To assume makes an ass out of you and me! Isn’t that the truth?!
Okay, so, the photo to the left shows these little teeny, tiny plants wrapped in PLASTIC right? (click the photos to see them full size) Well, these are our Paulownia trees! OMG!!!!!! I was so stunned yesterday when I saw them I was speechless.
Vicki ordered them almost two months ago I believe, and they just arrived today. Something doesn’t smell right does it? In two months I could have grown those Paulownia trees!
I don’t like the dirty task of disparaging another in public, but I MUST give a bad review of the company that sold us these Paulownias.
Now, I must say that after going back and reviewing everything, there is nowhere written that the trees were IN one gallon containers, but instead it says “Plant in one gallon clay pots.” Hmm?? Why did I ASSUME that these were trees and not seedlings? I think it might be because I don’t recall reading anything about them being seedlings…or was it there all the while? Let’s review…shall we?
Here is an exurpt from the site that sold us the trees:
Guarantee for 1-25 Dragon Trees
Trees are guaranteed for 1 year after purchase. Full replacement policy—please call at the first sign of any problems, call 707-485-6277 otherwise guarantee will be invalid. You are not required to send your tree back in order to get a replacement or pay for shipping the replacements!
- Shipping size varies depending on the time of year. Our focus is on developing a strong root ball that will support their fast growth.
- Ready for planting in a one gallon pot.
- Plant trees in ground when they are 12″-18″
- All orders come complete with detailed planting instructions and care information. See Planting Instructions for more details.
- For forestry growing details contact Paulownia Tree Company directly. Please Call (800) 439-4341 or send e-mail to: info@dragontrees.com
In red (added by me!) it says “ready for planting in a one gallon pot.” That should have been my first CLUE that this was a seedling and 
not a tree. Second clue I was totally oblivious to was, “Plant trees in ground when they are 12″ -18”. Hmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That should have been my second CLUE that these were mere tiny seedlings and NOT a tree.
Why does this have my panties all bunched up in knots? Well, if you look on the site, you’ll find that each tree costs $19.95! HUH? $19.95 for a seedling? I’ve gotten some extremely gorgeous fruit trees for $20.00 and they BEAR FRUIT! WTF? Dom was baffled, I just stood there stunned.
Were the seedlings healthy? YUP! These little seedlings are at most three inches tall. Yeah, ready to plant in a gallon container right? LOL I ASSUMED (there is that word again) that the trees would be ready to plant out in one week after they have been hardened off, but NOPE, we need to wait till they are at least 12″ tall.
The reason I decided we should keep them is because they are such fast growing trees. My issue with this company is how much they are charging for seedlings.
I could see $5.00 per tree (as other companies were selling them for) but I ASSUMED that the trees were at least three feet tall! GEEZ, all our fruit trees were over six feet tall AND at least three years old. These Paulownia seedlings can’t be more than a few months old…WHICH EXPLAINS why I think they were dicking us around. We kept getting all these excuses AFTER they accepted the money for the trees.
“Oh, I’m sorry, we can’t ship the trees right now, its raining.” The next week Vicki would call, “Oh, we had so much rain the trees will need time to dry out!” HMMM? Sounds like a scam huh? Well, its not a scam.
The only way you will get scammed by this company is if you ASSUME that you are getting an actual tree and not three inch seedling, and then at that point you will realize that you only scammed yourself…especially if you haven’t totally read EVERYTHING on the site.
Even though they don’t say the trees are actually seedlings, you MUST actually ASSUME (there is that damn word again!) that is what they mean when they say “plant trees in ground when they are 12″-18”. It seems like a no brainer right? We gave the company the benefit of the doubt, and they did finally come through, but I think we were over charged for sure! I’ll be transplanting the seedlings today and then we’ll be off to the races seeing how fast these little suckers will actually grow. That will be a fun experiment I think. Maybe I’ll get all scientific about it and measure them.
Assuming will only leave a person disappointed in life. Just because I assumed that the trees were bigger according to the price, doesn’t make it so. I will definitely be more cautious next time we purchase trees online.
Unless you are interested in paying $19.95 per SEEDLING, I wouldn’t recommend this company to do business with. Will you get healthy seedlings? Most likely. Will you get your trees on time? Probably not! But they will come eventually. Don’t ASSUME they will be regular young trees…these are merely seedlings. I’m not a satisfied customer, BUT I am keeping the trees anyway and not asking for a refund. We need to get the Paulownias in the ground soon…lets see if they reach epic seedling proportions over the next two months! 😉
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