Comments regarding Stark Brothers Nurseries & Orchards Company

Posted on April 25, 2014, updated April 25, 2014
I frequently order things (not just plants) online from various websites (usually 2-3 times per week) and never have I EVER had such a poor experience from any other company. I have received orders coming from China in less time that it is taking Stark Bros to send my shipment to me.

Normally, when I have not ordered from a company before, I will put in a small order to try them out before throwing a lot of my money at them. So, I purchased some strawberries and a raspberry plant from Stark Bros on April 5th, and on that order confirmation it stated that the estimated ship date was April 10th. Which honestly to me seemed like an excessive wait when we live in a world of competing online retailers who try to get your order in the mail by the next business day. So I braced myself for my 5-day wait. Little did I know that nearly a month later, I still wouldn't have my shipment.

I have contacted the company by email twice. Once on April 11th (the day after the "estimated ship date"), and once on the 23rd. To their credit, the response time was quick enough, but I still have not been given a solid answer about WHEN my order will ship exactly, and what the holdup is. The most recent email says that it is processing and "should go out in the next day or two". We'll see about that.

Okay. I am a patient person. I do not mind waiting when I expect a long wait. As long as a company is honest with me about it, and follows through on the promised date, there are no problems. And when I find a company that conducts their business quickly and professionally, I am a loyal customer and will frequently order more products from them.

What Stark Bros is telling me by delaying my shipment so much and not even giving me a good reason for it is that they don't care about me as a customer, and they do not want my money in the future. That's fine. There are hundreds of other online retailers that will take my money, deliver what is promised WHEN it is promised (and often quicker than promised), and even follow-up with me to make sure I am happy with their service.

Judging by the other negatives recent reviews here, I'm not the only one who is having problems with them. They really need to get their act together.

"On Apr 25, 2014 12:18 PM, Stark Brothers Nurseries & Orchards Company responded with:

Thank you for your feedback and for sharing your experience here. We dedicate ourselves to providing quality product and service to all of our customers, and it is something we take seriously. It is our goal not only to meet, but to exceed your expectations, and we would like to sincerely apologize that this did not happen.

Because we are shipping living product, the shipping dates we can provide are only estimates. An estimated shipping date may change, especially if the weather is unfavorable for plants and trees to be in transit to your location. That aside, we apologize that we didn't communicate this to you in a more timely manner. We are using this as a learning experience, and we are working to improve on this sort of communication with our customers.

Our shipping department is working diligently to ship orders in a timely manner. Your order has shipped to you as of 4/24 and is in transit. You should have received a shipping confirmation email complete with tracking information. If you did not receive this email, let our customer support team know (800.325.4180) so we may send it again.

We appreciate your feedback and want to thank you again for taking the time to leave your thoughts here. We look forward to better serving you in the future.

Sincerely,

Stark Bro's Nurseries & Orchards Co.

http://www.starkbros.com
800.325.4180"

I've received 2 separate orders from them, and I've had nothing but positive experiences. They packaged my trees well and shipped them at the right time for planting. The quality of both the plants and the packaging were better than many of the smaller, specialist nurseries.

I ordered some products from Stark Bros on 02/17. Even though my zone schedule for shipping was 03/03, I specifically told the person I wanted my product shipped right away. She said OK. I hadn't gotten a shipping confirmation email (which they said I would) by 02/24 so I called again. I was told my products would be shipped. Still no email so I called again 02/27. When I asked specifically when my order would ship I was told that there weren't any problems with back order but my order as of yet hadn't been printed off to be filled and was listed in the computer as "on hold". I should have asked for a supervisor but I was at work and in a hurry. I believe this is only the 2nd time in my life I have ordered from Starks. It's one of the oldest names in the garden business. I don't know why it's so difficult for them to ship a simple order of less than 1 dozen plants. It's VERY frustrating. I could have already gotten an order from someone else and planted my stuff.

"On Mar 4, 2014 10:18 AM, Stark Brothers Nurseries & Orchards Company responded with:

Thank you for your feedback! We are sorry to hear that your order was not shipped as expected, and that a reason was not clearly communicated to you. We strive to ship your order within the estimated shipping window, or the shipping date you request if it differs. Please contact our customer support team (800.325.4180) with your order number handy so that we may work with you to get your order shipped immediately.

