Comments regarding Forestfarm

VERY PLEASED with Forest Farm!!!
I ordered two Sycamore Figs and two Eglantine Roses-I expected tiny little plants (bought 'tubes') and was amazed to get LARGE, VERY HEALTHY PLANTS!!!!
I was also ESPECIALLY happy that they were willing to work with me regarding shipping (Fedex Ground from CA is a death sentence to any plant shipped here to MN--it can spend literally WEEKS in shipping! They accomodated my request to ship USPS 2nd day (even though they don't use them) and my plants arrived within DAYS (instead of weeks).
I LOVE their catalogue--and will be placing another order after the first of the year for shipping in the spring!
A GREAT place to find/order the more unusal/obscure plants.
Customer Service was WONDERFUL and very patient with me. Plants are GORGEOUS! I just hope they re-think their shipping policy (FedEx Ground) before they have customers in non-contiguous states have problems with condition their plants may be in if subjected to FedEX's 7 to 10 WORKING DAYs (this can result in up to TWO WEEKS) shipping.
ForestFarms plants are too Wonderful and their Customer Service too nice to have to suffer because of FedEx's shipping time frames!
I WILL be ORDERING from ForestFarms AGAIN!
THANKS ForestFarms !!!!!! I LOVE the Figs and Roses I ordered from YOU!!!

I would expect a company as highly rated and expensive as forestfarm to have a better guarantee. I had a difficult time getting credit (not a refund ) for plants that died. It took some persistance to negotiate a partial credit on a few plants.

To Forestfarm, the issue was fault; was it customer or vendor. Their claim (which was pressed hard) was that it had to be my fault because they sell so many other healthy plants. Are their plants created on a factory assembly line? Is every customer a master gardener?

I guess they have made their business decision to be both expensive and have a weak guarantee. I won't use them anymore. There are better choices elsewhere.

"When Geedavey originally contacted Forestfarm about his order (sometime in mid-summer), his concern was with the Oxydendrum he had received that was turning red. At that time we advised him to try fertilizing the tree, because premature fall coloration can be a symptom of “hunger” (he had not followed the instructions we send with each order). In his second phone call to us, we were told that the Oxydendrum had now died and that both of the Sambucus on his order had also died. We always try to establish the cause of the demise of any plants, so that the situation is not repeated with succeeding plants. We had difficulty getting information from Geedavey as to what the possible cause (we don’t use the term “fault”) might be, since Sambucus at least are pretty tough and rarely die. His order consisted of 52 plants, of which 3 died due to unknown reasons.

We tried to make Geedavey happy by giving him full credit on the Sambucus and 50% credit for the 5 gallon Oxydendrum. We thought we had his agreement that this was a fair solution. Since none of us could ascertain the reason the plants had died, it was most likely some factor in his environment rather than a problem with the plants themselves (the remaining plants of these kinds had no problems in our nursery). Many good gardeners accept a low percentage of loss as part of the gardening experience, knowing that the cause could well be something that they did or didn’t do (and sometimes it just happens!). Imagine our chagrin to see this comment posted when Geedavey had indicated he had accepted the credit we had offered.

We really would have appreciated more details as to why GEEDAVEY believes the plants died instead of his posting a negative comment on this website. Our plants are NOT created on an ‘assembly line’ (nor could they be!), and we supply plants successfully to gardeners of all skill levels (not just “master gardeners”). Our customers are important to us, whether they post a comment or not."

I have ordered from ForestFarm before. I placed an order early this summer for 3 coastal redwood (tubes). Three came, one was severely malformed. I planted them anyway, and did nothing about contacting the company. I was ready to post a "negative experience" this morning when I decided to see what ForestFarm had to say. Emailed them at 11:30 A.M. and got a response by 1:30 P.M. They explained in detail what had probably happened and were genuinely concerned about my lack of satifaction. They have offered to send replacement at no charge (and would have probably offered sooner had I contacted them eariler). I have seen many nightmares posted on this site, folks, this is the kind of company you want to do business with. Some comments posted here, have said that the materials/postage from ForestFarm are expensive. Shipping seems high, but we're talking about plants in soil here, not a pair of pants. It has been my experience that you get what you pay for. ForestFarm will continue to have my business.

Great Company! The variety of plants they offer is amazing. I just made my first order and it arrived very quickly and the trees look great! I will order from them again!

I have ordered from Forestfarm at least half a dozen times over the past six years, and I have always had a positive experience with this company! Their attention to detail and customer service, not to mention their great selection of plants and their overall high quality have been great.

Out of the dozens of plants ranging from their tube size up to five gallon trees, I've had a few plants arrive damaged or others that have died shortly after arrival but Forestfarm has always been easy to contact and has promptly replaced the plants or refunded my money.

