Stark Bro's Nurseries & Orchards Co. Reviews 93

I bought a Dwarf, everbearing, black mulberry tree from Stark Bros and they said it would arrive the week of May 7. It arrived May 7, delivered by Fed Ex who left the box in the hot south Florida sun. The box was hot to the touch. I hydrated the 4' tall, thin, bare tree that had tiny knots of closed buds for 24 hours, I planted it in a 25 gallon pot filled with Kellogs Above Ground Gardening Soil: took 2 of 2 cubic foot bags. I watered the empty pot. I removed the tree from it's long thin pot that came in the mail with the tree; I used the pot to make the indentation for the plant in the wet soil, and put the tree which had a fully developed root system which I loosened up gently into the hole the pot made. Custom fit. Next day, the 9th, the buds opened and tiny bits of green showed up; the 10th they opened more into what looks like tiny little branches. On the 11th day of May I used my rose bush trimmer to remove the top foot of the little tree to encourage those little lateral side branches to move out! The tree is wonderful! I won't remove the bottom buds that are greening. I'm going to let the tree grow to see if it wants to be a bush or dwarf tree. Thank you Stark Brothers! By the way, I prepared the slip by very slightly scraping the brown off so the inner creamy part of the tree was exposed, dipped the top of the tree that I removed immediately into root starter and stuck it in a waiting pot of above ground potting soil. I'm hoping!

2 of the 6 fruit trees purchased died. Not happy with the quality of the trees would have been better off purchasing at Lowes, Home Depot, or a local nursery.
These trees were more expensive than some of my local options I expected trees that were of better quality and bigger in size. Unfortunately, I waited too long and missed the refund window by a month will never purchase from this company again.

I purchased 10 semi dwarf apple trees 13 years ago from Stark Bro's. After hiring someone to dig the holes (lots of $), purchasing soil and fertilizer I cared for and waited for the apples to grow. I saw the first one 4 years later. Although I was told they were disease resistant they were not. No matter what I did these apples (which were few) were highly diseased and deformed. After putting so much time effort and money into these trees I contacted an Arborist last year. I was told these trees (semi dwarf) only last for 10-15 years. This was news to me. Their catalog did not mention this very important info. neither did their customer service rep. when I placed the order. I would have never purchased, went through all this trouble, waiting and financial loss had I known or been told. This was a huge investment for me. All I wanted was to pick my own apples in my yard. After I was told the info. on their short life span I contacted them. No apology. Just to do a hard cutting and hope for the best. These trees are crap and I'm devastated. I also purchased multiple blueberry bushes from them at the same time as apples. Terrible. And I purchased a fig tree. It was not in my zone. I told rep. this and she said just put it in the garage in winter and cover. I did. Tree was dead in spring. Contacted them and was told I probably got a bad one. They sent another and the same thing happened. I ordered 3 plum bushes, now 13 yrs. old and only produce plums less than the size of a small marble. What a waste!

they sent me wet almost dead plants... when we opened the box they smelled rotten..,

Stark sent me no instructions, just qr code crap I will never own a spy microwave agent radiation trash phone.

Upon retirement last year, I decided to try to start a small dwarf fruit orchard in my back yard, so I drove from St Louis up to Stark's home store. Their selection was very picked over, because I'd missed their spring sale the previous week, but one of their experts helped me select several trees. One of the five (a peach) never leafed out. They said they wouldn't have any dwarf peaches this year (2020) and refunded me the cost plus shipping, even though I'd picked it up personally, sooo..., gas money refunded. This spring the Jonathan apple that I had to buy to pollinate the Honeycrisp apple didn't leaf out, altho it had looked good last year. I called and asked for anything that would pollinate the Honeycrisp and they sent a Gala, which is doing ok so far. (I think it costs more than the Jonathan, but the lady said she'd have to find one that would work, since they'd sold out of some varieties.) They did have some trouble finding the record of my order, initially; but they kept at it and succeeded.
In July, the dwarf cherry looked sick, then died. I emailed to see if they had any idea why that might have happened, and got an offer to replace it next year, so long as I call them in late winter to see what they have growing. I called to verify this, since it had been a few months out of warranty and it looked like a disease had killed the tree, and I was told they'd replace it anyway.
Service merits five stars, but I took one off for the peach that failed to grow while all the others did. Maybe I've just been lucky with their service, but it certainly seems better than some have experienced.

I’m very sad to write a poor review considering I found them amazing up until last year when I received dead trees after dead trees and have still been refused a refund. Up until last year, they were absolutely the best. I have no idea what happened but I have spoken to half a dozen people, half a dozen calls, absolutely assured they’d honor their refund policy, but no refund. I can say they used to be one of the finest nurseries I have ever dealt with. I hope they pull it together, but for now, I can’t recommend them.

Purchased tree from StarkBro several times, they mostly sell bare roots.. but they are extra big and once the tree leaf out it will grow really quick, usually the following spring after it been put down on the ground. A few trees did not make it but they send replacement at the next spring for planting season.
I’m addicted with StarkBro as their products is affordable and also free shipping if you buy more then 125 dollars.

Their blueberry plants are no good but most of the trees are good quality. I wouldn't buy berries of that kind anymore from them. I'm used to growing berries have huge collection but these ones did not thrive were very bad to start with.