I'd be more that a bit annoyed, but I understand mistakes and I think Raintree deals with them appropriately.
Ordering from them is a mixed bag at best. You just don't know what you're going to get. Broken limbs as you have found are par for the course, as they receive trees from other growers bound up tightly with twine. Worse yet is they'll send you trees that are branched way up high, with all of the lower buds cut off. And quite possibly poorly branched at that. You may well receive trees that you would under no circumstances accept if you could see it beforehand. That's the risk with mail order.
The best trees I have gotten from Raintree were whips with all buds intact.

That's funny. I actually wanted the sour/sweet cherry combo but I decided not to risk it as it seemed likely that I'd get all sweet cherries. My Raintree order doesn't come for another week or so.

The best nursery I have found so far in this area is Burnt Ridge, fruit trees for $16.00 versus $25.00 at Raintree or One Greenworld , Kiwi for $12.50 versus $25.00, very good prices and great quality

My thoughts exactly. The only reason to buy from Raintree instead of Burnt Ridge, is if Burnt Ridge doesn't sell the item.

But Raintree selection is much superior in my opinion, at least for my taste. I just got two more cherries from them this spring, Danube anf English Morello, both in excellent condition.
Olga

There's no doubt that Raintree's selection is far superior (it isn't even close). Their high across-the-board prices just irk me, although their dwarf cherries are more reasonably priced than many of their other offerings. FYI, Adams County sells both of those trees (on Gisela rootstocks) for 28 shipped last I checked.

I always try to order from Raintree too late. Once again all but two items I wanted are sold out. There's always next year...

Certainly Burnt Ridge is cheaper but as you have stated, their selection is inferior and I'm a sucker for Raintree's glossy color pic catalogue (if i remember correctly, burnt ridge's catelogue doesnt have pics?). I too order from Burnt ridge if i can because of their cheaper prices (i think they both get alot of their stock from the david wilson wholesaler)- unfortunately, they do not sell the 4-1 cherry combos.
i bought 2 pawpaws from burnt ridge last year and a black beauty mulberry. The mulberry arrived with some type of fungal disease and had to be massively pruned to bring it out of dormancy. this year, the second year i have owned it, it is about 3 weeks out of dormancy and is starting to grow mulberry fruit which is really exciting as this is my first mulberry plant.

The 2 pawpaws arrived as tiny seedlings and barely grew last year. One of them, the main stem somehow cracked right above the graft, leaving only a small side stem alive. (could have been from something knocking past it.) I am not sure the trees made it through the winter- if they did, they are not out of dormancy yet. In short, i'm not sure yet what I make of Burnt Ridge's quality.

Burnt Ridge is a grower. Their field stock is often superb. Raintree is a re-seller, with a big cold storage building to keep bare-rooted stock in to fill orders with. The three trees from them I have had enough problems with to discard were

- A slow-growing kind of hawthorn that arrived topped to fit in the box, and basically never regained its natural shape over several years after planting

- A purple-leaved plum that looked dead when they brought it out of the warehouse, and turned out to be dead after planting

- An orchard plum that looked half dead when they brought it out of the warehouse, and turned out to be half dead after planting

Other that that there is the tiny size of some of the potted stock they send (of several dinky azaleas sent through the mail, one is still alive a few years later).

And while I have gotten them to change one or two wrong names in the catalog, not a few years after a late friend who used to help them at the store during the busy season first mentioned that their Azarole hawthorn was actually the common ornamental variety Carriere hawthorn they are still listing it as such.

My nickname for this company is "Brainfree".

Lychee, I do admit that I enjoy Raintree's glossy catalog, but when it comes time to order I like the fact that Burnt Ridge is a small, family run operation with a text-only catalog because then almost all your money is going towards the trees (and not catalogs, advertising, and a middle-man's cut). I've gotten over 30 trees from them and another 100 or so fruiting plants and have always been impressed with the quality. And, as bboy says, they grow their own, so I've always gotten "fresh" stock that has taken off upon planting.

I've had 0% success with Burnt Ridge but I expect it was just bad luck. What I like about Raintree is their selection. For example this year I ordered some of the new blackberries recently bred in Oregon. No other nursery I could find in the US sold the varieties I wanted, Siskiyou, Black Pearl, and Metolius. One Green World did sell a few but were only varieties rated inferior in flavor to the Raintree offerings. That sure doesn't sound like brainfree to me, it sounds like they are the only ones thinking. I expect their quality has gotten worse recently based on quite a few negative reports in GWD, but everything I got this year from them was very good. Re: prices, if someone else also has it there is a reasonable chance I am ordering from that other guy instead. I used to order currants from them but now I get them from Whitman; I used to get blueberries from them but now I get them from Hartmanns; etc.

Scott

I'll keep Raintree's catalog by the toilet to read. It was too much trouble. I'm gonna try Burnt Ridge their operation sounds down to earth.

I had one plum that was DOA from Burnt Ridge last spring, the other one was fine...The blackberries also did excellent, as did the blueberries.

Raintree ordered trees were EXCELLENT. Very impressed with my first order. Two of the trees actually set fruit the first season and this year all three look ready to flower. I have another order coming soon so i can report back.

My local farm store (Farm/Fleet and Fleet/Farm) carry trees from a place out of Minnesota and the trees look very nice. The price is $45, so expensive.

Based on the revuews posted on this thred, it seems most people have generally good experiences with both raintree and burnt ridge- they are both generally reputable nurseries. If you want a one stop shop, certainly raintree would seem to be one of the best options out there. For me, price (as long as quality is not sacrificed) is important, so im happy to buy different items from different nurseries, depending on who is the cheapest (i luv u internet). also, if u r prepared to shop around, it may be a good idea to buy your plants from specialist nurseries- ie for apples, go to a nursery that specializes just in apple trees, for blueberries, a nursery that specialize in blueberries, etc etc.

perhaps thats a good idea for a new thread. which nurseries are best for which fruits.

Scott, I also ordered Metolius and Black Pearl (partly based on your postings), along with some musk strawberries that I couldn't find anywhere else, so I'm certainly glad that Raintree exists for ordering rare plants. All were expensive for such small potted plants (i.e., tiny sprouts in 3" pots for $5.50), but I don't mind paying extra for these particular varieties (and they grow fast). They do have excellent customer service, though. I did complain about the size of a $15 rose, basically a recently rooted cutting that came in a 2x2x5 pot, and they refunded my money without any problems.

The IE mulberry trees I ordered from Burnt Ridge were surprinsingly large- for toothepicks. Lucille was sold out when I remembered to order. How does Burnt Ridge manage to keep the mulberries so small- maybe they budded them in August and dug them up after 3 months growth. I buy in quantities of at least 10 though I only got 5 from BR because they offered no discount. They cost a lot more than what I would have paid from Whitman Farms.

That's strange. Both mulberries I've ordered (IE and Silk Hope) were very nicely rooted 2 year whips. Not that it excuses sending such small trees, but did you order late (they sell out pretty fast)?

I agree that when you place an order late in the season, you end up with the leftovers; no matter who you order from.