Comments regarding Willis Orchard Company

Las year Willis Orchards mistakenly sold me 6 flowering pear trees instead of the fruiting kind that I paid for at their local nursery outlet in Berlin Georgia. all these trees flowered beautifully then formed tiny one inch pears that remained on the trees until Fall. I shwoed one of the workers these small pears that dont fall and he agrre to replace them free of charge this spring. When I went back to willis orchards for my replacement trees last week, all the leaves and buds had been ripped off, and the worker told me they had to pull off all the leaves because of an unusually early spring. There were lots of migrant workers in the field surrounding the nursery digging up trees and pulling off the leaves and loading them on trucks. This seemed suspicious to me that they were replacing my wrong trees with trees that would be stressed and weakened by pulling off the leaves. Willis should be ashamed for practicing such shady ways!

"On Apr 1, 2012 12:04 PM, Willis Orchard Company responded with:

There seems to be a similarity and eerily suspicious connection between this post and the next. Not to mention the two towns noted are so close to each other. It's just strange when we have so so few customers from this area. Out of +20,000 customers a year, the state of Georgia ranks about 10th and 90% of the folks are from north Georgia. Yet one of our infamous competitors is located about 15 minutes from both Fitzgerald and Ashburn.
Just food for thought while reading some of these posts.
Best,
JW"

Posted on March 16, 2012, updated March 17, 2012
After driving down to Berlin, GA March 15th, 2012 in my pickup to buy some peach and plum trees from Willis Orchards, I decided not to after seeing all the trees were in full leaf. One of the migrant works said they would be happy to pull off the leaves and the trees after being planted would grow new leaves, and that this process was normal. The nursery was in shambles and weeds were already more than a foot tall in the tree rows where the workers were digging them up and boxing them up to ship out in waiting Fed-Ex trucks. I'm surprised that the government would let this place sell trees growing in these dreadful conditions, after returning home treeless, my wife and I decide I had made the right decision. I started looking around on the Internet to see if anyone else had a similar experience and found an article from the Moultrie Observer that Willis's manager, Garrett Adkins, had been arrested for forgery on over 60 company checks amounting to $48,000.00 written to and signed by himself. To read this article simply type Garrett Adkins Moultrie Observer Willis Orchards and see for yourselves.

"On Apr 1, 2012 11:53 AM, Willis Orchard Company responded with:

Mr. Jim,
Since Ashburn is only 45 miles away, you would have certainly known how hot it had already become by March 15th this year in south Georgia. You are certainly right that peaches and plums had already began to leaf out. That's why we had to suspend availability for so many products on our website, at least two weeks earlier this year. So with the unusually warm winter and most trusted employee/friend's theft, it has been a tough year so far.
But a few things I want to clarify. To grow grasses between field rows of trees is a common practice for several reasons. We are routinely inspected by the USDA and are one of very few that are certified to ship to the most strictly regulated state of California. Also, we are not a retail garden center that is set-up for shoppers. We are a national mail-order operation that grows most of our products in fields. We do however have many customers to schedule the pick-up of their order and they of coarse have the opportunity to inspect. To date, no customer has ever come to pick-up and rejected their order. Finally, there are no migrant workers here. All are US citizens. The four hard working and fine young men you profiled were born here and have never even been to Mexico.
Best,
Jason Willis - owner "

Posted on March 17, 2010, updated March 17, 2012
Posted on February 27, 2010, updated March 17, 2010
Posted on November 24, 2007, updated February 27, 2010
I purchased three trees from W.O.C. Three weeks ago.

1) Santa Rosa Plum
1) Florida Prince Peach
1) Washington Navel Orange

They answered the phone quickly the day I placed my order and every time I called there after and when I requested a tracking number they provided one. All together I placed 3-4 calls with questions after the order was placed and each time I was greeted by a friendly and knowledgeable person on the other end. The trees were well packaged and arrived safely and more importantly they were all not only within the size range purchased but at the high end of the range.

To date this is the best experience I have had purchasing trees from an online tree nursery. I will buy trees from them again come January and I highly recommend them.

THISISME

Coming from a small business family and after reading some of the inflammatory negative reviews (although some were constructive), I wanted to give Willis Orchards a try. I always hate to see a good business lose customers because of unfair remarks, so I thought I'd be the judge and start out with a small order.

