Comments regarding Planting Justice Nursery formerly Rolling River Nursery

We are an experienced homestead and grow a large variety of plants and trees. However the quality of the plants that we got from this nursery are terrible!

Out of the 3 seaberry plants that we got from them 2 DIED.
Out of the 2 kiwis, one DIED!
2 avocado trees from them are grafted poorly and not doing well.

Normally, we would have received a refund or replacement from a reputable nursery company. But Planting Justice refused to refund the poor quality plants or to replace!

Buyer beware!! There is a good reason why their prices are so low!
I DO NOT recommend this nursery!

I ordered two hard to find pomegranate varieties and a moringa from Planting Justice. The packing job was fantastic, with no damage at all to the plants during shipping, even though UPS delivered the box upside down. The plants arrived healthy, and when unpotted I found new root growth, but they were not rootbound, and healthy green leaves. The form of the trees was straight and strong - no staking at planting needed, and good branching. I am quite pleased with my purchase and will order from them again.

I ordered an Atwood Paw Paw and three pomegranate trees. They arrived overnight well packaged and in good condition. This is happiness Rolling River Thankyou!!!

I will absolutely order again.
Fantastic Service! Responds to emails and messages quickly. Three thumbs up!

I ordered three varieties of Autumn Olive and a Silverberry. Prices were incredible for those items ($12.50!!!). The company called me to ask my preferred shipping date, rather than just mail them out whenever, which I really appreciated. Plants shipped on the requested date, were packaged super securely, and were absolutely beautiful--full, tall, and well-developed without being too big for easy transplanting. My one complaint--and it's minor, given how frequent this is everywhere with potted woody perennials--is that two of the four plants were rootbound and very hard to remove from their pots. But I was able to ease them out (the pot bottoms are mostly open, allowing for some air pruning and also a place to push so you don't have to pull the plant out by the stem) and get them in the ground, and so far they look happy. Most rootbound plants recover just fine if you plant them properly, so I don't expect to have to come back and change my rating; as long as they thrive, I'm thrilled with this company and will absolutely order from them again.

I'm fairly new to ordering plants, let alone ordering plants from half-decent companies, but from my initial experience with them Rolling River (or, as they seem to be calling themselves now, Planting Justice?) Nursery gives a pretty good experience. I ordered some guavas, a cactus, and two yellowhorn nut trees from them just barely over a week ago, and the trees arrived yesterday. Very fast given that it's the start of the holiday season and shipping is slowed down across the board. First off, the packaging job was top-notch. The pots were put at either end of a long box with the weight balanced evenly, with bamboo stakes the perfect length to stop them from crashing toward each other. The pots were taped together thoroughly, the dirt was contained with damp newspapers and a thorough layer of plastic/tape, there was no spillage at all, and everything was super secure. The guavas are magnificent. I haven't taken them out of their pots yet, but they're very large, sturdy-looking, lively plants with no dead leaves or stems. The cactus -a prickly pear- is only a single medium-sized pad, grown off a much bigger one that was severed at the dirt level, but that's about what I'd expect and it seems happy. The soil it's in is VERY coarse and sandy, so major plusses in that respect. The two yellowhorn nut trees were a bit startling and disappointing, given that they each consist of a <5" twig stuck in the dirt. It looks like someone just picked up a couple fallen bits off a mature tree and plunked them into a pot, but roots are showing out the bottom and there are a good number of nodes. I think I prefer this to a brutally severed taproot. The yellowhorn twigs are dormant now, and I'll likely update my review in the spring when(/if) they start growing, but overall the experience was positive, and I'll give them credit in that these were the last two yellowhorns in stock at the tail end of a very busy, chaotic year. I really do wish the website offered some sort of hint of what size plants you'll be getting, but I know that plants will always vary in size. Both guavas are over a foot tall and well branched, and the prickly pear pad is nearly six inches long. Overall, I'm impressed by their packaging and speed and the absence of any obvious damage to the plants from either nutrient deficiencies, pests, diseases, or rough handling.

Posted on July 8, 2020, updated July 8, 2020
This is the first time I have ordered from this company. I chose to do business with them based on their ratings on Garden Watchdog and their quick and helpful response to an email inquiry about choosing a grape variety a few months back.