Sincerely,

Stark Bro's Nurseries & Orchards Co.

http://www.starkbros.com
800.325.4180
info@starkbros.com"

I would just like to put out there that if you have recently ordered the All-Season Blueberry Collection to check to see what varieties you are going to get as the website listed two different combinations on the same order page and when I contacted the company at the end of last week here is their response

"I see 2 Chandler, 2 Sweetheart and 2 Herbert when I go to this item. You would receive these three varieties, but not the Elliott. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you."

This is different from the catalog which list the Elliott and not the Sweetheart. I sent them another email after the response to further explain their mistake and have yet to receive a response however notice that their website is now changed to reflect the Elliott and not the Sweetheart. I have a screen shot if anyone needs it.

I am mostly writing to complain about Stark's complete lack of an inventory system. Last year on 2/13/13 I put in my order for 10 items. Everything showed in stock and the order was processed. A few months or so later I received a letter showing all but 2 of the items were cancelled...one of which was a Bubblegum Plum Dwarf Supreme tree. This tree was the reason for my order and I just added the rest. I called to complain asking why they were just cancelled and was told that they were just out of the stock. After discussion I found out that I could get the same tree...but just not "Supreme." The rest of the items were just out of stock. VERY frustrating.
This year I decided to give them another chance and sent an email after my order asking that if I could get better service. This was my email:
"I am writing to you in hopes that I will be put on a priority list. Last year I ordered early and over half my shipment wasn't available at the time it was to be delivered. Nobody called, they just cancelled it. I am giving you another chance. This is my order this year: Thanks"

This is the reponse I received:
"Dear Becky,

Thank you for your email and for your recent order. I'm sorry, but we don't have priority list with our items. They are priority in the order they are shipped out and we cannot guarantee any item will remain in stock at any given time. I can change your estimated shipping date to earlier April if you think you can plant at that time.

Please let me know if you wish to make any changes to your order."

What I don't understand is why people who live in zone 3 or 4 can't receive priority based on their order date and not the suggested shipping date. Although abnormal, last year in April we still had snow on the ground. Sure I could keep them in the house and try to keep them healthy, but why should I have to?
Becky

"On Feb 14, 2014 2:20 PM, Stark Brothers Nurseries & Orchards Company responded with:

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and experience here! Your feedback is useful for us to address and improve things on our end in order to meet, and exceed, your expectations! We have been in contact with you via email and hope we have a solution that meets your satisfaction.

If you have any questions or concerns, our customer support team is here to work with you! You can reach us by phone during business hours at 800.325.4180 and of course by email (info@starkbros.com).

Thanks again for your feedback.

Sincerely,

Stark Bro's Nurseries & Orchards Co.

http://www.starkbros.com
800.325.4180
info@starkbros.com "

I spent 90 minutes on the computer to choose and order from this company, only to discover when checking out that because I have a rural address I would have to call the company and pay extra because of separate handling. Well, that's just not going to happen. This is the only company that I have ordered from so far that requires me to do this. Sadly, I will choose from the other catalogs. I took their catalog over to my neighbors this morning and suggested strawberry plants for him to order. Now I will have to go back and tell him to look for another nursery or buy local. Very frustrating and time consuming! I didn't see any small print or any print that said I would have to call them to place my order until the very end when I clicked continue to check out and of course after I entered my address. etc. Just because I live out in the country??? We don't have streets out here.

"On Feb 4, 2014 3:05 PM, Stark Brothers Nurseries & Orchards Company responded with:

We're sorry for any frustration you've had trying to place your order on our website and we would like to help! Please contact our customer support team (contact information below), with your customer number and address handy, so we may work with you to resolve this issue. Sometimes the system has trouble recognizing rural route numbers -- but this isn't something that you are charged extra for. If you have questions about your order total, please let our customer support team know!


Sincerely,

Stark Bro's Nurseries & Orchards Co.


info@starkbros.com 

800.325.4180
http://www.starkbros.com "

I have had good experience with this company. The trees I ordered were good size and quality, all of them leafed out. The shipping was problem free as well.

I placed an order for 16 fruit trees in early August. There were five different fruits in this order. The order was scheduled to be shipped in early November and I asked for a later shipment. That was no problem. The shipment was delayed again due to a tree not being ready. Nonetheless I was kept informed of the ship date and I must say I was delightfully PLEASED with my many fruit trees. I scratched the bark on all the bare root trees and saw green! That means they are all alive. The trees have nice labels on them which made it easy for me. They were also all well rooted and the graft area looked good. I was able to plant them all today and am really looking forward to good things from these plants. I will for sure order from Stark Bros again. Thank you!

