Comments regarding Pense Nursery

I happened across this and felt the need to add something. I am in no way affiliated with Pense Nursery but I am from the area. What you do not know is that not only did Mr. Pense lose him wife he also lost one of his sons this past year. From what I know of their business I think he will be in a lot better shape in the future. Losing a wife and son is a load to bear and unfortuneately his business has probably suffered during this last year because of his tragedy. I would give him another chance and see how he does in the future.

Has anyone bought ochit blackberry plants from pense nusery in last 2 years i set out 1250 plants from pense 2 years ago and at least 800 plants bloomed but did not bear a thing, the state of north carolina is searching the d&a of my plants and we were wondering if anyone else has had trouble with them i think the plants have a virus but until the agricutural people at nc state say so we don't know, if anyone has had trouble let me know

Posted on April 24, 2010, updated May 1, 2010
I am not sure of the quality of the plants from Pense Nursery since I have still not received my order. I placed my order for couple of different raspberry varieties back in Feb 2010 and asked that they be shipped out by April 15th so that they could be planted before it got to hot in my area. When I placed my order I had to call several times to get to a live person and ensure that I did not leave my credit card information on an unknown voice mail. Prior to speaking with Mr. Pense, I had left 3 other voice messages the previous month and had not received a call back. I was a little concerned, but I had read on Dave’s that the overall rating of the company was very good with only a few complaints. I placed my order as outlined above and my credit card was charged immediately for the full price of the plants plus shipping. I waited patiently for some sort of confirmation notice via email, USPS or phone that things were ok. I did not hear from them. Anytime I have wanted to know information about the progress of my purchase or when it would be shipped, I had to make out reach phone calls to them or send them emails. Notice that I said “PHONE CALLS” and “E-MAILS” this is because I have sent many of both. I only get answers if I am able to speak to a live person which is difficult at best. I do not know why they have an answering machine or an e-mail address because I have never received a call back from my phone messages or an email answer to my inquires. The lack of communication from this vendor is the worst of any company I have ever experienced, period. My last live conversation with someone at the nursery was the week of April 9th and that was after making 5 out reach calls. I was calling to ensure the my plants were going to ship on time so that I would be available when they arrived to plant them immediately. At that time I was told that Mr. Pense was very busy getting out his orders because it had become very warm there and he was trying to get everything out as quickly as possible. I was assured that my plants would go out the week of April 15th or the week after that at the latest. It is now April 24th. The week after the time they said my plants would be shipped out. I still have not heard any information from them regarding the shipment or why it might have been delayed. I am very frustrated with the apparent poor communication, poor customer service, lack of responsiveness, inability to keep commitments and general disregard for common courtesy. I may change my negative comments to neutral if I get my plants soon or at least hear from them, but I doubt that I will ever do business with them again. It is just not worth the aggravation.

I am sorry to hear of Mr. Pense's loss, but I would not take a chance on doing business with him. I ordered 50 raspberry plants in March. The ship date was April 12. When nothing arrived by April 20, I called, but no one answered the phone, and the voicemail box was full. I proceeded to email and fax them, but I got no reply. Finally, I sent a fax stating that the order would be cancelled if they could not confirm that the order would be sent by April 26. I got no reply, so on April 26, I cancelled the order (by fax, phone message and email), and I told them I was placing an order with another nursery. I never did get to speak to anyone at Pense. Then today (April 30), my order arrived! It had been shipped the day AFTER I cancelled the order and AFTER I told them I was ordering from another nursery. Now I have twice as many plants as I can use, and I am going to have to fight to get my money back. All this could have been avoided if Mr. Pense had taken 30 seconds to answer an email.

It took a week of calling before someone answered the phone. I left voice mails to return my call but they were ignored. After I was able to make contact and place my order my credit card was charged. However, it took a month to receive my order. I called almost every day and left a voice mail requesting the status on my order - again, no return call. When I did receive my order, it was incomplete. I have called and called and left voice mails asking if my credit card will be credited or if the remainder of my order will be shipped. Again, no return call. The vines that I received were good especially when considering the price. However, these people do not understand customer service. I will take my business elsewhere in the future. I would rather pay a few dollars more and have someone return my calls and not rip me off.