I would highly recommend this company for its wide selection of unusual plants, the high quality, good prices, and great customer service.

I have used Forest Farm in the past on the advice of an arborist who told me to get my pink flowering Kousa from them when there was a grower shortage here on LI. The plant was air delivered and within a week I received a sapling tree. Well here it is 6 years later and its now a small tree on my front lawn. Last year I sent a photo to them to showoff the rosy pink blooms. Last year I ordered 2 evergreen viburnums in 1 gallon pots. They arrived safely and the packaging was terrific as always. They did so well that this year I ordered 2 more of the same only in 5 gallon pots. The 1 gallons grew so much last year that they are the size of the 5 gallons sent to me. I would definitely use them to find that rare plant for my yard.

I originally ordered a tube plant, but they called me the next day and said they were out of stock and would I like the gallon size instead. I said yes, and 8 days later my plant arrived.

I cringed when I saw the box -- it looked like it had been rolled all the way to New York. Even the bamboo stake had been cracked in half. But, aside from a few broken branch tips which I clipped off, the plant itself was fine. The leaves, stems, and roots were all healthy.

I like their plants and they seem like friendly people. I will certainly shop there again.

I ordered one gallon and six tubes from them. All the
plants arrived in great shape after travelling across
the country. The soil was even moist!

Great variety. I ordered several hydrangeas and viburnums. I ordered the tubes, because the shipping on the larger ones is expensive. The plants were well packed and in good shape. I was very satisfied with the level of service and the plants I received.

FANTASTIC!!! This company raises the bar. If only all mail order nurseries were so good. Love the website- the pictures are so helpful! My plants/trees arrived in pristine condition! They are all thriving (especially my bi-color monkshood!). I changed my order once- without any problem. The shipping was superb. I own a landscaping company and have ordered in the past from different mail order nurseries. This season I ordered 4 trees from another company. One was dead on arrival- 1 died shortly after and everthing else was tied up with zipties that were pulled so tighlt- they damaged the trees when i tried to cut it off. NOT FOREST FARM!!! They couldn't have packaged anything any better and the selection is AWESOME!!! Already placed my 2nd order and I'm waiting to hear back about a change to this order too! (sorry Forest farm- not trying to be a pain!)
I have and will continue to recommend them to every gardener I know!

I would highly recommend this mail order company to any plant loving person. My plants arrived in excellent shape (very healthy) and packaged so securely I had trouble getting them out of the package! But well worth it. I will order again from these folks anytime!

Wow! I rarely order by mail and just received a honeysuckle vine from Forest Farm. It is at least 3 feet high and in amazing condition. I also got a catalogue, which is about an inch thick - can't wait to read it! Overall a great experience.

just received my first ever order from Forest farm and I'm impressed!!! The tubes are great. Everything arrived in excellent condition after a seven day trek from Oregon to Missouri. All moist, all very healthy and not a bent leaf to be seen. The wine and roses weigela were happily blooming in the box. Took me 30 minutes to unpack two boxes. Plant prices are reasonable. Shippng is pricey but the packing job is impeccable and a ten dollar plant ain't worth squat if it's trashed when it gets there. Keep up the good work guys. You rock!!!

I am extremely happy with the plants I ordered from Forest Farm. I ordered several plants and all were at least as large or larger than the description. Everything I ordered was tube sized which I was concerned about, but they were large and healthy plants. All of them took off right away. The order was shipped very promptly after I ordered, and everything was packaged extremely well.

I would definately order from Forestfarm again.

The way my $5.95 order was packaged, you would have thought it was the last remaining plant of it's kind! Despite being shipped UPS Ground (my choice), the potting soil was still very moist. I gave them a try because of their ratings on this site, and I have to say I was 100% satisfied with the experience.

Living in the Mid-Atlantic, I usually try to limit my mail order companies to those east of the Mississippi. Unfortunately, a company I dealt with before ran out of a native shrub I had ordered. ForestFarm was the only place I could find it. I will not hesitate to order the "tubes" from them again. I did not know what to expect, but they are actually small, flexible pots - everything I ordered was a least a foot tall and well branched. I planted them a couple weeks ago and they are thriving. They warn about long shipping times to our location, but my plants were shipped on a Wednesday and arrived on Monday. Maybe that was a fluke, but it was as good or better, than the service I expect in this region. Their catalog has almost everything I could every think of and more. I am looking forward to my next opportunity to order.

I placed an order with ForestFarm for the first time this spring. It was done by e-mail which went very smoothly. My plants arrived in a timely manner ( I had requested immediate shipping). On the same day the plants arrived, I also received their shipping notification info! Anyway, when I finally got into the well-packaged boxes, I was pleasantly stunned! The Icea Virginica (Little Henry Sweetspire) were healthy and strong with actual bright green leaves! Having ordered other plants by mail order I was expecting dormant and brown! What a great surprise! I will definately be ordering again!

