Personally, I've enjoyed ordering from some of the reputable people on ebay as well as the web. Many of these folks have websites for their trees, but also sell on ebay. Bonzaibob, chuck1947chuck, mapletopia, Acer1987, and Eastfork Nursery have all been getting good reviews on ebay as well as a popular garden review site (Dave's). I've ordered from all of them and the trees have arrived healthy, then done well.

I've heard great things about Davidsans (and he has a wonderful, wonderful website) and Mendocino. I ordered four large trees this year from Conifer Kingdom and was blown away by the size of tree I got for the price. Next year I'm considering a purchase from Essence of the Tree. The only one I've avoided, due to online reviews as well as amazon reviews, is Japanesemaplesandconifers(dot)com.

When in doubt, look at reviews online.

Davidson's is insanely overpriced I just don't get how they stay in business.

I'd agree Metro maples is your best bet so you don't even need mail order.

Topairy gardens in my opinion is the best JM source for mail order. They offer the quad threat of variety, caliper, price and service.

http://www.topiary-gardens.com/

Topiary Gardens is awesome, I ordered from them for the first time this summer and will be ordering again next year. Diana the owner seems really nice, too. Also received nice JMs from Conifer Kingdom. Topiary Gardens seems to have a larger selection, though.

Sara

Yes, Diana sets the others apart. She actually responds to emails in a timely fashion. If you have an issue with a plant she replaces it. Doesn't pull the BS of you didn't report an issue the day you got it or just plain doesn't respond. Thats how you maintain and grow a customer base.

Topiary Gardens is the best. Diana is awesome with her customer service. Ordered 10 trees from her and not 1 problem. All arrived in great shape. She offers a large variety of maples and if you are looking for a maple that is hard to find, she can probably locate it.

Mendocino Maples is great to. Ordered a Acer pictum 'Usugumo', arrived in great shape, nice size, and a good price. Good customer service too.

Nick

I ordered 3 from Davidsan's last month during a 20% off sale. I spoke to the owner on his cell phone as he walked through the nursery talking to me about my yard, etc, and as he spoke, I looked through his website to see the trees.

They were FedEx'd to me in Maine, and I have never seen such care in packaging. I was so impressed with his knowledge, and his wife Gayle who writes up the orders and sends confirmation and tracking info.

I actually found them priced lower than local nurseries here in southern Maine.

I've bought trees from Essence of the Tree, Davidsans, and Conifer Kingdom. Overall I liked Davidsans the best . The trees that I received had a great shape. Conifer Kingdom has very good prices. I sent a couple of emails to Mendocino to ask some questions but they never responded.

This post was edited by CTgardenguy on Fri, Oct 17, 14 at 15:53

Another top choice which hasn't been mentioned is Whitman Farms, where plants are grown in root control bags.

Otherwise, I'll agree with comments already made here. I ordered for the first time from Topiary Gardens last spring and was very happy with the plants and customer service. As others have mentioned, it's great (and refreshing) to have e-mails answered in a timely fashion and to be treated as a person and not a PITA!

Every time I get the 20% off e-mail from Davidsan's I take another look at the website, but the base prices are so high, there's no way any quality of plant or packing is worth that much, even with the discount.

Conifer Kingdom is great too, and also has good customer service and great selection (and good packing, too!)

Alex, funny cause I do the same thing every year. 20% off a $90 3 gallon plant just doesn't cut it. Then the harder to get plants are $120 for 3 gallon, huh?

Another one to add to the list is Oriental Garden Supply.

I've had bad luck with Whitman with regards to getting wrong plants. Happened several times. She is flaky with responding to emails too.

Has anyone ordered maples from Kigi Nursery? I ordered a dwarf conifer and European beech from Kigi this fall and received some nice 1 year plants, just curious about their maple offerings. Thanks,

Sara

I did three orders of JMs this fall, and my experience with all three growers (Conifer Kingdom, Forest Farm, and Acer1987 from ebay) was great. Customer service from Forest Farm was especially nice-- they sent me photos of the trees before shipping and were very helpful.

I should say one thing about Conifer Kingdom... their "freebie" offers are pretty great. This year they sent me an Ariadne and a Bihou, each of them just under 3' as "free plant" bonuses for ordering over $100. Not bad!

Wow.
I just saw this thread.
I have purchased from all the eBay vendors (and then some) mentioned above.
I can't say enough good things about Pam (Acer1987) and Cedric, (Japanesemaples & Conifers.com).

I've been buying online since 2004, with these two being some of my first and continued sources.

There are so many good ones. :)
The thing I try to do, though, is look at nurseries that have conditions similar to my own. i.e. I have high drought issues, along with total, full sun. My conditions aren't those of CA or the PNW. Mine are those of TX and GA. If something survives there, it'll probably survive me.