We ordered two willowy green bamboo plants, one blue henon bamboo plant, and a blueberry bush. I received the package promptly. As another post said, it was actually the most well-packed plant order I have ever received. It was clear that a lot of care was placed in the packaging. The only problem was that, alas, there was no blueberry bush. At this point, my initial thought was, "uh-oh, those other reviews were right...good thing I only placed a small order." However, I gave Sarah at Willis Orchards a call and she was very courteous. All I had to do was take a picture of my order with the blueberry bush missing, which I did and emailed to her. I am pleased to say that the mistake was promptly corrected, and I received two confirmation emails. First, I received a personal note from Sarah thanking me for sending her the pictures of my order and complimenting me for my placement of the bamboo plants. Second, I received an auto-generated invoice for $0.00 to correct the error and get that blueberry plant sent out to me.

I believe that mistakes are made from time to time. Certainly, nobody is perfect. Therefore, when these mistakes happen, I think that the true measure of a company's commitment to their customers is how they deal with those mistakes. While I can't speak for everyone here, I can at least say that I am probably even more impressed with this company now that I have seen how they respond to customer issues with integrity, speed and care, than I would have been if I had simply received everything without issue the first time around. I will certainly use Willis Orchards in the future, knowing that if I have any issues, they will be resolved with the kind of personal attention usually only reserved for face-to-face transactions.

Thank you, Willis Orchards! - C. Bonelli & J. Young

I bought the persimmon trees from them-the trees arrived with trimmed roots and were dead before I have got them!
They sent me the replacement with the same short cat roots already the THIRD!!! time!! But now the roots are like munched!!
I lost more then $150!! Because the company only give you credit-NO!! money back!
My suggestion for Willis Orchard-Don't even bother to dig the tree out! CUT IT! with knife by the ground and send to the customers just the stick! LOL

I should have read the reviews. i ordered 20 3 yr old $8 a piece raspberry plants from this company paid $40 in shipping and what gets to my house, pretty much seedlings mabe a year old, why did they charge me all that shipping i'l never know. phone calls and e-mails were exchanged and of course i was on the losing end. i had to pay to ship them back and was then told by sarah that no refund will be given that i will receive store credit.

I was very hesitant about ordering from this company after reading all of the negative reports. I spoke with Sarah when I placed my order. She answered all of my questions, she had great customer service skills and I was very impressed with her knowledge of the trees that I wanted.

Today, March 9, 2012, I received the peach trees that I had ordered. I was very reluctant about opening the box. After examining the trees, I am very very pleased with the quality of the trees that I had ordered. If I need anymore trees, I am sure I will order from this company.

Florida

I had made a couple small orders in the past and was satisfied with the products and service. Last spring (2011) I placed an order for nine trees. It was late in the season but Willis made the decision to fill it. When I received the shipment I saw there were problems in the way it was poorly packaged and the bark on some trees had shriveled. We planted the trees properly and gave them good care. Only one, a small pomegranate tree, grew. I returned the bottoms and packing slip as requested and requested fall shipment of the replacements. They acknowledge receipt of the shipment with a list of what I had returned. Without reviewing it I filed it.
They did not honor my request for fall shipment and I finally called them and ask them to rush it to me, which they did, but it was mid winter by then. To my dismay they only sent 7 of the 8 trees. When I called them they said they would send the missing tree but I would have to pay the $17.50 shipping cost. She said I should have checked their acknowledgement for accuracy and caught their mistake before they shipped. So now it is my responsibility to manage their shipping department remotely. I just chalked this one up to experience. Be assured I will never order from Willis Orchards again. I don't do well in dealing with people who dishonest or who will not accept responsibility for their mistakes.

I ordered 3 trees from Willis Orchards. The trees arrived a few days later in excellent condition. They are large, healthy trees and the packing was far superior to that of other companies I have dealt with. There were no limbs broken and no root damage. I have been gardening for over 40 years, and I am an extremely satisfied customer. I will not hesitate to order from them again.

June Taylor
Pace, Florida

I ordered several expensive varieties of live trees via the internet in January 2012 and was having them delivered to my work location. During the check out process you are allowed to put notes in about your order. I had wrote that I wanted to have shipping day adjusted so that my order would arrive during the work week as I do not work weekends and did not want my order sitting in the elements to harm the trees (it is MI after all) during a weekend.

