Comments regarding Chris Bowers & Sons Whispering Trees Nurseries

Posted on May 18, 2016, updated May 27, 2016
Posted on May 3, 2016, updated May 18, 2016
paid for a grapevine on 21/04. Despite several email requests for an update to the order I received no reply. You cannot phone them because they say they will only answer email queries. Or not in my case. Very unhappy, Will try and claim my money back through charge back with my credit card company. I have now wasted 2 weeks.

I would not recommend doing business with this company.

In relation to a bare root Concorde Pear Tree ordered last year, delivery was very fast and any of my doubts as to if I'd been sent the correct item (a bush tree) were soon clarified by Robert's expertise. The tree was planted in February and has since come out of dormancy and growing very well indeed. Would certainly consider buying from these people again given their specialism in quality fruit trees. Thank you for the service!

Web site easy to navigate. Huge selection with different rootstock. Stock arrived quickly and well wrapped.
Difficult to contact by phone but reply promptly to emails

I ordered two compact supercolumnar apple trees. The arrived packed well, have been planted and are now covered with leaves. I can't wait until next year when they start producing apples (the instructions were clear that you may not get apples the first year). There were quite a lot of varieties to choose from on their website with clear descriptions, so my biggest problem was which ones to choose!

In 2005 we planted a dessert apple ‘Redsleeves’ from Chris Bowers. It is now a strong, healthy tree giving a good crop of delicious small red apples with a firm, tangy flesh. It has been such a success that in November 2015 we ordered another to go in our orchard. The new Redsleeves arrived as expected and is a good, healthy young tree which has begun to grow well.

I have just bought a walnut tree from this company. It arrived well-packaged and in excellent condition and was a more mature tree than I expected. It is a beautiful shape and seems very sturdy. I am looking forward to seeing it settle in growing in our orchard.

Jan Kilpatrick

I purchased some products from this company and had healthy and very good plants and had great customer service too. I would highly recommend for the speedy delivery too.

Had consistent problems with gooseberry mildew, have now removed the bushes and replaced them with resistant varieties from Chris Bowers. Delivery was quick well packed and the plants look very healthy. I am hoping for great things time will tell. Happy with my dealings with this company.
Bryan1939

As a first time buyer of fruit trees I found the information on the website very helpful. It enabled to select trees to meet my needs (including explaining the various rootstocks used and how these impact on the size of the trees - only time will tell). My trees arrived promptly and were well packaged with straw to protect them. The most useful thing was the planting and pruning information that was emailed to me following my order. I heeled them in as instructed and later planted them where they are to grow. They seem to be quite happy and are doing well. The instructions tell me how to prune them to fan train them which is what I plan to do. My only slight disappointment was how immature the trees were on arrival. I'm not convinced they will produce any fruit for some years but again time will tell. I would definitely buy from Chris Bowers again and have recommended them to my friend.

Brought 6 blackcurrant bushes from Chris Bowers Nurseys,(2 separate orders) and the delivery was in a timely manner and the quality of bushes was good. The bushes are still only small but loaded with flowers so expect a decent crop already. Thanks Chris Bowers - Rich Bailey.

We used this company for the first time recently, and we've been very happy with the result. We ordered a Worcesterberry and a Karaka Black, but had left it too late to get bare root plants. We were advised promptly by email that the pot grown plants would take a few weeks to be ready. In fact, they arrived earlier than we expected and were in very good condition. They're now planted and growing nicely. For anyone interested in growing fruit, the range on their website seems very good, with some unusual varieties hard to find anywhere else.

I ordered an Arthur Turner M25 apple tree in February and it was delivered within the planting period. It looks a very sturdy healthy young tree, which at the moment is covered in blossom. No problems with ordering and a good quality plant.

Posted on April 16, 2015, updated May 18, 2016
Super-fast service, top class stock and excellent after-sales advise. What more can I say?
A1 nursery, would definitely buy again.

INCOMPLETE ORDER : My order for three trees was incomplete and its difficult to follow up as they dont answer the phone (recorded message) - I explained in an email (and a reminder email) the trees were a gift and it was embarrassing when the package was opened to find one missing. They are refunding me, which I appreciate, but said as far as they wre concerned they packed the full order and they were no lomger sending out that variety. Either they did not believe me or they did not want to pay the postage to correct their error. I am so very disappointed as the three trees were to be a memorial gift. I think they handled the complaint badly, I don't believe they don't have any more trees of that variety in stock, and I will never buy anything from Chris Bowers again.

The mini cordon Apple trees I bought from this nursery 2 years ago have been a great success and last Autumn we had a good first crop.
The Fiesta apple tree has over 15 fruits which was just amazing for such a young tree. 'Redsleeves' and 'Sunset' too had some nice fruits and I look forward to even better things in the coming years.
The 3 trees are only planted 20" apart but they seem to be thriving and haven't needed any pruning so far.

