Comments regarding Raintree Nursery

I ordered a female kiwi plant in 2021, but after two year, all my flowers are male even after contacted with the customer service and they admit they shipped me a male one. The Worse is, I only got store credit which is not even cover the shipping let alone the increased price. The nursery wasted my two years but let me pay the price. I cannot trust this nursery anymore even if I gave up the store credit. The rain tree company website does not let me put up the review so I have to come here to give a review. I hope the gardeners use more reliable nurseries to order fruit trees.

Ordered a current and a raspberry. Paid high shipping price despite living an hour away. $20 dollars to ship 2 sticks. The bare roots didn't survive at all. Died within weeks. Wrote the company and all I got was complete arrogance, excuses and ZERO help. Never ordering from them again.

I had a not-great experience with their trees last year; 3/4 never leafed out. Because they only offer credit instead of refunds, I ordered the same trees again, along with some other varieties I couldn't find elsewhere. Everything planted this year has leafed out and so far looks OK, but their packing methods are terrible. Out of many mail order nurseries I've used the past several years, they are the only one to pack bare-root trees without any material around the roots inside the plastic bag -- newspaper, sawdust, peat, anything. The roots were bone dry. For a shipment across the country, this is simply irresponsible. As others have mentioned, they also do not prune the trees before shipping -- they just cut them all at the height necessary to fit into the box regardless of where the buds are. I am actually surprised that the trees leafed out. If they treated them better, they'd probably be thriving. Will never order from them again. It's a shame because they carry many varieties unavailable elsewhere.

I find it really frustrating when I go on a business website and without signing up for anything start getting emails.

Perhaps that’s pretty slick of their technology department.

To me, they just earned a negative review.

I wish I had known about Dave's Garden before buying from Raintree Nursery. I own a fruit farm that has been producing fruit for over 100 years and I have been growing fruit commercially for 20 years, over the years I have learned how to plant and grow trees so they survive, grow and produce fruit.

I ordered about 25 trees from Raintree and 25 trees from another nursery (trees of antiquity) in order to start a small experimental orchard to see what other types of fruit can be grown in my area. I planted quince, medlar, persimmons, figs, jujube, pawpaw and mulberry trees from both nurseries.

Raintree would not let me specify a delivery date and insisted their horticultural expert would determine the best time for me to plant trees in my orchard. The other nursery let me decide when to ship my trees (every commercial nursery I have ever dealt with for my main orchard not only lets me determine a ship date but insists on it).

I planted the trees from the other orchard in March when we normally plant. I sent Raintree several more emails asking to please send my trees because I was afraid it would be too warm by the time they sent them. They replied but would not send them early.

I received my trees at the end of April and planted them soon after they arrived. All the trees from the other nursery leafed out, grew and now at the end of June have 6"-12" of growth. Three of the Raintree plants did not even leaf out and out of the ones that did, none have more than 1" of growth and most don't have any new growth (just leaves from then buds). I am skeptical how many will be living after winter if they are not established this summer.

I would not use Raintree again and don't even want a credit toward next year because trying to grow their trees is a waste of my time.

Not only "no", but "H*&^ NO" Not again. I paid extra for 4-5 foot bare root apple trees. The industry standard is to measure from what is OUT of the ground to count against that measurement. All told I spent an extra $78 for taller trees. When they arrived, my TALLEST tree was only 41 inches and the shortest was only 30 inches from the dirt line to the butchered tops.
Speaking of which. THESE are NOT professionally pruned. Your trees are bundled up (broken branches), wrapped in damp shredded newspaper (your neighbors will LOVE YOU if it's windy out) and then the tops are put into a giant guillotine and made all the exact same length for inside the box, and more loose paper is tossed in.
The shipping was over 100$ to go two states over, which is absurd for how they came (in one box about 12 inches square by 4 feet long).