I ordered two WineCrisp and two GoldRush apple trees after doing as much research on these two types of trees as I could without tasting them on http://www.orangepippin.com and by typing in WineCrisp PDF and GoldRush PDF for a Google search. These both seemed like really nice trees.

I received my four trees when there was a considerable amount of snow still on the ground. I called Stark to ask them how to keep my trees alive. Their representative told me what to do and if they did die, call them back for replacements. I kept them in the box in my basement wetting the roots every so often for two weeks...the ground where I wanted to put these trees was still frozen about 18 inches down. I thought they would be better in the ground than in my basement. These trees started to leaf out a bit and they were not in the spots that I wanted them because my land was still being prepared by a local farmer...so, I dug them up and put them in the spots that I actually wanted them.

All four trees made it through the first year and looked great. They were all very beautiful solid trees when they arrived.....I didn't want any replacements, I wanted these trees to make it and they did under a lot of stress.

Stark Bros sends the trees out at the proper planting time, but this spring was abnormally cold here in Michigan. They can't predict how bad it was up here for weather.

So, I just want to let people know how healthy their trees are to withstand two weeks in a box in a basement, planted in semi-frozen ground, then transplanted again and to look as good as they do.

Posted on August 21, 2013, updated August 22, 2013
Positives:
-Excellent 1 Year Replacement Policy: No arguing over dead plants.
-All of the thirty-two trees I ordered over the last three years have at least leafed out, though about six didn't survive a winter (including two replacements).
-All of the dozens and dozens of berry, vine, ground cover & root plants I have bought at least leafed out.
-Good Customer Service.
-Great late season deals.
-Free shipping over 75$, and now 85$, is spectacular.
-Great, easy to use website.
-Decent, but not overwhelming number of varieties.
-I've gotten a great plum crop and a good peach crop in the third year here in Zone 5.
-Informative emails/website with special deals.

Negatives:
-Six berry plants arrived small and leafless (but all survived and are now doing well).
-Somewhat limited number of varieties if you are looking for something different/unusual.
-Rootstock information isn't listed -which could come in handy as some rootstocks are better for wetter grounds and some are better for dryer grounds etc.. . .
-My cherry, pear and pawpaw trees (planted three years ago) seem a long way away from fruit bearing, but they are in a shadier part of the lawn and I have had to ward off deer (which especially LOVE cherry trees).
-The listing of the size of the trees was confusing, especially three years ago: Standard Trees: 18-25 feet was what was easily found, but on another page: Peach Standard Trees: 12-15 feet. (I would get different results from different employees as well). I think Stark Bro's has corrected this now: they, as well, have added size info on their berry plants (which used to be missing).

Overall:
-Probably my favorite place to do Plant Business so far: They just seem to be the most professional: I just really like the iron clad replacement policy: no wishy-washy wording or implementing of their policy.
-I would lean more towards trees than bushes with Stark Bro's, but I wouldn't rule Stark out for bushes, for, as I said, the bushes I bought, though scrawny, did survive.

In 2012, I ordered three European Pears, three Pawpaws, and a Brown Turkey Fig from Stark's for fall 2012 planting. All except one, a pawpaw, survived the winter and are now thriving. I contacted Stark's about the dead Pawpaw, and they agreed to ship a free replacement for planting in fall 2013 without any hesitation.

I also ordered European Plum from them in spring 2013. It is also thriving.

Excellent plant material. Excellent customer service. I highly recommend this company.

I am a 63 year old male that has been a Stark Brothers customer for over 50 years. My Grandfather bought his trees from them and they produced great quantities of apples and peaches. I suppose he is the reason I got the bug to grow fruit.

I now have an orchard of 100+ trees and even though I have lost some trees to disease I am overall satisfied with my purchases. I can't blame Stark Brothers for a tree dying when there is info that tells me the dangers of planting some varieties in my location. It takes dedication to have solid trees and delicious fruit. Stark Brothers is the right place to start the process.

Ordered a cox orange apple tree from them during the spring sale. Awesome price. Shipping and tracking were right on. Packaging was great moisture wrapped roots inside a bag to seal in moisture inside a card board box to ship with least damage. Pruning was done by experts. Stuck it in the ground with a peat, topsoil, compost mixture and had buds breaking open and leaves shortly after.

Side note. Customer service is excellent. The were able to research info on the almond trees for me and willing to do so. I was contacted by a real person with real responses in a timely manner! They will definitely see more of my business as I turn my 6.5 acre hay field into something generations can enjoy!

