Comments regarding Greenwood Nursery

I ordered in spring of 2002, a couple of their bareroot plant packages. I got around 50 plants for around $60. I've never expierenced "bareroot" plants, so I did my online research and got my hands dirty. out of my varieties,here's whats still alive. Altheas(22) Lilacs(9)red twig dogwoods(5)
Red maples(10) forsythia(5) Now that equals 51 plants, I had them replace 5 redbuds with 5 red maples. I cleaved 3 altheas to make 6.
They replaced the trees that were "defunct" and the ones that didn't survive, were expected to die. In my packages I originally also recieved: Colorado Blue spruce(5),Korean Dogwoods(5)Redbuds(5) I live in central ohio zone 5. I just recently purchased this home which is 100 yrs old and paid a litttle attention to the plants and trees that are here and on my neighbors properties, If this seems like a tutorial, it is because...the trees that didn't make it had a reason, and it's not the nursery's fault.
Colorado Blue spruce: The closest ones I can find, I can see from my window as I type, they are 30 feet high and probably about 10-15 yrs old, had I planted them near the road at an elevation about 100 feet lower insted of the hilltop, they would have lived. But I wanted them on top of the hill, and they died in the nutrient poor soil.
Redbuds: The closest redbud to my property is about 4 miles from here in a cemetary. Doing a soil test at that redbud tree, mine were doomed unless I wanted to do major soil treatment.
Korean Dogwoods: same as above. I think one I planted may survive as I planted it next to the treeline which has mostly cherry and hickory in it. But I figured they were DOA from previous expierence with dogwoods.
Anyhoo, my expierence with them for the money was great.I got alot of plants for little money and common sense said some things will live and some won't. Greenwood replaced some of the "goners" and I could'nt have asked them to replace the ones Iknew would'nt take. So before you place a bareroot order, check your neighborhood to see what's growing and what is not, do your research and get your hands dirty.

I ordered lilacs, lonicera, wisteria and hydrangeas from these guys because I had to put in hedges and trim out my house at a price I could afford. They had the quantity at the right price so I decided that I could at least try them and for about $125.00 get what I needed. First, let me say I am the worst gardener ever with no history of ever keeping any plant alive that I can remember. Second, I sorely abused these plants. When they arrived I was not able to get to them right away, so I stuck them in a huge bucket of mud and tried to make time to plant as I could (it came out to about a few a day so it took about a month). Not only was I not able to kill them, I have plenty to spare, now in pots waiting for places to go. Also still living are the 25 free hibiscuses they sent along they sent 25 packs of free fertilizer too, but I haven't tried it so I can't comment. Oh yeah, actually I did kill a few because I stupidly fertilized them until I read not to. If only I didn't have to order so many. Actually, it's good so I can have replacements for the ones I botch. The leftovers make great gifts. But next time I will have pots or ground ready before I order.

I just recently ordered from Greenwood, the price was great with a good selection of the plants I was looking for. The plants I ordered arrived promptly and were in good condition. The plants which were shipped as roots are now up and growing and look very healthy. My e-mails with questions were always answered promptly. My order for 20 plants arrived three short(as tangled roots, I see this as an easy thing to happen). I let Greenwood know about the shortage and told them that because of the great price it wasn't necessary to send additional plants, however, they insisted and again the plants arrived promptly. I will order from them again.

There are so many factors as to why plants fail and unfortunately it usually lies with the gardner not the supplier. The gardener must know the requirements of the plant and what type of environment the plant is being placed in. "Too much or too little" seems to be the key for most plants. What type soil, loam, clay, sand, compacted, loose, etc. Does it drain well? Is the soil acid, neutral, alkaline? Do the plants like wet feet or dry? Sun or shade? Is the site too windy, dessicating, etc.
A dozen questions to ask and answer. Plants will do their very best if given the right circumstances. A supplier would be foolish to send defective product and most would replace failing plants. It is just good business. Again, the gardener needs to furnish the plants with the best. That doesn't mean they won't get diseased or attacked by insects but again it is up to the gardener to help the plant.

I've ordered groundcover from Greenwood and they are spreading very well. The plants were healthy and were shipped on time. Their email replies were also prompt.

A hint for those buying seedlings. Some tree varieties do grow fast like river birches. However I can't comment on the quality of seedlings from Greenwood because I have never order tree seedlings from them.

In the future, perhaps gardeners should check the availability of seedlings from their State forester or arborist.

I ordered 25 hybrid poplar trees which they advertise as being "very fast growing". They claim they grow as much as 6 feet per year. So far, in 3 years, mine have grown about 6 INCHES! I sent them an email asking about it, but they never responded.

We applied to their affiliate program, and we were told of a "special stats" page to view our statistics, however, we were unable to find such a page. We contacted doug@alternativefundraising.org (Douglas J. Riemer) per their prior emails to us about their program, but after three more attempts to get the information, we were unsuccessful. We contacted Mr. Riemer to inform him of the temporary removal of Greenwood Nursery from our advertisers until he could supply us with our stats page and data, and we received a reply stating that Alternative Fundraising.org had terminated our affiliate status as a result of our inquiry. We reported this to the Federal Trade Commission. We will not give our customers access to any online business that does not give its full customer support to address any issue brought forth to rectify a misleading or false statement or complaints arising from inferior merchandise, satisfactorily. We guarantee safe, secure online shopping with quality merchandise. We recently accepted Spring Hill, Direct Gardening, Michigan Bulb, Gurney and Henry Fields Nurseries because they have been taken over by Gardens Alive! and we hope to see better service and quality, based on our experience with Gardens Alive! in the past. We encourage our customers to tell us about any problems they have with our advertisers so that we may take appropriate action, and if necessary, remove them from our sites.

I tried them for the first time this year. What a major disappointment. I ordered 50 Butterfly and 50 Ninebark bushes. They were all supposed to be bare root. The Ninebark were bare root but they were also all sprouting when I received them. None of the Butterfly bushes took and only about 20 of the Ninebark have survived so far. (I also ordered a supply of their Repellex tablets. The tablets did not help with the 20 Ninebark bushes - the deer have been nibbling away on them and enough time has passed that the tablets should have become effective. Oh well - back to hot pepper spray and fencing to keep the deer away from the young bushes.) Their prices are certainly cheap enough, but with the very low survival rate, the cheap prices become rather expensive. I won't be ordering from them again.