When I called CS about the size, she had no idea how the tree size was measured, something they should know right off the cuff for CS at a tree nursery. She had to ask. SHOULDN'T someone who works CS at a nursery know this BASIC question?! She was also curt, frustrated, and obviously not ready to be working a CS line. And I was quiet and kind, and understanding! Heaven forbid they get a mean person. She came back to say that the HEIGHT of the tree included the root system! HA !!!! They must have floating trees like they do on Avatar.

I hope they take off and grow like weeds, because as of right now, I am not a happy customer.

Horrible - I paid in October for trees that should have been sent in February in order to make sure they would get their best start. All the other trees from other vendors that I ordered came in February. I canceled this order and was told I would get my money back that was 10 days ago- They even lied to me and said they could not give me a refund back to my credit card - I wish I had looked into this company better than I did because there are many complaints online. There are better companies out there that care about the customers - I will be filing a formal complaint for fraud if my money is not refunded as promised

I have ordered many fruit trees and berry plants from Raintree; with a pretty much 100 % survival rate. Some purchases include a Mount Royal semidwarf plum; a Conference and a Honeysweet pear; ( both considered self-fruitful); Belmac Belle De Boskoop; and Khahrmin heirloom apple; and a a Tehrannavee and a Vandalay sweet cherry. The cherries bear about every 2 nd yr; due to our zone 4 late frosts. (but their delicious when they do! ) Also ordered their Primus white; Crandall black: ( lg; sweeter black currents w/ anise scented yellow blooms that scent your whole yard.) Boskoop Giant black current; and Jonkeervan Tets red current. They've done very well for us; and make delicious jellies and juice. Also bought several grapevives and a Petite Negri fig; that all did very well; too. I find their shipping procedures and delivery schedule to be very satisfactory. I try try to order during the spring promotion ea.year; when they give a bonus plant ( your choice from a lg. list.) with purchase. Cant really think of any cons to mention.

Ordered a 4-in-1 asian plum tree in Spring 19, since I did not have room for two trees to pollinate each other.

The shipping took a few weeks, but the tree that arrived was top quality. A solid tree with nice grafts and good sized branches for each of the varieities. The tree took great and has put on good growth.

I am going to buy fruit trees from these guys again, since they have dwarf varieities and options not carried by Stark Bros. and they appear to be as good a quality, if not better. Very impressed.

I think these guys are probably okay for a walk in customer but the online experience for me was not positive. I ordered in January. Shipping was supposed to start in April, I didn't receive my order until mid-May just in time for hot dry weather to start.

Order was not complete and there was no packing slip or any paperwork at all in the box. Packing was very poor with a heavy pot in same box as strawberry and asparagus crowns with only a handful of padding so the asparagus and strawberries took a pounding due to heavy pot sliding back and forth.

Only when I called them did I find out that due to a quality problem they ran out of the variety I wanted but nobody bothered to contact me, they have still not processed my refund and now is too late to order a different variety as replacement plus freight cost for a small order is too high and there was no offer from Raintree of giving me a break on freight.

There were no planting or care directions in the box with my order. The bamboo plant looks diseased but this is my first time buying bamboo and maybe that is how it looks during winter.

Otherwise, the plants were of acceptable quality. I'd consider ordering from these guys again but not until I've tried more of their numerous competitors.

I'm going to reiterate the problems TheFluffyOne posted, the big problem with these guys is the shipping is ridiculous. I ordered trees mid April and they took 5 weeks to get here! That's way too long, I can see a couple weeks when you're busy season is on but this is crazy.

In addition they were packed very poorly so the package arrived completely mangled and falling apart. Fortunately the trees didn't appear to be damaged but only time will tell if they survive.

The consistency was also an issue, some of the trees were 4 ft tall and pruned, one was only a foot but with leaves on it. Just all over the map, I doubt I will order from them again.

First of all I will say, I have bought form Raintree on and off fro over a decade, tat being said it is very hit or miss. They have great customer service and are easy to cancel orders with or they are good with refunds when they are in error, the trouble with Raintree is their logistics and field operations.

