Thanks Dan. As you know by now...without the pictures, we are just not going to believe you!!! LOL! Keep us informed.

Dan,
That's great that you finally found the white sapote. I've met the owner of plantograms and he is a very nice guy. Why don't you call plantograms first to find out if there was an error with the online order and if shipping was supposed to be added instead of waiting for a charge and disputing it. It would save both of you a lot of trouble.

well theres nothing on their site that lists shipping charges and if it wasnt added during the checkout process i dont think they can charge you shipping or will for that matter with their prices.

i checked out their site before but never ordered. they have okrung tong and heidi mango, two varieties hard to find. also they call their Alphonso mango Alphonso/Kesar when i think they are two distinct varieties.

There was an option at checkout to add UPS for $10 more...I have terrible luck with UPS so I opted for USPS Priority Mail which showed up as free. I don't want to be a jerk, but if you say something is free, and nowhere else does it say that you have to pay, you can't sneak charges in...kind of like when car dealers accidentally sell a $100k car for $50k on eBay, just because it was a mistake doesn't mean they can back out of the sale, terms are terms.

Again, I hope I didn't sound like a jerk by saying that.

Also, the prices seem to be on par with Top...

Dan

Dan,
I by no means implied that you should accept an incorrect charge or that they are right if they tried to defraud you. What I was trying to say was that sometimes websites make mistakes when checking out, especially the smaller websites and that if you are unsure it is better to call to confirm instead of waiting then calling the credit card company. By calling the credit card company and disputing a charge it can cause the rates and fees to rise for the company when instead you could have called the company and they might be able to solve the problem without a detriment to themselves. If they are unwilling to help and intentionally scam, then by all means call the credit card company. I really doubt plant-o-grams is trying to scam you and it would just be courteous to call them first before disputing the charge with the credit card company.

I don't think they are trying to scam me either..I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and a call on Monday if the tree hasn't shipped, I'm not out to make any enemies :-)

Also, Kesar and Alphonso are indeed two different varieties as indicated by my extensive research (aka Google)

Dan

A lot of companies have normal priority mail costs already added in to the price of the items...which is sort of confirmed by the company having other shipping options and prices listed. Check your credit card company and see what the total charge is.

The difference with Top is that you would then tack on another $25+ dollars for shipping and handling!

Dan,
I have bought from Top twice now and Jay is right. There shipping is expensivr but the trees normally are huge! Depends on what you want. I order from Top because I like the larger trees but the smaller ones that wont cost so much with the shipping fees will grow to be just as big. It really depends on what you want. Plus Top gives you a 10% off voucher for your next order. The voucher says you have 30 days to use it but when I ordered last November, I still used my voucher from the spring.
Andrew

Wow never heard of plantogram.com until now. Update us on the shipping charges as they have a great selection and I may order from them in the future. Thanks.

Well, they placed a $49.99 hold (not charge) on my card as is normal for pre-ordering and the like. I like that they aren't charging until the sapote ships...looking forward to Monday as I have orders from Jene's and PI shipping as well.

Dan

What do you have coming from Jene's?

Jené's is sending me a Kohala longan and a Brewster lychee, both 7 gallon trees. PI is sending a Nam Doc Mai mango and a Mallika mango...so this week should be good.

Dan

Nice, make sure you take some pics. I bought a 7 gal emperor lychee from jene's a couple seasons ago. I was pretty amazed at the size when it came. I wonder if the brewster will be flowering when you get it? Now would be the time of year for it.

I'd be excited if it is in flower when it comes, we shall see next week :)

Dan

Well, the charge went through at $49.99, looks like shipping is included.

Dan

Well, Jene's didn't ship my order, they told me the same thing they told me last week, so I'm done with them. PI is out of everything I ordered...

So I called Plantogram to check on my order, and the person I spoke to was very nice and said the order would hopefully go out tomorrow and they'd send me a tracking number. So I also ordered a Brewster lychee, Nam Doc Mai mango and a sapodilla from him.

Fingers crossed,

Dan

As far as jene's goes, my dad lives 20 min from there. I have been about a dozen or more times when I visit, not impressed, never bought anything no matter how hard I tried to find something.

