Purchasing Trees Online

[shimbrypaku]

The three maples that were sent to me were at best 3 inch wipes planted into one gallon containers.

I have never been to their physical location, my only interaction is online.
Thanks

 

[shimbrypaku]

I have a flat of maple cuttings that are far superior to what they sent me.
They will be two years old in May 2026.

I am not trying to blow up this thread, but you need to know when you get burned, you don’t spend hard earned cash twice.

Thanks

 

[MalsRFun in TN]

I have a flat of maple cuttings that are far superior to what they sent me.
They will be two years old in May 2026.

I not trying to blow up this thread, but you need to know when you get burned, you don’t spend hard earned cash twice.

Thanks

Not to diminish your experience or defend Mr Maple, but they grow for landscape customers and their trees are relatively inexpensive. You get what you pay for, which for most of their customers is a chance to own a cultivar not usually found at a box store or even a local nursery. The one gallon trees are typically $35 to $45. This is less than most online vendors for starter bonsai material, which often are in smaller containers.

Growing your own is a great alternative if you're trying to save money. Don't expect vendors to give away their time and effort.

 

[shimbrypaku]

Not to diminish your experience or defend Mr Maple, but they grow for landscape customers and their trees are relatively inexpensive. You get what you pay for, which for most of their customers is a chance to own a cultivar not usually found at a box store or even a local nursery. The one gallon trees are typically $35 to $45. This is less than most online vendors for starter bonsai material, which often are in smaller containers.

Growing your own is a great alternative if you're trying to save money. Don't expect vendors to give away their time and effort.

Thank you for your insight.

 

[jagboy69]

My first couple of trees came from Mr Maple. The grafts are high and unsightly. Trees for the yard, sure no problem, but I won't buy from them for Bonsai again. I get that they really don't propagate for us, but their prices are not any cheaper that what I paid at evergreen. You can see the stuff from evergreen are grown to be bonsai from the start. For now, my victims are all alive so I must be doing something right here in hot dry west Texas!

 

[leatherback]

thx for raising this. I have always been baffled by the useless practice of trees sold by pot size. I do not care about the roots, I care about the height of the tree. And maybe whether there is side branches or just a trunk.

Although, the EU common sizing on size does only tell you height and not what it looks like.
Really odd.

 

[Jcmmaple]

At MaplesNMore that’s what we are trying to do is make it easier for the customers to get an idea of the size of plant you will be receiving, it may not be the actual one but it’s similar. We just started getting inventory for the bonsai side of business so bare with us, any suggestions would be helpful and appreciated. There are more things to come and we are excited to help the hobby grow, our prices are competitive and we want to make it so you’re not breaking the wallet.

 

[Attmos]

In a nutshell, the nursery trade sells trees based on pot size, because the practice is usually correlated with age of stock, and cost invested. In other words, 1 gallon pots until three years, 3 gallon pots until five years, or whatever. It is only the roughest of rough guidelines. You can often find a big chunky tree in a one gallon pot that has been there for a while, or a small tree in a three gallon pot that was just transplanted. I recently bought some landscape deodar cedars that were about 8' tall - and they were all in 3 gallon pots.

I live only a couple of hours away and went to Mr. Maple's Fall open house this year. Let me just say, having viewed their stock first-hand, they try to hit a happy medium with '1 gallon trees'. If the tree is too large to fit in their standard 1 gallon shipping container, they will flag it with yellow tape and set it aside - to be sold local retail but not to be shipped. That is the one benefit to showing up for their open houses - you can pick these "diamonds in the rough" that are too large, or cultivars that they only have one or two of and that they have removed from their site. Of the 11 trees I purchased, only one cultivar was listed on their site as being in stock.

You can see some pics in this thread

Thread 'A visit to Mr Maple - Flat Rock, NC'

Sep 1, 2025

I know many of you have purchased trees online from MrMaple.com. Today was their Labor Day Open House, and I was there to check out their trees, snap photos, and say "hi" to a few friends. Here are some pics:

UTV's were available to drive people around the extensive grounds. I think there were 28(?) shade houses, plus extensive outdoor grow areas.


They had an wide selection of larger landscape trees, though the majority of their nursery inventory was in the 1-5 gallon range, which is no surprise since they need to be able to ship the majority of their trees.
...

• Bonsai Nut
• Replies: 2
• Forum: Events, Exhibitions, Outings & Garden Visits

• 
• 

That's a hell of a lot of trees... lol. Wow... I suppose individual pictures would be a monster of a project for them.
Thanks for the information, makes me wish I lived closer.

Anyway, I'm still looking through what they have and I'll probly end up buying a couple of their trees.

 

[Attmos]

Not an expert on the topic. But I think it would be cheating to sell plants just repotted. So one year at least until the roots have had the chance to colonize the bigger pot? Girth I dont know? But your estimation sounds a little high,

My estimation was purely for the sake of explaining my point. You're right, it's a little high. lol

 

[Attmos]

At MaplesNMore that’s what we are trying to do is make it easier for the customers to get an idea of the size of plant you will be receiving, it may not be the actual one but it’s similar. We just started getting inventory for the bonsai side of business so bare with us, any suggestions would be helpful and appreciated. There are more things to come and we are excited to help the hobby grow, our prices are competitive and we want to make it so you’re not breaking the wallet.