Posted on April 8, 2013, updated June 21, 2013
Posted on April 8, 2013, updated April 8, 2013
Posted on April 5, 2013, updated April 8, 2013
STRONG NEGATIVE!!! DO NOT BUY from them! I paid almost $275 on around 17 tree's and few berries plants, on March 7, 2013... they said April 1st is the day they will ship, it is not 1st time they postpone. they keeps on postpone then again postpone until April 5th, checked my account again, postponed again to April 10th. said they didnt have Honeyberries. Bullcrap I read another views they already got theirs before April 1st, I WANT MY ORDER SHIP TO ME RIGHT AWAY when I PAID THEM RIGHT AWAY........ keeps on contacting customer service and talk to them about where my plant. I brought top best soil, set the spot for 17 plants (trees/berries)..... soil dried out and everything.. I felt I am wasting $450+ money and was hoping in trust Stark Brothers to send me high quality products... this never happened. I DO NOT trust them, they are my FIRST time order with them and it was $275... giant order. NEVER AGAIN with them, and WILL NEVER recommend them to all my green die hard thumbs friends/ professionals. I would recommend to go to wilson orchard instead! It is very rare that I gets angry: I am one of the most ANGRY customer with them the Stark Brother ever!! Been very patient with them. said will get my stuff in 2 weeks after March 7th, never did, then postpone another week, now another week april 1, then april 5 THEN april 10th!? WTF SERIOUSLY, they want some serious business and large $$ they better send it out right away! NEVER AGAIN...... EVER.... I was going to buy a large amount of nut trees from them next, but no its a drop it and run! DO NOT buy them if you dont have patience and expect your stuff in the mail right away less 2 weeks, this is not the place for you. I wait past a month few days for my stuff. unhappy. :( these are what I ordered: MidnightBlue & Night Mist Assortment (#131383)

Status: Ordered

$19.99 1 $19.99
Dwarf Banana Plant

Dwarf Banana Plant (#3682)

Status: Ordered

This is a potted plant. This item is self pollinating.
$11.99 2 $23.98
2-N-1 Cherry Semi-Dwarf

2-N-1 Cherry Semi-Dwarf (#3000)

Status: Ordered

This is a potted plant. This item is self pollinating.
$29.99 1 $29.99
Stark® SweetHeart™ Apricot Dwarf

Stark® SweetHeart™ Apricot Dwarf (#28779)

Status: Ordered

This item is self pollinating. This product will be professionally pruned before shipping.
$22.99 1 $22.99
Red, White & Blue Seedless Grape Assortment

Red, White & Blue Seedless Grape Assortment (#91480)

Status: Ordered

$29.99 1 $29.99
Peach Lover's Assortment Dwarf

Peach Lover's Assortment Dwarf (#28660)

Status: Ordered

This product will be professionally pruned before shipping.
$59.99 1 $59.99
Stark® Primocane Red Raspberry Assortment

Stark® Primocane Red Raspberry Assortment (#26504)

Status: Ordered

$25.99 1 $25.99
Dwarf Asian Pear Assortment

Dwarf Asian Pear Assortment (#26473)

Status: Ordered

This product will be professionally pruned before shipping.
$59.99 1 $59.99
Stark® Crimson Gold Nectarine Dwarf

Stark® Crimson Gold Nectarine Dwarf (#28778)

Merchandise Total $272.91
Professional Pruning -

now you see it is a LARGE order.... got NOTHING from them. I am their first time, new customer. Wished I never brought anything from them! Not recommended.

"On Apr 8, 2013 10:10 AM, Stark Brothers Nurseries & Orchards Company responded with:

We dedicate ourselves to providing quality product and service to our customers here at Stark Bro's, and we take pride in that! We are able to improve this when folks like you share your feedback with us here. Your honest experiences with our company are appreciated.

We sincerely apologize for your frustration with your order, especially since it is your first experience ordering with Stark Bro's. It is our policy not to charge you for your order before it ships out to you, because it is sometimes the case that product becomes unavailable before it is able to ship. This is the nature of dealing with living product. Our Dwarf Banana Plant states in its description that it is unavailable to ship before April 1 -- this is to protect the plant's cold-sensitive leaves from damage occurring in shipping. Our records show that we offered to split-ship your order so that your plants and trees that are available now will ship, and your back-ordered items will ship when they are available. We know you originally declined this offer, but we would like you to know we can still do this for you, since your order is still waiting to be shipped to you. Please contact our customer support team [800.325.4180 | info@starkbros.com] so that we may have the opportunity to work with you.

