Comments regarding Willis Orchard Company

I've ordered twice from this company, and have been so pleased both times I wanted to leave some good feedback. I first ordered a 3gallon meiwa kumquat and 1gallon indian red guava. The second order was a 3gallon key lime and a 1gallon hong kong guava. Both orders arrived much faster than expected, were packed wonderfully, and all the plants huge and healthy. I'll definitely order from them again.

This past spring, I ordered 4 Pomegranate trees, 3 wonderful and 1 Angel. I ordered three of these with several years growth, because I wanted to have fruit soon with out waiting. 1 Angel I paid $84.00 for and then about $ 48.00 for each of the two Wonderful, and then about $14.00 for a wonderful plant just about 6" tall and it has done fine.
However, when the other 3 plants arrived they were about 3' tall, but they looked dead and rattled like they were dead. I scratched the limbs and they were slightly green. However, come spring and now summer they are truly dead. Never any sign of growth on any of the 3. I called several times, they insisted they would sprout soon, I asked for a refund. I was told that they do not do that, but they told me that they would replace them this fall. This would defeat my purpose of getting a early start of Pomegranates. Willis insisted that I return the dead plants to prove I am not lying, at my expense of course. I have cut and packaged them and planned to return them until I have seen that several other people have almost had the same experience.

Now, I plan to contact the Attorney General of Georga, maybe they will want to see the plants! Willis should not get away with this sloppy way of doing business.

Buyer-be-ware if you do business with Willis Nursery!
I am a retired Ag. Teacher with a degree in agriculture.

I ordered two Catawba Crape Myrtles from Willis as I had been unable to find this color at my local nursery. Trees arrived fairly quickly from ordering and were a very nice size and nicely branched. They appear to be very healthy and show some new growth, and weren't badly wilted considering the heat of travel from GA to TX. I planted them today and they look promising. They have a great website with a great selection, so assuming these trees do well, I'll be ordering lots of other things from them.

I ordered a 2-3 ft. desert King fig tree from Willis Orchards and received the wrong size. The offset lady finger banana tree was no tree at all, but a shriveled wimp that now 3 weeks later, is a brown stinky pile of goo. On a garden fig forum (//forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fig/msg0913170923431.html) alabamatreehugger reported that Willis Orchard website advertise to sale tree of edible chestnuts, but Willis pictures the poisonous horse chestnut. Willis Orchards also advertises pear trees showing a basket full quince fruit instead of pears. The pakistan mulberry is not an authentic pakistan variety but a wild mulberry. Willis's use of the word, "authentic", is devious and troubling. Willis Orchards will not get another order from me ever. They offer no refunds, but replacement possibly if you jump through several hoops. I am reporting them to BBB and the attorney general's office and all the forums to warn innocent shoppers.

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Yes, it's true, we do sell grafted Pakistan Mulberry trees as well as grafted Persian and White Mulberry trees. We also offer a non-grafted cultivar called Black Beauty. However, we do not offer or display horse chestnuts, but we do offer two grafted and two non-grafted varieties of authentic chestnut trees. OH, the term "Authentic" on our site refers to products we offer that are true to name trees and not rip-off impostor trees that some of our competitors sell. Such as sending people Chinese Chestnut trees instead of true native Chinquapin trees, like a different nursery does when ordering from them. Yes, we have a very fair and universal to this industry replacement policy. If a tree dies within one year and is returned for replacement, we replace the item free of charge, including 100% of the replacement's shipping cost. Some companies require customers to pay extra costs, we do not. Also if a mistake in our customer's order is brought to our attention, we make the necessary correction without additional cost or hassle to our beloved customers. So, to sum this response up. This review is not from a real customer of ours but from the previously mentioned competitor. This does not reflect an authentic purchase experience but is a malicious string of false statements in an effort to curve our increasing share of the mail order market due to our quality products and excellent customer service. Feel free to contact us to learn more about the author of this slanderous review."

I ordered 10 Sonderegger pine trees from them last fall. The trees came packaged quite well, and looking healthy. However, I'm simply not convinced that the trees are variety that I payed for. They are supposed to be hybrids of loblolly and longleaf pine. But look like plain loblolly, with even shorter needles. The trees also showed much winter damage, and are slowly growing now. I'm very confused on what trees I received. I guess I'll just have to wait and see if they will outlive my Slash pine, which is supposed to be less hardy! who knows!