I have no suggestions, but It's very nice to here from you. From the pictures I've seen you have a hell of an operation, and I'm looking forward to buying a few trees.

 

[Attmos]

thx for raising this. I have always been baffled by the useless practice of trees sold by pot size. I do not care about the roots, I care about the height of the tree. And maybe whether there is side branches or just a trunk.

Although, the EU common sizing on size does only tell you height and not what it looks like.
Really odd.

I guess some places do give a pretty good description of each tree, but as was said, they're more expensive because they're grown specifically for bonsai. Landscaping companies aren't looking that closely at the development, they just grow healthy trees and sell them by pot size... so, expecting individual descriptions or pictures is asking a bit much.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Anyway, I'm still looking through what they have and I'll probly end up buying a couple of their trees.

Just make sure you buy special cultivars, or something that isn't broadly available. Don't waste the money buying a bloodgood, crimson queen, etc, that you could probably find at your local Lowes/Home Depot.

 

[MalsRFun in TN]

Just make sure you buy special cultivars, or something that isn't broadly available. Don't waste the money buying a bloodgood, crimson queen, etc, that you could probably find at your local Lowes/Home Depot.

Still dreaming of getting Hubble's Super Cork someday!

 

[Jcmmaple]

That's a hell of a lot of trees... lol. Wow... I suppose individual pictures would be a monster of a project for them.
Thanks for the information, makes me wish I lived closer.

Anyway, I'm still looking through what they have and I'll probly end up buying a couple of their trees.

We will hopefully be posting individual pictures of the bonsai once we get going, but thanks for looking and hope we can help.

 

[shohin_branches]

Nurseries like Mr. Maple are trying to sell landcape stock by volume. The process of photographing individual trees for sale would add too much cost to their business model. I don't buy from Mr. Maple for quality bonsai stock I buy from there to get unique cultivars for cutting/air layer stock. This is the order I got in October. The bent one straightened out on its own after a couple weeks.

 

[Paradox]

I dunno... I guess so you can choose your starting point.
For example, does the tree have a large Y-shape, or is it a single trunk with evenly developed limbs....

I mean I suppose you could just take it as a challenge, not knowing what it will look like, but buying a tree without seeing it just doesn't seem right. lol

But... oh well. It is what it is. Thanks.

Yes the other place I have ordered them from were about that size as well.
This is the size they get them to to sell. Some they do have in bigger sized pots and are bigger trees but that also comes with a bigger price.
Keep in mind they are generally not selling trees for bonsai although they do offer cultivars/species that can be.
They have too many to be able to take individual pictures. Even some bonsai places that sell smaller prebonsai dont have individual pictures on their cheapest material

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Not to diminish your experience or defend Mr Maple, but they grow for landscape customers and their trees are relatively inexpensive.

I would actually suggest the exact opposite. They grow for online retail customers only - and their stock is relatively expensive.

I know two retail Japanese maple nurseries within an hour or two of Mr. Maple and they offer trees as good, if not better, at lower (in some cases much lower) prices. I am not ripping on Mr. Maple because they do an excellent job and target the high-end collector's market. You can get some cultivars there that are hard to find elsewhere. I am happy to be a customer for those trees, even at higher prices. However Home Depot, Lowes, or Costco isn't buying landscape Japanese maples from Mr. Maple - they are buying from the big commercial growers up in Virginia (at least here in NC). If by "landscape customers" you mean "local Asheville high-end residents" that is a different story.

 

[MalsRFun in TN]

I would actually suggest the exact opposite. They grow for online retail customers only - and their stock is relatively expensive.

I know two retail Japanese maple nurseries within an hour or two of Mr. Maple and they offer trees as good, if not better, at lower (in some cases much lower) prices. I am not ripping on Mr. Maple because they do an excellent job and target the high-end collector's market. You can get some cultivars there that are hard to find elsewhere. However Home Depot, Lowes, or Costco isn't buying landscape Japanese maples from Mr. Maple - they are buying from the big commercial growers up in Virginia (at least here in NC). If by "landscape customers" you mean "local Asheville high-end residents" that is a different story.

I guess everything is relative to who is shopping, what you want, and where you live. My point was that a $35 - $45 tree is rarely going to be a big tree, even at a big box store. I say that as someone who regularly visits the Lowes clearance section and got several maples I wanted on my last trip to Asheville in the BB Barnes 65% off clearance.

Obviously it's all about what the market will bear. Mr Maple regularly auctions the very same 1 gallon trees on eBay and often gets more than twice their mail order price (sold by Maple Mafia). That's where you do get to see the exact tree you are buying.

 

[brentwood]

Look at evergreen gardenworks' maples, not grated, interesting cultivars - selling on Facebook lately, will dig up trees from the garden (figuratively) if you reach out with specific requests, sizes, etc

B

 

[shohin_branches]

I guess everything is relative to who is shopping, what you want, and where you live. My point was that a $35 - $45 tree is rarely going to be a big tree, even at a big box store. I say that as someone who regularly visits the Lowes clearance section and got several maples I wanted on my last trip to Asheville in the BB Barnes 65% off clearance.

Obviously it's all about what the market will bear. Mr Maple regularly auctions the very same 1 gallon trees on eBay and often gets more than twice their mail order price (sold by Maple Mafia). That's where you do get to see the exact tree you are buying.

I got 6 foot tall plums for my yard this year for $40 each. Not sure what is considered a big tree in this context.