Now I'm kind of sorry I ordered from them. I understand that everything is screwed up due to the COVID pandemic, so I'm not complaining about the 7 weeks it took to ship my order. But to find that the plants they shipped are in poor condition and 2 of the 4 plants ordered are the wrong variety is not OK with me.

I would rather try to nurse the two plants I wanted back to health than try to find them elsewhere, so I'm not asking them for a refund for those plants. But I did email them yesterday to see if they can do something about the two plants that are the wrong variety.

I am classifying my experience as "neutral" at this time, pending their response.

Posted on May 26, 2020, updated June 14, 2020
Ordered 7 trees from Rolling River on April 1st. 4 apple, 2 cherry, 1 fig. I had emailed them with some questions beforehand, and was told that their fruit tree expert was out due to the pandemic and unable to answer the questions — understandable. They said the trees would ship after April 30. Unexpected, and would cut it close for getting the trees in the ground before breaking dormancy, but probably OK. Wrote them on the 30th asking for an update. On May 4th, they responded that they were just getting to orders from early April, and still processing orders from February and March. On the 12th, they said the order would ship that week or early the next. I was finally able to get someone on the phone on the 20th, and was told the order would ship early the following week…! Thankfully received a shipment confirmation the next day. It was additionally confusing that a friend who lives about 45 minutes south of me, with a nearly identical order, placed after mine, had already received their tracking number. I understand things are hectic in the world, but based on the other reviews here, it sounds like the current situation has only exacerbated problems this nursery has needed to fix for some time. Their catalog of organic heirloom varieties is excellent, but the lack of customer support is too difficult and unpredictable to work with. Hopefully the trees will be healthy enough to be OK despite the late planting.

Posted on November 4, 2019, updated November 12, 2019
This nursery has an large and diverse collection of rare edible plants...but customer service is non-existent.

I placed an order for 6 plants. Two of them were the wrong variety, and one (a cactus) was and remains a pale sickly yellow color. I immediately phoned the company after unboxing the plants, letting them know about the mix up via answering machine. ...no reply. I phoned again the next day....and still no response. A few days later, I emailed them my grievances, and included pictures of my order form, along with the plants....and two weeks later, surprise, surprise, still no response!

It seems I’m stuck with sick plants I didn’t even order, so I went ahead and planted them out hoping to salvage at least something.

I will NOT be ordering from this company again.

"On Nov 12, 2019 3:46 PM, Rolling River Nursery responded with:

Good afternoon,

We apologize for the inconvenience, we have sent you your correct order. Our phone number has recently changed due to a break in our nursery suffered. Our new phone number is 510-756-6965. We are sorry for how things turned out. We deeply apologize for the mistake.

Best,
Rolling River Nursery"

Posted on June 10, 2019, updated July 5, 2019
Posted on June 10, 2019, updated June 10, 2019
Posted on May 10, 2019, updated June 10, 2019
Rolling River is an awesome nursery. Their plants thrive compared to those bought locally. For instance, I bought a few 15-gallon pomegranate trees from a nursery down the road. They cost $49.99 each. They were big. Nonetheless, the sleeved organic pomegranate trees I received from Rolling River Nursery have surpassed the locally bought pomegranates in sheer size and number of fruits. The fig trees from Rolling River also exhibit the same growth pattern. They are much bushier and produce more figs than those I bought from reputable nurseries in the valley. Moreover, Rolling River Nursery has a wide selection of organic pomegranate and fig trees, unlike locally nurseries.

The above example is only one of the many pleasant experiences I have had with Rolling River. My first purchase was November 2017. Since then, I have ordered over $2,200.00 worth of plants from them. Our acre is teeming with their trees. One of the almond trees I received died. They replaced it free of charge. Most of the nurseries in the valley have a no-return policy. The almond tree is now thriving in the hot desert sun. Rolling River employees work extremely hard and bend over backwards to help their customers. I have discovered that the best way to contact them is via messages in Facebook. I highly recommend them.

