Strawberry tree, Arbutus unedo L., is a fruit tree native to Europe. The fruits are said to be similar to strawberries at least in apperance, and it is reportably hardy to zone 7 (if you believe the nursery I saw selling them). This nursery has a large web presence, and they have developed an equally large bad reputation for selling nonviable plants, but refusing refunds due to finding 'living tissue' in a $100 balls of rotten goo. This is about as honest as selling diced potatoes for seed then not giving refunds for any pieces without an eye. Apparently the bad reputation was developed after the third generation took over the business between my first and second visit. It appears they are trying to run it into the ground and break it off. At the first visit I got the mayhaws, Crataegus L., that I went to get, and while I was there I saw a strawberry tree priced (well outside my budget) at about $150 although it was barely 3 feet tall. By my second and last visit I had heard of the bad reputation, but didn't quite believe it. They didn't have most of the plants I asked for, specifically Ogeechee lime, Nyssaogeche Bartram ex Marsh., saying that they had been sold out for 3 months and would be getting a shipment in a couple of weeks. Well they are not getting the extra 25% shipping charge from me. (I have recently found a wholesale nursery where the price for an Ogeechee lime tree is less than what that shipping charge was.) I got a few other things anyway since I was already there, but only 4 of the 7 lived, and one of those does not appear to be what it is supposed to be. Meanwhile the thing that convinced me that they deserved the bad reputation is the answer to a question I asked about the missing and topped pecan trees, expecting that a hurricane had caused the damage, but they claimed to have gotten rid of the pecan trees that were past bearing age. This answer made about a much sense as reports of the earliest commercial pecan harvesters cutting down 500 year old pecan trees so they could gather the nuts before the squirrels and birds got them all.
