Fast Growing Trees Grade & NEW Top 20 Rank

Fast Growing Trees Grade: B-

Top 20 Rank: #6

Location: Fort Mill, SC

Why do we list location? This is so you can know, in most cases, where the evergreen shrubs you buy are coming from.

We evaluate and grade each nursery into 10 categories. You can read details on what each category means and how we score it here.

Fast-Growing-Trees.com Review

What is going on over there? Some prices are ridiculously high!

A former #1 ranked nursery, Fast Growing Trees has slipped to #6 on our top 20 rankings. They are still a top-tier online nursery. Their ratings drop primarily stems from some recent reviews claiming poor plant quality and the increase in most prices.

There are also some industry rumors about sales slipping and that they have excess inventory. That is never good for anyone. That increases the chance of you getting a plant that is rooted in.

They appear to have a very large selection in stock. When checked recently, Fast Growing Trees listed over 60 evergreen trees and 62 evergreen shrubs in stock. That’s an impressive selection considering the costs related to keeping plants healthy through winter.

They have also expanded the container sizes they offer. We have seen some shrubs for sale in 1-quart containers.

Former Execs Migrate to Help a Competitor

The rumor mill has been churning with news of turnover from many top executives. Two were known to have recruitment firms assisting them. Another had been talking to a few competing nurseries.

The Band is Getting Back Together

Looks like a few of the long-time managers and executives have hooked up with The Sill. It didn’t take long for the popular houseplant retailer to start selling in direct competition with Fast Growing Trees. The Sill now carries all the most popular evergreen, flowering, and fruit trees.

Prices Going Up?

Maybe some of their prices have always been higher but it seems recently that they rose again. Especially on 3-gallon-size evergreen shrubs. We viewed prices as high as $99.95. Most seemed to be either $69.95 or $79.95. I know ship costs have been increasing but those prices are high compared to other nurseries. Just make sure to compare evergreen shrubs lowest prices from our top-rated nurseries.

They seem to frequently adjust prices. We’re assuming the price changes are based on inventory although we wouldn’t be surprised if they also monitor the pricing of their major competitors.

Expect to pay anywhere between 25% to 40% for shipping if your order doesn’t qualify for free shipping.

Ships in 1 to 2 Days

Fast Growing Trees usually boasts that orders ship in 1 to 2 days. They have got the processes down to where they can ship orders sooner than most of their competitors. Every order we have placed at fast-growing-trees.com has been delivered within a few days.

We recently bought a Bloodgood Japanese Maple for a new neighbor as a gift. $100+ for 3-4 foot tree. It showed up in great shape. The neighbor was happy & so were we with the overall quality.

We also bought a Meyer Lemon tree from them a few years back. You can view Fast Growing Tree unboxing pictures and review here. It wasn’t our best experience. But, it also won’t prevent us from buying with them again.

As a comparison, we also bought an Improved Meyer Lemon from Four Winds Growers. Both were sold as 3 to 4 feet tall. The difference was staggering. For $10 less we got such a better tree with a much larger root system from Four Winds Growers.

It also motivated us to start a string of tips for buying plants online. Our latest post is “Never Buy a Tree Online if it Just Lists Height“.

Unboxing from fast-growing-trees.com — Unboxing from Fast-Growing-Trees.com

A friend bought a Pink Dogwood tree from fast-growing-trees.com in May of 2021. You can view the unboxing pictures here.

We also had someone in our neighborhood buy a Rose of Sharon tree from Fast Growing Trees. It looks great. Better looking than anything I have ever seen at local garden centers.

We also just bought a Loropetalum evergreen shrub from their sister site, PlantingTree.com. Fast Growing Trees, Brighter Blooms, and Planting Tree all share the same fields and plants. The box delivered with the Loropetalum shrub had all 3 logos printed on it. You can view our unboxing pictures from PlantingTree here.

FastGrowingTrees.com Reviews Are Mixed

Fast Growing Trees features a lot of product reviews. Over 600 for just the Thuja Green Giant. It is refreshing to find a site that has a lot of user-generated reviews and questions. There are also 13,368 Fast Growing Trees Google reviews with a 4.2 rating. That rating is down from 4.6 about 12 months ago. You can view Fast-Growing-Trees.com Google customer reviews here.

We also found they are verified with a third-party review service called Trust Pilot. Their rating is a miserable 2.3 out of 5 with just under 772 reviews. You can read the Trust Pilot reviews here.

