Berries Unlimited — Local services in Prairie Grove

I’m a home gardener and enjoy growing small fruit, especially Honeyberry bushes. 5 years and 35 honeyberry plants later from various nurseries, Berries Unlimited has been my preferred nursery. I have never lost a honeyberry plant from Berries Unlimited because they are very healthy regardless of dormancy status, and have very well-developed root systems from the moment that they arrive at my garden. Like all honeyberry pants, they are rugged, extremely cold hardy, drought tolerant when established and tolerant of the high alkaline, extremely infertile clay soil in my area. Honeyberry plants have a few easy to misunderstand tendencies that might make someone erroneously believe that they have received sub standard or even dead plants. USDA zones matter when receiving honeyberry plants from nurseries in different zones. Some that I planted during the summer in my zone 6 garden were shipped from zone 7. At various point in the summer, some plants looked very healthy and some looked unhealthy on arrival. One plant from another zone 7 vendor looked totally dead on arrival. They all went dormant for the summer, as if still being in zone 7. They were all carefully planted and cared for, then shortly before fall, all of those plants broke green buds and foliated again. They simply went in to a summer dormancy right away because of their zones of origin, will go dormant again in later fall and won’t blossom until next spring. Next year they will not repeat this behavior, and will go fully dormant later in fall like all the other honeyberry shrubs. Other honeyberry plants purchased from zone 6 or cooler nurseries did not go fully dormant at all until later fall. Established honeyberry plants also go in to an early phase of dormancy shortly after rendering their fruit. This time tends to coincide with the highest heat of the summer, causing the leaves to lose their velvety texture, turn a slightly duller green, and new green wood to stop growing. This is a normal for honeyberry plants. For best results, newly planted honeyberry shrubs do not require fertilization or manure until the following spring. Fertilizing newly planted honeyberry shrubs can cause burn and interfere with normal dormancy. Good quality compost, organic material suitable for your soil, good quality, sparingly applied mulch and appropriate irrigation are all that newly planted honeyberry shrubs need until the following spring. Berries Unlimited has also been a pleasure to buy from because they always communicate with me in timely ways, are always glad to answer questions and to give good advice. I’ve made space and prepared the soil for 3 more honeyberry plants on which I expect to take delivery from Berries Unlimited very soon. I am confident that I will receive first quality plants...

Plants (blackberry and raspberry) arrived with what appear to be clear signs of contagious fungal infection. Customer support says the spots are from either the heat of transport or overhead watering, and then grey lessions that are also consistent with fungal infection are “new growth”.

Not one of my pre-existing raspberry plants has grey lessions, and I can’t find any sources saying heat or watering causes this type of leaf spot. I repeatedly asked for any documentation saying this could be anything other than fungal.

More than this, the plants are more pruned than any other I’ve ever seen- almost all leaves removed from the raspberry- it sure looks like someone was trying to cover up a fungal infection.

They have said I can return the plants, but this involves shipping almost certainly infected plants back to their nursery, presumably to pass on to someone else. The pruning, multiple species being effected, and telling me it couldn’t be fungal before even seeing pictures all tell me this is nursery wide, and that they know and don’t care that they are selling plants which may infect other...

Horrendous company! BUYER BEWARE! • The raspberry and blueberry plants I ordered took TWO MONTHS to deliver, which the company simply blamed on “rain delays.” Hmmm? Two months of rain…? • The plants were just tossed in a box, left loose, with nothing to secure the plants or soil, which resulted in damaged root balls, plus many broken branches, stems, and leaves • The plants had significant insect damage as they were STILL infested with insects that were eating the leaves and roots when opening the box. Berries Unlimited initially blamed the infestation on another company that they bought the tissue-cultured plants from in OR. Despite that assertion, Berries Unlimited also contradictorily stated they tissue-culture ALL their own plants, plus their certification that says these plants have been certified to not have disease or infestation. • When I requested a resolution, the were dismissive, rude, and completely unhelpful, only offering farce excuses for all of the above. Zero Stars for customer service. Do yourself a favor and save your money, time, and garden by...