Comments regarding Willis Orchard Company

Posted on July 1, 2011, updated July 1, 2011
I always had been a gardner all my life(especially at heart), I live in MIlwaukee,WI and with a blessed area of space for my plantings of fruit trees and average sized garden as I do rent my home. I was told I could plant as I would like and decided to look for a sweet cherry tree and possibly others to plant on the property besides my regular garden since cherries can be quite expensive and I absolutely love them. I did a search for the best suited trees for my climate and found the Compact Stella to be the perfect fit for me. I did a Google search for them and found Willis Orchards down in Georgia and called asking their opinion for my climate and with woderful and that southern kind hospitality of great advice,I decided to order a 1.25" caliper bare root and arrived last year in perfect shape,packing and timing to plant. It fruited as expected with adequate and reasonable care as advised last season. This season, it fruited abundantly with the most beautiful and sweet cherries without much effort of my doing other than keeping it as advised from Willis and by googling just to be certain I am doing everything correct. I do not use pesticides and keep a net over the tree, I really want to let those know that I never purchased online with my live plants before and was a bit sceptical but this tree in fully thriving and due to my research and effort in keeping it healthy (which really does not take much) I am very satisfied with Willis Orchards for providing me with such a wonderful healthy tree and customer service as sweet as can be. I will not go elsewhere.
Great to find this site and happy to be able to express my experience with others and take in all the great advise on gardening which is one of my passions!
Thanks for allowing me the pleasure of becoming a part of such an abundant and live community in gardening!
MIchelle

I placed a fruit tree and berry plant order with Willis Orchard Co last spring not realizing the BBB had a D rating for them and a file full of complaints against them and more than 50% negative complaints on Dave's Garden. The plants and trees ordered looked weak on arrival and the apple trees leafed out but wilted shortly after and don't look like there is any life left in them. Check the BBB and Dave's Garden before ordering fruit trees and don't buy anything from Willis Orchard Co.

This company is a jerk. I returned a dead tree root for replacement according to their policy. I called them two weeks after I mailed it out and I was told they did receive the dead tree root and would send out the replacement soon. However, I haven't got anything two months later. I called them again and again, and I was told they didn't got the dead tree root which I returned. I was asked to show them the receipt from post office, this is really ridiculous because I just put the envelope in the mailbox and no way to get the receipt from the postman when he picked up the mails.
Be careful with this company, I will not buy anything from it.

I ordered two hazelnuts and a grape, since these ought to be OK as bare roots. No other company had these particular cultivars so I gave them a chance. All three plants looked dead from April to early June, but they have ALL leafed out two and a half months after arrival. I was prepared to throw them away since they appeared to be dried up, but patience was all I needed. I would order from them again.

My blueberry order from Willis Orchards is ALL dead. I was hesitant ordering blueberries this late in the year but wanted to complete my berry patch. The order arrived with leaves wilted and planted right away and watered well but the plants remained wilted and after a couple of days the leaves turned brown and fell off. The stems of the blueberries turned black shortly after and are completely dead. I have now lost a whole year of hoping to eat blueberries from those plants and think that a refund is in order since Willis Orchard sent me plants that had leafed out prematurely but they don't offer refunds in their policy, only replacements. It is too hot to get replacements in June and they sent my original order too late in the year anyway. I am disappointed in Willis Orchard Co and do not trust them anymore and will contact the BBB to help me.

I am disgusted and made sick to my stomach that I called this company and ask for hardy highbush blueberry plants and I was sent twig/sticks that have since withered and DIED because they were NOT the highbush I had requested but mislabel rabbit-eye(?) blueberries. My plants are all today dead and Willis Orchards is guilty of sending me blueberry plants for the south, not new york. They offer replacements, but rabbit-eye blueberry plants don't live in new England climate so, I will refuse them! I want a refund.

I called there back in January and got a quote on some low chill hour Cherry trees, they were a little high in price but I could not find any else where. So about March I called them to see if they still had them and they said they did. I ask they how to get to there yard as I was about 175 miles from them and told them I could be there in 3 hours and they said they would say open until I got there. That was real nice of them. I got there and was REAL IMPRESS WITH THERE YARD.Got my Cherry trees and looked around and ended up buying 3 pecan trees.All the trees are doing GREAT but one pecan tree. but i bought some pecan trees from a local store and that what there's did, so I am not worried about that tree at all. I WOULD BUY FROM THEM AGAIN AND AGAIN GREAT TREES FROM WILLIS

THANK YOU
DALE

All four of my palm trees have died and Willis refuses to refund my money!