Thank you again for your feedback and we look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Stark Bro's Nurseries & Orchards Co.




info@starkbros.com

800.325.4180
http://www.starkbros.com

http://www.facebook.com/starkbros.co

http://www.twitter.com/Stark_Bros"

Super company. Friendly and knowledgeable advice over the phone, efficient and professional ordering process.
Best of all, everything I've ordered from them (over 100 fruit trees and berry bushes) has been vibrant, and of superb quality.
I will never roll the dice with any other nursery. Cant imagine improving over what Stark Brothers offers

My order:
Assai KIwi
Suncrisp Apple

As of today, this is the best online nursery i have experienced with. the packaging of their box is outstanding, so don't worry that they will arrive broken. My dwarf Suncrisp apple tree arrive at about 3 feet tall and had over 20 BUDS. i was impressed with the quality of their trees A++. My kiwi vine was healthy and about 16 inches tall. However, its been a month and the vine as not produce any type of grow (leaves or branching). It looks like if its stunted. Does anyone know why? are they slow growers?

Ordered a bunch of trees and berry bushes from them this spring. Everything arrived in great condition (they easily have the best packaging of any online nursery I've ordered from). All the bare root trees are just starting to sprout and look thick and healthy.

My only beef with them was I had ordered one variety of blueberry bushes. Well they must have sold out of the bush, and cancelled them from my order. While they didn't charge me for them, they never let me know that they had cancelled them. I only found out by viewing my order status on their website. By the way. Their website is the best in the business (I say that as a web designer).

I plan on buying all my fruit stock from Stark's from now on.

Have ordered several Stark select fruit trees each of the last two years.
First year grapes, Stark Gold Cherry, two apricots, Plumcot. all arrived healthy and growing as of second year . This year new order of Black Gold cherry, Pawpaw and Itchy persimmon, former two select. Former two arrived with top 6 inches or more bent and broken. Called to inform, and immediately they offered to send replacements, Replacement of the persimmon arrived healthy, pawpaw due to arrive in the fall. This is a company that prizes customer service and I am very satisfied with size and healthy of the trees, responsiveness to correcting problems, and would not hesitate to order from them.

I only ordered one thing to test the waters so-to-speak.

I ordered a 6 pk. of Boysenberries and I am very pleased at
the condition of the plants, roots, and fast shipping.
I ordered thornless and I wouldn't call them thornless, they do have small thorns and my brothers don't (I called him to ask) so don't know why mine have thorns.

But the plants were beautiful and I will order from them again. Thanks

Ive ordered from Stark Bros twice, and was happy with both orders. Their pawpaw trees were taller and their cherry trees were thicker in diameter than expected for the price. Ive only had one plant from them die so far, but all the others are as healthy as can be.

I ordered several hundred dollars of plants by mail this year and Stark Brothers is a company I will do business with again. I ordered the dwarf peach collection and a southern blueberry collection. The blueberries arrived about a week or so before the peaches but both arrived within a fast-reasonable shipping time. Having never really grown anything bareroot, I believed the Watchdog rating and took the chance. We planted the peach trees and within a week or so, all had new growth. Amazing! The potted blueberries are up and growing as well. Everything was well packaged and didn't lose a grain of soil during shipping. Great company and thanks to Garden Watchdog for pointing me in the right direction!

I ordered a Honeycrisp Dwarf Apple Tree from them in 2008. I planted it and babied it and it seemed to be doing well until last summer it just died on me. I thought because of the weather last year that it might have gone dormant early so I waited until this year and it never came back. I went to take the tree out and it broke off right at the base of the trunk, so I knew it was dead.

I have ordered from Stark Bros. 4 times during the last 8 months. All orders have been shipped on time and arrived in excellent condition. All orders were for Knockout Roses and totaled approximately 80 plants. There was a small glitch with my most recent order that I received a few days ago. One plant out of 17 was very small and not healthy. It died one day after receipt. However, I Emailed Stark Bros. regarding the problem and received a response immediately from Elaine stating they would issue a credit for the one plant. Great company to work with and will order from them again.

I ordered 16 fruit trees, 75 strawberry plants, 27 raspberry plants, and 18 blackberry plants.

The trees & raspberries were bare root and of the size and kind I ordered.

