Stark Bro's Nurseries & Orchards Co. Avis 

First 4 of the fruit trees died before fall, which I understand can happen, but the horrible customer service is why the poor review. Once they received the information and pictures of the dead trees, they agreed to give me a store credit for that amount so I could order new trees. This was in April. What happened after that was no communication and rather than the store credit, they issued a refund to a card that I don't have. It has now been 2 months, now mid-July, without ever receiving the promised call back from a manager in accounting and way too late to plant new trees. Be very very cautious if you order from here, but more so if you have any problems with your order. I should've just just with our local growers.

Ordered in Feb for May delivery. It is now July and they sent me another email saying that my order was delayed until August! Called customer service and they couldn't even give me any assurances that they wouldn't push back the deadline again.. At this rate the plant might get to me in four or five years.. I demanded a refund. Stark Bros have lost my business and I am telling every gardener I know and gardener group I am in about how terrible my experience with Stark Bros has been. Terrible. Impossible. Frustrating and I still don't have my order 6 months after I ordered it. Apparently this is how they run their business. Take your money and never send you plants - just emails with delays.

I have been a customer of Stark Bro's for years and generally they deliver acceptable products. However, this year was a complete disaster.

I made an order for strawberries, a honeyberry, and a couple pear trees in early February. In late April, they emailed and informed me that they did not have one of the pear trees and had cancelled the item. I reached out to customer service about this and they offered an alternative.

Saving you all of the details, a lengthy back and forth occurred between me and customer service over charges, reimbursements, upcharging, and more. The person responding was clearly not a native English speaker, and at a certain point, I was so frustrated with the lack of clear communication that I just took the hit and moved on with my life.

That was not the only problem with this order. About a week before I was supposed to receive my delivery, I was informed that the items would be pushed out. This happened twice more with each new deadline. I eventually got all of my products in July. Here in Zone 4B, that is simply unacceptable for most of the plants.

The deplorable customer service and shady delivery delays have completely severed any loyalty I felt for this company.

2 star only because I have had acceptable transactions in the past.

Edit: in response to Stark Bro's. I didn't respond to your email seeing as it yet again had fragmented, nonsensical sentences. You also stated in the email there would be a refund of $40 but on here it is lower? Either your customer service needs additional training or your AI system is hallucinating (I suspect this is the actual reality of the situation).

I also forgot to mention I ordered the gallon honeyberry and it just recently arrived. The tiny, sickly, honeyberry plant I received has no business being in a gallon pot. It was perhaps an inch high with about 4 leaves on it.

I'm updating my earlier review. After contacting the vendor, they responded promptly and replaced both trees. The replacement trees were in good shape, and shipped within a couple of weeks. I've updated my review to 4 stars, as I feel the vendor did a good job responding and taking care of the issue.

Delayed order, product received finally, but heavily damaged and with insect activity. I've reached out on their site, but I'm not holding out hope that they'll resolve it properly based on other reviews. I'll revise this if we receive decent support.

I have ordered a bare root peach tree and pear tree, very healthy trees, followed direction for planting and they are thriving today. Love this nursery.

First try communicating! Delivery time chang without notice. then doesn't show up. still NO communication if I would have seen all the poor reviews I wouldn't have ordered from stark bros.

I had started using Stark Brothers many years ago. They had great products, and really good customer service. But over the last few years, as they've grown, customer service has gotten really bad, and I'm wondering about their business practices. We all realize when we order plants, trees, things of that nature it could be hit or miss as far as when it will be ready and the condition it's in. While I think their products are still ok, I definitely don't think they are at a standard they used to be. But the last straw for me was recently, back in March, the wife and I had ordered several different blueberry bushes, a persimmon tree, and some fertilizer. After 2 months with no notification about anything shipping I contacted them. They continually gave me what seemed to be an automated reply about taking their stock quality very seriously and not being able to ship, or telling me its scheduled to ship. Nothing ever did. I could understand if one or two products weren't able to be shipped and not honestly believing that not one thing we ordered was able to be shipped. Hell if they offered it I would have paid for shipping. Now it seems like they're running a fire sale at the end of the season and we're without anything. As I've done once before I canceled the order. I honestly suspect they're playing the same game Airlines do, they overbook and then when they can't meet all the demand and least people hanging until eventually they cancel. Pretty sad because like I said I used to speak pretty highly of them and was satisfied doing business with them.

What an amazing company with impressive customer service. I got a pear tree that was pristine and some paw paw that were excellent as well. The bunnies got to my pear tree and it appeared that it wouldnt survive but it started sprouting! When I sent a message with a photo of the tiny sprouts asking how best to protect my young trees in the future they didn't think it would survive the massive bunny trauma despite the sprouts. For this reason not only did they give me excellent advice on how to protect my young trees in the future, they credited my account so I could replace my tree. It was absolutely not expected as it was through no fault of their own and the tree was in excellent condition when I got it but it was so appreciated! I will purchase all my trees from them from this point forward. They stand behind their trees 100%! I am starting a small back yard orchard and am trying to decide what wonderful fruit tree they sell I might add next!

I placed an order on 01/20/2026. It is now 05/18/2026 and the order has not arrived, instead I got yet another shipping delay notice and the order (if I had not canceled it for a refund) would not arrive for another 30+ days. If you order from Stark Brothers don't expect on time shipping or delivery, or any sort of customer service.

This is the only company that I will buy from. I have ordered more than 12 trees from them along with numerous plants. All of them were of exceptional quality. They do stand behind their guarantee.