Posted on April 19, 2010, updated April 19, 2010
In Feb 2010 I ordered 100 bundles of elderberries, currants & grapes. The owner was very nice on the phone & very helpful & kept repeating how his stock is extra large because he is so far south & has a longer growing season. I paid 1/3 down & then end of March I sent the remainder of the order. When I received the packages (very poorly boxed & completely beat up by the UPS delivery) I was shocked to discover that there were 0 currants in the order & that he had over-sold his stock, shorted me 100s of plants & is now sitting on $800 of my money that I need in order to try to find the plants somewhere else. What I don't understand is that I sent the balance of my payment 3 weeks ago & he cashed my check knowing full well he couldn't cover my order. DESPICABLE business practices especially when he gained my trust & confidence with several phone calls, & didn't have the courtesy to call me on the phone before he sent out the order to let me know what was up.

The plants that arrived were a good size but I must say that the elderberry rhizomes were completely mangled, a lot of times broken in small pieces. These will of course still root & produce plants but the crowns would be a whole lot more sturdy if all the rhizome was connected to the plant.

Moral of the story is you get what yr pay, if you're lucky. I would recommend anyone proceed with extreme caution with this nursery.

I placed an order for $500 worth of plants with Pense for Spring 2010 planting for my farm in Western Pennsylvania. I neglected to specify a shipping date on the order form. The plants were sent to me on January 11. No one from Pense had contacted me to ask for a shipping date. The explanation for the early delivery was that 'they thought I was a greenhouse grower'. There is no basis for that assumption; I would have expected a simple phone call to confirm a shipping date before sending plants to Pa. when the ground was still frozen solid. Mr. Pense did call me back and promised to issue a UPS pickup to return the plants and said that Pense would re-send the order in April. He did not keep this promise and did not return subsequent emails and phone calls from me over the next two months. To make matters worse, the plants were inferior to plants that I have purchased from two other nurseries. To be more specific, the blackberry plant roots were truncated. Plants I have purchased from two other nurseries were delivered with full root systems intact. Based on my experiences I would not recommend using this nursery.

The first year I planted Blackberrys I bought stock from five different local nurseries, 60% lived. The next year I bought several hundred from Pense.
I was shocked at the difference!
This was my fourth year to buy from Pense.
The root system on 99% of the stock they have sent me over the years is by far the best I have ever seen.
Of the one hundred root stock plants I bought this year, one hundred and three lived and are doing great. Several are even blooming.
My orders have always been delivered exactly when I specified and have always been moist and healthy.
I agree, it is flustrating trying to get in touch with them, but the quality of the plants is definitly worth the flustration.

Posted on October 09, 2009, updated November 14, 2009
All I can say is wow ! Just received my first order of nine - 3 yr old blueberry plants . I ordered three each of BlueCrop , Collins & Patriot . The smallest plant had a 21" top and they were all very healthy & well packaged. Spend the extra 35 cents and go with the 3 yr old plants.

Mr. Pense also let me combine another order with my original order and didn't charge me extra shipping. He also returned any e-mails within 24 hours. Sort of nice that the owner reurns your e-mails and not someone from another country.

This has been the best experience I've had with a mail order nursery and without a doubt will order from again. Just can't wait to get my second shipment!!

I made my first order to this company in January, just over the $30 minimum, to see what they were like. Mailed the check on January 11, asked them to ship ASAP, and got the plants (3 kinds of blackberries) about a week and a half later.

Low prices, really fast service, excellent large plants, well-packed. And they threw in two extras no charge.

I do wish that they sold their raspberries in smaller lots than 12 (blackberries have a 5-plant minimum). I'd buy a half dozen raspberry varieties from them, if they had 3-packs like other places.

Order raspberries twice from Pense Nursery. Plants were much bigger than I expected with great roots. Received them when I requested. Ordered more raspberries by phone today. Pense was very pleasant and personable.