My soft fruit bushes just arrived and look good, very prompt service and so well packed. Thank You.

Having done some research on my fruit tree planting requirements, I rang three or four places to get advice and the experience was quite frustrating until I contacted this Nursery, the telephone was answered by a man who clearly knew exactly what he was talking about and could answer all of my questions without hesitation. This wasn't the case with the first 3 places I tried; two of them were clearly reading from a set list of 'answers to questions' and much of what they imparted to me didn't seem to have any relation to what I had asked and didn't answer my queries! And of the last, I was promised to be put through to an 'expert' but after listening to the telephone ringing for 5 minutes I gave up.
So top marks to Chris Bowers for obviously knowing what they are talking about, and the order came in good condition and promptly.

My father planted a lot of fruit trees and bushes, over many years when I was younger and I remember most - if not all - of them came from this nursery. Gosh they did well, every summer the trees seemed to be groaning with fruit, huge apples and big plums and pears and even a greengage tree as well. Most winters another package would turn up from Chris Bowers with more treasures inside, plants and trees that shaped my childhood memories.
I have checked up the Chris Bowers website and was delighted to still see them trading and such a big selection of varieties too. I do not have a garden so I cannot plant any of their delicious fruit trees but maybe one day I will be able to plant a little piece of my childhood from this nursery.

Received a lovely heirloom Gooseberry by return post, so well packed. Thank you Chris Bowers & Sons.

This Autumn had a great crop of big apples from the 'Jupiter' apple trees I bought from this nursery 3 years ago.
They provided a good service.
Jupiter is my favourite apple ever since I tasted some at a farm shop years afo. Although it's a bit more vigorous it's easier to grown than 'Cox's Orange' with less disease and the flavour is really full-on.

Very good raspberry canes recieved well packed and with a helpful growing guide. Pleased.

I was nervous about dealing with Chris Bowers after seeing negative comments on this website. I decided to give them a go, and placed an order over the Internet for fruit bushes and rhubarb crowns. The order was placed on Wednesday evening and arrived the following Monday morning. It was well packed and the plants look like good quality. Chris Bowers is not the cheapest supplier, but with service like this I will do business with them again.

Unbelievably appaling shopping experience......never again!!

I placed an order by telephone in early October for fruit trees, Immediate delivery was offered but I asked for a 2 week delay as the holes were not even dug. Recently after over 3 weeks had passed and nothing received I started telephoning but no answer so I also sent an Email asking if they were on holiday or no longer in business, again no reply! Through searching the web i found several companies ascociated with the bower name and the same postcodes so I phoned one of the other numbers, wow an answer BUT very offish, claimed to know nothing about other companies but maybe he could do something for me. Later that same day I received this increadable Email :-
You it was that asked for your order to be delayed. If you had not done so it would have been received before now. Your order had entered despatch for delivery in the next few days but I disapprove strongly of your 'tone' comments and actions. As a result your order has been cancelled and a refund made to your account.
Regards
Jon.

Needless to say I have reported them to trading standards and my credit card company, my advice to anybody reading this is do not deal with any company where any of the people concerned have the name bowers and is situated in Norfolk.

I am placing my order elsewhere and wish I had in the first place, a month lost and an extremely nasty experience.

Posted on January 24, 2011, updated August 29, 2014
Posted on December 4, 2009, updated January 24, 2011
I received a small part of my order last spring. I waited and waited for my alpine strawberry plants to arrive - but they never did. Chris Bowers took the money from my credit card in May but never sent an invoice, a credit card receipt or even an acknowledgment of my order. Without this documentation, the credit card company can't help to get a refund. I have emailed and called often and only occasionally was able to speak to anyone. I asked for a refund in October and one person said yes - but I never received the refund. The last time I was able to get through by phone, I explained the situation and once I had stopped speaking, the person said they couldn't hear me! It is now December and I have not received my refund. I have now taken advice from Consumer Direct on 0845 404 0506.

very poor customer service - rude and offhand response on phone, no paperwork for order. Order (strawberry plants) didn't arrive at stated time and had to be chased up and plants of very poor quality when received despite high price compared to other suppliers. Polite and constructive letter sent to them detailing problems with both service and plant quality - received dismissive and evasive email reply answering none of my points.

I ordered 6 fruit bushes which were very expensive (compared to other nurseries). They arrived in 3" pots and looked weedy to say the least. When I phoned up to voice my concerns the man was extremely rude and abusive and said 'you don't know what you are talking about'. One of the bluberry bushes in this delivery was £21.95, poor plants and appalling customer service.

I did manage to get my money back 6 days after they received the plants.

I bought some trees and fruit bushes some years ago from this company- the so called fully trained fan plum was shocking- consisting of 4 branches only, two of them broken. Packing was poor just sent in a brown paper sack which had come adrift. Compared to others such as Deacons and the old Highfield Nurseries in Gloucestershire the packing was dreadful. A red currant meant to be trained on a leg was a stooled plant - poor.