Posted on May 8, 2019, updated May 17, 2019
Based off the reviews I read on here I made a large order from them last year. What a horrible mistake. It took them forever to ship the trees, in fact I suspect they never would have shipped them had I not tracked them down. I tried calling a dozen or more times, no one answered, So I emailed them, and finally got them to actually ship my order 5-6 weeks later. The trees they sent me were miserable looking little whips with a few frail branches. Of the 12 trees I ordered from them, 10 died. I emailed them this season to complain about the poor quality trees, I got a response asking me to send photos of them, which I did but they just ignored me.

Crappy product, crappy customer service, won't be dealing with them ever again

Posted on May 14, 2018, updated May 31, 2018
I purchased 8 calocedrus decurrens, California Incense cedar. I was shipped 1 bald cypress and 7 juniper with a prickly leaf. It's not what I was hoping for obviously, more confusing that plants with a different appearance from a bald cypress to juniper could be mislabeled as the same plant let alone be shipped as another.

I placed an order in the beginning of March for a couple variants of Highbush Cranberry and a couple Chokeberry. Im in Southwestern PA so I wasnt expecting them till weather got warmer in the east.

Customer service, while they were nice, is pretty non-existent, at least from a communication stand point. Most of the plants I received look in good health, less one that was no longer potted after the 7 day journey to me, and the prices were reasonable. See below for details of my experience.

Fast-forward 2 months, to the beginning of May, and I get a call that they dont have one of the plants I ordered and offered to swap it with an additional one of the others I ordered. Disappointing, something I 'd been waiting on for 2 months was now out of stock, but it happens. I agreed to the swap and was told my order was shipping, that was May 2nd. By May 8th I hadnt received a shipping notification so I emailed them asking for an update. By May 14th I hadnt received a response to the email or been able to reach them by phone. I called 4 or 5 more times on the 14th and finally spoke to someone who was positive my order shipped and was going to look into it. It hadnt, but they shipped it that day. Took 7 days to get to me, which had me nervous, but most looked in good health less one that was no longer potted and probably wont make it. Waiting to see what they plan to do about the damaged plant.

Ordered some European plum trees, Anna Spath and D'Agean. A bit on the expensive side with small calipers but the trees appear healthy... Looking forward in the spring to see them grow. Glad that I found them, very hard to get these types of plum trees, in OR.

Posted on August 31, 2017, updated October 24, 2017
Posted on August 29, 2017, updated August 31, 2017
Customer service at Rolling River seems to have changed a lot since the previous reviewers' experience. I emailed Rolling River for information about their Orcas pear on August 8th. It took eight days--until August 16th--for them to reply. I asked another question in response that day about the order I want to make, and after waiting 9 days without a reply, I tried to call at them and got an answering machine. I left a message. That was August 25th. As it was a Friday, I understood them not replying over the weekend. It's now Tuesday afternoon. They still have not called back. I sent another email this morning. I have not received a response.

I don't want to be a bother, and I understand if they're busy, but they could at least say something to that effect. If their customer service has changed this much since the last review, has their quality of plants changed as well?

Excellent nursery with very good customer service, fair prices, nice plants, and very good selection. This year I ordered pawpaws, seaberries, autumn olives, and medlars. No problems.

I ordered 3 plants from them.Ordered mid feb, and got them last week.They were fast to deliver and the plants delivered in very good packaging and condition.Got 1 kajick pomegranate ,2 types of figs which they only carries..Plants are bare right now but there are signs that they will be leafing out in couple days.. Very pleased..

We ll see if I will have fruits this year,I am ok though not having since the plants are small but very very good root system..They were organic as well.Prices are a little high since you got young an small plants but I got couple big trees from other orchards like 5 feet tall,2 years ago but no fruit unfortunately..

I've ordered from them twice and been very pleased both times with the quality of their large healthy plants in pots. I like the feature on their website showing how many of each item they have in stock. One thing I ordered wasn't actually in stock, but they emailed promptly to let me know and had it back in stock a few months later. Great selection of things that are hard to find elsewhere and good quality plants!

I recently received two Che trees from Rolling River Nursery. As usual, they are excellent quality trees and arrived in excellent shape. Over the past couple of years, I have found that the products Rolling River has provided have been superior to what I have usually been able to get through typical mail order, and I am very grateful for the service they provide. I am a most satisfied customer.

