ArborDay.org Review: 

Arborday's total rating and grade stayed the same as our last update.  74.5 score for a C grade.

Arborday has been testing and making some cosmetic updates to their online store the past few months.  From what we can tell, they have rolled out these changes to more of their online store. It definitely looks better and seems easier to navigate.  One of the new changes includes a section on every product to place a review. For the first time, within the past week, we found an Arborday product review, Just the one but hopefully a step in the right direction.

Arborday.org also has a video on many of the product pages showing how to plant bare root trees.  It's actually pretty good with step-by-step directions.

The number of evergreen trees and shrubs they have in-stock went down since the beginning of October.  That's pretty typical this time of year for nurseries to drop inventory heading into colder weather.  We counted 45 evergreen varieties in stock when we checked on October 31st.

The Arborday.org store now has a Holiday Collection category. It seems to be most;y 1 gallon container size trees that range in price from $46 to $60.

Arborday continues to be a low price leader with most of their other evergreen tree with prices starting at $4.75.  Keep in mind that Arbor Day also sends some very small plants. We could only find a handful of evergreens that were listed as potted. Most were bareroot. The others were listed at shipping with a height range of 3 to 12 inches. If you're willing to wait a long time to see results and want evergreen trees & shrubs cheap, this is your place.  We're assuming anything not listed as potted are shipped bare root? 

Arborday, still offers free shipping on orders over $60 which seems to be an on-going promotion with no end date announced. If they're shipping a lot of bare root, it makes sense to offer free shipping. It costs a lot less to ship plants with no dirt.

Arbor Day website goes back to 1995.  They scored highest on both domain authority & years the site has been active out of the 20 sites we evaluated. Their domain authority has taken a hit in recent months, they still have the highest domain authority but their lead has shrunk.

Planting  deciduous bare root trees & shrubs is a little more forgiving since they are dormant.   We found a few sources for planting bare root evergreen shrubs that recommended clipping off most of the foliage prior to transplanting. While it sounds harsh, removing the green foliage will help it survive. It will focus on root growth, crucial for long term success. Just understand if you;re buying a slow growing bareroot evergreen tree or shrub, you will be waiting a while to see results.

Just like last month, we could not find shipping rates anywhere.  Just by pure trial & error we discovered that $9.95 seems to be a flat rate ship cost with any order under $60. Over $60 automatically gets free shipping.

What were the red flags?  

• Pretty much the same thing we raised a red flag for in the past. Return Policy.  They may have one but we looked pretty hard and still can’t find one. They do have a FAQ section where they state; "Each tree and plant is guaranteed to grow, or we’ll replace it within one year of shipment."
• They now seem to allow product reviews but we could only find three. There's probably a reason why there aren't many product reviews and I can't of any that would be a positive.