I wrote the following review in early June. That same day, Rob, from Abell, called to see why we…read morewere so disappointed and offered to come out to our property the next day. As I said in the review, we had had Rob create a design plan for our barren property which we loved and for which they planted all of the major trees. We have done the rest of the landscaping ourselves because we wanted to and enjoy it.
Rob came and looked at all of the trees and offered his perspective on what was happening with each of them. We DO have soil that is mostly clay which makes it tough for a tree to establish roots which we knew. From the original planting, though, we weren't told to try root stimulators or tree stake fertilizers. We started that this spring after our visit to Abell once the trees started dying and we are continuing to use it.
The Kousa Dogwood was, indeed, dead, and Rob said he would replace it free of charge. I'm a little worried because one of the branches on the new tree had many crispy leaves on it the day they planted it, but I hope that that is due to the stress of being uprooted and replanted in new soil. The old tree was quite wet when they dug it up, so they planted the new one higher and we re-routed the downspout out and away from the tree as we had told Rob we would do.
I know that Abell has been in business many, many years and couldn't have stayed in business that long on shoddy customer service. When our trees started dying, after consulting with Abell and having one tree replaced, we went elsewhere and asked for advice from an arborist - some of which Rob discounted. I know that somewhere in between what Rob told us and what the arborist told us lies the method of tree survival on our lot. We will do what both of them have told us to do and, with luck, we will have lush trees in a few more years. I must note, however, that both trees that they have replaced this year have needed to be planted higher than the original trees. Maybe the planting requirements need to be checked out thoroughly before planting in the first place.
I want to commend Rob on his quick response to our review and maybe suggest that with the problematic soils here in Bloomington, that they could offer a tree service for the first couple of years where people who know their stuff could check out newly planted trees several times a year for two years. Customers like us would buy a plan like that especially when we really, really want only a few, unique trees, and we want them to survive. These trees are a financial and emotional investment for us and it is worth it to know how to keep them alive in this rotten soil.
Fingers crossed for now that ALL of the trees from Abell survive and thrive in their new surroundings!
I always hesitate to write something negative about a company when it involves only a part of their operation, but in this case, my husband and I feel that the money we have spent and lost over the course of the past year is worth that honesty.
We moved into our newly-built home at the beginning of July of 2016. There was no landscaping and no trees. We believed that Abell Nursery had a good reputation and had heard that they also would provide a landscape design at a reasonable price. We contacted them and had a design drawn up including names of trees and where they would be be sited on the property. The designer knew that this was a new build and that our soil was mostly clay and not well-worked or aerated; however, It was a lovely landscape design and fit our wishes exactly. We wanted Abell to plant all of the major trees, but since my husband and I bought this house so that we could create a garden paradise for ourselves, we wanted to do the rest of the landscaping.
The problem is the trees. We eagerly picked out our trees from the Abell nursery - a Kousa Dogwood for the front corner of the house, an Oak tree for the back, and a Crimson King Maple to be the center point for the front yard. We also purchased a Nishiki Willow for the back garden area and a Hydrangea tree for another garden area which were small and that my husband felt he could plant on his own. All in all, a hefty chunk of money once we included the labor of planting them. All of the trees, except for the Crimson King which wouldn't be available until early fall, were planted by the beginning of August by the Abell planting team. By the time the Crimson King was planted, the Kousa was dead because the soil held too much water where the tree was sited. We purchased a new Kousa and had it planted in a site where the planter from Abell's said would be fine and had them plant it for us. (These were ALL sizeable trees we had them plant - not tiny starts). We also bought a new Japanese Maple to replace the Dogwood on the advice of the planter who said it would do much better in that site, a lovely, full tree that looked fantastic at that front corner. It's leaves curled up early and fell off