Last January I ordered by phone 2 Reliance peach trees in the 5-6 ft size, and one Satsuma plum 3-4 ft. size. When I received the trees in late March I was immediately disappointed, the trees were starting to come out of dormancy - in fact the peach trees were beginning to blossom, they were smaller than stated on their website, and the roots were heavily pruned back and did not appear to be large enough to support the top structure .I bought the large peach trees to shorten the wait for fruiting. When the trees failed to grow I called Willis in late May and they told me if the bark was still green when scratched to wait. When it was obvious they were dead in mid-June I called and after the women on the phone suggested Miracle grow (to raise them from the dead?) I was told to return the trees for new ones that would be shipped in October. I shipped them back to Willis today and it cost me almost twenty dollars. Willis’s stock were the only ones that failed to grow I planted this spring from six different providers. Not a bargain by any means.

I come from a long lineage of discerning European farmers. I want and demand quality trees and supplemental products. I have ordered many items from both private farmers to big commercial nursery stock providers. But, Willis blows everyone "out of the water". I have received fruit trees that exact European counterparts. Their customer service is top-notch. Their quality is as precise as what they advertise.

I'm giving WOC a positive overall although I did have some trouble as I'll explain.

First, they have a great, easy to use and informative website. Their fruit tree collection is superb with great photos, general info and listed chill hours. The information they list about themselves and their friendly guarentee is a plus. A+

My Winter order was top-notch. Ordered 2 low-chill apple trees, an orient pear tree, and a florida prince peach tree. All had numerous branches when they arrived just as I expected from the product info. Beautiful dormant trees. Today the apples and pear are thriving vigorously. I'm VERY pleased with the quality of those trees. The peach tree never woke up, scratched the bark and no green. Dead. I take responsiablity for that one as I neglected to water it as much as the other trees.

My Spring order was disappointing. The 3 dogwoods I ordered were all a foot shorter than I paid for and one had NO roots. One dogwood stick did live. Also ordered a red baron peach and it arrived with 2 tiny and broken branches. Someone trimmed it too much at the nursery. Not what I paid for. Had to trim off all the branches to a stick but it died. I didn't bother asking for replacements as reshipping the trees back is a bother. Can't blame WOC for my laziness there.

My theory is to order EARLY to get the best trees because come spring all you get is the left overs and you will be disappointed. I'm sure this applies to all tree suppliers not just WOC. Its just the way supply and demand works.

I ordered a Wonderful Pomegranate Tree - 8-10' on May 5th 2008. I have tried to contact this company via email, google check out email, and by phone. I can't get ahold of them, can't get a response to my emails.

I still have not received my order and now it's June 7th 2008.

I'm going to dispute my credit card charge with MasterCard and I will never do bussiness with this company ever again.

BEWARE!

Ordered bluberry, blackberry and peach tree. Blueberies arrived okay, blackberries as roots that were pretty much dead. No peach tree. Queried the non arrival of peach tree. Had to email three times, then some clearly inept person named Cynthia, claimed shipment was 'lost'. I asked for a tracking number, but non provided. Eventually, she said that they 'do not give refunds' and would send in the fall. I told them to refund as I did not want the tree in the fall. Still no resolution.

I recently ordered a key lime tree from Willis Orchard Company. I ordered it on a Tuesday and received it on Thursday - by far the fastest shipping I have ever received from any company without paying extra. I am extremely pleased - the tree is HUGE and in great shape. I would absolutely order from this company again.

The following is a testament to the honesty and commitment to customer service by Willis Orchard Co. I ordered a persimmon and sent it back because the rootstock was dead. I placed another order shortly after returning the tree, and indicated to include the replacement with my new order. With the second order, I ordered a different variety of persimmon. They sent my new order with the replacement persimmon, but missed the new one I ordered, as well as a mulberry. With the replacement, they thought they had my ordered persimmon, and they just missed the other item. I called the day I received my order to tell them I was missing the mulberry. I didn’t realize until the next day I was also missing the persimmon. I called, and without question they still sent a replacement for me. My only complaint is they are very backed up on e-mails, 300 unread when I called. So e-mail response is very slow. CALL THEM. Be patient, they are honest and will make it right if something is wrong. I am very pleased with the quality of the plants as well.