I finished the order process and received confirmation of my order. A few days later I received an email stating that my order would ship sometime in March 2012 and I would receive a email confirmation of the shipping date. This is normal business practice of any internet company.

I wrote an email back asking if I could get my order any sooner due to the process of inside planting and rooting to be able to transplant at the first opportunity. The email I received back stated that due to the time of year that they were concerned about the health of the plants during shipping. I agreed with the thought process and thanked them for their concern.

On 3/1/12, Wenesday, I received a email notification from FedEx that my order was shipped and would be delivered via FedEx Home Delivery on 3/3/12,Saturday. Sometime in March!?! Home delivery on a Saturday to my work location ?

I sent an email that very same day, 3/1/12, to a Jennifer Johnson asking her why had they done that? Why did I not receive an email as to when they were going to ship? Did they not read the notes I placed on my order? Were they not the ones concerned about shipping? Why was my order being delivered on a weekend?

I have received no response to any of my concerns which leads me to believe that this company does not take their customer's very seriously. I will NOT use this company or ever recommend them to anyone else.

Two seasons ago I purchased 10 Thompson seedless and 10 Black monuka seedless grape vines and I paid extra for three year old stock. The plants arrived in poor condition, but I planted them. The first year the thompson seedless did well with only 20% loss. The Black Monuka vines didn't fair as well with 80% loss. I followed the warrenty requirements, and returned the dead vines. Willis took it upon them selves to decide how many to return to me, instead of replacing all of the vines that I returned to them. I replanted, and ended up with 8 "Black Monuka" vines out of the 10 that I planted, none of the Thompson vines made it the second year. Well the third season arrived and I was pretty stoked to see the large berries developing on some of the 8 vines. When they ripened, I was pretty disapointed. Of the 8 vines, all of them were white seeded grapes of at least three different varieties. Just wanted to let everyone know, BE CAREFUL with this place!

Posted on April 26, 2010, updated February 5, 2012
This is really a neutral comment, with the caveat that I am inexperienced. I ordered a dormant medium sized Smoke Tree from Willis Orchard for $50. It came pruned to the size I ordered which was what I was expecting. The issue was with the massive completely solid and round shaped mesh of root ball the size of a volley ball (Maybe caused by container growth?). There really was no way to get any soil in the root ball even after soaking. If I knew what I was doing maybe I should have clipped some roots out? I am comparing this Willis Orchard Smoke tree to the $5 one I ordered off eBay, which came with a long tap root and is performing at 100% filling out and completely leafing out on all branches, whereas the one from Willis Orchard is only doing about 50%. It has the characteristic bushing at the base and some empty tall branches like a stressed plant. The Willis Orchard plant will survive and is overall acceptable; I just wish the long branches were performing better, meaning that they would have a single leaf on them.

In 2011, I ordered two nectarine trees from Willis Orchard. After not receiving them in a few weeks, I called. Long story short, UPS delivered them but I did not receive them (possibly stolen). They were immediately replaced by Willis at no cost to me. This January,after confirming the trees were dead, they were again immediately replaced at no cost to me. They have furnished 6 trees for the price of two. I don't see how anyone could try any harder to satisfy a customer. I would never hesitate to order from them again.

I read all the negative comments about Willis so I called and spoke with them. I decided to give them a try and ordered a red baron peach tree and a dolgo crabapple. Both trees were well packaged and were in very good condition. The peach was a larger size tree. It had a nice shape and was well branched. I was impressed with what I recieved and decided to order two mayhaw trees as well. I think a lot of the negative comments come from competitors and from people who my not be the best gardeners. There are many things that can happen to plants (like poor soil, bugs, fungus, too wet , too dry) that are beyond the control of the nursery. Some of us just have balck thumbs. I think Willis makes the honest effort to satisfy their customers and I will continue ordering from them.

I ordered 8 Elliot, 1 Pawnee and 1 Oconee pecan trees, as well as 2 White flowering dogwoods, 2 Mason's Superberry Mayhaw trees. Plants arrived very quickly and well packaged. Plants looked very healthy when they arrived. I have no problems or concerns with Willis.

