Hello fellow conifer enthusiasts.
After seeing repeated posts regarding quality of online nurseries and which people preferred, I've finally decided to compile and then share my experiences with various online nurseries. Since it's the dead of winter I'll be posting a few personal reviews on nursuries each week leading up to Spring in hopes of both helping out new conifer enthusiasts make decisions but also offering perhaps new sources for experienced collectors.
A very quick backround about myself since this post may get pretty long, I've only been 'collecting' conifers for about fourteen months now, and I've only been a gardener for about two years, so my experience in general is limited. That said, I have a pretty nasty case of OCD and generally when I get into a hobby - I go berserk. I've long been a 'fan' of online shopping, regularly using Ebay and other large sources to buy things and my experiences have usually been very pleasant and often rewarding. While fourteen months seems like a pretty small sample size, I've probably bought more conifers in fourteen months then the majority of *sane* collectors buy in fourteen years. At this point I've bought around 400 different conifer cultivars and about 1150 in total from over a dozen sources. Some sources I have bought *hundreds* of different plants from, so my experience in those in particular should be virtually identical to your experience with them. I don't proclaim to be a conifer expert by any means but I figure I can at least share one resource I have with others, and that's my experiences buying them.
Especially if you live far from large cities, the online 'nursery' is by far your best option for acquiring rare and unusual things, and in this case conifers. There are three general 'pitfalls' to buying conifers online.
First, you have to buy plants that usually you can't 'see'. You often don't get a stock photo or very discriptive information on the plant you're buying, usually it's just by plant size, age of graft or a general pot size(4", gallon, 5-gallon, etc.). This can be quite a hurdle to any new collector looking at prices upwards of $50 or more for a single plant. It's scary, especially in today's economic times. My reviews should give you a much better idea on what sizes each nursery offers.
Second, you have to pay shipping. Because of this, usually you're going to end up buying very small plants, 1st, 2nd and maybe 3rd or 4th year grafts, under a foot tall and wide and usually not displaying many of the characteristics that their mature form will offer. Obviously this can be another cause for hesistation as well.
Lastly, since you're buying online, it's very possible you'll buy plants that won't be happy where you live. Typically plants are labeled with a 'cold hardiness' zone that most gardeners are familiar with, usually from zone 2(way North, think the movie 'Fargo'), to zone 9/10(Florida/Southern California). The problem here is that some plants won't like the humidity out in the Midwest and East Coast while others won't like the heat of Atlanta. If you're going to buy a $40 plant online, especially a young one and try to grow it in your garden, I'd recommend doing a LOT of homework to make sure it will survive. Besides the fiscal loss, it can be pretty devastating to you when your five year old, beautiful new conifer starts to die.
Keeping all that in mind, I'll now break down the rule-set for my reviews, so you can make the most of them and understand what everything I am writing here means.
For each nursery I review, I'll try and write where they are located, include a link and detail how 'large' they are. Some are just gigantic while others are Mom and Pop shows out of their backyard.
After that, I will rate each nursery in four catagories. One star(*) being poor or below average, two stars(**) describing an average rating, three stars(***) accounting for a positive attribute and four stars(****) describing a near flawless rating. I'll also reserve five star ratings for companies who are head and shoulders above the others in any particular area.
The catagories I'm using are:
Inventory: How large a variety of conifers the particular nursery offers. Basically how many different cultivars(and different sizes) the nursery offers. Extra credit here also for nurseries offering the very rare and choice plants that are scarsely seen.
Stock quality and size: Some nurseries offer gorgeous plants in perfect healthy, others are clearly neglected some, often just from growing in crowded situations and lacking the right amount of sunlight. Also nurseries offer very different sizes to their stock. I've purchased from different nursuries and received 'gallon sized pots' that were anywhere from a one year graft to a spilling over, root bound 6-7 year graft.
Customer service/General experience: Many nurseries are ran like businesses, some are run like families. You'll notice if you buy from multiple sources that some are REALLY trying to make you happy in order to have a lifelong customer while others just tend you treat you with indifference. Also, some companies will gladly replace a conifer if there is a problem while others can be hard to get a hold of and/or won't replace anything if you lose plants.