This March, I order 8 fruit trees from Willis- Apricot, Necterine, Fig, Asian pear, Pear, Plumcot, Plum, grape. When the plants arrived, it didn't look promising. There was no lateral growth in the roots, just stumps, and a couple of the plants had started to sprout but had dried leaves on them. I planted them in mid March, hoping for the best. It is now mid May, 8 weeks later and only 1 plant, the grape has sprouted (the only plant with good lateral root structure). There is no growth in any other fruit tree. I called the company and they say to send back the dead plants - it seems to me, only 1 alive out of 8 is a very bad yield. I am not optimistic that I will get good fruits trees from Willis. They never sent me an invoice, and the fig variety sent, was the wrong one from the one requested. I originally fruit trees from them because of positive reviews from this Forum. Unfortunately, my experience is very disappointing.

I ordered an olive tree and a paw paw tree in March. The paw paw tree is dead and the olive tree was smaller than listed. To add insult to injury, I called customer service about the paw paw tree. I had a man that read a script -go scratch the bark. When I told him I already did this and as a gardner I knew the plant was dead. He then read the same script..to go scratch the bark. He didn't even offer to look up my order or ask for my name. He told me I could ship it back and they would send me another one in December. This is May. I offered to ship it back for a refund on my credit card and he replied the company did not do this I would just have to wait until December. What poor customer service! I will not do business with this company again.

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I am sorry, but our guarantee policy covers replacement of the tree, not a refund. You weren't read to from a script, you were told the same thing that so many of our customers are because they think the plant is dead; we can't very well replace a tree that is still alive, so there has to be a check made as to its status.

All we request for you to make use of the guarantee is a return of the merchandise and a copy of your invoice and we can replace the plant for you when the season resumes, which as you were told, is December to April."

We ordered 6 fruit trees from Willis Orchard about two weeks ago and received them in a timely manner. Their customer service is good and they did keep us up-to-date on expected shipping date, etc. The only problem we had was in the packaging. Like I said, we ordered six fruit trees, each was 2-3 feet tall and the banana palm is probably close to 4 ft. They were shipped all bunched together in one tall, skinny box. When we initially opened it, we thought it was one tree, then we noticed all the name tags hanging on each branch and realized there were six trees there. I knew they were coming without containers, but we definitely didn't expect them to all be shoved together in one piece of plastic wrap. All in all, our experience was just okay (the trees are alive...that's a plus) but I'm not sure I could recommend them to anyone.

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As stated on our website, the trees are packaged in a bare-root state. They are bundled together in one root ball so that the water absorbent gel can be freely added. No plants are individually packaged, as it is not cost effective nor necessary."

I ordered a tree last week as an anniversary gift for my wife. I called in advance and was assured that it would ship Thursday or Friday at the latest, and would be delivered on Monday. Card was charged Friday. Now it's Tuesday, the day of my anniversary, and I just found out that it hasn't even shipped yet. If Willis isn't able to ship in that time frame, fine, but don't promise me it'll be here.

Now I get to go home and give my wife an empty pot for our anniversary. Thanks, Willis.

I ordered two 3'-4' blueberry plants from this Company. When I placed the order, I was told they would ship in 7 to 10 business days. After 2 weeks, I saw a recent negative comment and became concerned, so I called the company. I was told that they had held the blueberries for a couple of days, but that my plants would ship that day or the following day (the 10th and 11th business days after my order).

I received the plants yesterday, and was stunned. Both plants were both at the high end of the range I ordered, and they were beautiful. I will definitely be using this company again.

I placed an order with this company on March 6th 2008. Their confirmation email stated that they would email me once the order had shipped. They immediately charged my credit card the $599 that I spent on my order, however after three subsequent emails to them I have not received my order nor will they respond to any of my communications. If I don’t hear from them soon I am going to report them to the Attorney General’s office for fraud.

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This situation has been resolved with the customer, who found out that some of the emails were not properly reaching us. The plants have been shipped, received, and planted."

I ordered & received several Tifblue blueberries & a couple of Climax as pollinators, and though they are small (pruned back nicely) they all had nice, very extensive healthy root systems, and were already leafing out, so I think they will do well. I also ordered several small trees which arrived well packed (bareroot) & undamaged. Shipping was prompt, packaging good, and labelling clear.