Fast Growing Trees Makes 3 Major Changes in 3 Years

I worked with the family that originally started the 2 online plant nurseries, Fast Growing Trees and Brighter Blooms. The company that owned them was sold early in 2018. It was announced in a press release on February 9, 2018. In the summer of 2021 they bought PlantingTree.com and 2 months later announced an investment from Berkshire Partners,

What does this mean for you? Probably not much.

Only Listing Tree Heights For Sale is Not Good

We noticed that almost all their trees and some shrubs only list a height. There’s no container size listed. As we discussed above, there could be a pretty big difference in the size of the root system of a 3 to 4-foot tree depending on whether it was in a 1-quart, 1-gallon, 3-gallon, or 5-gallon container. Those things matter.

Fast-Growing-Trees.com boasts that they do not sell bare root but we’re guessing they remove the container & much of the dirt off some of the plants they ship. We’ve seen field pictures with burlap wrapped around the roots with what appears to be some sort of loose soil inside. We can not confirm that is what they are doing, just an educated guess. It would save them a lot on shipping costs if they removed the container and a lot of the dirt.

Customer review fast growing trees — Picture from customer

We’ve read a few reviews recently with customers complaining that all they got were bare root trees in a burlap bag with mulch-type soil. There was one review with a picture of what appeared to be pruned roots. We obviously can’t confirm if that picture is actually from a tree shipped by Fast Growing Trees. It would be a bit dishonest, in our opinion, to boast you don’t ship bare root when all you’re doing is putting bare root plants in a burlap sack with a loose medium.

We also saw roses on Fast Growing Trees listed for sale as either 1, 2, or 3-year-old plants. They do list a height range in the bullet points below each size. I’ve never seen plant sizes primarily listed by age. Maybe that’s a growing trend? (pun intended)

We were also impressed with the amount of information on the different evergreen product pages. A lot of questions & answers as well as planting guides.

Fast Growing Trees’ Terms of Service were changed a few years ago and appear to be an exact copy of Brighter Blooms. This includes language for their plant guarantee stating they might trim roots. Not a fan of that.

We strongly recommend before you buy anything from fast-growing-trees.com you contact them first & question the status of any plants you want to buy. Their phone staff can help you choose what is best. Also, make sure to ask what container size the plant(s) were grown in at shipping time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Fast Growing Trees nursery located?

Fast Growing Trees Nursery is located at 2621 Old Nation Road in Fort Mill, SC, a suburb of Charlotte, NC

Are Fast Growing Trees and Brighter Blooms the same thing?

The same company owns & operates both websites. They both share the same offices, fields and plants.

Does Fast Growing Trees offer free shipping?

Fast-Growing-Trees.com offers free shipping pretty much every week. The minimum order required to qualify for free shipping is currently $129 but it can fluctuate from week to week. They will also occasionally require a coupon code to be used to get free shipping. Coupons (if required) are posted on the upper left corner of the website.

Is Fast Growing Trees open to the public?

No, they are not. You can, however, place your order on their website at www.fast-growing-trees.com or over the phone and pick it up.

Disclaimer

All the information on this website – www.BuyEvergreenShrubs.com – is published in good faith and for general information purposes only. Buy Evergreen Shrubs does not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability, and accuracy of this information. Any action you take upon the information you find on this website (Buy Evergreen Shrubs), is strictly at your own risk. Buy Evergreen Shrubs will not be liable for any losses and/or damages in connection with the use of our website.

About the Author

About
Latest Posts

Doug Hall

President at Target Marketing Solutions

Doug Hall owns BuyEvergreenShrubs.com and has over 14 years experience working with some of the largest online plant nurseries. Doug has consulted for, visited and evaluated quality from over 50 plant nurseries. He also has extensive direct marketing experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Fast Growing Trees nursery located?

Fast Growing Trees Nursery is located at 2621 Old Nation Road in Fort Mill, SC, a suburb of Charlotte, NC

Are Fast Growing Trees and Brighter Blooms the same thing?

The same company owns & operates both websites. They both share the same offices, fields and plants.

Does Fast Growing Trees offer free shipping?

Is Fast Growing Trees open to the public?

No, they are not. You can, however, place your order on their website at www.fast-growing-trees.com or over the phone and pick it up.

Disclaimer

About the Author

About
Latest Posts

Doug Hall

President at Target Marketing Solutions

Fast Growing Trees

Fast Growing Trees Nursery Review and Rating

Operating System: Shopify

Application Category: Website

Editor's Rating:
8

Pros

World's largest online plant nursery
Most orders ship in 1 to 2 days
Huge selection

Cons

25% restocking fee if a return is authorized
Prices fluctuate