I moved into my home almost three years ago, on a nice size piece of property. I couldn't wait to begin an orchard. I was a complete amateur, and unfortunately the first website I found was Willis. I ordered dozens of fruit and nut trees, as well as grapes and berries. As of today, only four trees remain. They have replaced some dead trees, (shipped back at my expense), and those were either dead or died quickly. Two replaced apricot trees from last year arrived with canker, (as I've now learned to identify), and today I threw in the towel trying to save them and tossed them in the fire. I've given all my trees good soil, plenty of sun, water, and regular spraying, but the products from Willis always seem to be weak, abused, or diseased.

I also suspect they don't give you the actual variety ordered. My "sugar pear" from two years ago (replaced) gave me a large, hard, deformed fruit which looked nothing like what a sugar pear looks like. My hosui asian pear hasn't yet flowered, but it looks IDENTICAL in every way to the "sugar pear" tree, my asian pear from Stark looks very different from my european pears, hmmmm...

Sorry Willis, but my overall experience with this company has been largely negative, with lots of wasted money, but even worse, lots of wasted time.

Posted on May 10, 2011, updated May 25, 2011
This is the worst company I have ever dealt with!! I ordered 10 raspberry plants from them and all 10 of them were dead!! They refused to give me a refund so I am out $85.00!

DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY!! THEY HAVE THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE AND LOW QUALITY PRODUCTS!! BUY FROM SOMEONE ELSE!!

bought two apple trees last season, both never did anything. Wanted my money back as I was so disgusted, I lost a year's growing season. Would not refund money so I had to pay for shipping the roots back and now, if the replacements don't take, I am out another growing season

Last Spring I ordered over $100.00 worth of banana trees from Willis Orchard. The golden African banana tree arrived soft and mushy and never formed a new leaf and was later dead. The so called pineapple banana tree, the lady finger banana tree and the ice cream banana lived but all three appeared to be the same kind of tree, looking identical in color, leaf and height. My next door friend is a collector of banana tree varieties and a member of a American banana society, and he tells me that the Willis Orchards alleged marketed names of bananas on the Willis website are all generic terms, meaning in descriptive terms- that the ice cream bananas are used to make ice cream, the pineapple variety tastes a little like pineapple to some people, and the lady finger fruit is shaped like a ladies finger. My friend says Willis Orchards is trying to sell customers these different banana trees but is pretending to actually have three distinctly different kinds of bananas. In my opinion the act of continuing to do that is fraud and I think that someone ought to investigate their misleading practice. Its plain dishonest!

I have ordered multiple times from Willis Orchards, both fruit and flowering trees, and have never had any negative issues with them. They have always been very helpful on the phone and orders have always arrived in a timely manner and were packaged well. I have ordered from other companies that did not have near the success rate as Willis Orchards. I have lots of land and have bought many, many trees from many different places, and for their prices and the quality I have received, I feel they are a very good company.

Posted on May 9, 2011, updated May 11, 2011
About four months ago I decided to buy online a large bareroot tree that I could not find locally here in Northern California. Willis Orchard offered a 7'-8' Pomegranate, at $137. including shipping. That was a great price for the size! Beforehand I did an extensive amount of investigation on which online nursery I should purchase from. I found many nurseries with extreemely bad reviews. Willis Orchard was included in that list, but also received a balance of good reviews. A lot of the negative reviews seem to be based on a false association with other online nurseries in the same general physical location. So, I hesitantly took a chance and ordered from them the bareroot Pomagranate. It arrived in a reasonable amount of time and looked in fine shape, with healthy roots and bark. I planted the tree within three days of arrival, using the suggestions offered on Willis' website, plus added a little Miracle Grow for punch! Since the tree was bareroot, and did not sprout until late April, I held off in writing a review until I was sure the plant was indeed alive, well and growing. It is and I'm more than happy with the purchase! Based on my own experience with Willis Orchard I would have no hesitation in ordering from them again.......but you'll have to make that decision on your own, I'm glad I did.

Posted on December 7, 2010, updated May 11, 2011
Posted on April 22, 2010, updated December 7, 2010
Posted on April 10, 2010, updated April 22, 2010
After renting for the better part of a decade, in the summer of 2009 I finally had land to call my own and I was determined to put in a small orchard. Around September or October I put in an order to Adams County Nursery for 13 apple trees, 3 cherry trees, 3 pear trees, 3 peach trees, 3 nectarine trees, and a plum tree. In general I went for trees in the $13 range. Mid-November, all the trees showed up leafless and in good condition for being bare root. The trees were planted the day they arrived, and all winter I hoped for the best. It was also readily apparent that whoever prunes the trees at Adams know a thing or two about how to properly train a tree for fruit production.