Ok,

Plantogram shipping is not free, this was apparently a site error. However, the owner called me tonight to inform me of this and was very professional and apologetic about it, he offered to refund my money immediately but I decided to get the sapote and sapodilla anyway just because I appreciate his honesty in not charging my card without permission. They're shipping tomorrow...

Dan

Jene's customer service has always been an issue. Most of us have experienced frustration with them from time to time. If...IF the plant ever arrives, they are normally nice plants. I only go to them out of desperation.

Plantogram.com shipped my trees today. Owner is very polite and helpful. I have tracking numbers, waiting for USPS to update status.

Dan

The sapodilla is here! Nice plant. I'll post pics tonight after work...the white sapote isn't here, but I have tons of problems getting mail here so I'm gonna go down to the post office soon and see what's up.

Dan

pictures please :-)

I too Placed an Order for a Jaboticaba tree from Plantograms and ran into the same Website Error regarding the Shipping. It initially did not charge me for the shipping, but I soon received a call from the owner Mickey, who was very Apologetic and professional. He too offered to immediately refund the Money. However, he also offered to send me a Barbados Cherry tree as well, free of charge, because of his mistake.

Becasuse he was so professional, courteous, and was willing to throw in the Barbados Cherry Tree, I went ahead and kept the order.

Let me tell you, I am extremely HAPPY that I did. My Jaboticaba tree showed up 3 days later. It was Gigantic, almost 5 feet tall and super bushy. It was flushing from everywhere and looked Great! The Barbados cherry tree arrived as well and was about 2 feet tall, not just some small seedling.

I was very impressed and happy with the whole process, that the whole shipping debacle seemed insignificant. Everytime I call PlantoGram, Mickey always answers the phone - No Machines - and always has time to talk and share his knowledge. He is very polite and helpful. Plus they have a huge selection, and if they don't have something you are looking for, he will find it for you.

- Jacob

Here is a link that might be useful: Plant-O-Gram

Sounds like you got some great trees. Wish we could see some pics..... Looks like plantogram has a pretty decent selection, but the prices seem pretty steep to me.

I'm planning to buy a june plum from this place any thoughts or pictures? thank you

Just got a Sweetheart Lychee from plantogram. Mickey the owner is awesome, he took pictures of several varieties and several pictures of each variety. That way I could choose which tree I wanted.

The Lychee that I chose and arrived was over 6' feet tall and very healthy. I love this place. He also threw in a Strawberry Tree (Muntingia Calabura) for FREE which was about 3 feet and fruiting.

Check them out, you won't be sorry. These guys wrote the book on Customer Service.

Jacob

Every order I placed online I never recievied a healthy plant. I placed 2 orders I ordered a red mombin and a silas woods sapodilla both from Top trop.When the sapodilla arrived I notice its droopy leaves and it was loaded with water crystals days later it started to blacken so I pruned off the black parts to a point that I was left with a 4 in stump and 7 months later I notice new growth I now looks like a stump with leaves. As for my mombin I know it's decidous but is has been 6 MONTHS with no growth what so ever I noticed that the trunk is green so it must be alive I decided to never to buy from them again. Just maybe I might get lucky and recieve a healthy june plum I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Christopher

Chris, I had bad luck with my first online order too. How long did it take your trees to come to California ? Most of the tropical fruit trees nursery is from Florida so it took a whole 7 days for my trees to arrive and I had to pruned all the leaves off also. Been a month++ no new growth yet. Make sure to put them in the shade until you see new growth. Gotta take care of them very carefully when you first receive them.

It took 2 days to arrive.

Yeah, all of my stuff from Plant-o-gram took only 2 days to arrive, and were in pristine condition - No Shock.

Jacob

Well, I contacted plantogram about the Kesar/Alphonso mango confusion - Mickey was helpful and told me that the tree they have is really the Indian Alphonso and that addition of the word Kesar is for marketing purposes as his Indian clientele prefers that terminology! He says that the plants can reach me in 2 days if the order is placed before monday. Sounds good.

im a bit confused about the Alphonso variety names too.

Kesar is definitely a distinct variety from Alphonso, this i know. maybe they are similar just grown in different regions.

Kesar is smaller than Alphonso, but there almost always mentioned together making me wonder if they are similar.

theres also a variety called alphonso bennett, im not sure if thats distinct either or just a name of a regional alphonso

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.savanifarms.com/