I live about 15 miles from Willis, and have ordered from them for several years...now I pick up my plants, except for my very first order with them, when I did not realize how close they were...but if anything the plants were overly packaged but they were very healthy, they were two kiwi plants, after the first year they were over 18 feet long! I also have 8 apple trees form them and pomegranates all were larger than any other nurseries, and have grown flowered and fruited wonderfully...I have placed another large order with them for this year and am very excited about my new trees....Olives :) they are very friendly and easy to work with and very knowledgeable and also try very hard to educate people on buying the wrong trees for their area....I LOVE WILLIS and will be doing business with them for years to come

Posted on December 27, 2011, updated December 29, 2011
I bought several trees, Kiwi and a grape vine. I was shipped short my grape vine. When we waited for our order after several weeks passing by, we called and they said that they would ship our order when it was time to plant. Once it was ready it to ship, they would charge us on our card. We saw the charge and waited. we did not receive that plants. we called and was told the plants have been package for shipping and was ready. They plants arrived and it was short a grape vine. I called to request that they complete the order. They requested a photo graph for proof. I can somewhat understand but I have control of what is in the photograph, but okay. I submitted the photo and called to follow up and received rude behavior from them on the phone. This does not sit well with me. Further more, my wife was checking into planting the Kiwi and it is saying wait until to after the last frost or the threat of frost has gone. But we received our plants on December 24th!!!!!!!!! that we order in October!!!!!!!!Not to mention the plants I bought there before died, but I thought it was my fault now I am not sure............never from them again.......And I still don't have the plant I purchased............

I was leery about ordering from Willis Nursery when I read a few bad comments but they had the two low chill sweet cherry trees I wanted. The two trees came when I wanted them and were carefully packed. They were tall trees unlike many small trees I received from other nurseries. I have no complaints and can only issue praise for this nursery.

I ordered a Japanese magnolia from Willis in early August, but by mid-November it hadn't arrived. The ground was starting to freeze here, so I called them and told them to change the shipping date to March or April, which they said they would do.

For who knows what reason, they sent it to me a few weeks later, and it showed up on my porch in Chicago on December 21, a day when it was 28 degrees and snowing. Figuring it had a better chance of surviving in the ground than in a box, I planted it and mulched it heavily.

Today, I emailed them to tell them what had happened. A few hours later, they sent me a reply that failed to even acknowledge that they made a mistake, instead lecturing me that I shouldn't have planted it.

Apparently, if a mail-order tree business staffed by people with no understanding of the North American climate sends you a tree in the dead of winter, you're supposed to leave it in your basement or garage until spring. Of course, if the same company had sent the tree when they were supposed to, this wouldn't be something you'd have to worry about.

I recieved an order for three fruit trees two weeks ago. I am aware of some of the negative reviews of this company, but have NOTHING but positive comments to add.
The trees were much larger than I expected and extremely well packaged for shipment.
The customer service folks/order takers were friendly and accomodating.
I just placed another order for another variety of pear tree, and would have no reservations about ordering again in the future.

I have had nothing but great results,dealing with willis orchard co. the plants were delivered quickly,and healthy.however i thought it to be a good idea to call them and ask for advice on care and maintanance.they were very courtious and knowledgeable.to my suprize,i had allready made a few mistakes,which they advised me on.my trees are thriveing and healthy,as well as my grapes.i think everyone should take advantage of there free advice.and they will have greater success with there plants and trees. HAPPY GARDENING TO ALL

Posted on December 12, 2011, updated December 12, 2011
I live in West Palm Beach, Fl and ordered some strawberry plants from willis orchard on 11/16/11 and was given a preference date of receiving plants.. My preference date for receiving shipments was 11/28/11. On 11/28/11 telephone call made and was told by Sarah that they were not shipped because they had some many orders, but assured me they would be shipped by the Friday 12/2/11. Call made again to check the shipping status, again was told that they were working on my order as we were speaking and that I should received them by Monday or Tuesday of the next week. Again call made and was given pretty much the same answers as before. I then requested that they refund my money back into my bank account. They agreed and upon checking today, only $64.26 out of $71.40 was placed back into my account. Upon speaking to Sarah again regarding why only $64.26 was put back into my account. Was told they charged me a cancellation fee. I explained they never shipped the strawberry and there is no cancellation made by me and that the problem was on their end. Sarah wouldn't let me speak after that and hung up the phone. If I had known the reputation of this company, never would have ordered anything from this company. This company is being investigation by various agencies on their operations.