Since Adams County Nursery was doesn't carry grape vines and they were out of apricots until the spring of 2011, around Christmas time I put in an order with Willis Orchard for 10 grape vines and 4 apricot trees with a March delivery date. Since I was running out of land, the apricots were ordered as preemptive replacements for when and if the other fruit trees die, I ordered the smallest varieties available for the grapevines and apricots. The apricots were in the $8 range, and the grape vines were in the $6 range so I expecting something only a little bigger than a bare root twig. Willis Orchard sends the FexEx tracking numbers, so the trees and vines arrived the day they were expected. The trees seemed to be trained better than the trees you'll find at Home Depot or Lowes, but they're not in the same league as Adams.

Adams also seemed to do a bit better job of packing the trees, but it appears that both nurseries did a sufficient job of packing the trees since almost all of the trees and vines have produced leaves. From Adams, it looks like the plum tree may have died back to the rootstock, and from Willis one of the apricot trees has yet to produce leaves. Either way, over 90% of the trees and vines ordered from the both nurseries have produced leaves and that's far more than I was expecting...so my patio is now overrun with apricot trees in very large pots.

Overall, I was happy with both nurseries and would order from both of them again. The trees from Adams seemed to be of somewhat better value than the items from Willis, but Adams is geared to be more of a wholesale operation, and they charge and arm and a leg if you order less than 25 trees, and they don't carry grapevines.

My recommendation is that if you're not interested in grapevines and you can put together an order of more than 25 trees (find a couple friends who want apple trees), then you're better of ordering from Adams County Nursery, however if you only want a few trees and a grapevine or two, then Willis Orchards is the way to go.

"On Nov 8, 2011 3:01 AM, Willis Orchard Company responded with:

We are are one of few eastern U.S. Nursery companies granted certificafion to ship certain plants to California. More inspection is required and disease/pest free grounds are manditory but given our general practices, it's not a problem for us. Despite the ridicule we receive on this particular site, other notable sites such as "Google Checkout" and Customer Lobby reviews seem quite contradictory. Google customers give us 4.3 of 5 stars and CL is around 85% in satified customers. The dissatisfaction always comes when a tree dies, not based on the quality when received. Yet that's nature, growing practices or circumstances beyond our control. But at least these are actual customers that we can varify.....not anonymous posts by competitors or the 0.001% that could never be satisfied or have unreasonable expectations. Or posts about things that aren't even relevant to ones purchase. These thing should make intelligent readers question the validity of such a site as Dave's 'Dog Somebody' Garden. Take away the anonymity and our reviews would be in line with the other review sites I mention, which require such disclosure. "

dont waste youre money with this company I ordered 5 tulip poplars and all 5 are dead. Terrible customer service and no refunds!!! order somewhere else!!!!!

I had never bought any plants online, and at first glance I saw a fairly positive rating on google, and placed the order. After seeing this site, I understandably became quite apprehensive. I ordered a 7' Subhirtella flowering cherry and a 3' arbequina olive. Both trees arrive completely healthy in exactly the time frame I expected, exactly as advertised. I had a great experience with their customer service, who checked with me as to what shipping options I wanted, and called on the day of arrival to make sure everything arrived as I had ordered. Next year if I plan to order any more trees, they will be the first company I contact. I could not have had a more positive experience with Willis Orchards.

I purchased 14 trees this spring, 3 pecan, 4 chestnut, 2 peach, 2 apple, 3 pear, and 3 blueberry bushes. I have read quite a few of these reviews and pretty surprised by the tone of most. My trees were all large B&B except for the 2 Amer chestnuts.
I talked with Cynthia and she was very helpful from the beginning and while there were a couple of mis-steps, all were taken care of without issue.
I went to Moultrie and picked up my plants and during loading, did not notice that the blueberries were smaller than I ordered. They had been put in the truck first and I just simply missed it--and I should have caught the error since I was right there. I got home, ~4 hours north, and noticed the error and called. Even knowing I was there, Willis sent me 3 new ones immediately and while I was prepared to ship the other 3 back, I was told to keep them.
Since it has been a very early, warm spring, many of my trees also had bloomed, especially the peaches. But I plucked every blossom off to allow the trees to establish themselves prior to fruiting. One thing my dad taught me about planting is that you must help the tree and prep the hole for whatever you are growing...no need to try and grow a tree if you are not willing to put a $10 tree in a $100 hole. Several of my trees were, and still are, slowly coming to like their new home, but I put each in a hole that was 3' dia by 2.5' to 3' deep with soils layered in to help the trees root and all are watered often.
As it stands right now, I am quite satisfied with the trees that I received. Time will tell if they are the types of trees that I ordered, but I do not have any reason to believe that I will be treated poorly since I have put in the effort to help my trees grow and the type is beyond my control. If they fail, it will not be due to lack of effort. If they are of the wrong type, I expect Willis will stand behind what they say.

