Comments regarding MrMaple (Nichol's Nursery)

They have a wide selection of trees, so sometimes you can find what you are looking for there and nowhere else. That would be the only time I recommend buying from them. Why? Because they don’t back up the quality of their plants. I had ordered perhaps a couple dozen trees over several years and, aside from some being on the very small side, everything went okay. Then a tree arrived in another order in the fall almost dead. I contacted them immediately and got the runaround about me not understanding the difference about dead and dormant. It was very insulting because I know the difference between living, green cambium on healthy trees and dead, stiff brown trees. One small offshoot at the base of the 2’ tree still had life, so they convinced me to wait to spring. That little branch did bud out in the spring only to die a few weeks later. Any other decent company would have replaced the tree without the hassle. I’ve never left negative feedback for any company but can’t recommend these guys because of how I was treated. I go out of my way to find trees elsewhere—I’ll even pay a little more from a reliable company that will give me a bigger tree and real customer service.

I love their unique selection, but there could be an improvement in their packaging. I would like to see some ventilation in the boxes. Otherwise - no complaints !

I have been ordering trees from Mr. Maple over the last 5 years and I have really seen the quality of the trees go down during that time. In total, I have ordered over 40 trees from them and while I haven't always been satisfied with the size or the recent uppotting of the tree, I have accepted them as part of the process. However, the last order I placed was in late September. When the trees arrived (3), they didn't have any leaves and I just assumed that they were dormant and that they would be fine in spring. Unfortunately, they were not and when I called Mr. Maple, they could care less. They said I should have notified within 3 days and regardless of the previous purchases, they honestly did not care. I didn't get 1 minute of joy from these trees.

I refuse to support a business that does not stand behind their products and will not be purchasing from them in the future.

I have been a long time fan of the MrMaple YouTube video so when I had the need for some colorful/rare maples I was both excited and concerned that they might not live up to the high expectations.

The prices are very competitive (especially with the Nurseries in California) which was great. The site stated that it would take up to 2 weeks for my plants to arrive (they arrived in a week which is honestly impressive).

The plants are beautiful and exceedingly well packed (plastic pots, cardboard reinforcement around the trunks, plastic bags to seal in moisture etc.) Unfortunately, two of the plants did not fully survive the shipping process, one was dried out and the other's trunk was mangled by rubbing the box. Heartbreaking...

I simply replied to the order email with the situation and MrMaple's friendly staff responded immediately with empathy and unhesitant willingness to make it right (sending two replacement plants).

I would not hesitate for a moment to order from them again in the future!

I have received at least five orders of a variety of different Japanese Maples and conifers from Mr. Maple in 2024 so far, and have been very happy with each one. All plants have been expertly and securely packed and arrived very quickly from North Carolina to Ohio. Their YouTube channel and facebook friends page are very informative and a lot of fun; they have built a great community of gardeners who love maples. The prices are quite reasonable plus they have sales, and will happily hold a plant order for you upon request, if you want to wait until another maple is available to ship with and save on shipping costs. Their communication is excellent, and the variety of maples (over 1000) is outstanding. I even won a free maple from them by commenting on a YouTube video recently! I highly recommend Mr. Maple!

‼️‼️ WARNING ‼️‼️ These people are scammers.

I ordered a Hime Shojo sapling from these people. I was very excited when it arrived but not so much when I open d the box. I found a weak stick with few leaves that were severely wilted and no bud swelling and about a 2 inch diameter root system that was dry. I carefully nursed it and took pictures. I attempted to contact them over the course of 4 weeks by both emails and phone calls. Absolutely no response with calls going immediately to voice mail. Sadly, writing this review is all I can do as that plant was DEAD ON ARRIVAL!!

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES ORDER ANYTHING FROM THESE PEOPLE!!!!

