Based upon a specimen photo posted here about a week ago and the company's rating on gardenwatch, I would encourage you to include other nurseries in your search. And, no, you absolutely are not limited to varieties grown by local orchards. For instance, there are hundreds of apple cultivars available today, and many of these would be suitable for your area. Misterbaby.

I've fruited Sugar Pearl apricot.

Indeed it was a very fine quality apricot, but it's brown rot tolerance was nil.

I sprayed this tree w/ everything in may arsenal. Captan, Elevate, Pristine, Bumper, Ziram. Nothing seemed to halt brown rot infections. In the end, I pulled it out along with several other apricots. Based on my experience, it won't work in wet climates.

I currently have a Flat Wonderful peach and a K-Bluey blueberry. Flat Wonderful will fruit this year, but K-Bluey is a year away.

I looked at their catalog and saw they were advertising a "Lil/Big" dwarf variety of several apple trees. I called them up and asked what rootstock was used on these trees. The guy on the phone didn't know what a rootstock was, but was sure I wasn't allowed to have that information, even if it was available.

I say - look for another nursery.

I have planted three Carmen Jewel bush cherries, a Sugar Pearls apricot and a couple Kablueys. So far have only had a couple berries off the Kablueys. I didn't notice anything outstandingly different in those few Kablueys, but it wasn't a big enough sampling to make a fair judgment. I hope the apricot doesn't just get rot if I ever get any fruit on it! Northwoodswis

I have a pixie crunch apple tree in my yard, happens to be one of their lil'big trees. From my closest guess, it is an m9 root stock. Right now it stands at about 8' tall. It produces sweet, red, crunchy apples of excellent flavor and quality, on the small side, although I have had a few that would qualify as medium. They ripen fairly early, late August-September. They bear the next season after planting. As for their quality, customer service, etc., we have always been satisfied with Gurneys.
Ted

To me their prices are very high. Maybe they have a lot of replacements needed, people who's trees die.

I've been burned so often on advertising I refuse to buy unless someone I trust says it's great.

In fairness, fruitnut, their prices are actually very reasonable when you factor in their coupons, as in $25 of an order of $50 or more. And they will stand behind the plants they send. Still, I prefer the specialty nurseries. Misterbaby.

I've always been very happy with Gurney's, but it's all about knowing what type of place you're visiting. Most of their customers aren't going to know rootstock from scion wood, so I don't imagine that their customer service gets much training in that either.

As to their prices, I've always found them to be pretty low.... but that could be because I never purchase from them without one of the "$25 off $50" coupons they constantly have :)

Where do you get these coupons?

One way is to sign up for their free catalog. Then, look out! You'll be junk-mailed with their coupons forevermore.

Fruitnut: If you subscribe to their emails you get these pretty often and there is always one on their catalog if you subscribe to that. I have been getting the one that gives you 25 off of 50, 50 off of 100 and 100 off of 200 this past month.

I have a catalog at home that has the same offer as I just stated if anyone wants the code I can give it to them. I am not sure if you can you this more than once or just once per person. I have not used it, so whoever wants it first gets it and anyone else can try it in the cart to see if the discount works.

I've used them to purchase a few of their proprietary varieties and been reasonably pleased with their plants. The Sugar Pearls I received a month ago was a really nice tree (3/4", 4', feathered), but, as others have posted, their Carmine Jewel's are tiny 6" tall plants in 3x3" pots (for $29). Of course, their prices are ridiculous ($39 for a semi-dwarf tree?) without one of the codes, but you can always google to find one of their 25 off 50 codes. I wouldn't use them for anything but their proprietary varieties because there are much better options (w.r.t. prices, selection, quality, rootstock, etc.), but they do stand by their plants. A quick email to customer service has always gotten me either a refund or a replacement plant at no charge. In fact, I just complained about the tiny size of the Carmine Jewel and they promptly shipped a larger one at no charge. It hasn't arrived yet, so I'm not sure what "large" size they offer, but I've at least got two of them now which brings the price more inline with the product offered.

It's not a question about whether someone who's only ordered from Gurneys is happy with it but whether someone who's ordered from many nurseries considers Gurneys a good one.

I haven't ordered from them for years and was reasonably satisfied when I did but besides their exclusive varieties you are bound to be better off ordering from a nursery that doesn't do business with mass mailing. You are also better ordering from a supplier that has staff that knows fruit trees.