This is the second time we've been disatisfied with Chris Bowers, the first was when we ordered some strawberries off them and some were of very poor quality and didn't survive.We tried to complain but were fobbed off and not offered replacements.We vowed never to use them again but my husband wanted a particular variety of raspberry off them so we thought we'd give them another chance.We ordered some from Chris Bowers and some of a different variety from the RHS who's were far superior.I ordered a rhubarb crown which came in the tiniest of pots and should bear us fruit in about 5 years time if we're lucky, it cost £6.95 so not cheap and I was very disappointed.We decided not to quibble about it as the first time was bad enough, needless to say we have now learned our lesson and will not be buying off Chris Bowers again under any circumstances.

Posted on August 28, 2013, updated August 28, 2013
Posted on August 28, 2013, updated August 28, 2013
i ordered a cherry tree over the phone on the 14th August and was told that i would receive the tree early the following week. a week went by and no tree or card from anyone to say they had tried to deliver. Emailed them on the 23rd to let them know that i hadn't received the tree and was told on the 27th that the tree had been delivered on the 15th and had been left in my porch - i explained that i wasn't in on the 15th and i did not have a porch so driver must have left it on the front - my reply was that he wouldn't have left it without it being somewhere safe. Have sent photo of house and asked where this safe place is as i can't find it and i still have no tree - so far no response so i can only assume that as far as they're concerned its been delivered so tough i've lost £30.
Avoid using as very unhelpful

Ordered a 7ft Tree from this company to have 2 twigs delivered scattered with a few leaves.....very disappointed so phoned them to complain. Surprisingly they answered but now I wished they hadn't, the very rude man on the phone tried to make out it was my fault the tree wasn't as I thought & i couldn't possible have bought a 7ft tree for the price I did. Strange how I've managed to buy the same tree at 6 1/2ft for less, the difference being the more reputable company has grown the tree from scratch and its got a lovely straight stem with a perfectly shaped top!!

AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS, EXTREMLY RUDE, UNHELPFUL AND DOWN RIGHT AGGRESIVE.........SPEACHLESS THEY ARE STILL TRADING!!!!!

Posted on November 28, 2012, updated December 4, 2012
I wanted to do an order for fruit trees and I came up against 'John' at Chris Bowers Nursery. The rudest most unpleasant man I have ever dealt with by email. Wouldn't answer my questions and ended up insulting me - I wanted to give him about £600 of business, so more fool him! I have ordered from another nursery who were helpful and friendly

Posted on June 23, 2012, updated December 2, 2012
I ordered my Gooseberrys just before the bad snowy spell in february. Could not plant them for a month so didnt hold out much hope. They have surprisingly grown really well and I now see i even have several gooseberries coming on them. So they are definitely good stock and I would use this company again.

Excellent stock and excellent service. No complaints.

I am indebted to this company for 'saving' a precious apple tree planted by my father many years ago.
Forced to move, the tree was far too old to come with me and as it had many precious sentimental meomories I was desperate to keep it. Despite contacting many nurseries Chris Bowers was the only one who would help me. They successfully grafted a new tree from my old one, onto a convenient dwarf rootstock, and within 2 years I had a lovely little replica of that same precious tree. The price they charged was so modest I cannot believe they made a profit out of it; I really do think they just wanted to help.

It's awhile ago now but I guess it still counts ....... bought 3 of their miniature M27 apple trees from this company 5 yrs ago for my patio. Kept them in big pots and I have been astounded at the crops. I must have had ibs of good big fruit. Definitely a good buy.

We planted a new fruit garden last winter. The conditions here are difficult - high up, with poor, stony ground. Chris Bowers gave us a lot of advice regarding planting and variety selection and we were able to order and plant with more confidence.
I am delighted to say all the stock is flourishing - the strawberries arrived last, and in pots, and have already given us some good fruit. The currants also have berries, and the raspberries and tayberry have established well too. It all looks so healthy and there have been no losses, and promises much. We are indebted to this company for giving such sound advice and them time they were willing to spend helphing us out as I doubt we would have achieved such results without their help.

An excellent buying experience; their plants and trees weren't cheap but the range they offer is easily the best and we got all that we wanted for our new fruit garden in one transaction.
The stock arrived quickly and all has established well despite a difficult year. We already have some fruits to sample in this, there first year and all appears to be true to type.
We were also grateful for the very informative cultural book which came with the stock and told us what to do with it all.

Posted on June 20, 2012, updated July 14, 2012
Posted on March 17, 2010, updated June 20, 2012
They advised and 'designed' our orchard and their advise was really good, it's very productive and all we could wish for. Trees very healthy and more fruit than we can handle. No complaints at all.