I ordered a maple and an oconee azalea in winter. I asked if they could hold off shipping until April, they agreed. When my order arrived, I was disappointed to see they’d sent me the wrong plants. I’d recently had a couple bad experiences with nurseries with gimmicky names and I was pretty nervous. But Mr. Maple was responsive and immediately sent me my correct order. They did not ask for the wrong trees back although they were careful to have me check the packaging so they could be certain who’s order they had sent me, as they wanted to take care of that customer as well. All four trees I received were in excellent condition. Highly recommend.

Mrmaple.com is & always will be my first stop for any tree/shrub/plant. I know it’s ‘mrmaple’ but my first purchase from them was a very cool & rare Cornus kousa ‘Celestial Shadow’ tree was absolutely gorgeous, healthy & I was very excited about its large size. After that dogwood I have purchased from them maybe 15 more times or so because their prices cannot be beat.. from sweet shrubs to rare hydrangeas to clethras. Your choices are never ending. Excellent, excellent family & 2 brother owned nursery so you already know their values & history is impeccable & it sure does show from their next day response to even receiving call back phones call within the hour! I could go on & on regarding how amazing mrmaple & mrmaple.com is & their great team. Oh & one more thing if you happen to stumble on something you absolutely love definitely sign up for email notifications it’ll be back in no time. Mrmaple also does weekly quick 10@10 videos (YouTube) on Tuesdays & Thursdays where they display 10 news maples/plants & on website you’ll find twice that many new & exciting cultivars!! I sure am lucky to have found these guys. Check out YouTube channel MrMapleShow. Irma New Albany

This is the email that I sent this grower today at 12:14 p.m. EST
(6-23-23)

I received my 2 Venus dogwood and I am EXTREMELY PLEASED. Considering that they are difficult to find (even online) the price was beyond fair.

I'm proud to own these specimens and I have you to thank.
Btw the shipping was immaculately executed!

Thank you!
JC Poconos of Pennsylvania

I meant every word. I also enjoy reading through negative comments. It makes me wonder where some of you have learned to garden. I'm not an expert but I do have 55 years of experience under my belt. There isn't a thing I can't grow. Yep, that too. Every plant has a compulsion to thrive.
You can believe that a plant that arrived healthy and well packed was ready to thrive except for your lack of growing consciousness. As buyers we have the responsibility to know that the location where we will plant something is proper. To know what kind of soil we have before we put something in the cart. To know the requirements of everything you bring home before putting it in your soil. And for the love of God if you are planting trees educate yourself as to how deep to put them in. It's our responsibility.

Sellers are responsible for providing a quality product, that arrives with a strong root system and comes well packaged.

Information is free. If reading and comprehension are a challenge, turn to the tube and watch videos on how to do things.

I highly recommend this grower. And if you are looking for things that are not easily found, I would stop by their web page.

Cheers!

I have ordered lots of trees from Mr Maple. First and foremost, they sell trees after recently up-potting them. What I mean by this - they will take a recently grafted, liner tree, and place it into a 1 gallon and sell it IMMEDIATELY. This means that if you take their plants out of the container, you’ll see that 90% of the time the plant hasn’t even BEGUN to fill out the pot. It’s blatantly obvious when the root system is still the same size as a liner or a one gallon. They play dumb when asked about this. Matt told me that I didn’t make sense when telling him about this, so I made a YouTube video to explain my case. Matt, the owner, essentially guilt tripped me into deleting the video, accusing me of attacking and bashing them - I will never again silence my voice and opinions on behalf of a shady businessman.

What lead me to make this review is the terrible looking ‘illarian’ I received. Matt, the owner, always states on his YouTube, that Mr Maple sells only the best and highly variegated plants. This is not the case at all. Aside from all the withering on the illarian, it contained about 4-5 variegated leaves. The way they advertised this tree, it showed tons and tons of variegation. The office ignored my email until I commented on a YouTube video directly to Matt. I was told there was nothing wrong with my order, which is honestly a big middle finger. I posted a video of this tree after unboxing it on YouTube. I’ll provide a link at the bottom of this review. Matt is a complete TOOL online and he’s full of sh*t about this order looking ‘good’. I encourage you to look at the video of these trees. Something tells me that Matt wouldn’t buy these trees himself, yet he expects everyone to be content with his low quality product.

