -- the only two recent bad reviews are in fact about past problems from them. This reinforces my experience that they have significantly improved as of late.

Scott

Don,

Just curious, but why do you not like GardensAlive!? I've only ordered from them a couple of times, but from my limited experience I've had a good impression.

As for Stark's, I've ordered from them many times over the years, including last spring, and have always been happy with my order. But Raintree is much better.

Robiniaquest,

There are a number of companies, like GardensAlive! and Gurney's, which have been bought out by a single company and are now being ran as separate divisions of that company. The plants sold by all of these divisions are usually a little below the quality you would find at other nurseries BUT they are also usually cheaper. (You get what you pay for type of deal.) The main problem with all these companies is their lack of consistent good customer service when there is a problem. Another problem is that plants are sometimes misidentified in their catalog or when they are shipped. Take time to look at the comments left about any one of these divisions at Garden Watchdog. You should be able to track down all of them because I think that GW has all of them listed when you look one of them up. If that's not the case with every one of them, it is at least the case with some.

To get a really good idea of the typical problems people encounter, just read the comments made by numerous customers on the Garden Watchdog site. If you are not familiar with the site, you definitely should be! It is the best single source of ratings for nurseries that I am aware of. Asking in a forum like this one can be helpful, but reading the comments of many many customers on GW is usually my first step in checking out a company I am thinking about buying from.

Don,
Thanks for the heads up on GardensAlive and Gurneys. Just checked the GardensAlive! reviews on Garden Watchdog. Too bad - I felt they were a good company in the past. I ordered from Gurney's years ago, and thought they were ok, but now I will avoid them. Surprised to see them affiliated with Michigan Bulb Company and Springhill Nurseries, two companies I've always avoided due to their obviously exaggerated claims in product descriptions. Henry Field's wasn't listed, though I always thought it was somehow affiliated with Gurney's because the catalog pics, descriptions, etc. are all the same.

I do check Garden Watchdog on companies I've never dealt with before, but I never thought to look up companies I'd bought from in the past. I guess it's not a bad idea to keep tabs on those too in case of change of ownership, management probs, etc.

I've ordered 100 privet hedges, various perennials, seeds and grootendorst roses from Gurneys over the last few years and had good luck with them. I did get a bad batch of hollyhocks last spring and emailed them for replacements. Gurneys emailed me back within a week and shipped the replacements last fall, later than I would have liked but I got them in the ground. I think it helps to order early and be ready with your planting sites before the plants arrive. They can't control what happens in shipping, though. I've ordered more privets and a cherry tree from Gurneys for delivery this spring. I have had great success with trees from Nature Hills Nursery in Nebraska. I ordered Burr Oaks, Shademaster Honeylocusts, Granny Smith and Golden Delicious apple trees from them 3 years ago and they are doing great! They are more expensive, but as has been said, you get what you pay for.

On Feb 15, 2008 I received a lil big Goldrush apple tree from them in bareroot form.

This is an apple tree grafted on rootstock which keeps it dwarf enough for it's growth potential to stay near the 7 to 8 feet tall range.

This bareroot tree seemed to be in very good condition. It pleased me greatly to see how many healthy appearing, fine feeder roots were growing from the major woody looking root structure of the tree. The buds on the branchless trunk were also full and healthy appearing.

This order I received was from my first time to order anything from them, and I am very happy with their customer service, the healthy appearance of the tree they shipped, the very good way they had packed the tree for shipment, and the wonderful perks I had not expected and was very happy to see they had sent along with the tree.

Those perks were a single dose sized package of Calcium granules to be mix in the soil when first planting, and a single dose sized 2-1-2 natural tree starter food to be applied when the first leaves appear. In addtion they included a handy product to be used with my own "T" stakes which will help support the tree as needed, and can be used on trees with trunks sized not over 2 inches in diameter.

So over all, I am very pleased with this company.

About three weeks ago, I orderd phlox and mallowplant from Gurneys but I am not impressed.

I really don't think plants I ordered from Gurneys are going to survive.
My rating on Gurneys is poor.

Walter:

I have ordered MANY (over 100) trees and some shrubs from Gurneys. Though this year I opted to try some one diiferent. I ordered two Honey Crisp apple trees from Adams Conumty Nursery and although they will be planted this coming weekend, they are very much larger than any tree I have ordered from Gurneys. The nice thing about Adams County is they give you the option of rootstock to choose from on their website. Gurneys doesnt even offer you that info. Another misgiving I encountered with Gurneys was when I ordered a shrub, they were out, and sent something (in their opinion) similar. But not what I wanted. I have also just ordered two Snow Sweet apple trees from Woodstock Nursery in Niellsville, WI. Im excited to see how their service and tree quality is in comparison.

I have to honestly say I probably wont be ordering from Gurneys again, unless something happens to Adams County Nursery, Woodstock Nursery, or Lawyer Nursery.

Cheers

In my not-so-humble opinion:

Customer Service - Average

Fruit trees - average quality
Shade and Ornamentals - below average - usually small stock that's small not because of youth but being unvigorous
Seeds - good

Other notes - they tend to not be fully forthcoming as far as some of the "hybrid" plants they sell as to what species constitutes the hybrid.

I would pefer to buy from StarkBros. I never had luck with Gurney's trees, although that was about 4-5 years ago. They were small and 2 did not survive the next year for me. I have ordered over 15 trees from Starks over the years and have been very happy everytime. All survived ,except an apple tree that got crushed by a pine tree when it fell in a storm last month :(
I like to also add that the majority of my Fruit trees from Starks produced from the first year after planting! So if I had a choice, I would go with StarkBros. Even if something bad happens to your tree, they will replace it for free too.