Willis orchard company is one of my favorite places to order from. The plants have always arrived when they said they would. The plants were as large or larger than specified. The plants were healthy and were well packaged. Nothing I have bought from them in the last 4 years has died yet. I love their prices. No where else can I get this quality of fruit tree for the amount that I pay. When I call with a question, it is answered or taken care of prompltly. One time they sent me the wrong variety, and one time a tree had been pruned that shouldn't have been. Both times the product was prompltly redelivered with no returns. When I read other feedback, it seems as though they must be describing a different company. I do live in Georgia, the same state as Willis, if that makes any difference.
We are eating figs off a 2 year old fig tree. (Peter's Honey) A plum tree (Methley) and a peach tree Suwanee)that I planted as young "twigs" this spring are now, 6 months later, 8 feet tall. I don't think I will have to wait long for fruiting. Maybe I will get bit yet, but so far, I think this company is tops.

Let me start by writing:

DON'T ORDER FROM WILLIS ORCHARD CO. OR THEIR AFFILIATES!!!!!!!!!!!!

After dealing with Willis Orchard Co. and now reading all the posts, I am in complete concurrence with the negative posting consumers. And if it wasn't so absolutely frustrating dealing with this company it would be laughable at how absolutely inefficient they are!

I placed a very large order in April 2011, had to call the 800 # because their order form wasn't clear for the items I wanted, being spring & fall plant deliveries. The rep placed two orders, one shipping "immediately" and one shipping fall 2011. The first one came in June! I should have known then to cut my losses...

That order contained 2 very wilted and pathetic kiwis "plants" about 12" tall - much smaller than I ordered & paid for - and a sickly guava that soon died as well. I contacted Willis and was told to package the root balls up and send them back, with instructions on the credit, since I had several email communications stating I did not want more kiwis or guavas, but would like to use the credit toward more fruit trees. No problem they said! No communication for weeks...then received 2 more kiwis, again as pathetic as the 1st shipment! I emailed and said I was not paying for another return postage, they screwed up, I want the credit as agreed upon and wanted to order even more fruit trees. (Yes at this point I have to say I became a little insane myself for wanting to do this). After a couple of cryptic emails, they actually accused me of lying and not including a note but then saying "if this was our error..." and agreed to the credit against this 3rd order.

Again, weeks - actually months - passed with no communication. I emailed on 11/4 asking about the refund and the fall order, did not mention the 3rd order because now I finally became convinced I did not want to do more business with this company and they seemed to have forgotten anyway! I received a reply from Jennifer a day later that the order would be sent "within the week" and she asked about the returned & reshipped kiwi plants, obviously "forgotten" the arrangement agreed upon for the credit, and then mentioned the guava as well, stating she wasn't aware until just now that I had returned a guava as well. She said she would issue me a credit for the guava only, completely not honoring the previous emails and kiwi credits.

On 11/22 I emailed back saying to cancel the fall order completely, now over 2 weeks later and still no delivery, and please issue me the full credit on the 3 returned plants. On 11/28 she responds, a week later!! and mentions the credit but does not acknowledge the cancelled order. I emailed back and insisted she acknowledge the cancellation, now, a $190 order that I wanted money back on immediately! That was my primary concern as the ship has sailed on the other order and getting a refund or credit is going to be another long battle, I can tell. She then emails back saying she didn't realize - again! - that I had an unshipped order pending which I wanted to cancel. How do they not realize this? And since that was the original intent of that email string, what is wrong with these people??? She then stated she would cancel immediately, minus a 10% cancellation fee - this isn't even legal!!!! After all of their mishaps and bad handling now on top of it I am being punished again by losing almost $20. I am waiting for the refund to go through, then filing a complaint with every consumer action agency I can find. This company should be out of business.

Posted on November 21, 2011, updated November 22, 2011
Posted on November 7, 2011, updated November 21, 2011
I ordered two jujube trees from Willis Orchard in Feb, 2011, a Li and Lang. They sent me a wrong tree. There is almost no customer service for this company: no email reply and the right people always not in the office when calling them. Very frustrated. Will never do business with them anymore.