[HYPERLINK@youtu.be]

2 Wissel's Saguaro Cypress. 1 OK; small for $45. Other bent sideways, about 45º. Never should have been sold. Request for replacement ignored. Critical review not posted.

I ordered three plants to be shipped dormant in February of this year. The plants shipped quickly and were packaged beautifully-their system keeps the plants very secure without a ton of packing tape or other packing materials. The maple trees and hydrangea looked to be in excellent (dormant) condition. :) The maples will stay potted on my porch until the roots grow a bit more. I’m very pleased with my purchase so far.

Last year I purchased a conifer. The plant arrived timely and well packaged. Upon arrival, the tree looked healthy, but soil was severely dried out. I immediately watered the tree well to hydrate the soil and plant. I gave the tree 7-10 days to recuperate before planting. Then, I appropriately transferred the tree to a larger pot with proper soil and watered well, and thereafter accordingly. Despite all of my expertise and pampering the tree gradually and continually turned from yellow to brown, at which time, I determined was dead. So therefore, believing the tree was very stressed from drying out in shipment resulting in the death of the tree, I contacted the Mr Maple Nursery for a replacement. I offered to pay for shipping if they were willing to replace the tree. However, much to my surprise, the nursery did refuse replacement.even with me willing to pay the shipping cost. Needless to say, I was very disappointed that the nursery was unwilling to make things "right" with me. It is more a matter of principal to me. But moreover, I was taught a lesson from this first time experience with the nursery, and that lesson is to never ever order from this nursery again. I was taught well the first time.

When my order of 4 trees arrived in one medium size box I was surprised. Come to find out only 1 of my 4 items were in that box. It was a weeping maple that I was very excited to receive and it looked great.
Mr. Maple had communicated well via automated emails from the time I ordered and the most recent email invited me to contact them with any issues. I replied to that email to let them know that only 1 of 4 items had arrived. They asked me to wait one day to see if the remaining items showed up and promised to ship the missing items again if they didn't. They asked me to stay in touch.
The next day I let them know the items did not arrive. They promised to ship the the missing items the following Monday (I believe they ship early in the week to avoid weekend delays).
Sure enough, on Tuesday of the following week, the three missing items arrived, all looking fantastic.
This is fantastic customer service. I look forward to doing more business with them.

Great customer service. I’ve ordered from this company a LOT over the last two years. They are my go-to for young Japanese Maples. Their prices are low because their plants are young but usually quite robust.

Here are my general tips for working with this vendor:

- if you encounter any issues, take a pic and email right away. I’ve found they are very responsive.

- if you order late in the season (Aug/Sept), you’ll likely receive a larger one gallon size than earlier in the season (March/April)

- if you’re looking for hard to find Japanese Maples, check out their 10@10 Tuesday selections (and their YouTube channel). You can score some real deals on hard to find plants. I’ve also purchased conifers and ginkgo plants from them and been happy.

After purchasing numerous plants online, especially these last few years, this vendor has exceeded my expectations.

I’ve relied on Dave’s Garden reviews when vetting a new online vendor, and here are other companies I’d highly recommend:

Topiary Gardens (NY)

ForestFarm (OR)

Bloom River Gardens (OR)

Eastfork Nursery (WA) “Sam the Maple Lady”

In last year have purchased several Japanese maples from Mr. Maple and was generally satisfied. Three weeks ago I ordered 4 small trees; when order received 1 was very unhealthy. Thinking it might be shipment stress, I babied it, along with others, but it continued to decline. Messaged company with pics and information and they could not care less. Gave me a few helpful hints to "save a dying plant" but apparently you're on your own if they send a dying tree and you can't miraculously save it.