By that I mean, they have some bizarre system where they ship once a month or something. So I ordered something teh end of march and they tell me i will not get it till the end of april of early May. The item in question was apple rootstocks for grafting, which would be too late for my area. Also there dramatically raised their prices and it was much easier to go to a specialty grower and at half the price with far more reasonable shipping.

In general Raintree has fairly poor rootstocks. Around 15% of an order (in larger quantities of 50) are useless(essentially just a stick with no roots). i base this on several orders over the year. However they are good about refunding the price of bad rootstocks if you send them photographic evidence.

On the other hand some of the plants they have are excellent, the trouble is you don;t know what you are getting. I ordered several gooseberreis and they were huge,vigorous plants and i ordered a couple of cherries that were too large in diameter for my purpose (espalier) and yet some trees were typical whips, so consistency is they issue.

That being said, when Raintree gets it right, it is often very right.

So my rating is negative neutral. There shipping and field operations seem to be challenged at best. I would avoid them for rootstocks unless you are in the west as I know people who buy in the west and they get far more developed rootstocks then what they seem to ship later in the season to the midwest.

On the other hand they offer a wide diversity of plants in a one stop shopping venue.

I've ordered in excess of 30 plants from Raintree over the years. I've had consistently GOOD LUCK, I think I've only had 1 plant failure, which means > 95% success (meaning the plants lived for at least 1 year). I mostly order fruit trees: plums, cherries, pomegranates, persimmons. These have mostly done well--and what hasn't done well are things that arguably aren't suited to the climate. Trees have generally been larger than I expect, with the exception of Nikita's Gift persimmon, which was a bit on the small side. I did get credit for that one failed tree as well. Raintree's selection of plums is really outstanding, and they have many fruit varieties that can be found nowhere else. For persimmons--Raintree shipped them bareroot, and while mine survived, I don't think they enjoy that treatment--might be better to buy persimmons from a local source in pots.

I always plant my trees promptly and don't let them sit in the shipping package any longer than necessary.

I ordered a 'package' of cherry trees as well a 'package' of apple trees.
After waiting several almost a month for the order, I contacted customer service and discovered my credit card had been declined (it was a gift Visa). I would have waited forever for the order because customer service would have not contacted me to let me know! I took care of it and was told my order would ship in a few weeks!
I explained that to the customer service rep that we were almost to Summer and really needed to get the trees in. I did receive my order within a week.
The Customer Service Rep had a very terse clipped communication style. I had to pull information from her. It was not a pleasant exchange.
When the trees arrived, several looked like sticks (I took pics), but I was hopeful.... After a month I knew they were dead sticks. I contacted the same rep and didn't hear back. After approx 10 days, I called the 800 number and was given a credit for those trees. It's now a couple months later and I'm sure several more trees will not make it.
Because the fruit tree packages are designed to cross pollinate I have no clue what's going to produce fruit.... If any end up living!
I have successfully grown many types of trees - both fruit and ornamental. I have healthy trees from other companies planted this last Spring - I'm quite sure the issue isn't anything I'm doing.
The thought of having to pay shipping again to replace my trees makes me feel ill.
A friend ordered from Raintree as well. His order didn't arrive until after he had to call and ask where it was. He had the same experience with poor Customer Service communication and attitude.
I really want to support local. However I expect a company, large or small, to be professional, communicate, and have polite Reps who know what Service is.
I'm so disappointed. :(

Raintree has been my go-to nursery for several years now, due to their wide selection of hard-to-find edibles, and I have never been disappointed. I usually order well ahead of time, but I have placed impromptu impulse orders as well, and everything has gone well and I have received nothing but good stock. I have never had any occasion to deal directly with customer service, because the orders have always been fine. I hope that they continue to expand their stock of fascinating varieties.

I ordered two flowering apricots, a Sunset maple, a Gold Locus, and a Santa Rosa plum. All arrived in a single box with the terminal buds sawed off. Small branches had been torn/ripped, not cut, from the Santa Rosa. All were sticks. I called to ask why the terminal buds had been removed from the shade trees and was told that they were always cut off so the trees would fit in their box. I was told to call back and talk with the horticulturist. I called back the next day and talked to an extremely hostile, rude, woman who offered to refund my purchase. I accepted the refund. However, we will not do business with Raintree again.

