Business ProfileforThe Tree Center

We ordered 10 (4-5) foot Leyland Cypress trees along with the recommended probiotic root stimulator and fertilizer from The Tree Center on April 19th for $937.13. Order # ********. The trees took a little longer than expected to arrive and were packed well but upon opening the boxes, we were disappointed in the width and overall condition of the trees. We also spent a lot of money on these trees that we believe we overpaid for due to their condition. The pictures on the website of full trees are a little misleading. I have also seen some reviews that show much fuller trees than I received until I filtered for the lower reviews where people complained the trees were not full. I emailed The Tree Center and attached pictures of the trees measuring the very short widths and damage to the trunk. They took several days to email me back saying I have one week to repackage and return the 4-5 foot trees and it was day 6 so I had to get them mailed by the next day which was a Saturday and ship them back at my own expense which would cost a lot of money. They seemed only one tree damaged enough for a "store credit" which I still haven't used as I told them I would rather get a refund and purchase a heathier tree locally. I went to a local nursery to show them pictures and ask if this trimming was normal and nursery told me that these plants were not only overly trimmed, but were also incorrectly trimmed straight down as opposed to an angle to give a conical shape. Some were trimmed shorter in the bottom and longer in the top of you refer back to the pictures I sent. He told me that would cause the lower branches to die off if they don't get enough sunlight so I will have to trim them even more to ensure they properly fill in as a hedge. The Tree Center customer service also told us they get trimmed before they arrived at the center from nurseries and some nurseries trim them more than others. They said if I ordered another one I couldn't request that I get a fuller tree. They said they thought the trees were healthy and would grow and that they only guarantee the height not the width. We spent the whole day planting them with the fertilizer and root stimulator we bought and mixed with good soil we purchased locally. You said they were healthy from the pictures but upon planting them, at least 5 had trunks covered in sap. They were either damaged from the over trimming too close to the trunk or from the tape and upon shipping. The trees have only grown a little taller since we have ben taking great care of them since the end of April and are not growing wider to make a privacy fence as we initially bought them for. The sap is still leaking from the trees and a lot of lower branches have turned brown and died. As you can imagine, this is beyond frustrating.