I was really excited about them, but will not buy from them in the future. Any company that doesn't stand behind its product is not one I want to do business with, especially since I've purchased several trees and would think I'm a "good customer" for them. I also will go back to those folks to whom I recommended the company and tell them that I no longer do so. (It's probably a blessing in disguise, because I don't NEED to buy any more Japanese maples anyway!)

I ordered Acer palmatum "Bloodgood Maple. This was my first experience with Mr. Maple. The tree was packaged for maximum quality for arrival. The tree is in excellent condition, beautifully shaped for a 2 gallon pot, and the price was perfect. I am pleased with the entire experience and will order from Mr. Maple again with full confidence.

New customer to Mr. Maple and would definitely recommend them. I've been wanting a Japanese maple for a while now and when I found this site I ended up ordering 2! Selection is great and my trees arrived 2 days later in fine shape. I'm looking forward to watching them grow and if I have the space will definitely be back to Mr. Maple for more!

I regret buying from this company.
In April 2022 I ordered a Japanese maple and three azaleas from them. The order arrived in reasonable time, but one of the azaleas looked distinctly less healthy then the other two. I reckoned it would recover so planted it together with the other two, and I’m an eternal optimist.
The two good ones flowered fine, but the sickly one bloomed poorly and a couple weeks later than the others.
For about six weeks it clung on, but then one day I realized it was dead.
I contacted Mr.Maple to see what they would do about a replacement, but was told that I’d missed their three day window for returns.
I won’t be shopping there again, for my Apex NC garden nor my Columbus NC garden.

4 plants that I ordered looked dead upon arrival. They did not grow. 4 other plants did grow. The company refused to refund or provide replacements. They only guarantee plants 3 days after shipping. Recommend not ordering from Mr Maple.

I have been collecting Japanese Maple Trees for 22 years and a professional bonsai artist for 30 years. I have been purchasing JM's from MrMaple for years now and it has always been a positive and productive experience. I now have over 600 different varieties and counting, and I've always received healthy and sturdy trees from them. They have always been courteous, responsive and professional to my questions, and I will continue to do business with MrMaple. I had a Nature Preserve and with their wide selection, including sending me emails when sold out varieties became available, this assisted me in extending my collection of well-known and RARE Japanese Maple Trees. Thank you MrMaple for all you do.

The service I received from Mr.Maple was great. A bit of a problem on my first shipment was quickly made right. I plan on doing business with this nursery for many years to come. Great selection with very good prices. The custom made boxes and weed block fabric over soil are great.
Patrick in Houston.

ordered a ginko. $60+ with shipping. not happy with the tree quality or size. if you order from them, ask them to send you a picture of what they are sending before placing the order.

Hi

I bought 6 plants from MrMaple 07April2021. I spent $250.49 (order number MRMAPLE34219). It was a mail order. First whey they arrived 4 of plants were tiny with limped leaves and branches. Two of them survived and four of them did not make it. When I called MrMaple they did not replace the plants. When I spoke to MrMaple guys, they said there is no plant replacement policy for plants that die because of cold weather. I wonder why two plants survived out of six plants if the weather was cold. I would love to upload the pictures of dead plants but there seems like there is a limitation to upload the phots. This my experience. I would never (NEVER EVER) buy from MrMaple.com.

I ordered a small Shishigashira (Lions Head) Japanese maple from MrMaple.com nearly 4 months ago (in early April 2021). The package arrived in a relatively timely manner. However, the apex of the tree was dead/rotted and greyish/black. It was approximately 1.25 inches long and about 1/2 pencil thickness. My best guess is that it was dieback from the apex being broken off or snipped off weeks or months earlier.

Unfortunately, the second best choice of an apex (a somewhat vertical growing top branch) was bent over and broken either in shipment or during the packing process. This was broken right above the cardboard insert that is supposed to support the top part of the tree during shipment.