I cannot stress the importance of never ordering from Stark Bros nursery post 2025
We ordered a significant amount from them this year. And There are not words for my frustration. I do not expect to get our plants. I've been told they'll be shipping any day now FOR WEEKS. we havent crossed the line for not being able to get them in but if they arent on my doorstep by Friday I am contacting my bank. Not refunding through them, running A chargeback for services not rendered.

I have called the local options and they are all out of any stock for this season. I haven't initiated the chargeback because I was promised they'd be shipping any day now and honestly at this point getting HALF of the order is better than none. Although if they don't make it in time for us to plant this Saturday the 16th we quite simply won't be able to get them in the ground this season and we would have been significantly better off having never ordered from this company. We are in an actively worse position than if we started trying to get things together for this season 2 weeks ago, which is ridiculous considering we placed this order in February.

They are in the process of cashing out on decades of good will. you will notice many reviews drop off after 2025. I don't know what changed but something did and this company is NOT to be trusted

Ive done business with Stark for years. Buying 60 plus trees and berry plants over the years. Let me clarify for people so they understand how shipping works. You should be grateful when they delay the order it usually means they are sitting on it to avoid sending out in freeze conditions. Also ive nvr had a tree not grow. Planting fruit takes a certain level of research, you cant just plop in in dirt and hope for the best. Pros use stark bareroot and have no issues. Top notch customer service. Great work guys

I ordered a Blueray Blueberry plant, 1 Gallon, not easy to find. The plant arrived 2 weeks later than promised. That caused a problem because we were leaving for vacation in a few days and I had to scramble to plant it. Worse, the plant was in a 1 gallon pot but clearly had been stuck in the put with minimal roots. It was not grown in the pot and was essentially a bare root plant with a few leaves. I have managed to keep it alive via diligence and knowledge but in my opinion, false advertising, I was misled.

I have given Stark's several five star reviews however a 1 star review is more than generous for my last experience. I placed a large order for berries (eight different varieties). The order was placed on January 3rd. The order was originally supposed be delivered mid to late March.

I received notice that the delivery was delayed and would not be available until late June or early July. I contacted their customer service and they were extremely helpful found out one plant was holding up the order so they split it and said the order was estimated to arrive in early April.

When the estimated delivery week arrived they delayed the delivery by another week. This happened three weeks in a row. I again talked to customer service. I explained that I didn't want to plant in mid summer and had placed my order very early to avoid that. They said they would look into it. Again very helpful and polite. They said the problem was resolved and delivery was now expected the week of May 3rd. Today I received notice that the order was once again delayed for a week.

I made it extremely clear that I didn't want a midsummer delivery and if that was the best they could do don't lead me on. I just wanted to know the truth so I could cancel my order and go elsewhere.

After placing the big order 1/3/26 I later placed two small orders (1/25/26 & 2/15/26) for berry plants that were out of stock at the time of the original order. Both orders have arrived been planted and are sprouting.

If you do business with Stark's don't place big orders. Break up into smaller orders and pay the extra shipping. If you place big orders they will delay you and give you the left over plants of lower quality late in the season.

Ive had a lifetime dream of having an orchard.
With the help of the wonderful people at Stark Bros my dream is becoming a reality. The people there have been so wonderful. They treat their customers like the most important people on earth. They have gotten back to me so quickly Iverytime I ask a question and even though I know some of my questions are kinda dumb. They answer them like they aren't dumb at all. Im so excited about my orchard.
This is definitely where I will be buying all my trees. Ive already told several friends. Its a great company . Great trees and really wonderful helpful people.
Thank you
Tania Page

OK. I've been ordering bare root and some potted trees and shrubs from Stark Bros. for most of the last 20 years. I never got burned on any of my orders. Plants arrived in really good condition, usually with the pots retaining some soil moisture (a big thing in mail order plants to Alaska). When I lived in Alaska (until Sept 2022) I had a very good survival rates with plants from Stark Bros. Since moving to Alabama I've ordered a few Meyer lemons from them, but they all died, just like the ones from the big box stores too. I suspect it's my local climate and something I did wrong with every citrus I tried to grow down here. At any rate, I'd recommend Stark Bros. to anyone looking for good planting stock. Just be patient people. In the mail-order business, a single burp in the systems used for maintaining stock and supplies can have last effects, leading to wonky deliveries. When dealing with mail-order plants it's common.

Ordered a young bare-root tree that I was unable to find locally, though it's native to this area. We ordered from Stark Bro's at a great price. We received the tree on Tuesday in great shape, soaked the roots and planted it same day. Highly recommend Stark Bro's!

I have bought numerous plants and trees from stark bros over the years. Anytime I have a question or an issue, I always get first rate customer service which means so much.
Quality product, quality care. This is why I continue to shop there.

I’m feeling nervous now after seeing these reviews. We’ve ordered a ton of trees and none have shipped. We plant in spring and am now worrying that these trees are not arriving at an optimal planting time. Should we be asking for a refund? I’m not sure I want it pushed back again. Will update….
( 4/17)Thanks for the update. Fingers crossed 🤞🏼…

4/25 We did get the trees 🌳 we ordered earlier this week . We were able to call and speak to customer service different times during the process. Each time we were able to speak to a human. They were helpful and friendly.

First time ordering from this company. Order constantly got delayed. Not sure if this place is a scam (hopefully not) but ultimately cancelled my order.

UPDATE: I contacted Stark Bros per their response to my review. Hopefully a better resolution comes forward.

UPDATE2: Contacted Stark Bros, never heard a reply. Review score stands. At least I got my money back.