I would go for Adam County Nursery, Cummins Nursery, Grandpa's Orchard and Burntridge before Gurney, esp. for selections.

Raintree or Stark Brothers. Very highly recommended for all manner of fruit and nut trees. But I would agree foremost with the first response - local sources (real plant nurseries, not box stores) are going to be your primary source for what will work best in your locale.......most fruit trees are quite regionally specific in their suitability.

I can't speak to Guerney's about their plant selection but they have a long history of extremely poor customer service and dissatisfied customers.

England orchard for more exotic trees like Jujube, Pawpaws, nuts, and Persimmons. Vaughn nursery, Hidden springs, Just fruit and Exotics, One green world, Raintree, and Bay Laurel, and Dave Wilson nursery.

Tony

Depending on where you are will play a part in this as well. For a good tree, i would avoid the big box stores (the trees from here, in my experience, which is three plum trees, they need a lot more care and take longer to establish. I also see things here like Granny Smith which is from Sydney Australia and there is no way this will survive our bad winters (wind chill can reach -25F)). Local nurseries are good as most will only carry ones that they know will survive, and most offer better warranties. My local nursery gives us a 2 year warranty on fruit trees, but the selection is limited.

From mail order, I like Willis Orchards because you can buy larger caliper trees. I have had good results with their trees, and they have replaced the two that died on me. I was able to buy a cherry tree from them that was over 1.5" thick trunk!

The other nursery that i have had good luck with is Stark Bros. I have had no trees from them die yet (and i have ordered about 20 trees from them). I decided to try them as they are only a 5.5 hour drive away from where i live and are going to have been raised in a similar climate. The prices here are usually about 1/4 of the price from a local nursery, but the size of the trees are smaller.

Fast-Growing-Trees is another option, but their selection is limited. One advantage they have (for mail order) is that they ship you a potted tree, never bareroot, which often helps the tree minimize transplant shock.

I am very partial to Schlabach's Nursery in New York. They do not list their rootstocks used on apples in the catalog (except for Bud 9 on the antique apples) but if you call first before ordering they can tell you what your choices are. I then write my preference down on the order and they always accommodate me. Great trees at very good prices.

Thanks for the input so far folks. I do avoid the big box stores in general for gardening stuff because we do have a lot of nice local plant nurseries, but they don't do fruit or nut trees.

We have one local nursery that does good fruit trees to the general public retail- but last spring I went in and ordered my trees.. and found out apparently the manager there is unhappy with me because she never bothered putting in my order and was really rude to me the day I stopped in to see if my order was ready to be picked up. So I won't be going back there again. She's really driving that place into the ground, but that's a story for another day. We do have other tree nurseries in the area, but they are more mass sellers to orchards and stores, and don't really do one or two trees of this and that sorts of retail sales. And I really don't want 5-10 of any particular tree.

I was already planning on starting to look around for nut trees, because no one local does nut trees. But now I will be sourcing my fruit trees via mail order as well. I figured it would be wise to start asking now so I can start keeping my eye out for sales between now and next year.... or maybe a couple things for the Christmas wish list.

If you are forced to do mail order, then by all means check with your local extension office before ordering. They will have a listing of various fruit and nut cultivars that are best suited to your particular location and you should pick your selections from among them. Most mail order sources cater to the broad general public so could be offering all manner of unsuitable selections.

The extension office should also have a listing of the most disease resistant varieties as well and it is highly advised to factor this into your selection process as well.

I do already have a good idea on what fruit trees work for me. That's why I was bummed this spring at the local nursery, because I had ordered some trees to companion trees I got last year from the same place.

The nut trees I'm not so sure about yet. I do know what will grow in my area, but don't know which varieties of what I want yet. I know for sure almonds and hazelnuts for eating. Probably a couple walnuts way out back, maybe pecans or hickory nuts. I'd like to do a couple American Chestnuts if I can. Yes, I do know how huge some of these trees are, and I do have acreage out back that can accommodate a few huge trees.

Nut trees... in no particular order of preference... wait, I take that back... the first three, below, are my top picks; and some offer various fruit trees, as well:

Nolin River Nut Tree Nursery

England's Orchard and Nursery

Rock Bridge Trees

Grimo Nut Nursery

Burnt Ridge Nursery

Rhora's Nut Farm and Nursery

Depending upon where you're located, you may be able to pick up some good grafted northern pecans at Forrest Keeling Nursery Garden Center at Elsberry, MO... I suspect that they grow most, if not all, of the nut trees that Stark Bros. offer in their catalog, but don't know that they sell, mail-order, in small quantities, if at all.

Jason Long,

You must be one of those luckiest customers. Willis Orchard and Fast-growing-trees have poor reviews on Dave's Garden Watchdog. A go-to place one can use to check out the reputation of on-line nurseries.

I have experienced and heard good things about other nurseries other posters posted. I'd very hesitant to order from Willis or Fast-Growing-tree nurseries.