My order in March arrived at my neighbors house on block away, not mine! After opening the box the order looked o.k. except my 3 fig trees were missing. My several phone calls to Willis Orchards did not solve my problem or get my 3 fig trees. No refund was received and no second box arrived and every time I called no one seemed to care about completing my order and the woman acted like this was the first time she had heard about my incomplete shipment but a promise was made each time that resulted in nothing being done. This company should be investigated.

I am so deeply disappointed. I ordered 5 different fruit trees from Willis Orchards after carefully researching the types and how well they produce for my planting area. I planted them and by summer's end, 4 of the 5 were dead. (the 5th wasnt doing so good but it passed the scratch test so I kept it). They took longer than anticipated to send the replacements and I didnt receive them until late november. I had to plant them in the rain as soon as I got them, and the next day it began snowing and didnt stop until march. as of april 27, all of my regular trees plus one fruit tree I bought elsewhere all have green on them. all my willis orchard trees are now again either dead or they claim are in a shock dormancy stage. they said since these are replacements they will not replace them again. 300$ down the tubes. take my advice. go to your local nursery, talk to them about the trees you want and pay the extra few bucks. you bring home a live tree that stays alive. I'm so discouraged :(

Problems with the web order processing system. Slow yet expensive shipping. Dead plants upon arrival ... up to 40% losses, and that which survived struggled to recover. No way will I order again from these guys ... they make Gurneys look good.

In 2009 I placed a large order for fruit trees with Willis Orchard Co that arrived after one week, well packaged and boxed and excitedly I planted the trees in my fruit orchard, hoping for the best since I had never before ordered from a mail-order company but was confident that since the order was placed through Google checkout that the quality of the plants would be satisfactory but it did not turn out that way in the end. Some of the plants lived but the three kinds of brown and black fig trees all turned out to be the yellow Celeste fig trees that could be bought at any flea market. The exaggerated claims of delicious bananas to eat from growing your own banana trees were laughable and unjustified since the banana trees have done nothing but sit there taking up a weedy space in my garden. From now on I will buy my plants from Lowes or Home Depot where the trees can be seen and the varieties advertised can be trusted to be the right variety not just a grab bag of disreputable mongrel trees that should have never been sold.

Posted on March 24, 2011, updated March 30, 2011
I placed my order with Willis Orchards before finding this site. I was terrified of what I might receive. HOLD THE PRESSES- what I received is ABSOLUTELY VERY GOOD! I received an e-mail of delivery with great tracking. From GA to MI, the Anne Raspberries were only in transit for 26 hours! The plants were wrapped with water-gel, and comfortably cushioned with bubble-wrap. I am currently soaking roots for 12 hours. My only regret is my own fault. I should have ordered sooner as plants were coming from GA to me. I still have snow on the ground-UGH! I will plant them in a wonderful mix of potting soil, compost and sand, and put them under lights until my ground is thawed. Of course I will harden them before planting outside. To boot, I was given an extra as they are now on sale. So far, WONDERFUL! Thank you Willis Orchards.

Nurseries that Mail out fruit trees and grape vines that have no soil that have leaved out with new foliage in the shipping box seems like a bad idea to me, but that's exactly what I got from Willis Orchard. Willis did not inform me on the telephone that they were mailing out plants that were too late to plant in my area which they should have known. I thought since we had such a cold winter in New York that Willis Orchard would not send me grape vines, blueberry bushes and cherry trees that had crisp, shriveled-brown leaves on them when I opened the box. Cherry trees and apple trees dont leave- out in New York till April or May and I expected that certainly Willis Orchard would send me dormant fruit trees and seedless grapevines without sprouted runners pitifully dried out in the package. I plan to ship back all these trees for a full refund because waiting a year to nurse such horrible stock frankly means Willis Orchard is not on my agenda to consider for future ordering.