Excellent! This company has been wonderful customer service wise as well as quality wise. The sizes on the gallons and 5 gallons that they list should be taken with a grain of salt (not being mean) you will seriously get a larger plant than you expect and as for the prices the gallons are not bad at all even with shipping but the 5 gallons it has to be something you really want (shipping!) not their fault and I will order from them all the time make them my regular nursery because where I live there is no variety and I plan on moving again anyways so this nursery will be my number one choice with shipping on my gallons it ended up being around $13 a plant so the more you order the more you save. Thanks A Million Forest Farm!

ForestFarm has done it again!

Got my shipment last week and everything was/is beautiful. UPS was "unkind" to the box but good packing limited damage to a single broken branch.

Hart's tongue ferns absolutely stunning and although smaller 2/3rds the price of Heronswood.

After reading all the wonderful reviews and drooling incessantly over the huge selection ForestFarm offers, I decided to go ahead and place an online order. The hardest part was restricting my choices to a reasonable number, and I ended up with 5 tubes and 4 gallons. I knew that the shipping charges would be steep, since I live all the way across the country. I requested a delivery date of April 10th.

This morning, I found a tall and narrow box sitting at my front door. Took about 10 minutes to open it up and get to the plants, and it turned out to be the tubes. They were sold out of one of the plants, and since I had not suggested an alternative, I only received 4 plants. Not their fault, but I wish I had been informed so that I could have bought something else. The plants in the tube are small, but appear to be healthy. The Kerria is really tiny, and will probably require some babying before being set out in its spot.

Just as I was done with these plants, I found a huge box at my doorstep. The box was 5' tall, and in it was the rest of my order. Once again, impeccably packed, and the only "damage" I could see was a couple of dead leaves. My Acer palmatum 'Katsura', described as being 2-3' tall, is easily over 4' tall. The others were all at least as large as described, often larger. Next time around, and there will be a next time, I think I will stick with the gallon size containers. The quality of the plants has more than made up for the shipping charges, and I know that I've received 8 plants for what I would've paid for one or two locally.

My favorite company! Excellent, excellent. Their extensive catalog takes about a week to read through completely (I keep mine at bedside). As an avid gardener, I find Forestfarm the best suource for hard to find perennials, shrubs and evergeens. Plants are speicalized but reasonably priced considering the huge selection and excellent packaging. They are the only firm to carry Lespedeza and fine Berberis selections. I could gush for hours on pages of maples, pines and spruce or a special section just for bamboo.
All emails querries are personally answered by the owners quickly.
All of my selections have done very well.
Good work!

I found their selection excellant. Their prices may seem high, especially for those of us in the east, but the great quality more then makes up for it. (I actully feel the price isn't all that bad) The customer service is fantastic. They actually asked "me" when "I" wanted my order shipped, and it was right on time. I'm already planning a fall order.

Pretty incredible. The selection is outstanding and then some. The health of the trees I selected was outstanding. The packaging very good. I receive each calatalog whether I've ordered recently or not. And the prices have me floored. Prompt, businesslike. Superb. Green thumb way up.

I ordered from Forest Farm last week. My plants arrived this week, in multiple boxes, over several days. I AM THRILLED WITH THIS ORDER!!! I placed a large order with
the sweetest lady at Forest Farm, she was kind, witty, and if she was not sure about something I questioned, she asked and found out for me. I LOVE the customer service here.
I also LOVE the plants, shipping methods, (the way everything was perfectly boxed, secured, and did not move a mm. during shipping:) I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO IMPRESSED WITH A MAIL ORDER PLANT SERVICE BEFORE. THIS ONE IS TOP OF THE LINE!!!! They have things I just cannot find at my local nursery, and this wonderful 512 page catalog that came with my order with 512 pages more of stuff for me to order LOL:)
Happy Gardening !!!!!! Texas Tatum

I think ForestFarm did a great job with my order. I placed my order on a saturday night and recieved my order the following wednesday. The plants were in great shape, as well as being larger then expected. They were packed well, although the box had a little wear and tear the plants inside were not damaged at all. I like the great selection and even recieved a card separately a few days later saying thanks for the order. I am impressed with their promptness and their personable attitude towards customers. I will definitly be doing business with them again in the future.

I have made several purchases from Forest Farm in the past and I was always a satisfied customer. I recently purchased a "Male," Northern Bayberry, which was really hard to find since most nurseries do not tend to identify the sex of the plant. The plant arrived in excellent shape and is already in the ground....I look forward to seeing my female Bayberry plants give berries with help of the male plant.

I ordered from Forestfarm 3 times last year. All the plants are alive and doing well. All the plants I ordered were rare or hard to find plant, and arrived promptly and in good condition. I love the selection at Forestrarm, and already have tons of post-its in their spring 2004 catalog.