Posted on April 16, 2016, updated April 18, 2016
I was out at the nursery yesterday looking to pick up some blueberry plants that would produce this year. Everything was fine and the weather was fairly nice a little bit of sun peaking through the clouds, when all of a sudden I hear a lady yelling as she walked toward a U-Haul parked next to the larger trees they have on display. She was shouting "I'm just doing what I was told" and "Don't yell at me" even though she was the only person I could hear. She must have been talking to someone but I'm not sure who or where they were. I moved closer to where she was standing because I'm a bit nosey and was curious as to what was going on when I heard her apologize to some people that were standing by the U-Haul, she proceeds to say "I'm sorry about that, but that guy is an a**hole." she then says "I need you guys to help me put the trees in your truck." The guys tell her it's okay and not to worry and they start loading their truck with some trees. I then hear her say something like "No one likes him, he's such an a**hole and this time I'm going to get him into trouble." One of the guys insisted it was fine, and that they didn't mind loading their plants. They finished up and everything seemed fine, I had my eye on a few blueberry plants, gorgeous looking Nordlands. So I proceeded to walk down into the building where you pay and all I could hear was another lady yelling but it was pretty incoherent so I couldn't make out what was being said. I waited a few minutes for someone to check me out but there wasn't anyone behind the counter, I decided then to leave after 5 minutes of standing around due to how bizarre the situation was and the lack of any help. I'm not sure what was going on but it seemed like the nursery was having a bad day and maybe some managers were not around to fix the situation. I've seen some other reviews on here about the poor customer service at this place and I guess I'm just the latest victim.

This is a slight positive rating. Product was good, I paid extra for a specific delivery window and it happened, they had some specific things I was looking for.

Customer service was CRAP though. I felt like I was bothering them every time I spoke to them even though I was buying hundreds of dollars of product. I could email and not get a response for days. They acted like I was a jerk for wanting my tracking #.

The service was so bad I'm actually really tempted to rate this neutral, but I figure what I paid for was a good product when I needed it - and I got that.

Posted on March 10, 2016, updated March 22, 2016
I was there yesterday and I was treated like I was wasting the employees time by trying to order some plants. I have ordered online before and have had them shipped to seattle, I think that's what I'll do from now on, I would advise anyone who thinks about going there to think twice.

Received my five trees today, 2 persimmons, a pluot, apricot, and peach. They came in good condition for the most part, a couple of trees had big gashes on their trunk from being dug up I suppose. The trees at about 3ft tall not counting the roots, heavily pruned back, and all seem to be alive to the top. Price was average for my area and they had cultivars that I couldn't get elsewhere. Don't like that I had to wait so long to get my trees, they have a shipping chart to show when they ship to each state, supposedly it's to help with the cost of shipping but I still don't like planting this late in my area since its going to get very hot soon. I'll update if the trees have any problems with the trunks.

Posted on May 29, 2015, updated June 3, 2015
I've recently planted 48 fruit and nut trees in my yard. Purchased at various places, all are doing fine, EXCEPT FOR THE FIVE ALMOND TREES PURCHASED FROM RAINTREE.
NO BUD SWELLING, NO LEAFING OUT. I BELIEVE THEY WERE DEAD WHEN SHIPPED.
DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND BUY LOCAL!

Extremely Pleased

Frankly, I have ordered plants and bareroot stock from many many online nurseries, including almost all of the major ones, and it is generally a very mediocre experience, at best. That is why I am so pleased with Raintree Nursery.

I ordered a bareroot blueberry plant, variety AURORA, since no one sells Aurora around here. I ordered it in early May and it was delivered in late May, so both the order and the delivery were late in the year for our Zone 6. Because of the lateness, I expected them to send me scraggly, picked over stock, and I thought it would probably arrive in poor shape and not do well, but I wanted to try.