I ordered 4 trees from them in summer of last year. Two peach trees and two plum trees. The plants came well packaged and looking healthy. Followed the directions for planting and watering and all 4 trees wintered over and have shown great growth. Very happy with your product.

Thanks

Posted on October 2, 2015, updated April 6, 2016
Posted on October 2, 2015, updated October 2, 2015
I would have liked a response to my emails, but not unhappy. I placed my order for 3 autumn olives on 9/13/15 and received an automated confirmation but didn't hear anything beyond that for about a week and a half. I'm not one of those crazy customers that gets upset by delays, orders falling through the cracks by accident or the nature of things simply taking time so I sent an email on 9/22 through their website and wasn't sure I did it correctly so I sent a direct email the following day but didn't receive a response. I waited another day and decided to call because we all get busy sometimes and maybe they just didn't see my email. I left a message, again no response. On 9/25 I received a notification that the order status was changed to shipped and I received the tree/bushes on 9/30.
As for the condition of the plants, they were packed well and didn't have any breakage from the shipping process but 2 of them were upside down in the box and seemed to have been stressed by it because one had dropped all of it's leaves and the other about 50% of it's leaves while the one that was right side up looked perfect. It's fall and the box may very well have put them into an early dormancy and still I'm not upset. I have many fruiting bushes and trees in my yard and most were mail ordered so I'm aware that there can sometimes be loses. I did a scratch test and they're still green so I sent another email 10/1 to notify them of this because their warranty requires that they are notified within a week of receiving the package. I specifically mentioned in the email that I'm not complaining just wanted to tell them in case the stress kills them before we even make it through fall. I haven't received a response yet.
I may still purchase from them again because they do have a great selection but I am definitely going to wait a few months to decide and I don't feel quite as comfortable being a repeat customer simply because if I were to actually order something that is DOA I don't know that I would be able to get in touch with anyone. I hope this doesn't come across too negative, as I feel after some extra attention that the plants will hopefully pull through. This is just a honest review of my experience.

This was my second season ordering from Rolling River. They were very responsive over the phone and by email. There were some ordering errors in the first year which they very quickly resolved to my satisfaction. In the second year, they were very good in allowing me to change my order and consolidated two orders into one. A refund on shipping was promptly received. Plants came on the promised dates and were well packed. Plants were healthy and of decent size. I like working with this company, and will do so in the future.

I ordered a fruit tree from Rolling River, because I was looking for a specific cultivar that was difficult to find in my local nurseries. My interactions with the company were fine, but I was very disappointed at the very small size of the tree compared to the ones at the local nursery. The caliber of the trunk was comparable to a pencil, and it will take several years before it reaches fruit-bearing size. In retrospect, it definitely would have been better to spend a little more and get a larger tree elsewhere.

When I ordered, the response time was a little lacking. The trees were high quality, although a few of them died over the winter, which was probably my fault during a drought. I have been emailing them to try to get replacements, and again the email response time is quite lacking, and the recordkeeping seems a little lackadaisical. on the other hand, so is mine. I couldn't find my original invoice.

After playing email tag with them for a little bit, I am now planning on going to another nursery to get my replacements.

I purchased 11 trees from Rolling River Nursery this year. I am so pleased with the size and condition of the trees and the selection that they offer is wonderful. Both time that I received orders UPS did not treat the boxes very nicely however, the trees were packaged by the nursery so well that they were still in good condition. They are very responsive and seem to really want you to be happy with your order. The service level of service provided was awesome. Super nice people, I absolutely would order from them again in the future and would recommend them to friends and family.

2 main points here ...

1) If you order from this company in winter (long before you want your plants delivered) remind them to send the package as time grows closer to your planting date. I ordered in winter and they missed my mayday send date. The package wasn't shipped until I contacted them. It was, however, sent promptly thereafter and arrived in fine condition.

2) the plants really do seem robust and healthy. If you're ordering fruit trees online I recommend these guys/gals. You don't get a little pencil of a tree but something a little closer to what you might find at a Lowes or home despot.. (albeit pruned back a little bit)

Anyway Ill likely order another fruit tree from these guys next spring and despite the little snafu would recommend them to the community.

