Are you ordering locally adapted cultivars?

I'm ordering trees that are compatible with my zone.

I live in the Southeast, so I don't know about the Pacific Northwest issue, but Stark has a very good reputation. I ordered some berry plants from them this year and everything has been great.

I would call them to make sure, but there are some nurseries like Stark's that have multiple locations.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll give all a jingle and see what pops up.

I ordered a red maple and sugar maple from Stark Bros in mid May. I received both trees less than a week later and both are doing well in my yard here in zone 7b (Puget Sound region). My experience was very good ordering and receiving them.

Thats excellent news, I've been trying to educate myself on rootstock. K7 is the rootstock starks use the supreme stock for the cherry trees that i'm looking at getting. Both self fertile. I talked to a few other nursery today as well. Spoke to a pleasant lady on the phone at Sunnyside nursery and she recommended 2 trees as well a dwarf rainier and stella both on G5 rockstook. The tree's at Stark that i was interested in was stella and Starkrimson sweet cherry. So at least both places recommended the same tree at least, my only deciding factor is to decide on rootstock.

I don't really know enough about the two to make decision yet but fellow fruit tree growers out there do you have a preference if we're putting aside who the tree's will come from and just focus on the rootstock for durability, reliability and sustainability - and obviously the fruit it's self, cracks and disease?

Thanks for being patient i'm trying to pick this up as i go.

The sugar maple I ordered was bareroot and it was packaged well. Unfortunately my two cherry trees (bing and rainier) came from a different source so I'm not sure about Spark Bro's fruit tree root stock. If they're handled the same they should be in good condition.

I'm not a fruit tree expert though so I will defer to others.

Thanks planetes if i do go with them im always relieved to hear others have had good experiences. I know there will be those that have had bad encounters. I've mostly read about trees being upside down in the box with no arrows to direct ups or fedex. and the roots all dried out. But as long as the grow.

Also i noticed they would ship the trees in Nov. When my nursery's wouldn't have the mentioned above trees until feb, is there a reason the months would be so far off for panting?

Presumably the suggested shipping in November would be so the supplier would not have to undertake the expense of warehousing the trees until Feb. Something that is all about saving somebody at that end some money and has nothing to do with convenience and success for you. And maybe it is being assumed that in the general climate here west of the mountains it is not necessary to wait until Feb. to plant bare-rooted stock. But you say you are in the mountains - keep in mind that bare-rooted trees from a commercial source are basically big cuttings, with no active fine (feeder) roots left alive. Woody plants so handled do not start growing new roots, become able to keep themselves well hydrated until the overwintering stem buds open in spring.

And some years here the worst weather of the whole winter comes in November.

You really should check into W.S.U. recommendations for home orchards, sweet cherry and other stone fruits are not the best choices for beginners in particular - pest and disease issues may abound with these. If nothing else in the case of cherries specifically birds often take all the fruit unless you enclose the trees in netting or cages. Or there is a huge crop.

And I am not sure about the local suitability of Starkrimson at all.

I went on wsu and read up on everything I could find, the website isn't exactly clear cut I found it stuffed full of information that I'm not sure I even understood or pertained to my specific questions. I did read that the dwarf varieties make for great smaller garden additions. Although my garden is not tiny. Though I wouldn't want anything larger than 15 foot in my front yard. According to my neighbours who have lived next door for 50 yrs there used to be an apple and peach before the old renters cut them down. I need to pull out the stumps. I already have a 15/20 foot plum in my side yard. I think two dwarf cherry's would restore some of the charm and who doesn't love cherry's. From what I've read the G5 rootstock is best for cancer rot and then other varieties for cracking and so forth. Black gold and lapins seem like good choices.. As noted Stella and rainier. I think there's a yellow. The reason I like stark was obviously the price but I guess you get what you pay for plus I wanted an all in one almond and some honeybushes. Buying trees shouldn't be this hard.

The easiest are apples. When you choose locally adapted ones.

Buying the trees is easy.

For those on the west side determined to have cherries, simply expect all positive variables to align every 5 years or so and then deal with smallish cracked pecked crops the rest of the time. With small trees it is easier to bag individual limbs from birds.

I ordered four fruit trees from them last fall on dwarfing rootstock. The trees all looked great - a bit small but that's what I was looking for since I espaliered them. They've been growing nicely with no problems. I read somewhere that they don't always send you the right rootstock, so I'm slightly paranoid that I'll have huge trees in my tiny space. But so far so good!

Oh wow that would be a huge mistake, what fruit trees did you get? Allot of people are saying apples but i'm sure netting a 8 to 10 foot tree for a bit is no hardship if it was a problem.

I ordered from Stark Bros when I lived in Colorado and though we moved before I got to see how the fruit trees turned out, I was not unhappy with what I received. If I were going to order for this house, I'd probably start looking at Raintree, to increase the chances of getting something that will produce here.