I purchased blueberry bushes, blackberry plants and raspberry plants; over 400 plants in all from Pense nurseries. All plants arrived in excellent shape and every single one lived and leaved out. The only plants that did not live were the ones my dog pulled up. Mr Pense was really nice to deal with and called me personally. He actually sent extra plants in case some of them did not live. His plants and business is first rate and you need to look no further for a fine person to do business with, when I need other plants this is where I will do business,his plants are quality and prices are reasonable, meldreth

I'm new to Dave's Garden but I'm not new to Pense. In 2001 I lived on a bluff in S. Illinois. I had tried to grow berries from another supplier with no luck. At that point I looked for a berrry specialist on the internet. I ordered thornless blackberry plants and the BackYard Berry Book from Pense. The plants arrived in great shape. With the help of the berry book and the strong stock from Pense, the blackberries grew like crazy. In two years we had some plants with 12' canes and had more blackberrries than I thought was possible in the clay soil of the bluff. The blackberries took over certain parts of the property and my children delighted in eating them fresh off the cane. I highly reccommend Pense.

I ordered various thornless blackberry cuttings/plants from this company. They arrived promptly in great condition and they even included some extra ones in the order (which made me dig more holes....sweat sweat) Great prices. Over all a nice experience.

Very positive. I have done business with them in the past and ordered again. I called and left a message. They called me back on saturday. I ordered and received my plants on wed. 5 day. plants were great. 4 extra bundles of 25 had 26 in them. roots were great, moist. everything i've done with them has been good.
randy

I called in an order for 25 Caroline raspberries and 25 Apache blackberries. We agreed on a ship date of March 6th, weather permitting. The plants were shipped on March 6th and I received them two days later on the 8th. They were packaged real well. They looked healthy and most of them had good root systems. They were in the ground less than an hour and a half later. I had previously bought raspberries and blackberries from 2 other sources but they didn't compare to these. The price and shipping was very reasonable. If I am in need of anymore plants I will definately order from Pense again.

plants arrived one week after ordering, four days after they shipped, ordered grape vines, brambles and elderberries, all in fine shape and good size, great prices, and extra plants they give you, more than makes up for the cost of shipping, I would highly reccommend this company.

All I can do is give a honest and objective outlook on my experiences with this company.
I called the company around 4 weeks prior to ordering from them. I believe I talked with the owner. I had specific questions concerning the ordering process, and more specific questions in concern with the items I was ordering and recommendations. He was a wealth of knowledge, describing the techniques to successfully grow and harvest blackberries as well as the characteristics and food values of each, propogation, and cultivation requirements. He even ellaborated on their company history and invited me to visit and that I could pick up my order if I let them know in advance, so that they could have it ready. I even had to "hurry" the conversation because he told me almost too much and I didn't have a whole lot of time.
I ordered Triple Crown Thornless blackberries, Navaho, and Arapaho. I also ordered Vanessa grape and Himrod.
My ordered arrived just a few days ago. They were relatively established plants that come pruned, and with whole roots attached (12-15" long). Altogether the blackberries averaged 18 to 24" and were as big around as pencils, and the grape had anywhere from 3 to 5 canes and were around 24-30" long. I was pleasantly suprised to have much follage on the blackberries, and they also sent me approximately 1/3 extra of each plant in my order. At their current prices I recieved at least $20 more in plants. I requested that I wanted the plants to arrive in the middle of November, they were a little early, but pretty close to that time.
They also sent me a letter approximately 2 weeks before shipment to let me know that they were successfully processing my order and that they were including extra plants to offset the sales tax. I am impressed and will definitely order again from them.

I ordered 50 boysenberry & Dewberry plants in fall of 2004. They arrived in good shape and went right into the ground. They all grew well 6'-12' this year and will soon go dormant and I'm looking forward to berries next year. This was my second time ordering from them with no problems and the prices are excellent!

In Feb 05 I ordered blackberries, boysenberries and gooseberries. I received my order 3 Mar 05 and planted them the same day following the instructions included in the order. None of the boysenberries or gooseberries grew. I called the company several times and left messages but they never returned my calls. I have emailed them twice and they have never returned my emails. I know that some plants may not grow through no fault of the grower; but, I expect them to at least return my calls and for them to offer their support. I will not use them again.

Because of their very resonable prices, I decided to give Pense Nursery a try in March of this year. I ordered 12 Raspberry plants, 4 Black Currants, 3 Red Lake Currants and 3 Black Currant/Gooseberry crosses, 10 elderberry plants and 50 Ozark Strawberries. I was very pleased with both Mr. and Mrs. Pense in my ordering and the plants came in at a decent rate and they were very nice plants. So far, all the currant type plants have came out, Strawberries look great and so do the Raspberry and Elderberries. This company is one third the price of my previous favorite company and so far the plants have faired better as well. I will do business with Pense Nursery again. No need to go anywhere else. Price and Quality are paramount.