Amazingly, right below the cardboard support insert, I saw that the 3rd best choice of a possible apex was also bent over and broken. Though I was surprised and a bit annoyed to receive the tree in this condition, I didn't complain just yet about it in part because my family was quite busy at the time and also because I figured it was a tiny "starter tree" and I shouldn't expect much. ($35 + $17.24 shipping = $52.24 total) I am glad that I at least took pictures of the problems before removing the tree from its shipping box.

Instead of complaining, I tried to fix the 2 newly broken stems using tape and hoped that at least 1 of the 2 would heal. But, they both dried out in a few days. So, I was left with kind of an odd looking tree with no top (dead on arrival natural apex, dead after a few days 2nd best apex because of packing breakage, and dead after a few days 3rd possible apex because of packing breakage).

On May 5th 2021, I sent a message to MrMaple.com detailing what I described above. I included pictures of how the tree arrived (with 1 dead natural apex and 2 broken alternate apexes) and also pictures showing how I tried to mend the broken branches with tape.

I explained that the little shishigashira was received in such a way as to basically set if off to a really bad start. And, being a rather slow growing variety, it was going to take quite awhile for it to outgrow and overcome the awkwardness of shape caused by losing the 3 "best" possible apexes.

I did not receive a reply to my May 5th email. So, 1 week later on May 12th, I got Matt Nichols cell number off of their website and sent him a text. He replied in about 30 minutes, apologized and said "Tim said he would call you. I will remind him." I then thanked him for that. But, I never heard from either of them again after that.

That's the extent of my experience with MrMaple.com.

I ordered two fringe trees [Chionanthus virginicus "Grancy Greybeard" Native White Fringe Tree] which I could not find to purchase locally.
The email said they would be shipped within 2 weeks. They were, arrived about 16 days after I ordered. They were well packed.
I was very pleased with one of them. It was small, but there were 10 little branches, with lots of leaves. The other one was lesser quality and I wrote an email, with pictures, requesting an adjustment to my charge. They responded promptly to my email and I highly recommend their customer service.
I would definitely order from this company again. I have no complaints and I do recommend them.

I ordered four maples only two arrived. There was no shipping label or invoice in the box but the shipping-email indicated that all four were sent together. At first, I thought the second box with the other two maples would arrive later on another Fed Ex truck. But it's five days later, and nothing. I've also called and written Matt and Tim five times. I have not received a call or an email back indicating if there is another box on the way or what. I examined the Fed Ex box and it didn't indicate 1 of 2. I'm very upset and I feel that they have ripped me off, basically only sending half of what I paid for. If I don't get a response next week I'm likely going to call my credit card company and explain what happened. Not happy at all. The two trees I do have look fine. But after reading some of the reviews I'm going to check how they were packed and what their roots look like. I've lost faith.

I ordered three Japanese maples. They had obviously been very recently transplanted and were most definitely not well established. Potting soil loose and root systems inadequate. I babied them as well as I know how, but not one has leafed out this spring although my three new Bloodgoods (from a different nursery) have leafed and are doing just fine. I will never order from these folks again.

I vacillated between a positive and neutral rating, but based on the size of the plants I received for the price, positive won out. The shipping, however, could have used more attention. Ordered two variegated Rohdeas, which are always expensive and difficult to find. When I opened the box potting mix was everywhere. It really didn't appear that the plants had ever been rooted in the pots of soil they were shipped in. The roots were completely exposed on one plant, and mostly exposed on the other, both were sort of limp and sad. I potted them up immediately, watered well, and by the next day they had recovered beautifully; had they spent more than one day in transit I'm not sure this would have been the case. Despite my initial dismay I am pleased with the Rohdeas; they are easily twice the size that I expected for the price and a week later they still look great, so I am fairly certain they are going to do well and will be a nice addition to my Rohdea collection. Two dwarf hollies in the same order arrived in a separate box, and they were well packaged and healthy.

I ordered three maples, a sweetgum, and four Rohdeas. It was late in the season for me but they had a good sale and I can still plant here in zone 6b/7a. Shipping was quick. Plants were expertly packed and arrived in great shape. The Rohdeas were large, full plants. As a first time customer I am very happy with my order.

