North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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On Feb 5, 2007, at 12:55 PM, Deb Schneider wrote:

> I am interested in which nurseries folks have used for purchasing  
> fruit trees.  I've had fairly good experiences with Raintree and  
> St. Lawrence, but am interested in finding other sources that carry  
> more varieties.  Thanks.
>
> deb

I find I've had better luck in general with nurseries close to me and  
a little north of me.  Plants that have to be shipped across the  
rockies are more stressed.  Plants the come from the south break  
dormancy too early, so I have to baby them indoors until it's  
reliably warm out (or order them to arrive late) and then water them  
heavily all summer, since they can't get established in early  
spring.  Plants from too far north arrive late and again, need a lot  
of babying since they don't have time to get established in early  
spring (but are less work than plants from the south.)

That being said, here are some nurseries I've tried which have  
interesting fruit selections:

St. Lawrence Nurseries:  Often oversized plants, interesting selections.
Cummins Nursery:  Lots of apples on lots of rootstocks.  Better to  
call them, as their web site doesn't always quite reflect what they  
actually have.  Nice people who give good advice about apple  
growing.  (And know a lot about apples!)
Fedco:  Interesting stuff, varies from year to year.
Hartmanns:  I really want to like this place, since they have the  
best selection of blueberries west of the rockies, but an awful lot  
of what they've sent me has died.  When I've complained, they've  
replaced stuff, but then it's awfully late in the season.
Forestfarm:  West of the rockies (I'm east) but since they ship  
potted plants, not bare-root, their stuff has arrived in good shape.   
As you might imaging, shipping is fabulously expensive, often more  
than the plants.  They have such a huge selection that it's  
astonishing just reading their book-sized catalog.  Mostly non-fruit  
plants, but they have so much stuff that they have as many fruit  
trees and shrubs as most other places.
Nourse:  Excellent selection of small fruits.  They are mostly aimed  
at farmers, and give much more detailed descriptions than most  
places.  In particular, they are the only mail-order company I've  
bought from that explicitly rates each cultivar for flavor and  
disease resistance and will tell you that some have only fair  
flavor.  Of the ones I've tasted, I agree with their judgement in  
most cases.  They also rate for fruit "quality" (is it firm and  
marketable, etc.) and season of ripening.  I've had good luck with them.
Raintree & OneGreenWorld:  Both west of the rockies, both aimed at  
fruit explorers, I have trouble keeping them straight.  One packed a  
small tree in the same box as a heavy book!  Interesting selections,  
a bit too much hype, two of the few places to sell rootstocks.
Oikos:  Not a huge selection of fruits, but what they have is  
interesting, and some of it is very hard to find elsewhere.  A huge  
selection of nuts, including edible acorns.  They probably spent too  
much time on the phone with me (returning a phone call) to make any  
profit off my order.
Burnt Ridge Nursery:  I got a terrific apricot tree from these folks,  
that does well in the northeast despite being bred for the northwest.

I second the recommendation that you check out the user comments at  
Dave's http://davesgarden.com/gwd/

Ginda