"On Nov 8, 2011 2:24 AM, Willis Orchard Company responded with:

So wrong. Aways 3 or 4 peaple in office, including at least one manager, from 8 to 5 Mon. - Fri. Emails are answered daily. He sent pictures of a lang jujube fruit that beared the first year of planting, which was one of two ordered. He says its not like the lang he has in China, not as sweet as he remembered. Although eating while still green. Sorry he's frustrated but doesn't justify a negative review. This is a prime example of DG's negative reviews, although few relative to the 25,000 plus customers per year we serve. Do the statistics before making final judgement. However, we did do all we could to assist this gentlemans issue. We are a small family operation that appreciates and strives to please all our customers....despite the many false posts on DG. Notice 90+% have only a single review. Humm?"

I ordered 70 blueberry plants from this company and was completey satisfied. I planted them a few weeks ago and everything seems to be fine. I will post again in the spring when they begin to ripen. I will definitely order additional plants in the future.

I ordered 2 pear trees that were larger and healthier than I expected--I have done mail order for 30 years!!
This year I ordered Blueberries --they were much taller plants
than I have received from other venders for the same price!!
I was pleased to get things shipped in Fall for spring blooming!!

Posted on October 11, 2011, updated October 20, 2011
Posted on October 9, 2011, updated October 11, 2011
Posted on October 3, 2011, updated October 9, 2011
I ordered 2 types of guava trees from Willis Orchards about a year ago. This year when I got my first fruit off the tree I realized that they sent me an indian yellow guava instead of the indian red guava that I ordered. I first notified them last week. They requested some pictures then promptly notified me that the correct item was in the mail. Sara made this the quickest and easiest customer care transaction that I have had with any company. It was unfortunate that I got the wrong plant but in the end I am extremely happy that the yellow guavas are delicious, willis orchards made right by their mistake and I also get the red guava that I should have gotten. By the way. Their indian guava plant is my favorite of all the plants in my tropical garden. The plant is attractive, low maintenance and the fruit is the best guava I have ever tasted.

I have probably ordered 20 items from them over the past few years. Mostly OK, sometimes surprisingly good roots, some duds - last year put in three cherries and all died. Some Chinese Chestnuts have done great, Customer service mediocre at best. My other main source is Raintree, but wanted to order more locally. Raintree is more reliable. Willis is neither so bad that I avoid it nor so good that I choose them with confidence.

Sorry I did not look at this site first! The Willis website looks pretty good, but THEY are "con jobs."

They sent the tree "cuttings" near the end of winter, because , for some reason, they had to...? I don't know why,
so the "cuttings" sat in the garage for another month until it was time to plant them where I live.
Every one of the trees died. I bought some local bareroot trees they lived, so it was NOT my lack of skills.

Willis sent CUTTINGS of twigs (cut off the shoots), most likely from viable fruit trees, you know ,they trimmed or pruned the branches off and SENT those "as trees."

I bought local fruit trees AFTER WILLIS sent the garbage it did. I pruned the trees once I got them into the ground. I was amazed that their LENGTH was the same as the "trees" WILLIS sent me for the "deal price" I thought I was getting.
I got RIPPED and it appears, so did many others. There are a bunch of these "rip-off" tree companies from the South.

Why do they DO BUSINESS like that? They were "real nice" alright, when they took my order.

"How may I HEP you PLEASE? (literally). Well, Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. That "downhome yokum," does NOT makeup for shady business practices. They "sound" good, they "look" good, BUT do they "DO" good? You decide.

I too will be send back the twigs I received, but it appears, having read the comments of other people, there will be little chance WILLIS will do ANYTHING about it.

And the BBB? What can they do? Nothing.

DO NOT USE WILLIS, disregard what "cousin Billy Bob,"or "Aunt Peg," have told you, "oh THEY are sooo great...would do business again," THOSE are more con jobs.

THIS MANY people complaining is not a lie. And a "D" rating with BBB?

So far so good, the customer service has been great. I have asked a few questions via e-mail and the response has been quick every time (even on the weekend). I will update further when the trees arrive. I have to say I'm a bit apprehensive now after reading the other reviews.