A previous commenter suggested that negative comments about a company are much less significant than praise, because "people who are angry always complain, but people who are satisfied rarely say so."

Here are some stats from the Garden Watchdog main page:

"Since 1994, 3,918 companies have been reviewed in the Garden Watchdog, and 60,684 comments have been posted (42,251 positive, 7,453 neutral, 10,980 negative) by 31,477 customers."

The ratio of positive to negative comments about mail-order firms on this site is close to 4 to 1. So most of those posting on GW are satisfied customers who want to support companies that treated them well (the great majority of my own reviews have been positive as well)..

I have never been able to figure out why someone would read a large volume of complaints about a firm on GW and jump to the conclusion that it's the customers who are at fault for doing something wrong.

I haven't decided whether to order from Willis Orchards yet, but, having worked in sales and customer service related positions, I know that people who are angry always complain, but people who are satisfied rarely say so, so the number of positive comments a company gets says more than the number of negatives, since it must be really good for people to say something good.

However, I felt it was necessary to respond because I called Willis Orchards the other day with some questions, and, even though I wasn't ordering, the person was very helpful. Indeed, I was impressed with Willis because they're the only place I've found so far that will mail order mature bushes and trees, so I was a bit concerned about that. I asked the person whether a mature tree I ordered would bear fruit this summer, and he said it probably would not because it would need to recover from transport shock first, and I'd have to focus the first year on root growth. I asked a few other questions, and this fellow had the opportunity to get a "bigger sale" but answered honestly even though it resulted in me choosing less expensive options (i.e., two apple trees instead of one "three-in-one", which would have been more expensive). That impressed me a lot.

And I notice that a lot of the negatives, and even the negatives in the comments, seem to pertain to the very transplant shock the fellow warned me about. So I'll give everyone the same advice the fellow gave me: prepare for transplant shock, order in the spring, and be ready to wait at least a year for fruit.

By phone, I ordered two multitrunk 7' (their most expensive) fig trees. A week later, I received two single trunk 7' feet and one single trunk 5'(much less expensive)fig trees. I drastically overpaid for what I received as their substitution. I planted them and they have leafed out, so at least they are alive. Won't order from them again.

I ordered banana plants from Willis and paid with my debit card back in August. The very next day the money was withdrawn. The following day after my money was taken, a representative from Willis called my home to ask for my credit card info. Huh? When I told him the payment had already been taken from my bank, he stated that Willis' system was down. So, I faxed the bank statement to them and had my bank also send them proof of the withdrawn funds.

For the next week or so I received rude and threatening calls from Willis orchard about payment (yes, they will harrass you like a telephone marketer) until finally I called my bank and reported Willis orchard for fraud. I canceled the order and for the next few months Willis orchard harrassed me with collection calls.

Thanks WACHOVIA bank for good customer service!
After my bank delt with them and I wrote a letter to BBB and I canceled my order AGAIN in writing Dec 13 via fax, Willis called me and asked if I wanted my order??!!!!! Then they expressed the plants ANYWAY Dec 18, after and despite my request to cancel the order.


I refused to accept the package AND WILLIS ORCHARD CHARGED ME FOR IT!!!!!
These people are swindlers and pirates and are on my bank's black ball list. Consumer beware.