Value: This rating, which most people will probably consider most important given the economic times, will be my best attempt at rating nursuries on 'bang for your buck'. This means that I won't neccesarily give the cheapest sites top rating, but rather the overall value, whether they offer nice plants at great prices or new plants at unbeatable prices. Some retailers do offer very young plants at very high prices and will likely score poorly in this catagory.
I am not going to rate the nursuries overall, as I feel almost every nursery I have used has redeeming qualities. I'll leave that to you based on your priorities and fiscal situation.
One last critical note. At the beginning of each nursery I'll also describe how much experience I have with them. Some sources I have only placed one or two orders with while others I have bought hundreds of plants from. This is important for 'sample size' as it's possible experiences I've had with nurseries where I only ordered once from will be only a sneak peak at what these nurseries have to offer. Please keep that in mind if you read on.
Without further ado, I'll post the first two reviews. I've randomly drawn all the nurseries, so they are being reviewed in no particular order.
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BLOOMRIVER GARDENS
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An Oregon-based nursery, they offer many rare plants and have a nice selection of conifers. They've been selling conifers for almost thirty years now and looks to be a small family business.
www.bloomriver.com
My own experience with them is fairly expensive. I've purchased maybe twenty five or thirty plants from them and 4-5 different orders.
Inventory: ***
With over a hundred different cultivars and numerous sizes often of each, Bloom River has a nice selection of conifers both rare and common.
Stock quality/size: ****
Bloom river has great stock ranging from 4" pots to 5-gallon trees and larger. I have ordered plants from them that were easily ten years old and with very little root problems. Usually their conifers are stunning or very attractive right out of the box. There also aren't to many places that offer such large stock, even if it is quite expensive(several of their plants are $300 or more).
Customer service/General experience: ****
Bloom river has excellent customer service, both readily answering emails and phone calls and packing/shipping plants flawlessly. I cannot account for their replacement policies as I have never lost a plant from them or had a problem.
Value: **
While their stock is very nice and often larger then many other nurseries, their prices are steep. Certainly a source to use if you are the type of person who doesn't like to plant a little baby tree or if you're fiscally comfortable.
Abies lasiocarpa 'Arizona Glauca Compacta' $45
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Cedrus deodara 'Divinely Blue' $35
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Picea sitchensis 'Papoose' $75
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GREER GARDENS
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With almost forty years(40!) of shipping plants and a massive fourteen acre nursery, Greer Gardens offers a wide variety of plants and many types of conifers. They are located near Eugene, Oregon.
www.greergardens.com
I just recently received my first plants from Greer gardens, so my experience is limited but I did place a nice sized order spanning several sizes and types.
Inventory: ***
Offering many very large plants(one conifer I ordered was nearly six feet tall), and a few hundred different varieties, Greer gardens has a very nice overall selection. They also have a few plants I've seen nowhere else.
Stock quality and size: ***
The quality of the plants I received through Greer spanned from 'perfect' form to oddly growing peculiarities. See the included pictures for further details. All plants came partially bare-root to save on shipping but every plant seemed very healthy. Greer gardens offers some of the largest trees I've seen available online. Certainly a nursery to look at if you like 'instant gratification'.
Customer service/General experience: **
Greer gardens seems to be a family business and perhaps because of that, are a very busy business. It took two or three emails to get a response regarding the order and you have to send a check or give your credit card information via the phone before placing an order. That said, shipping was great(and compact) and everything looked fine with very few broken branches or other problems. They seem to have an acceptable return policy.
Value: **
Greer gardens is similar to Bloom River garden in that they offer nice, large stock but at a hefty price. Again, certainly if you want larger plants, this is a great nursery choice. It does appear that they sell some Stanley & Sons stock with a years growth on it.
Picea pungens 'Baby Blue Eyes' $59.95
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Cedrus deodara 'Compte de Dijon' $34.95
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Cedrus deodara 'Cream Puff' $45.95
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More soon!
Also, please feel free to post your own reviews here, it would be welcomed and a valuable resource for people shopping around.
Will
tunilla
kaitain4
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