I ordered 7 fruit trees to put in a grow dome. They arrived when the company said they will and in good shape. It was the size ordered (6-7 feet) and some had already a few bourgeons. I am very happy with my order so far... Packaging was excellent. I plan to make an other order in the next few days. The staff I had over the phone was very helpful.

I ordered 2 almond trees from this company and I was so impressed with the quality and service I immediately placed a larger order. Large healthy trees with good root systems. Well packaged and quickly shipped. Bravo!

I was a little concerned at first about their past affiliation with another company that is not rated well, but after reading through their website I felt more comfortable about ordering through them. Ordered a banana and 10 raspberry plants. They all arrived at my door in less than a week. The quality was good and they were well packed. One of the raspberries was partially broken but nothing of consequence. I would certainly do business with them again.

I am so glad to hear the good reports about this company. I wanted to order 6 new blueberry plants from them and decided to check here first. Glad I did.

I ordered 2 jujube trees from Willis Orchards, they shipped them very quickly and much larger than I expected. The trees were very well rooted and packaged with water crystals for shipping. I look forward to doing business with them in the future

Ordered 2 pear trees online Friday night, 1/11/08. 6-7 foot fruiting size. Trees were delivered to NC six days later. Well packaged. Right at 6ft. Healthy looking and branched. I have no complaints. We'll see what happens this summer.

Ordered three pomegranites. They were shipped very securely and even had water crystals in the packaging to ensure the plants didn't dry out. The plants were well rooted. Apparently grown in some sort of root training pot. Great job. This is how it's supposed to be done...

Willis Orchards Company is a very very good business! The trees that I ordered came to my house in really good shape. They looked perfect! The trees were a lot bigger than I expected, they were 3 feet tall and I thought they would be around one foot tall. When I planted the trees, which were a kumquat and guava, the leaves fell off but recovered quickly. In fact my guava is growing new stems with more leaves where the old fallen single leaves were. I was worried about my trees when the leaves were falling off so I emailed the company to ask them what was wrong with my trees and I received an email from Jason Willis himself telling me that the trees will recover, and they did! In fact, my kumquat started blooming like crazy, In the middle of winter, About a month after I received the tree! The blooms smell wonderful and make my room smell great. If you want to find high quality trees, I recommend Willis Orchards.

Ordered five figs as a Christmas present to myself. They arrived as described and in good condition with no damage. Will see next year if they are true to name.

I bought 3 trees, the phone conversation is very pleasant. The trees arrived in a week wrapped in plastic with some soil. They looked good.

1 Magnolia, little gem, 3-4' with leaves and buds, bigger than I expected.
1 crape maytle 2', with withered leaves and flowers, live looking root though.
1 dogwood 1', a twig with root and some leaf buds showing life.

I planted them in three pots and expect them to grow now.

I'll buy from them again if I need trees.

The people at Willis Orchards live up to their promises. Before placing an order, I asked if it were possible to see some pictures of the plants I was interested in. To my surprise, the plants were very large and healthy looking for their price tags. I ordered $100 worth of plants and they arrived at my home in great condition - they were packaged very nicely - even after being shipped through a few days of sub-freezing weather from Georgia to Connecticut. I highly recommend them, especially for Southern Magnolias, the size, price, and quality is astounding. I give Willis Orchards an easy A+.

We at Valley View Retreat ordered Three Persian Mullberry Trees and two 3 year old grape vines from Willis Orchard Company. THe trees arrived Right away and look to be VERY healthy.They are pruned well and ready to go. They are the size ordered and have plenty of healthy root for transplanting. The grape vines look to be healthy and well branched.....we are very pleased with the service and quality of goods provided. If you are looking for Mullberry trees look no further, They have some exotic species that bear LARGE FRUIT.........as well as the typical varieties......we are very excited about the prospect of having over one inch long Mullberries!!!! WE will use Willis Orchard Company again.....Nancy Pasqualini / Kenneth Prosch..... Valley View Retreat B&B, Bland, Va. 24315

I ordered two fig trees from Willis, got them quickly, very well trimmed and packed. I've got them potted up and in my garden tub (literally!) for the winter. A 3-gallon plant from Willis is a lot bigger than 3-gallon plants I've gotten from other places, so I am quite pleased with the size, as well. Can't wait to taste the fruit!

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Thank you."