Many years ago when I had a psychotic moment and started my orchard, I ordered from them (Autumn Ridge). What a total waste!! The biggest investment you have in fruit, in my opinion, is time, not money--so why waste it on inferior stock. Personally, I've found that smaller, family run companies offer superior products.

I have ordered from him many times, though not in a long time. Plants are always in excellent condition and relatively large. He also hasa pretty good repetoire of jungle cactus and Epiphyllums which are hard to find some other places. But that is all there is good I can say... (which is enough for most people). On the down side, a LOT (and from my experience, MOST) of the plants are misidentified (or have completely fabricated names). The species spellings are so bad on his old web site (which I see has finally had an upgrade) that even if they species might have been correctly identified, they were so badly mispelled, I sure couldn't tell. VERY unprofessional.. NOT the place anyone who cares what they are actually getting would want to order from. And expect delays! First time ordered I got my plants promptly (relatively)- in 6 weeks. Last time I ordered in summer (July) and got my plants in early November!!! That was after the previous year of ordering in September and getting them at the end of November when it was too cold for some of them arleady. But the more I complained, the longer it took to get my plants, so best to probably prepare for the ridiculous wait and be patient. Compare this to ARidlands.com which has close to the perfect web site: photos of the plants you are getting, and a shipping turn around of about 4 days. And these people know their plants! So I order almost exclusively from them now.

I did a Google search looking for a Bosc pear tree and found the Summerstone nursery site. I called and asked if they had any in stock and they said yes. I told them that me and my wife would drive up and pick it up and they said OK. We made a 3 and one half hour drive and when we got to Morrison I called and asked for directions as I didn't see it anywhere. They gave me directions which turned out to be wrong. I stopped at a business and asked them for directions and they told me it was back in Morrison in the old part of town. I still couldn't find the place and stopped at the town hall for directions. The town clerks first question to me was did I give them any money yet. I told her no that I hadnt. She said, "DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THAT GUY AS THEY HAD BEEN GETTING COMPLAINTS FROM ALL OVER THE COUNTRY". She even called the guy up and told him what she had told me. She told me that there was NOT a Summerstone nursery in Morrison and that the guy was running a scam operation out of a hole in the wall in s building in town. She said if I gave him any money I would never get it back! Do not do any business with Summerstone nursery. All we got out our day of dealing with them was a scenic drive to Tennessee. I filed a complaint with the BBB and found out that my complaint was the 302 complaint filed.

Ethan and Kristy: Yes, the budwood does have to be in a certain condition to allow the best chance of a successful graft. I'm not sure if "dormant" describes it accurately. I prefer to say wood that is just about to break dormancy but has not begun to leaf out yet. I suppose truly dormant would be better than already pushed out, so I guess in that sense, Ethan, you would be correct. In Kristy's post, she only asked how to get the wood safely from there to home. I presumed that she had already selected appropriate material for grafting. That was a bit presumptuous on my part since if she hasn't even done it, how would she know. Thanks for pointing that out, Ethan. Harry