I was unable to get the trees in the ground as soon as I received them due to heavy snow followed by a business trip. Stark told me how to keep them alive and healthy during their nearly three week wait.

I have them in the ground and 15 of the 16 trees immediately sprung to life. I will give the last one another two or three weeks and then call if no luck. The raspberries are coming to life nicely and the blackberries are doing ok. The strawberries are a mixed lot, some ok, some not flourishing but this is due to heavy rain and standing water in my garden, not Stark Bros.

Bottom line:
Received what I ordered? Yes
Received when promised? Yes
Answered the phone every time I called (x 4)? Yes
Charged what I was told? Yes

Would order again? Most likely. I found that my local Tractor Supply Company has Berries and some fruit trees so I will give them first shot, but for specialty items I will likely be using Stark.

I ordered 7 dwarf fruit trees from Stark Bros. and 18 blackberry plants. These fruit trees were very sturdy compared to what I had received from other companies in the past. I am very happy so far.

I've been buying from Stark Bros. for decades and have always been satisfied with the quality and service. This year I noticed that while still healthy and vigorous, the plant size seemed smaller than in the past. The honeyberry plants were nothing more than twigs. Stark's great customer service came through and we arrived at a good solution. The bottom line is that I will still buy from Stark's but will definitely pay more attention to size and special pricing than I did in the past.

wow what a company, I ordered 10 hybrid willows, 10 lombardy poplars and 2 wisteria trees. I was blown away by the size of the willows, huge, beautiful, and they are the picture of health. the poplars were also a nice size and look very healthy. the wisteria trees also look very healthy, but could have been larger. This is my first time ordering from this company, since then I have placed two more orders with them. I cannot wait for them to arrive. I also want to say that they have knowledgeable people on the phone, I inadvertantly messed up on my most recent order and the lady I had on the phone was nice as can be, patient, explaining things, just an overall great company to do business with.

Posted on April 8, 2013, updated April 9, 2013
I am VERY angry regarding my recent order with Stark Brothers. I placed my order in February and everything was listed as in-stock. I was sent a message saying they would ship on April 1st. Today I get a bill stating that my order was supposed to have shipped two days ago (April 6th) and one of my items is out of stock. The missing tree is needed to pollinate one of the items that shipped two days ago. The tree is useless now! What a con! They wait until the in-stock items ship before they tell you they are out of stock on the others! Now I can’t cancel an order for a useless tree! Grrrrrr! I should have the right to know about an order that cannot be filled correctly BEFORE it ships. They certainly have enough time to send me spam up until now, trying to get me to buy more stuff. I even ordered from one of these spam messages. That’s doubly infuriating now. I will NEVER order from them again! EVER! Now it is too late to get the missing item somewhere else. I ordered in plenty of time to get available stock. I don’t want them telling me that this is normal to run out as they are shipped. I ordered early. WE HAVE INVENTORY SYSTEMS THESE DAYS STARK BROTHERS! If you can’t figure out inventory until they day you ship things, then you are pretty sorry. How can I expect good plants if you can’t even count trees? I urge anybody reading this to hold onto you hard earned cash tightly. They will take your money and not provide the plants you ordered and wait until it is too late for you to do anything about it. Buyer beware! Other nurseries were honest about their inventory even back in February. If these other nurseries can keep track of inventory, certainly Stark Bros. should be able to. Talk about misleading practices to get you to order a bunch of stuff without being honest about what they could deliver! There should be a law to protect us from fraudulent practices like this! I plan to fight my bill tooth and nail! I will not pay for a useless tree; especially when their advertising tells me to buy the pollinator that doesn’t exist.

"On Apr 9, 2013 5:42 PM, Stark Brothers Nurseries & Orchards Company responded with:

On behalf of all of us at Stark Bro's, please accept our sincerest apology for not properly communicating with you when items on your order became unavailable for shipping. You can be sure that your feedback is something we take to heart and we will work earnestly to improve our communication methods to better suit all customers going forward.

Here at Stark Bro's, we have been growing and selling our own trees since 1816 -- almost 200 years. Our Stark Supreme trees, and Select EZ Start® Potted trees, are handpicked as top-grade and, rest assured, our regular-grade trees are just as healthy as our Supreme and Select trees, just of a slightly smaller caliper. But, all trees must meet Stark Bro's quality standards before we deem them salable.

Nonetheless, we want to make this right and encourage you to please contact our Customer Support Team [800.325.4180] and speak with our Customer Support Manager regarding your order with us in an attempt to resolve your issue and restore your faith in our company.

