North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[John.Mosko@engelhard.com]

I have had good service from Cummins in NY ---
http://www.cumminsnursery.com.  They have a nice selection of rarer
varieties and they usually have them on dwarfing rootstocks (M-9, Bud-9)
which I prefer for hobby orchards.

John Mosko



                                                                              
                      
                    "Sgroppino Farms"                                         
                      
                    <sgroppino@sgroppin       To:     
<nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>                     
                    o.com>                    cc:                             
                      
                    Sent by:                  Subject:     [NAFEX] 
Reputations of Fruit Tree        
                    nafex-admin@lists.i        Suppliers                      
                      
                    biblio.org                                                
                      
                                                                              
                      
                                                                              
                      
                    02/08/2003 08:20 AM                                       
                      
                    Please respond to                                         
                      
                    nafex                                                     
                      
                                                                              
                      
                                                                              
                      





Dear NAFEX:

I'm about to place orders with 4 or 5  different fruit tree retailers for
apple trees for my home  orchard.  I'm pretty much a neophyte when it comes
to growing or  buying fruit trees.  Not knowing much about the reputations
of the various  growers, I did a search on the Net last night to see if I
could find any  information about other people's experiences--good or bad.
I hesitate to  bring up the topic of companies' reputations because it's so
subjective, but I'm  about to sink a good chunk of money into buying from
tree nurseries about which  I know very little.  I don't want to have any
regrets about not having done  my research in advance.

I ran across a website last night called  Plants By Mail (
http://plantsbymail.net/) that looks to be a clearinghouse of information
about  companies that sell, not surprisingly, plants by mail.  I was a bit
concerned when I read the feedback posted about one the companies from whom
I'm looking to buy half of my trees--South Meadow Fruit Gardens.  SMFG
looks to have a very impressive collection of trees on their website.  I've
also had a couple of very helpful conversations with the folks at SMFG,
once  I've been able to get them on the phone.  Yet the vast majority of
feedback  people posted about this outfit was a bit alarming.  I have to
give them  the benefit of the doubt and just assume that the disgruntled
people who decided  to write about them were a very small minority of South
Meadow's happily  satisfied customers.  Nevertheless, I would very much
appreciate any  information people may be willing to share about their
experiences buying apple  trees from this particular nursery and any others
whom you may feel need to be  addressed.

Please e-mail me directly with your thoughts  if you don't mind.  Thanks in
advance for your info.

Sincerely,

John A Gasbarre
Sgroppino Farms
Vinalhaven Island, Maine
sgroppino@sgroppino.com