Was I ever surprised. The plant, when it came, was very strong, beautiful and full of life. The packing was excellent, the roots were moist, and I soon moved it into my garden where it is doing very well. Truthfully, I would have been pleased if it had arrived in half the condition it did.

Based on this experience, I rate them very highly. Unlike some of the large, national mail order companies, Raintree Nursery really seems to care.

I purchased to fruit trees, not-inexpensive mind you, and they did not leaf out despite looking strong. I apparently waited just a couple weeks too long in the spring to decide they weren't going to survive and Raintree was unwilling to replace my trees. I would give it 0 stars if I could. They did offer me a partial (approx 1/3) refund.

I guess if you purchase anything at Raintree to have it replaced before their 1yr warranty period is up whether you're able to determine viability or not.

Note that the 1yr warranty does NOT begin when they arrive, but when you place your order - making it more like a 6-10mo warranty.

Looking at the comments here I should have known better then to order from Raintree. When you see this many negative reviews you have to know that a company has a very serious product or customer service problem.

The first order from Raintree I made was for a small thomas black walnut tree. This was a 2' whip and it never came out of dormancy. This happens and they did refund me so no harm no foul.

However the second time I ordered from raintree I decided to try and get a thomas black walnut again. I actually ordered two - 2' tall pollinators and a 4' thomas black walnut. When the tree came it was packed in newspaper shavings which are impossible not to get everywhere when opening the package. They were just thrown in there and actually did nothing to fill the void of the box. It was just like someone emptied trash into my package. The roots were also packed in shaved newspaper. Horrendously messy and I spent quite a bit of time trying to pick the shavings out of the gravel in my driveway. The tree itself looked horrible, bent over like a bow and looked like it had been cut off 6" above grade and grown out of the side. When I emailed a complaint it took almost a 1/2 dozen emails to get them to finally send out another replacement. I specifically said do not send it in shredded newspaper.

When the replacement came it was again packed in shredded newspaper and the replacement looked as bad as the one they sent me. I couldn't believe this, especially after so much prodding to get them to send me a replacement and specific recommendation to pack the next one in a tiny bit of soil.

Raintree is absolutely ridiculous, terrible customer service and they do not listen! It's a shame because their catalog is so vast and beautiful, but I would never trust my wallet with them again after getting burned twice.

I ordered 3 trees from them about a year ago. They sent a windmill palm that had a completely dead spear. It was literally black with rot and not even attached. They sent a eucalyptus that was the most rootbound plant I've ever seen. I don't even think there was a particle of dust in the pot, just tightly packed tangled roots.

In fairness the lady I talked to was friendly and replaced the windmill palm. She offered to refund the money on the euc if I wanted her to.

Still, I won't take my chances with them anymore. I'll stick with Forest Farm from now on.

Being from washington, it seems to make sense to order locally to lessen the ordeal of shipping. Raintree has a great online selection and great apple varieties you cant find at the big box stores. I ordered 2 apple trees, 1 Akane and 1 Beni Shogun. The Akane was nice and large about 6.5 ft tall but the Shogun was a tiny whip about 3ft. Strangely enough they were the same price. They were well packaged and the newspaper shredding were still moist upon arrival. I have them in the ground now so hopefully they do well this spring.

Got anxious about when plants were coming add I had to take off work to get them put out. Brandon from customer service was very helpful helpful. Trees, shurbs, and plants arrived in excellent condition, especially considering they were shipped cross country. Everything was bused and obviously alive and we'll. Trees were tall and very few branches were broken. Excellent roots. Definitelygot our money's worth, will order again for sure!

I've ordered several plants from Raintree over the past several years, and all have been good, healthy specimens. Received a Meyer lemon this year, also in great condition. Needed to make an adjustment to a current order, and found their customer service to be courteous and helpful. Looking forward to receiving my next order!

I ordered a fig in a 1 gal. What was received was a tiny twig in a 4 inch pot. Repeated emails and phone calls (left messages) and no luck. So far it looks like I am stuck with something less than I ordered and no recourse.