Mass mailing catalogues is very expensive as most recipients order nothing and these companies usually make up for this by selling relatively tiny trees. Gurneys doesn't seem to do that but you're still left with relatively poor customer service because their staff are not fruit people.

The two "Italian Honey Fig" trees I ordered form Gurneys turned out to be Violette De Bordeaux.

I am happy with them (sorry). Both were healthy and have grown into real nice Violette De Bordeaux trees.

Whether or not to consider them a good nursery? They should ship what they advertise. Most other nurseries do that. So, depending on how important getting what you order is to you...

I suppose next year Gurneys will come out with a scratch n sniff catalog to compliment the pictures :) ? Thank you for all the feedback and am glad to learn many have been pleased with their purchases. Gotta love gardenweb!

I may be wrong but, isn't Gurneys, basically aka Michigan bulb, aka a couple dozen other names that are all just the same place.

"I may be wrong but, isn't Gurneys, basically aka Michigan bulb, aka a couple dozen other names that are all just the same place."

Gurneys and Michigan bulb are both conglomerates, but different conglomerates.

Michigan bulb is in the Burgess conglomerate, whereas Gurneys is in the Henry Fields conglomerate.

Burgess is by far the worst conglomerate of the two, and ranks almost as bad as the TyTy/Aarons conglomerate.

Gurneys/Henry Fields is not too bad, as far as conglomerates go.

Just got an email this mourning with the deal again anyone should be able to use it pay copying an pasteing this

http://gurneys.com/default.asp?sid=0514711&eid=032411GU&utm_source=em&utm_medium=spec&lm=gurn&M2

ok well i knew MB had at least a dozen other names that all led back to the same place, wasn't sure if gurney's was one or not just suspected it. THere is one thing about most of them that though a ton of the stuff dies, they will at least replace it with something else that eventually dies. So they do all have a waranty of a sort.

A follow-up to my post above. The "larger" replacement Carmine Jewel arrived and is actually a smaller plant in the exact same size pot. Still, the ultimate per plant price of about $7-8 (with coupon and for two plants) is about right for the size, so I can't really complain.

I don't think Gurneys' plant sizes are standardized. I just planted 2 Carmine Jewel bushes -- one was 4 feet tall and the other 3.5 feet. That's a far cry from the reports of getting a 6 inch plant.
Personally, I would never consider getting anything from them, unless it's a proprietary plant I cannot get anywhere else.

YOu do best to buy from Nurseries in your own state. I have not had good results with nursery stock sent from Gurneys, and often the roots are dried and dead by the time it arrives. Stick with local nurseries familiar with your own climate. Things well adapted to South Dakota may not tolerate the humid summers in VA.

Garedneck- Hey, you're in GA! Check out Willis orchards.com they are from your neck-o-the woods. Order early, as they are already sold out till the fall. My material looks A1. 16 pears/7plums/16 pecans. I also have some 'drippin' honey pears coming from gurneys. We'll see what 11 pears for $105 looks like!

Great post for a newbie like me. I'm new to home gardening and ordered a bunch from Gurneys and Michigan Bulb using their coupons, they both assigned me the same account #...

I was skeptical about ordering from them at first, but though I'd take a risk, especially since I didn't know of any reputable nurseries around me.

I just received seeds from them (which were a bit more pricey that buying from Home Depot or Lowes), but have yet to received my potted items.

Does anyone know of any good, reputable nurseries in The Los Angeles, CA area that have good prices?

LaVern nursery is good.

Iv got the flat wonderful,seems something wrong with genetics or something,slightly bigger than a golf ball an black around seed.

Planted the 2-in-1 Asian pear in 2011,

Tree has plenty of branches but all want to go straight up! Good baseball sizefruit.

Iv stupidly BOUGHTthe suger pearls an a pollenator many many times,finally have sp thats a few years old,still only 3' tall,blooms with the rest of apricot.

Thought i bought a bing from them,but dont see it in catalog,exalant tree though lose nearly all of its fruit to frost here in middle of kansas since 2012.

All an all there pricey but have gotten good trees.

Not sure of the value of posting to an 8 year old thread. But before doing any online plant ordering, it is wise to check out the vendor. Gurney's gets terrible ratings from the Garden Watchdog, a mail order/online nursery customer review clearinghouse.....more negative reviews than positives (poor plant quality, dead plants, mislabeling, bad/nonexistant customer service).

With fruit trees in particular, it is important to know which types of fruits and which varieties of those fruits will do well in your climate. And typically that information is best obtained from local suppliers or growers. Or your county extension service.