I've ordered from most of the edible fruit nurseries out there. I would qualify some as being great, and some... not so great. But I would definitely recommend Rolling River Nursery.

I ordered 2 Seaberry, 1 Gooseberry, and 1 Goumi. They all looked healthy upon arrival. The plants were larger than most nursery plants, and they had great root growth. Now, a year later, the plants are thriving. I'm really not sure what they do to their plants, but they seem to out perform my plants from other nurseries...

Great prices, healthy plants, and excellent customer service. I will definitely order from Rolling River again.

Posted on May 3, 2014, updated March 14, 2015
After another nursery failed to deliver an order I placed in the fall I looked here for the most highly reviewed nurseries in order to try to get my trees in this year. These guys went way above and beyond. They got my trees to me in under a week from the time I called and all were healthy and well packed. I saw some of the reviewers wanted larger trees, but I have found smaller ones tend to accept transplant shock and adapt better. These people saved me a whole year of waiting until my fruit trees are ready to produce. They could not have been nicer than the nursery which is not to be named.

For Spring planting in 2012 I ordered 1 of each Red Lake Currant, White Imperial Current, Nova Elderberry, York Elderberry, Black Velvet Gooseberry, Hinnamaki Red Gooseberry and Smokey Serviceberry. I received healthy plants that started very well. I mailed the order Feb 3 and received a call Feb 12 asking when I wanted them shipped. Very happy with the customer service, the bushes and oh my.... the berries.

I have purchased many products from this company over the past few months. This company is incredible. The products are in good condition when arrive and they come when promised. I did have a few plants that lost their leaves after I planted them & they almost insisted that they send replacements. I told them that I would like to wait to see if they bounce back and they seem to be. They check with me to see how they are doing. I send them emails at all hours of the day & night & they often get back to me immediately. I have found my favorite mail order company to deal with, period!

I have about 21 fruit trees all from Dave Wilson nurseries. All of these have been planted over the last 3 years. All arrived bare root, were 2-3 years old with nice sized trunks and well developed root systems. All were planted in Dec, Jan of the year they arrived. All have thrived and grown out quite well. That is until our dynamic duo of two Whippet pups found out they liked to pull up and chew off trees at the ground. I've lost two so far. I'm now using pepper spray to train them away from the trees. With the recent loss of a Mariposa and Beauty plum I went on a late season search for replacements. Rolling River Nursery seemed to be the only online source that still had these trees in stock. I placed an order for three trees over a weekend. A Beauty, Mariposa, and Elephant Heart plum. They were promptly shipped out on the following Monday. Due to a UPS error the delivery was delayed from Friday to the following Monday requiring the trees to be stored in the package over the weekend. Upon arrival they were very well packed and shipped in long narrow planters. The only disappointment was in the overall size and shape of the trees. They appear to be first year saplings. They were tiny be comparison to the bare root trees I'm used to receiving. They were also more expensive. I had higher expectation for trees that cost $25 plus shipping. I typically get 3 year old Dave Wilson trees for about $19 each delivered. Only time will tell how well these trees grow out. They were also on different rootstock than what I'm used to getting on plums. For me Citation has performed very well.

