I mentioned above that I am already aware of TyTy's reputation, What I haven't seen are accounts from people who have actually visited the actual TyTy nursery. I figure SOMEONE must live close enough to actually have gone to that site. Surely not everyone does only mail orders! I am trying to gather information to advise another individual as to the wisdom (or not!) of taking a trip there.

There was a post not more than a week ago from someone that actually visited there. Sorry, I can't remember which forum (probably the Fruit and Orchards Forum or the Tree Forum), but they were very disappointed. They reported the nursery to be small, have very few plants (they thought it might have just been the office until they asked), and to have many plants in very poor condition.

If you really want to just throw money away, why not send it to a charity or something. TyTy is a nightmare, and it makes no sense to consider them. It's like wanting to swim in a river posted with "Keep Out/Sewage Contaminated Water/Exposure May Cause Illness" and wondering if it would hurt to go for just a short swim or a swim just a little further down stream.

Did you know that Edible Landscaping Online has medlars, and is in Afton, Virginia? It's a LOT closer than South Georgia from Maryland!!!

I did stop there one time driving back from Florida to the North Atlanta Metro area about 7 to 10 years ago. If I recall, almost everything I bought they dug for me right there, I planted it the next day. Everything did fine. The nursery itself was not all that tidy and the quality of plants even in the ground was extremely variable. Everything survived and thrived the transport and transplantation process. But I would head the warnings about not using them via mail order.

I have heard in the past that people that go there are ok with it - it's the mail order stuff that they have complaints with. No personal experience either way.

I was searching for cold-hardy crape myrtle varieties on-line and came upon the TyTy website. I was highly amused by their mildly provocative pictures of scantily clad young people in front of beautiful blooming Crapes. It was the first time I encountered an attempt to use sex to sell plants. I didn't make any purchases however, but it gave me a good chuckle.

I visited TyTy last year and bought a couple of apple trees. The place is small, but they have lots of trees and they keep them grouped together in long ditch rows. You tell them what you want and someone will go out, dig it up and load it in your truck for you. Both of the trees I bought are doing great.

Where there is smoke....

I am sure you will be able to find a nursery in your area. It may be hard to find, but if you keep looking you will be able to find it. Talk to your county ag. agent or landscape professionals.

We live in NE Georgia. We bought four pecan trees at TyTy last spring. They are doing well...at least they were until my daughter-in-law put her goats in that area of the property. They ate some of the leaves. Anyway, the place isn't fancy, but it runs well. It isn't really junky like somebody posted earlier. It is just a small town and the building is more like a warehouse. We were able to see people who had trees to return. The TyTy people took the returns and gave them new trees, no questions asked. We were watching closely to see if we might have problems if the trees didn't make it. They got us our quickly and we even took a while to get them in the ground. They still did well. We are planning to go back and buy some more trees this year. I would definitely recommend them. If you are picking trees up, though, I would make sure you keep them down in the bed of a truck and tarped so the wind doesn't tear them up during your travel.

my sister and sisterinlaw drove there bought plants . plants are doing fine . oh yea rockman was right about the pictures of girls and guys poseing in front of the plants and trees . pretty cool looking .beautiful plants and trees and lilies. signed tropical breeze

I personally wouldn't give them my money in person or by mail. I don't think any business that has such a bad mail order reputation and does nothing to correct it deserves to succeed.

They are thieves. Plain and simple. I would love to tell that to their faces. They are also rude thieves. I don't know how else to express the idea of staying away from this shlock. How many nurseries do you know that have to have 40 different aliases. How many complaints does the Georgia BBB need to investigate. If you buy from them after reading the reviews, you deserve to have your money taken. Period.

You can drive to TyTy if you want, but as for hardy fruit trees locally around here, the one that people seem to like most and drive to frequently is:

http://www.johnsonnursery.com/Default.htm

So if you're going to drive all the way to GA and are disappointed by what you find at TyTy, you might want to stop at Johnson's on the way home.

Susan

This comment is directed at those posters who have praised the TyTy plants that they've purchased from them in-person for growing satisfactorily. Have your plants been growing long enough for you to determine beyond the shadow of a doubt that your plants are, indeed, the cultivars that Tyty claims they are? Please be reminded that one of the major complaints about this nursery is that it sells plants that are _not_ true to name. It may require a number of years' growth for you to determine whether your fruit trees are true to name.

I know this post is old but I figure other folks will find it like I did by searching the same question.

We really wanted to get some olive trees and TyTy had the best options on the website but obviously their shipping history isn't so great.

We decided to drive (4 hours) to pick up some olives. We called first and made sure they had the varieties we wanted. They were super nice on the phone and when we got there - extra helpful.

It's a pretty cool place and I would say they are fairly knowledgeable. When we had stumped our helper w/ a PawPaw question he went to the owner who was very knowledgeable but super duper old - probably not there a lot. All their plants and trees looked very healthy and it was fun to walk around.

We got 4 olive trees - 2 Barouni and 2 Arbequina. All the olives looked identical so if mis-labeling is a problem we may not know if the trees we got are the variety we wanted for many years which would be a big bummer.

Overall I'm very glad we went. I would say if you want something specific to call first and make sure they have it in.

Ahhhh Tyty.
"It was the first time I encountered an attempt to use sex to sell plants."
FWIW, if you peruse Horticulture magazines from the mid 1980s, you will stumble upon incongruous nursery advertisements with handsome, smiling young men posing with Crinums...from Tyty. They've been around a long time. Someone could probably make a clever, tongue in cheek short documentary film about them...but the owner is 80 according to a highly reliable online background checker, so there may not be much more time.
If anyone is curious about the connection between Willis Orchards and Ty Ty, I found this:

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCOURTS-gamd-7_08-cv-00031/pdf/USCOURTS-gamd-7_08-cv-00031-0.pdf

I purchased some pineapple guava from TY TY years ago, no problems with the little hardy plant. I recently stumbled across the actual nursery my travels across south GA. I was surprised how small the nursery was for such a large internet presence.