I planned to buy several fruit trees from this company as they had the best selection of large trees in the variety I wanted. Luckily their website was horrible and didn't work properly so I decided to wait a while. In the meantime I checked out davesgarden.com and found all the negative comments regarding Willis Orchard Company. Wow! Am I glad I didn't complete my order! Thanks to all who sent in their comments, you saved me from a costly mistake. I ordered from Stark instead.

ordered 4 trees, all came poorly packaged with hardly any roots. all 4 died, contacted company. were less than friendly. told me there was no guarantee, said they would send a one time, one tree replacement. doesn't do much good when they all die. out 80.00 dollars. trees extremely tiny compared to trees of the same variety from other nurseries for about the same price. buyer beware!!!!

The paw paw trees I ordered this spring from Willis Orchards arrived without any roots and were dead on arrival. Besides eating my money doing business with Willis orchards set me back a year in my ambitions for this garden project and disappointed me emotionally. I'm not going bother to return the deceased trees because I don't want to deal with this company ever again, as I would just expect to be disappointed again after having this previous experience.

The Kwanzan Flowering cherry that come from Willis Orchards in may come 3ft. shorter than what I paid for and they said they had prepruned the tree before shipping it. I could send it back if not satisfied but thought the plant would die shipping it back during the heat of June so I kept it as they suggested. The tree had a few leaves on it at first when it came but the cherry tree did not bloom after planting and now is totally dead in august. There is no green on it and no leaves and I did not see an invoice on the box when it came. Willis wont refuse my dead cherry tree or send a replacement and Im out over 100 BUCKS and very unhappy that they dont keep copies of there sales invoices.

I ordered two each of apple, cherry, pear, and peach trees for my fruit tree orchard from Willis Orchard. No sign of life or growth in Spring or Summer of 2011 on all fruit trees planted and shipped during fall of 2010. Willis Orchard sends replacements in fall but I fear they will die if they strip all the leaves off in November like they did last time. Inferior weak replacements are forcefully my choice even tho I wanted a refund that they wont do, so I am their victim for the last time.

I ordered a HoneyCrisp apple tree over a year ago and they shipped it in a timely manner last fall. I paid for one of the larger trees, which came to about $80. I was pleased with the size and quality of the tree when I opened the box and planted it, the same day it arrived. This spring most of the larger/longer branches leafed out and I was pretty happy with the tree and the company. Then, the leaves on the longer/larger branches started to dry up and die and those same branches died back. I now have a small shrub looking tree that is about 30 inches tall. I contacted the company and eventually sent pictures of the tree. The response was that the branches must have "not made it through the winter" and that I should trim them back so one of the others would become the leader. I paid a LOT of money for a tree that may or may not make it and the "year guarantee" will be up in October. So, to make a long story short, DO NOT BUY FROM THIS COMPANY! The guarantee is worthless and you will NOT get your money back or even a replacement. The latest response -- "We do have a one year guarantee for plants that die but we surely can't be responsible for pure acts of nature. Were we in any way negligent I would understand your position." What do they guarantee? If I had purchased this tree at a local nursery (if it had been in stock I would have), the guarantee would have been good for two years and they do cover winter death. I have been gardening since I was old enough to walk with my Grandma and Mom and was raised on a farm I know a thing or two about gardening and I am VERY disappointed with this company. I learned a lesson the hard way -

My jujube tree from Willis Orchards Co was a mess. They really arrived too late in the season for planting due to their delay in shipping even though I called every week and got multiple excuses each time hearing something different.

The roots were healthy looking so I assume they were alive. The main trunks were dead looking even though Willis claimed they were dormant. The Jujube plants were planted in full sun even though temperatures reached 100 degrees. Now the green sprouts coming up from he base are dead also. There is no sign that the Jujubes have any life, well I don’t have much hope. I’m taking Willis Orchard off my fruit tree ordering list for this dismal disappointing order. I was raised in Georgia near Thomasville, before leaving the state, so I was glad to put some money back in my home state. Especially disappointing was the careless treatment I got on the phone each time I called getting conflicting miss-information and rude voices sometimes!

I bought two pecan trees and 6 blueberry bushes from Willis Orchards. When the box arrived in early June, I noticed right away that the box was very small, around 3 feet, and I had ordered blueberries 3-4' and pecan trees that were supposed to be 4-5'. I did open the box and all of the plants were inside, but no where near the size I had purchased. I called Willis and was told they pruned my plants free of charge and that about 1/3 was removed from the tops. These tops couldn't have had more than an inch pruned from them as skinny as they are! I think this pruning thing is a rouse to send smaller trees so Willis Orchards can make more money!