In late fall I called Willis Orchard Co. to order some nut and fruit trees for my garden and spoke to a pleasant lady named, Cynthia, who told me that I could pick up my order in my vehicle. She gave me driving directions from Macon to Berlin and the prices of their trees seemed reasonably priced, and she warned me that they only took cash money, but they would waive charging me sales tax since I was picking up the trees at their nursery. The savings on avoiding GA. sales tax would definitely save me on my gas expenses of driving 150 miles there and 150 miles back to Macon. Cynthia added up my bill and told me my total cost would exceed $400.00 so I went by my Macon bank and picked up my cash and upon my arrival in Berlin the trees were all bundled up wrapped up in burlap and plastic. When I arrived home and unwrapped the package I was shocked and surprised at what I found inside. The Elliot and Pawnee pecan trees were not 7-8' as advertised nor was the hican, and the roots of the hican tree were butchered, black in color with an awful covering of green dusty mold that smelled like decaying bread mold. Cynthia told me for best pollination I needed to also plant two native seedling pecan trees to assure future nut production. I later found out from an agriculture expert that wasn't true, and I feel like now that was Willis Orchards tricky way of selling extra trees. The native seedling pecan trees were the correct height as stated on the invoice. The two apple trees were the correct size but strips of bark on the trunk were peeled back and some bark was missing off the trunk. They apparently intentionally pulled off the leaves to make the trees look like they were dormant. Absolutely the worst thing about this order was the peach trees that were infected with worm borer holes made by worms that drilled into the trunks of the trees and a slimy infected brown jelly oozing out of the wormholes, disgusting! I spoke with Cynthia on the phone and told her I was dissatisfied with the order, and I was going to drive back down there over the weekend for a refund. She said they didn't do refunds. I repackaged the plants anyway, along with a copy of the invoice and a note about the return, after photo-ing everything, but when I got back down there, they were closed, so I dropped the package over the fence and took a picture with my telephone to establish proof that the nut and fruit trees were returned, feeling that they might try to deny receiving the trees back, after all the other negative combativeness of Willis Orchard Co. I also later wrote the BBB of Columbus, Ga. and told them about the photos of the undersized trees, slimy black moldy, cut-off roots and wormy infected jelly holes inside the peach trees. I thank the BBB for their forcing of Willis Orchard to refund my order for over $400.00 even though I had no trees after returning them and Willis deliberately held my money for over 3 months, I wonder if Willis Orchard sold those awful trees to some other unsuspecting customer. Thank-you BBB and obit Willis Orchard Co.

In September 2009 I ordered 12 cabernet Sauvignon grapevine plants by phone with hopes of making some home wine and charged them to my credit card. I ordered the more expensive 3 year old plants and paid full price, and was assured that they would be 3 year plants when I received them. I had never seen a Cabernet Sauvignon grapevine before and was extremely surprised that Willis Orchard sent me such small one year plants, or maybe even 2 year old vines even though I had paid for the largest 3 year size but went ahead and planted them anyway. I was further more surprised when a friend of mine looked at my vines and said they were muscadine vines instead of wine grapes that muscadine vines have different shaped leaves and bark. I got my agricultural extentions agent to come over to view the plants and he said in no uncertain terms that Willis orchards had not sent me wine grapes at all! I am 82 years old and have suffered with health problems and do not wish to have willis orchards replace the wine grape vines with more grapevines that might like before be incorrect muscadine grapes, as I may not have much time left to enjoy my wine making. Willis Orchards doesn't offer refunds on orders, so I am out of their guarantee policy time frame. Here's hoping my complaint will help other gardeners to avoid getting stuck with miserable plants of wrong sizes and incorrectly identified grape vines from Willis Orchards!

I ordered from them last year and was very happy. 1 dwarf stella cherry (the larger $16 size), 1 indian peach, 1 georgia belle peach, 1 golden nectar plum, 1 chickasaw plum. All except the cherry were the very little cheap size. They all arrized well packed and in good condition. I had a problem with the cherry and one of the other trees that the buds had already started to open. Last spring was very warm here and the package had sat out on my front porch in the hot sun all day before I got home. I planted them all right away but the cherry on the other one that had the buds opened (I can't remember which one it was) just sat that way for a long time. Finally the cherry died and the other tree grew. I don't know where my receipt is and the cherry tree is under 3 plus feet of snow right now and I kept posponing digging it up and finding the receipt so at this point I am not going to bother. I think the problem was more of the unseasonable warm spring and then some freezing here than the company. I think the tree was shipped in good condition and did arrive here alive. I was very happy with the size of the little trees, they seemed to be larger than the size in the description but the larger cherry size was within the size and I don't know if it was worth the extra. I had 2 other trees that I had planted the year before (from other sources) that had survived the winter and had healthy buds in the spring but just died. (a north star cherry and a chinese apricot). I saw all the bad reviews for this company and felt I should say something as I would order from them again except I don't like their $50 order minimum, I don't plant a lot every year and plant only one or two of each kind of tree I would like, they don't have too much else I wouuld like.

I've ordered twice from them. Last year a couple of plum trees and an apple. This year a quince and two pecan trees. The order was shipped promptly and I was emailed information to track the shipment.

All of the trees arrived in good condition and the roots were wrapped properly and stayed moist.

The trees I received were as described and nicer than I've got from other vendors. The prices are great, too.