Posted on April 1, 2014, updated April 4, 2014
I was very pleased with the number of fruit tree/vine selections offered by Rolling River Nursery. I mean, more than a dozen kinds of pomegranate, quince, grape, etc. I was specifically looking for the Korean Giant pear tree grafted onto betulifolia rootstock. These were very hard to find. When I saw that Rolling River sells these, I tried to order, but alas, they were not in stock at the time. But the Rolling River Nursery website has an email notification system for each out-of-stock items that you can sign up to get notified. I think I signed up in August or September of 2013. In January 2014, I was notified that there were 10 available in stock. I jumped at the chance right away, and placed an order for two. While I was ordering them, I decided to see what else I would find enticing. I saw another Korean fruiting plant called Korean Bush Cherry (called "angdoo" in Korean). If you can't tell, as you could see from my interests, I am Korean and I want to fill my garden with plants originated from Korea. And then I saw a very sweet pomegranate that I wanted. So in all, I ordered 2x Korean Giant, 2x Korean Bush Cherry, and 1x Pomegranate. They arrived super fast in great packaging. I planted them almost immediately after having them "rest" for a few days in the shade. It's now spring, and everything is leafing out, except for one Korean Bush Cherry. I gave it a few more weeks to see if it is a "late sprouter". But it never did, and I realized that there was no green cambium under the thin bark, and the roots were very small and dead. I contacted the Nursery immediately, and they said they will ship a replacement right away. I told one of my gardening friends about this place, and she ended up ordering the same plus more from them, and she said ALL of the trees she bought from Rolling River are doing very well. She is also very pleased. I will be ordering more from Rolling River. I can't wait till their special persimmons are in stock again. Also, being in California, I can order persimmons and grapes from only the nurseries within California, which Rolling River is. Definitely a keeper!

I have placed many orders now with Rolling River Nursery. One of the reasons I ended up making an account on here was to leave them a review. I used this website to make a choice on whom to purchased from and glad I did. The trees, vines, and other plants I have purchased from Rolling River have been great. I live in Texas and sometimes in shipping some have had issues getting here but they always are willing to take care of that. Highly recommend them! Great service, great people. Really high quality plants, trees, vines. All have done well. Thanks Rolling River! :)

Ordered a white mulberry this past spring from Rolling River, and received a beautiful healthy tree that arrived with three tiny mulberries on it (yes, those three berries were delicious when ripe, lol!) Shipping was fast, tree was securely packaged, and it is growing like mad here in Texas! Great company with a HUGE selection of fruit and nut trees, including many hard to find varieties. Another plus is their customer service is excellent...they quickly responded to questions I emailed them and the answers and info they gave was extremely helpful. Can't wait to order more trees from Rolling River in the future! :)

Have ordered several fruit trees, berry bushes, root plants and rose bush from this company over the past year and a half. I am very pleased with the vast selection of plants and competitive pricing on their website. My plants, with the exception of one tree, are very healthy-I spoke with Marc concerning the one tree and he promptly offered to replace it free of charge! In fact, I was so impressed with the great customer service, I ordered an additional tree. All of the plants have been shipped promptly, in great condition and in nicely moistened packing soil. Will continue to order plants from them.

Very Nice people, did a phone order, they are helpful and shipped the plants quickly. Items arrived in good condition. Will buy from again.

Wow! first time I ever ordered from this place. I bought 1 Ruby Autumn Olive and 1 Amber Autumn Olive. VERY Impressed with the size of the bushes I received! Very healthy! I highly recommend this company. Ive bought an Autumn Olive from One Green World and it was a quarter of the size of these, literally! I also paid a higher price. It sure is great to still see a company offering old school American quality and size in their products. I will buy from again.

I am really impressed with this company. The quality of their plants are great. I ordered a good number of plants from them. Only one plant I had a problem with, the portion above the graft never grew. After emailing them they sent me a replacement, no problem. I got it only two days after contacting them. I will definitely be ordering from them again. Great customer service! Great Plants!

After reading through the glowing reviews for Rolling Rivers on this website I decided to give them a try. The prices on their products were just too good to pass up so I ordered four seedlings. They responded promptly and I received the package in less than a week. I was very happily surprised when the plants arrived. The only seedling as small as the price is the pine nut tree. The strawberry guava, raisin tree are both 3 feet tall and quite leafy and the cranberry is a small healthy shrub already putting out flowers. I will definitely order from them again!

I've placed two orders with them. Everything was packed well and everything leafed out. I was happy with the caneberries, currants, autumn olive/goumi, and herbs I got.

The pineapple guava seedlings were so thin and leggy I wouldn't have ordered had I known. They are alive and growing but way behind my locally bought pineapple guava.

The one fruit tree I got (IE Mulberry) was quite thin and didn't do as well as my bare root fruit trees. I would not have ordered this had I known it was such a small caliper.

All in all, I recommend them for things I mentioned in the first paragraph. I would get a fruit tree from them if it was a hard to find tree, otherwise if you can get it bare root somewhere else I would do that.