Ordered a black bamboo from Raintree, the catalog and website both showed a 1 gallon pot. A tiny, less than 2 foot (giant black bamboo?) arrived in a 1 qt or half gallon pot. It's been a week since I contacted them twice and have yet to get a response.

Didn't expect something gigantic, just something in a 1 gallon pot, sized appropriately and pruned for shipping. At least the canes being more than 1/8th inch thick.

On the upside, their product arrive in great shape and super healthy. Just very disappointing.

We ordered $200.00 worth of trees and blueberry bushes in May, 2014. Three of the trees did not break dormancy. We notified Raintree of this, but instead of replacements they issued credit minus shipping charges. We wanted replacements. Why should we have to pay shipping charges again for ordering the same plants that were dead?

It was last year when we ordered Mirabelle de Metz plum and Imperial Epineuse. Yvonne was wonderful and knowledgable to deal with and sent us beautiful trees. A year later, they are in their full glory as healthy and perfect specimens. We had worried how they would overwinter and they did wonderfully despite the hard winter. Thank you!

Wanted to give a major 5 stars to Raintree!!!Have 2 columnar apples, same variety and have been looking for a third variety as pollenator-saw that Raintree had it for a reasonable price.. Crossed my fingers and ordered.
WOW! Good-sized tree arrived at right time for my zone, packed sooo carefully,bareroot- leaf buds came quickly, followed by beautiful flowers.To my COMPLETE surprise I just noticed around 9 apples on one of my original trees!
THANK YOU SO MUCH Raintree-not expecting anything from apples this year and can't tell you how thrilled I am with your careful packing, timely shipping and communication, rapid growth of this new tree and, most of all, the surprise of finding new little apples-no question I'll be back when in the market for trees or berries!!

Posted on April 23, 2011, updated May 17, 2014
Posted on November 11, 2010, updated April 23, 2011
I ordered two sweet cherries and two goose berry bushes.
The sweet cherries survived a brutal winter in upstate NY and a dry summer - they started producing fruit two years after planting.
The gooseberries were very good but this year they were attacked by some insect or disease that defoliated them - my fault for not spraying them. Good quality fruit trees and bushes.

I ordered about $300 dollars and the plants were fantastic. The 5 in 1 pear is already flowering and so is the dwarf peach/nectarine combination.

I ordered a 4 in 1 pluot tree last winter, and received it this spring. The tree was bare root but had good branching and root structure. I quickly planted it after washing the rootball. The tree is thriving! Good leafing and some small fruit even formed. We had a strong windstorm a few weeks ago, so unfortunately, the little fruit did not make it, but I am sure it will fruit plenty next spring! I am very happy with my purchase and would order from Raintree again!

Just received a dwarf cherry tree that was ordered several weeks ago. The tree arrived in good shape, it's a reasonable size (4.5'), has several well placed little branches and a pretty good root system. It hasn't yet broken dormancy, and that's good in my estimation, because it's worrisome to see a tree that's not yet in the ground but is starting to try to develop leaves. Overall, I'm very pleased and fingers are crossed that the tree settles in well.

I ordered 15 rooted cuttings of Agria grapes. The shipping cost of 15 little sticks, by size of a pencil, cost me $21, plus $90 for cuttings. They were 6" long, instead of 12" long. Most of them had only few tiny roots; one had no root at all. I contacted them, but got only two replaced. Today, three years later, only 3 survived and barely alive. I will never again order anything from them!
I ordered about two hundred rooted grape cuttings from http://www.nevinesupply.com at the same time and they produced about twelve 5 gal buckets of grapes last year.

After searching almost everywhere on the web for Ribes odoratum Crandall I finally looked on the Raintree site and found them in stock! I have known about this nursery for years, but resisted ordering because of the price of their fruit trees. however, the price of all their Currants is fair so I ordered 2 Crandalls and a Minnesota 52. The plants arrived in excellent condition and were large and well rooted. They have now leafed out and are sending out new shoots from the roots. I will order from them again and recommend them.