90% Of Your Purchased Trees Are Guaranteed for One Year
One could say we stand behind our products, or maybe we’re just hiding in the trees.
We guarantee prompt and accurate shipment of fresh and healthy trees, and that they have been inspected and cleared by the State of Michigan to be free of harmful insects and plant diseases. We guarantee that 90% of your trees will survive for one full year from the date they are shipped. Our guarantee is designed to keep us on our toes with regards to proper care and handling of your trees, and protects you from eating the cost of trees which may have overheated on a delivery truck on a hot sunny day. We simply ask for your honesty with regards to forces beyond our control, such as:
• significant drought and/or high temperatures [see US Drought Monitor map] [see US high temperature map]
• planting a species in an inappropriate zone [see zone map]
• planting in alkaline soil [nearly all evergreens need a slightly acidic soil pH of 5.5 to 6.5]
• not providing supplemental water [2x per week] during even mild drought
• flooding, or planting in a flood plain
• failure to plant promptly
• potting instead of planting in the ground [potting greatly increases the chances of dramatic moisture and temperature fluctuations in the soil. Here is our best advice for potting seedlings]
• animal damage [deer, insects, moles, voles, mice, other rodents including chipmunks and squirrels, etc.]
• over-fertilization, resulting in chemically burned trees. This happens a lot, and we are occasionally guilty of it too!
• lawnmowers, weed killers, snow plows, etc. [sounds funny, but you’d be surprised!]
We don’t guarantee that last 10% since it is quite normal for a few trees to die due to the unavoidable stress of digging and shipping and transplanting. Just consider yourself a pro if 90% of your trees survive, since even professional growers plant appropriately to account for losses.
However, if you do lose more than 10% of your trees and none of the above disclaimers apply, we will replace ALL of them [meaning if you ordered 100 trees and 25 died, we will send 25 free replacements, not 15]. If you contact us for free replacements, we will gladly send you free replacements on a ship date appropriate for the trees. At that point our policy has been fulfilled and we cannot send additional free replacements at a later date. In short, you may make one request for free replacements, and the replacements we send you are not guaranteed. Our policy is set up this way because otherwise we could end up sending you multiple free shipments of trees which are most likely not suitable for your location and/or environmental conditions.
To qualify for free replacements, we will ask you a few questions first, or ask that you ship a few trees back to us for inspection along with a spoonful of your soil in a plastic bag for testing. However, if you follow our evergreen tree planting and care instructions [a copy of which will be included with your order], your trees should do well.