If you asked me how many stars I would give TreeLand 6 months ago, I would have said 5, now I'm comfortable giving 2.
I am fair, so I will say this about Treeland: Pretty good selection, they have trees that many stores won't, however that is not ALWAYS a good thing, I'll explain why. Their prices are pretty fair and decent, and there's a lot to look at.
So what are the cons? What is the problem? Salesmen - typical, say whatever it takes salesmen, who care about one thing, getting your money and then whatever happens later is your fault, because you're just a sale. Depending on what sales person you speak to, you'll either get a 20 year old kid who doesn't know what day it is, or a guy who will tell you whatever it takes to spend your money. They don't directly lie to your face, they just tell you that every single tree is perfect for you, that it'll do great, and answer all of your questions with "Ohh yeah it'll be perfect, no worries!" Turns out it's not true, it's not okay, and it's just sales tactics.
I mentioned they have a good selection right? Well guess what? Having lots of trees that are not adapted to our hot desert climate doesn't mean anything and it's a waste of time. Yeah, they have all these cool exotic, unusual trees you don't see much, like pepper trees, carob trees, orchid trees, Tipu trees, etc, but if they don't do well here in the desert then why the heck even sell them?? They sell these trees knowing full well that most of them won't make it through our summers, and most of them cannot tolerate our hot sun, yet they will tell you that they will be perfect and grow just fine. And if anything goes wrong, they blame it on you for not maintaining them properly. Well, it's kinda hard to maintain something properly that isn't suited for our climate, you can water and water all day but our hot summer sun will have the last word, it will fry them to a crisp, and if nurseries were responsible they wouldn't sell those items and focus on plants that will only THRIVE here in the desert and not waste water and time.
Well, since I'm not a tree expert nor a botanist, I took the advice of these "professionals" and bought one of those trees, I didn't know that much about it at the time, but I asked enough questions to the sales guy to be satisfied. I asked this guy all the questions you can imagine...How much water per week? How big a space? Does it need shade, or full sun? Do I need to plant it east, west, north or south? Does it need fertilizer often? Does it shed? How big will it get when mature? Can it tolerate hot western sun? Can it tolerate summer heat? I asked everything, and every answer was "yeah, no problem these do great out here." Well, silly me, I trusted him and bought it.
I was given explicit instructions on how to plant it, how to set it up on a drip system, which I did properly with the proper emitters, and how to maintain it, I followed every instruction perfectly. By the end of June, this tree was fried like fried chicken. Literally over the span of 5 days this tree went from crispy leaves, to one dead branch, to 3 dead branches, to the whole thing being dry, crisp, brown and gone. It lasted barely 3 months and it's very clear that this tree was NOT meant for a hot, western sun location and it was not adapted to our hot desert climate, yet I was assured it was, that it would do fine, and that it would be no problem. I trusted the "experts" and it was not true, this tree didn't even last past June, with proper watering.
If this tree needed A LOT more water, why didn't they tell me that? They gave me instructions for this specific pepper tree, I followed it, and IF it needed a lot more water, I would have done so, had I known. I recently spoke with a gardener who used to have this same type of tree and she said it was a nightmare and that it should have never been planted in Arizona, it was meant for a tropical setting like Hawaii or Florida, it is not meant for our hot, dry climate. I googled this to verify and it's true, this tree is tropical, not desert, yet I was assured it would do perfectly here in the desert. I wish I knew that earlier! Gee, I wish maybe the "expert" could have said "hey look, this is a nice tree, but it's really meant for a shady location, I'd suggest something else" If he had the courage to say that, I would have respected him.
I feel like I was sold, I was told everything would be great and then just robbed of money, time, and trust. We plant trees in the ground to enjoy them and watch them grow, not temporarily enjoy them and watch them fry in the sun because they are the wrong tree.
I will never, ever buy a tree here ever again, their warranty is crap, their sales people just nod and smile, and their big fancy exotic selection means nothing, because all of those exotic, tropical trees don't do well in Phoenix! I bought a new one at Home Depot because they at least give you a 100% 1 year warranty, at least they'll stand behind what they sell. read more