Sincerely,

Stark Bro's Nurseries & Orchards Co.

info@starkbros.com
800.325.4180
http://www.starkbros.com
http://www.facebook.com/stark..."

Posted on April 3, 2012, updated April 8, 2013
Posted on April 26, 2011, updated April 3, 2012
Ordered a paw paw tree and a rose bush this Spring. Promptly shipped, well-packed. Tree was small but had good roots, rose was small but healthy. Will be doing business with Starks again. Urban gardener in Indy, 5-B.

Order was received in less than a week and trees and bushes arrived in excellent condition, well taken care of at the nursery level, root systems were healthy. Highly recommend Stark. Guarantee is second to none! Thanks so much!

I have to join the happy customers here to post an exceptionally postive experience with customer service. I placed two orders this Spring of 2013 with Stark Brothers. I received the first order (about $400 worth) for 3 Apricot, 4 Sweet Cherry, 3 Peach, 2 Beach Plum, 1 Mulberry, 2 Elderberry, 1 Almond and 2 Honey Berry last Friday. The ground was a sheet of solid ice and it was snowing heavily. The temps here are still in the teens at night. (The ground is still frozen solid as of April 1st.) I had no safe, cool place to store two huge boxes of dormant plants.

I called customer service to complain that I was upset that no one had monitored the weather in this exceptionally long, cold winter here in the N.E. and was not happy to receive these plants under such difficult conditions. It is impossible to "heel" them in while the ground is rock solid frozen... and the cellar is just too warm to store them.

I called on a Friday and Customer Service immediately offered to send FedEx on Monday to take the entire order back and reship my order later at the date of my choice. You CAN NOT beat that kind of service! Because I ordered a number of "supreme" trees that were sold out and would not be in the replacement order, I decided to open the boxes and go ahead and keep everything when I saw how nice the plants looked. Instead of returning it, I spent the weekend in the cellar planting everything in large pots and tubs and then moved them out to a protected small greenhouse.

One of the shrubs had a twisted taproot and customer service also agreed, without hesitation, to send out a replacement with my second order.

To summarize, the plants look good to date, though still dormant. The customer service has been top rate so far.

If you live in a northern climate, I suggest you call your order in and *specify* a shipping date that will work for you, especially for Spring orders.

After multiple pre-orders and cancellations I finally made up my mind on which trees to purchase -- Honeycrisp supreme dwarf apple, Pink Lady supreme dwarf apple, Stanley supreme dwarf plum, and Montmorency semi-dwarf cherry. I finalized my order in the beginning of February with an estimated ship date of March 4th. It shipped on the 6th due to a passing snowstorm, and it arrived on 9th in great condition.
The two apple trees were plump and well branched at 4.5 feet tall, the plum (although very stocky) was just under 4 feet with a few branches, and the cherry was on the short side, but had great bud activity. All the trees had a healthy root system, and all the grafts looked solid. There was some bud loss and a few snapped branches (to be expected from shipping) otherwise the trees were in great shape.
I soaked the trees in water for two hours and immediately planted each in a 15 gallon pot. They were dormant upon arrival and are all showing signs of bud growth. I am very impressed so far and look forward to the growing season! I'll post another update farther into the year.

Posted on October 30, 2012, updated March 20, 2013
Posted on April 4, 2012, updated October 30, 2012
I placed an order for several raspberry plants last fall. On January I added more raspberries to my order as well as a pair of elderberries. I was very please when I opened the boxes. The plant were obviously dormant, however they had very large root systems.
I was told my order was going to be shipped on March 27th. I was surprised when I received one box on the 24th and another on the 25th. My only fear was that if this was a regular Michigan winter I would have not been able to plant them right away. Probably not a big issue. Where I live the ground is not workable until the second week of April.
This is my first time ordering plants online, however I did my research and decided to order from Stark Brothers because most of the reviews were positives. I will order from them again.

After having a bad experience with ordering paw paw trees from another company, I decided to pay a little more and order from Stark Bros. They shipped sturdy little trees about 3 ft. tall (not at all like the tiny, pathetic twigs from the other place.) They had well-developed root systems and were carefully packaged.

The trees have now been in my garden a couple of seasons and although they have yet to bear fruit, they are still growing and doing fine. I wish I had ordered from Stark first!