A similar problem happened to me when dealing with Willis Orchard Co, and I posted a complaint on other forums online and have complained to the BBB in Georgia.
I placed an order with Willis Orchard in January 2010 and waited weeks before they finally sent them. In late march we had a freeze that ripped the crepe myrtle trees and no more leaves appeared until a month later. After waiting and waiting for the blooms to show they finally came in early summer but the three different colors of crepe myrtle were supposed to be red, white, and pink kinds. Guess what!? All the crepe myrtle plants turned out to have white flowers- no red- no pink. I called Willis Orchards every time a wrong color crepe myrtle bloomed- 3 times- and every time they were rude with a promise to replace them almost a year later, but not last year, all that time was wasted. Still no replacements from Willis Orchard has come. Even if Willis does send me replacements, how do I know if the crepe myrtle flowers will not be mixed up like the first time. It's discouraging to have to deal with incompetent mail order companies like Willis and it makes you wonder if they are truly incompetent or if they deliberately mix up orders to their customers. From reading all these negative complaints on this forum I'd say it may be both factors and having rude employees on the phone certainly does not help either!

My problem is with an Internet mailorder nursery, Willis Orchard and I was surprised how unprofessional everything appeared, let me explain. I purchased a Hachiya persimmon tree 5-6' that had supposedly borne fruit in 2009. The persimmon tree switch that arrived had no evidence of branching or fruiting. It was less in size than 5 feet even if you consider the butchered roots. This persimmon tree advertised as old enough to bear persimmons has not performed as Willis Orchard advertised- No Fruit!
Actually my wirfe says she could have purchased this plant at Home Depot or Lowes for less than $20, one third the cost of Willis Orchard's price. We thought we were getting a more mature tree as reflected on their website.
The root system reflects that it was grown in a coffee can or slightly larger sized container. A local neighbor who is a master gardener doubts this tree ever bore any persimmons at all. Another problem is I don't know what type of plant I have for sure as there was no identifying tag. A professional nursery would have a tag so as to know what to ship. Willis Orchard provided no planting instructions with the delivery or on the phone,
I have tried to resolve these problems by E-mail and phone calls, but the people at Willis Orchards are rude and aggravating to deal with.
After experiencing this uncomfortable and losing financial situation I tried to get my credit card company to charge back but they said I complained too late. I feel that I have been "ripped off!" When I went online to various garden forums and to BBB of Georgia it appeared my problems with Willis Orchard are not too uncommon.

"On Feb 19, 2011 8:06 PM, Willis Orchard Company responded with:

See http://www.customerlobby.com/reviews/634/willis-orchard-co/ if you are interested in reading what the other 99.9% of our customers have to say about us. (74 reviews in only one year. DG's reviews are over four years.) Also should anyone like to have a fresh picture taken of the exact item/s they would like, let me know and I'll email it to you. Ask for Jason.
However, you can not buy something today and call me two years from now to complain about it. And expect a free replacement or a refund. This is basic common sense. (Because I explained this common sense, I'm labeled as "rude and unprofessional".)
"

My experience seems so much like that everyone else that I sure wish I had known about this website before purchasing from Willis Orchard Company; would have saved considerable time and money! I ordered one peach tree and two apple trees in the spring of 2010 but my complaint is not about the size, rather, it is about the viability of the trees Willis sent me. I knew that my 5-6' trees would not show up with leaves, that they would be "dormant," that they would probably be pruned and that I should generally not expect much from a 2 yr. old tree. What I DO expect is for the nursery worker packaging my order to be aware enough of what they are doing that a brittle-branched, dark brown stemmed tree that is clearly DEAD not me sent to me as a dormant peach tree. Furthermore, the insistence of the woman on the phone that this tree was in fact dormant was quite frankly an insult. I was ask to return this tree which I also find to be absurd because I did not kill this trees, it showed up dead! I can tell you I am not going to return this tree, I am not going to do business with these crooks at willisorchards.com again and I will be contacting the State of Georgia Department of Agriculture. This nursery apparently has the worst reputation of any nursery in the United States!

I've ordered from Willis Orchards twice now, and have been happy both times.

The first order was three months ago for two Garden Prince almond trees, as well as some blackberries, raspberries, and a pomegranate tree. The almond trees were pruned more than I was expecting or would have liked, but this may be standard. I was just surprised.

This last week I noticed one of the almond trees wasn't looking quite right. I scratched the bark and it was dead and dried- the other is still green and fine. I just called the nursery and they took care of it immediately. Three days later I have my replacement tree, and it's actually nicer than the original- not pruned back and will soon bud. I'm so thrilled.

My second order was fine. Plum trees, apple trees, blueberries, elderberries, and grapes. So far all seem fine. I was happy with their work, and happy they took care of my concerns.