Ordered three trees in 1 gal. pots. Plants arrived today via FedEx Ground, less than a week since I placed the order. Plants appear healthy and were carefully packaged. Not a twig was broken. Plants are small of course, but are just as described. I plan to hold them in my unheated garage until Spring.

I ordered 2 one gallon Japanese Maples in August 2020. They were promptly shipped. When I unpacked the maples I was surprised that the soil was fairly loose and quite a bit came out of the pot, but I attributed it to rattling during shipment. When I transplanted the Maples, it became apparent that both Maples had probably just been transplanted to the 1 gallon container before shipment. One of the root system was actually still in the small square configuration from the previous pot size. The other wasn't square, but was about the same size and sitting in loose soil. I emailed Mr Maple three times over the course of 2 weeks and no response.
It seems they do this on a regular basis. I should have read all reviews.

August 2020: Purchased 3 trees from 3 different shippers two months ago. Mr. Maple was by far the best in Shipping container, tree quality, and size. They earned a second order from me (4 more trees) and it arrived perfectly.

Ordered a variety of maples and other small trees. Overall, they have a great selection online, but a number of the maples arrived with leaf die-back and fungus. My greater issue is that the business will ignore any complaints emailed to them. In one of my orders, a japanese maple was left out. I emailed twice to inform them of the missing tree and both emails were ignored. I'm also weary to bring the Mr.Maple trees close to my existing Acer collection this season for fear of disease transmission.

Ordered two maple trees from Mr. Maple, which arrived in April. One survived and the other did not. Have attempted to contact them by both email and phone since May. They do not answer in either form.

I cannot recommend them at all. Zero customer service. Buy at your own risk.

During the Winter/early Spring of 2020, I ordered around 20 plants from Mr. Maple, 3 of which did not even survive to be planted out. One conifer just got more and more brown in color as Spring approached, until there was no doubt that it was dead. One Maple started to leaf out and then died. One Beech just never leafed out at all. I have sent numerous emails. I began by sending a couple of inquiries and never received a reply. I then wrote with specific info and photos of the dead trees. It seems to me that if one has purchased so much merchandise from a company, that company would be gracious enough to reply and offer at least some compensation or credit. Sadly, I will not be purchasing any more plants from this nursery.

Posted on May 22, 2020, updated May 30, 2020
I ordered three Japanese Maples from this company during the Covid19 shutdown.
The box arrived fairly promptly but when I opened it branches of the largest fell out as it had not been properly secured.
The other two looked a little crushed but okay. However, one never did perk up and after planting it slowly died. The other two thrived, but the shape of the larger weeping one was ruined by having been broken in transit.
I emailed and sent photos but got no reply.
I phoned several times using the numbers on the site, but the phone was never answered and the mailboxes were full. The only reply I got from them was a “butt dial” after I called at opening time where I could hear the person directing movement of trees but not calling me.

I ordered a Stewartia variety advertised and sold as a 1 gal container sized tree. When the plant arrived I was surprised at the size of the pot, then researched the web and learned that in the nursery business a 1 gal container is actually approximately 2/3 of an everyday gallon. Ok, I can live with that - a learning experience. But when I removed the plant from its container, the soil fell away, leaving a bareroot plant that had CLEARLY been recently repotted into an oversized container. I emailed the owners to express my dissatisfaction and did not even get the courtesy of a reply. I've had this experience with one other nursery mail order company that I no longer buy from, and have been buying mail order plants for about 40 years, including bareroot as well as b&b, and container grown plants. I know some of the other comments point out how well these are packed - but I am paying for the plant too, not just the packaging.

I’m on my third order from this nursery and each order arrived packed extremely well in a very timely manner.
All plants are healthy and well grown .
Finding myself gardening in zone 7a after decades of 10 and 9 I had to find a new interest and dwarf conifers fit the bill this company has been a great source for them .