Bad control of their inventory. I'm very upset with Stark Bros, a few months ago, I wanted to get the 2-n-1 cherry tree, but they were not available at the time so I signed up to get an e-mail when they got some. Shortly after I received an e-mail saying they had some in stock, so I went online and placed an order. I received an e-mail confirmation with a ship date and estimated delivery date. Both dates came and passed and nothing. I waited another week thinking it was going to be late and nothing. So I decided to call to see what was going on. I called one day and was on hold forever, so I hung up and called the next day. The next day they answered and told me that my order had been canceled because they ran out of trees. They could have at least e-mailed me right away to tell me about this. Instead they made me waste my time and money preparing a spot for me to plant the tree and buying good soil. I will never order from them again.

"On Jan 14, 2013 9:46 AM, Stark Brothers Nurseries & Orchards Company responded with:

At Stark Bro's, we are dedicated to providing quality product and service to our customers, and we take pride in that. Your feedback here is appreciated, since you are sharing your honest experiences with our company.

We sincerely apologize for the lack of prompt correspondence about our product, the 2-N-1 Cherry tree, becoming unavailable before we could ship it to you. We understand your frustration in this situation. Please contact our customer support team [800.325.4180 | info@starkbros.com] with your account information so that we may have the opportunity to rectify this with you.

Thank you again for your feedback and we hope to hear from you soon!

Sincerely,


~Stark Bro's




info@starkbros.com

800.325.4180
http://www.starkbros.com

http://www.facebook.com/starkbros.co

http://www.twitter.com/Stark_Bros"

I am in zone 7 and had a fall shipment of plants from Stark: 3 Anne raspberries, 1 cherry as a back-up pollinator for my existing trees, 1 nectarine, and 1 plum. Everything arrived in early November and went right into the ground the same day. I was pleased with the size and condition of everything though I won't know how things do until spring when they leaf out. It looked like the trees had good buds, though. Next year I'll provide a progress report, but I already feel that I got my money's worth.

Big fan and repeat customer. Over the last 2 years I have bought 33 fruit trees from 6 different sources. The Stark trees did the best by far in their first year, which is why i have gone back to them to fill in dead holes left by others. I now have 4 different cherries, 3 Pawpaw, mulberry, 2in1 pear, and an apple from stark. Next year I may replace some of the trees from other vendors that lived, but I will be pruning them them using the stark shipments as a model first.

For everything else I want in the future I will check stark first. They don't do pomogranate.

I have ordered trees/plants from Stark Bro's two times. Last year I purchased one persimon, blackberry, raspberry and other garden plants. I called them and asked when I expect to fruit, I was told for 3 or 4 years for persimons, and 2 years for blackberry. When I received the order, I was a little dispointed about the blackberry, they was new plant in less than two inch. I said well I will wait for two years. By summer, I noticed they were growing crazy, till last winter they were around 5 feet. This summer they started bearing fruits--big and many! Now (it is the second year) they are about 10 feet and grew many twigs expending around the root. (I bought "Tripple Crown")

About the persimon tree, last year we had extremely hot summer, the tree died. I phoned them and as they committed I had a new tree mailed last fall. This tree was alive this summer but it looks not very vigrous. I think this type tree is not suitable for planting in my place.

This years I had ordered more raspberry plants, and 2-in-1 asian pears. I was satisfied with the caliper of the trees and these trees were growing good this summer. The raspberry plants were growing good too. In fall I had harvested some (not many). I compared with their catelog, the berries are like what they described about the size, production, and taste.

I have read about one negtive comment about the small size of blackberry. My experience is that wait until one year to comment. I actually bought two "big" blackberry plant from local store last year. They were $20 each, with flowers on. After picking some very small fruits, one died, one although not die but did not grow vey well.
So for berry plants, it does not mean the bigger you plant the better.

I ordered 4 blueberry plants and 2 packages (50 plants if I remember correctly) of bare root strawberry plants early this spring (about 4 months ago). The blueberry plants were packaged well and in good condition, but were heavily pruned without many leaves. One blueberry plant had shifted a bit during shipping and had 1 branch broken. The strawberries were a bunched together tangle of bare roots without any leaves, it was a bit surprising as it was my first time ordering bare root, but obviously it was how they were supposed to come. It was actually my first time ordering plants online. I followed all of the directions in the very nice pamphlet that came with the shipment. Now 4 months later all of my plants look fantastic and are growing very well. Only about 2-3 of the strawberry plants didn't make it, all of the others have grown great, produced strawberries and are now sending out runners. I think that Stark Bros. did an excellent job and I will be ordering from them next time.