Ordered 18 blackberry plants back in January. Order was about a week late, but all the plants are growing. I'd buy from them again.

I bought 25 raspberry and 25 blackberry plants from the Pense Nursery last year. They arrived in a timely manner, excellent size, generous quanities. I ordered another 50 plants this year and again recieved excellent plants and four or five extra of each type. Mr. Pense himself took the phone order and he still had my order info from last year. A real deal considering the quality and price. I will do business with them in the future.

Two years ago (spring 2003) I ordered blueberry bushes and grape vines from Pense. I was extremely satisfied with both the price and quality. While the growth of the grape vines has been about average, the rapid growth of the blueberries has caught and surpassed many of my established 4-5 year bushes.
Last year(spring 2004) I ordered more blueberries and grapes. In addition I ordered some fall gold raspberries and some purple royalty raspberries. I have been completely satisfied with Pense and those fall gold raspberries are just awesome.
I have just sent my order to Pense for spring 2005. This year I am ordering more fall gold raspberries and 2 types of strawberries.
I would definately recommend Pense based on both price and quality of nursery stock.
Tom Anderson

I ordered 100 chambourcin plants for delivery in mid January, weather prevented delivery till early Feb. Quality and preperation was great, better than I've seen from other nurserys. Plant performance to date has been outstanding.

I sent Pense an order for various things including blueberries, grapes, and strawberries in March 04. A month later, nothing. I wrote to ask about my order. Only then did they return my order unfilled, saying they had nothing available. No explanation why they waited more than a month to respond. Now the planting season probably is past. Cheap prices but poor customer service.

I have ordered from numerous mail order companies in the past and Pense Nursery has by far provided the best quality stock. The rasberry plants that I received were all well established, large plants, with excellent root systems. I was very pleased with my order, and would gladly order from them again. I would like to add that they their communication does leave a little to be desired, as I emailed them twice with questions before ordering, and never received a reply. However, the quality of their product more than makes up for the lack of communications.

In February, 2004 I called and talked to one of the Pense's about recommending varieties for my area (far Northern Kansas). I talked to a very polite and helpful young man who helped me to not only select varieties that were likely to work in my area, but who also helped me decide when the plants should be shipped to arrive at the proper planting time.

I received my plants on Friday, April 9th. BOY! Was I surprised. These are some of the largest, healthiest plants I have ever received. Most of the red rasbberries were 3/4" or more in diameter and had tremendous root systems. The grapes likewise had very good root systems and were from 18-24" tall. The blueberries (3 year olds) were about 30" tall and had leaves and blooms all over, but had very well developed roots systems as well. I also got 2 different varieties of thornless blackberries that were very well developed and healthy-looking also. The only thing to do now is to see if they grow!

I will DEFINITELY be ordering more items from them. I had no problems whatsoever with my experience.

In 2001 I ordered 50 triple crown blackberries and 100 black raspberries from Pense for the 2002 planting season. The plants were all strongly rooted and all survived. In 2003 the blackberries had a first time yield of over 1.3 gallons for each plant and this was after a 30% loss due to hail.

I ordered 730 of the same blackberries in 2003 for 2004 planting and have received them. These plants have even stronger root systems than the first order.

Both orders arrived on time and in excellent condition. Those who complain about the service at Pense need to keep in mind this is a family run business. And if you have ever run a farm based family business there are never enough hours in the day. On both shipments I was notified prior to shipping so that we could make final preparations.

In late October 2002, I sent to Pense Nursery an order and a check for 200 rooted grape stock. In December 2002 and January 2003, I requested confirmation from Pense of this order via U.S. mail, email, and telephone. They responded to none of my requests. In early May, well past the optimum time to plant grapes in my area, I notified them that I was cancelling the order and placed a stop payment on the check. This company has an atrocious attitude toward customer relations and are extremely unreliable. I very strongly recommend that no one do business with this nursery. I have done business with other nurseries and Pense Nurseries is far far far far below average. If you order from them and receive viable stock, consider yourself extremely lucky!!!!

ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!!! Big, healthy plants. Order filled exactly right. Order received exactly on time. Excellent service. I received my first order from Pense shortly after receiving my first order from Gurneys. The difference in quality, service, and accuracy was monumental. (I've since received an additional order from Gurneys, and I am NOT happy with them. They sent me a substitute tree that is not anywhere near the quality of the cultivar that I ordered, and is not even listed in their catalogue.) I'm very much looking forward to ordering from PENSE again and again!

My husband and I are setting up a small u-pick for berries and have ordered everything from Pense Nursery. We have had nothing but the best results (plants and customer service)!
We have ordered: Blueberry (3 varieties), Thornless Blackberry (1 variety), and Grapevines (3 varieties), 200 plus total. We have experienced no loss. Plants were large, healthy and rooted quickly. You cannot purchase plants here in NY for that price and quality!

Thanks Pense!

Mike & Maryanne Reagan
Central New York

I have ordered several times from Pense. The plants always arrived in good condition, had massive root systems and were larger than locally available nursery stock. Have always had courteous service. If customers have had plants die, I suggest their cultural practices are at fault.

Half of the grape vines I received have died over the past 3 years. Others are not growing well at all.

I was extremely pleased with my order from Pense. I was ready to order before I saw the two negative responses on this website. Most other companies weren't taking orders after March, so I decided to take a chance. I mailed my order first thing Friday, April 26, 2002 and received the order one week later, Friday, May 3rd. The plants were very large caliper with good roots. I had to dig trenches about 5 feet long for the yellow raspberries to spread out the roots. Everything was available except the blueberries. I received a refund check Wednesday May 1st. I will definitely use them again.

After having a negative experience trying to place an order from Black Diamond Nursery, I emailed Pense hoping to find out if boysenberry plants were still being shipped so I could order from them instead. (The owners of Pense and Black Diamond appear to be brothers, sons of a successful AR nurseryman. However, they don't seem to have learned much.) After at least a week, I still have not heard from anyone at Pense.
Another business that's DEFINITELY not into customer SERVICE ! (Must run in the family)

I wanted to order some berry plants but could not get anyone to answer the phone or return a call. Shipping costs were unclear so mailing a check seemed unwise. Evidently not very customer oriented.

We had ordered and paid for 1000 blackberry plants from Pense Nursery, and they delivered only half the plants, of 1 variety, as ordered for spring 2000. They promised the other 500 plants of 2 varieties for fall 2000, but did not ship them then and did not return our money. We finally got plants of 1 variety and root cuttings of the other (when we'd ordered plants) a year later, but the root cuttings were tiny and only 4 plants grew out of 285 cuttings. After repeated letters and phone calls, we finally got our money back for bad plants and the price difference between plants and roots cuttings in summer 2001, 18 months after we'd paid. Two years after we got the field ready with raised beds, we'll finally finish our blackberry planting with plants from another nursery. We had also ordered 2000 strawberry plants from Pense, which they buy from another nursery, and the plants had started deteriorating by the time they sent them to us. We planted the ones that still seemed OK, but almost all died, so again we had to completely replant the field the next year with plants from another nursery (those plants did great). So I'd warn anyone not to place a big order with Pense.

I did some checking--got ahold of someone from Winfrey Valley Nursery, another spinoff from the father's (Loyd Pense) original nursery. I asked the person I spoke to there about Pense Nursery and was told that Philip Pense has had back problems during the past year and his wife, Donna, is sick (I'm not sure how serious or how long). In my eyes, that could explain the apparent discrepancy between early postings and postings during 2000. I contacted everyone I could who'd posted about Pense Nursery…The response was consistent with the postings, a mix of good and bad. Using a search engine and the information I had at hand, I also learned that the Pense family has had a significant, longstanding presence in Winfrey Valley. Thoughthere appear to have been some recent problems with the business and I was never successful in reaching Pense Nursery directly (after multiple tries over a four-day period), corollary evidence suggests that Pense Nursery is NOT afly-by-night. For my own purposes, I probably waited too long to order anyway (Arkansas is well into Spring, while Western New York is still getting snow at the time of this posting). I was hoping to make a limited trial order to make a risk assessment on several varieties while I do site preparation for a larger planting in Spring 2002. I'll pay a bit more to get what I need from other nurseries (there are a number of other excellent sources out there), but might place an order with Pense Nursery at some time in the future. In the meantime, I wish their family the very best.