5 gallon tree arrived in excellent condition (moist soil, no broken branches) 3 days after ordering. Tree looks excellent in quality. Price even with shipping was much less for a Bloodgood Japanese maple than I could buy locally (San Jose,CA area). Excellent experience, will buy from them again.

I've purchased a lot of plants from this company, and my experience with them has been nothing but positive. In a few instances when I've been disappointed with a particular plant they have rectified the problem to my satisfaction.
Great plants, superior packaging, and terrific service.
I highly recommend Forest Farm.

Praise from yet another happy customer. Their selection is simply mindboggling. I really like the tubes--the small size not only keeps the prices down, they're also easier to plant and establish quickly.

I ordered from Forestfarm for the first time in the spring of 2003 - four gallon sized woody plants. The plants were fine, the packing excellent and they arrived surprisingly quickly via UPS ground. The question for Eastern gardeners remains whether it is worth it to pay the high shipping costs. Forestfarm ships in 3 sizes of pots so the weight and thus the cost are high. I am in no way criticising this method. It is horticulturally sound and no doubt increases efficiency and thereby keeps the prices of plants reasonable. So, is it worth it? For something you just must have and can find nowhere else (my case), absolutely. For more readily available things or those which can be found closer to home with some searching, however, I don't think the quality, while excellent, is enough greater to justify sending pounds of potting mixture from Oregon.

I have dealt with this company for many years and have been very happy with their plants. I have a large garden (6 acres) and can not afford the cost of large plants. They offer tube sized plants which adjust easily and grow rapidly and which are very affordable. Recently I emailed a request for a certain plant which was only in their catalogue in a larger size. I inquired as to the possibility of ordering it in the smaller size. The owner emailed me back a day later after he had gone out to his nursery in the rain to count exactly how many he had of this plant. He found he had it in the smaller size but in too small a quantity to include in his catalogue. He also counted those available in the larger size. I believe this service was truly 'above and beyond'. I deeply appreciated his efforts so ordered all of them. I can't wait to get his 2004 catalogue with all its new offerings. They have an extraordinary variety of selections of fantastic plants. I heartily recommend this company. They ship when you request shipment and their plants are packed well.

I've ordered small, tube-sized, plants from ForestFarm several times. The selection is great; shipping was prompt; they kept me informed about the status of the order; packaging was very secure; and the plants seemed very healthy.

After reading the wonderful reviews about ForestFarm, I decided to try them out myself. I was impressed with the great selection of shrubs and trees that they offer. I found everything I was looking for, all at great prices. The shipping was a little high, but the total cost still turned out to be cheaper than my local nursery would charge for the same-sized plants. I ordered a total of 5 shrubs. They arrived well-packaged and very healthy. The sizes of the shrubs were quite impressive and worth every bit of the price that I paid. They sent along a free catalog with my order. Wow! They certainly do have quite the selection! I'll be ordering from ForestFarm again. I'm very pleased with this company and highly recommend ForestFarm to others.

I found Forest Farm to be very professional and courteous. The tree was exactly as stated in the email to me. Shipping was very reasonable. I would definitely order from them again!

I received my order today and was well pleased. This is the first time I've ordered from them but it won't be the last! I only ordered one plant and it was wrapped and packaged so securely it took me 10 min. to get it out of the box!! The plant is nice and green and in excellent shape. They have a huge selection of things that I haven't seen offered anywhere else. I think the prices are VERY reasonable for the quality of the plants and the care they take when shipping. I was a little disappointed with their catalog not having photos, but it's probably impossible given their huge inventory. the cat. was over 500 pgs. as it is!!!! I will def. be ordering again!!!

I ordered hydrangeas for the first time via mail order this spring. I ordered from three different companies. The plant I received from Forest Farms was by far the best of all of them. It was HUGE and the roots were well established. I would really recommend them to others. The care they showed in shipping was great.

I ordered a Catalpa tree from them (it was very hard to find smaller ones in my Wisconsin location which I could plant myself--most were 12 feet and would need a 3' x 3' hole) and it arrived in very good condition. It was planted within a few days of receiving and is healthy and doing very well. I ordered the 6-foot tree which came in an approx. 5 gallon pot. The shipping was more than the tree!, but even so, I thought the price was very reasonable. I would order from them again.

Don't get me wrong--we love forestfarm and will continue to order from their very complete selection. However, we have begun to notice a trend in that their grafted cultivars do not always do well. May not die right away, but we've lost several over six months to a year.

"We appreciate the fact that "picealuver" still enjoys our plants. However, it would have been nice if we had been given the opportunity to respond to their concerns directly. There may be circumstances beyond all of our control that may be causing problems. We would certainly like to be given a chance to rectify the problem before the customer felt compelled to give us a negative rating."