I purchased a 5-year-old ($184.95) Manzanilla olive tree in October 2009. I was shocked when I saw the plant (very thin trunk, looked like it was from last pick)...anyway, I planted it in a large terracotta pot in sandy soil with good drainage. After two weeks, it started to lose its leaves. I called the company and the person told me it was due to stress. The tree continued to lose its leaves, and I noticed small black scales on the branches. Within three months, all of the original leaves had fallen off and the new growth (yes, I did have some) produced irregular bordered, very light green and fragile leaves that would curl up and fall off. Within eight months, the tree looked like a large stick in a pot. I contacted the company and they said I could return the stump and they would replace the tree. I paid for the return shipping and the company sent a new tree (I did not pay for the shipping). This new tree was gorgeous! The trunk was solid and it had a full crown of beautiful leaves - unfortunately they were all infested by scale (identified by a friend who is an avid olive tree grower). Almost all of the leaves had scale marks and there were live scales on the branches. Within months, the tree experienced massive leaf drop and dying branches. I still have the tree, hoping that it might come back in the summer when it goes outside - but it does not look good right now.

My overall dealings with the company is neutral. The customer service was not great and the first (original purchase) olive tree was pathetic looking for the price. That said, the company did adhere to its one-year return policy. However, I am rating the product, which the company is responsible for, and that places my experience in the "negative" bucket. Both trees were infested with scale, which is impossible for a private homeowner to care for once it is manifested. I have since purchased olive trees from other vendors, and all are beautiful, pest free, experienced less stress from shipping, and growing very well.

Last year I ordered 1 Sumner and 1 Elliot pecan tree to pick up at Willis Orchards. The trees were advertised to be grafted but turned out to be phony, un-grafted, seedling pecan trees. The website at Willis Orchards offered for sale pecan trees 1 1/2 "cal, 10-12 ft tall, at $150.00 each and Cynthia Willis Orchards, sales lady told me to bring $300.00 cash, but when I got there she gave me an overpriced bill of $478.00, contrary to our telephone agreement. I was ready to walk out of their office (and now wish I had) when she and the owner tore up the bill and tossed it in the garbage and loaded up my pick-up truck with the two B&B pecan trees weighing about 75 lbs each. At home my friend laughed at the trees telling me Willis Orchards had tricked me, selling me un-grafted seedling pecan trees, dishonestly, because their own website contradicts itself, saying " Willis orchards only offers fine, paper-shell, grafted pecan trees." that seedling pecan trees are "wild" 'trees of less value'.
After realizing that Willis had tricked me by their deception, I complained to the BBB, the Attorney General's Office and the Georgia Department of Agriculture. An official from the Ga. agency enforcement called me and said they had forced Willis orchards to change their misleading website that was offering seedling pecans for sale as grafted pecan trees - and were going force him to send me a $300.00 refund, but I have not gotten the refund yet. I wonder if the authorities will force Willis Orchards to refund other victims that received un-grafted nut trees thinking that they were buying 'true to name,' grafted pecan trees. The Georgia authority said that Willis had been advertising this "bait and switch'' scheme of selling un-grafted trees for an extended period of time

"On Feb 8, 2011 6:21 PM, Willis Orchard Company responded with:

They are advertised exactly as follows: B&B (1.5"caliper /10-12')(Seed-Grown Tree)(Freight Only. Call for Quote)
We sell grafted trees up to 9-10 ft. size in bare-root field dug trees and also offer larger B&B seed-grown (a.k.a. Seedling) pecan trees as well. He specifically choose this selection of tree and understood exactly what they were when picked-up at nursery. Only after leaving with the trees and a week later did he begin slandering us everywhere he can think of. He didn't even call us first to inform us of any issue he developed post pick-up purchase. How could this size description be any clearer? Also, no authorities have said or made any such claim about this made-up advertisement scheme....this, like most comments on DG are lies and harmful slander that will eventually be reconciled.
*
See independent review sources Customer Lobby or Google Checkout for many more review than here, that show the true reality of our customers' opinions.
http://www.customerlobby.com/reviews/634/willis-orchard-co/
"

I am simply appalled at what Fedex delivered today. I ordered fruit trees and that were supposed to be 8 feet tall and WITH the roots these things measure 75.6 inches. (6.3') Their excuse is that the trees were pruned but that is MALARKEY! There was not one single cut, snip, or break anywhere on my tree except for where the roots snapped as they yanked my sticks out of the ground. I am NOT a happy customer.