Chris Bowers & Sons Reviews 

First time customer. Bought 4 bare root apple trees. £27 each + £14 delivery. They arrived a month later in a sweaty bag and all looked worse for wear. All trees were a single trunk without branches. One tree looked particularly poorly and had no root system at all. Took pictures. Planted them immediately. Wrote them an email with the pictures. The really poorly one died. Emailed and called them multiple times afterward. Always to answerphone and no response.

They don’t show pictures of what you will actually receive on the website. I would have bought from a garden centre if I had known what the size and health of the trees would be. Should have checked reviews here first.

Ordered two gooseberry bushes. One arrived fit and healthy, the other completely stripped by some insect. I wrote asking for a refund or replacement for the insects damaged bush. Abrupt two line response saying itll be fine in the Spring. No response to further emails.
Shocking customer service and badly damaged plant. I would strongly advise against using this company.

My order of 5 container-grown fruit trees was delivered extremely promptly (4 working days) and the trees were very well packed and look very healthy.

I bought a espalier selected for training on 19th august.
First thing to go wrong they gave carrier wrong address sent it to adress 2 miles away so i got it 3 days later.
Having bought 2 £12.50 trees elswhere in feb which are coming along nicely being trained on tiered system.
Rhs says espalier is vertical stem with lareral ties trained off it.
The tree they sent for£38 had no stem 2 laterals which i planted not realisinng it wasnt going to grow on tiered system.
A gardener friend told me i would have to grow u shape as main stem had been cut off.
I woild have thought that paying £38 for espalier for training i would have choice tiered or u shape not that choice being made for me without consultation.
The 2 12.50 trees i bought in feb have a leader or stem 1mtr high at moment.
From start to finish a disaster for a novice.

I received my pear tree and grape vine 3 days after ordering. They are in perfect condition and a superb size, fully in leaf after being packaged beautifully. I'll leave another review next year after overwintering and the new spring/ summer season is upon us. I have high hopes. Thank you.

I bought two super column trees (cherry and plum) back in July 2026. The cherry seems to be doing OK but the plum tree looks frozen in time and came with ripped, damaged leaves. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and planted it, but after trying to contact them twice by phone and once by email with no reply, I'm fed up. Their customer service is non-existent. Take it from someone who learned the hard way—read the reviews and avoid this company.

I ordered a Victoria plum tree. When it arrived, 2 days after the carrier notified me it would arrive, it looked dried out. Soil powdery and stems wrinkled. I inforned the company. But said i would plant it and see what happened (no eesponse to my email). Sadly it didnt produce leaves it remained in the same state as when planted. For the last 4 months i have been seeking a response, and solution to this the dead tree they supplied.

Their website claims they have a golden guarantee. Well in my experience, even when there is a clear, documented issue, with photos they do litterally nothing to resolve the problem, they dont even acknowledge emails.

Very very poor. It seems if you get a living tree from them, all is wonderful. If however you dont then frankly you have lost the money you paid for the plant, and the time it takes to communicate with them.

I wont risk buying from them again.

I ordered a crab apple tree with yellow fruit last Autumn. The tree was well packaged and has grown well but it has now grown fruit which are clearly not crab apples but full size apples. I have a small garden and wanted a small tree but I do not know what variety apple tree this is or how big it might get. I have sent E mails and photographs to the nursery and left a voice message but have had no response at all. Looking at other reviews it seems there is a problem with misidentified trees being sent out fairly often. I wish I had read them before ordering. I cannot recommend this nursery and their customer service appears to be non existent.

@Katy Bowen-Bravery

I too am experiencing a somewhat less than satisfactory experience with Chris Bowers. I bought a Black Mulberry “tree” from them in February. What arrived was little more than some bare rooted twigs admittedly with buds. I planted it immediately in a large container and waited until May but nothing happened so I contacted them. Despite being advertised as ideal for a container being a dwarf variety I was told I should have put it straight in the ground and that Mulberries are notoriously slow in their first year even though it was advertised as 18 months ie in its second year. By the end of July it remains the same with no signs of life in fact and minimal signs of some life just continued to dieback. I have paid £73 for some dead twigs and am still awaiting a response to my last email

Please do not waste your money with this company- I purchased 4 plum trees that arrived battered and I could see immediately signs of die back. All 4 trees died quite quickly despite good care and Chris Bowers does NOT respond to emails if you complain. Also I could not get a response on the phone line. I am going to Trading Standards to make a formal complaint. There are so many poor reviews for this company it's such a shame as many folk love their gardens and so much time and money is wasted by awful sellers like Chris Bowers and Sons (who, it seems, also operates under different company names) Avoid like the plague!!

This was my second order and like my first order I can't fault Chris Bowers & Sons. The two gooseberry plants that I ordered arrived well watered, very well packaged, on time and very healthy. I will definitely continue to use Chris Bowers & Sons.

Ordered 3 supercolumn fruit trees which were all planted together in same area.
Several months after planting the apple variety started to look really poorly compared to other two . Contacted Chris Bowers staff to ask for advice on problem. Given advice as well as being sent a replacement tree a few days later . Excellent service and company to deal with .

i ordered a grape vine , dornfelder and it came the following day. The packaging was fantastic and the vine is brilliant so glad i ignored the negative coments well done chris bowers

I bought bare root trees, watered them daily but only 2 produced leaves. I emailed them, and 1st time they said to wait additional month. I did, then emailed again. Each time with photo evidence. They ignored my 2nd and 3rd emails. Do not use them as they ignore you if you ask for a refund. They do not adhere to consumer law, they do not reply to refund request emails. They also do not answer their phone, which I tried many times until I gave up as it felt so stressful.

One of the worst experiences I've had with a company. Please do take notes of the negative reviews, they are accurate in my experience.

They do have a good selection and I had no issue with delivery, but if something goes wrong they are impossible to deal with. Don't rely on their claimed guarantee on the website.

DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY, THEY ARE AMATEURS AND DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE SELLING. LOOK AT THE MANY OTHER BAD REVIEWS.
These people do not communicate at all when things go wrong (or even when they don't). I bought a Youngberry from them, following the purchase of one four years ago, and it was NOT a Youngberry. They take no notice of your consumer rights and no not answer the phone, emails or messages via their website. If anyone else wants to report this company to Trading Standards the number is 0344 800 8020
Please do think twice about ordering from this set-up. Thank you.

If i could give no stars i would. Emails and calls. Promised me a replacement queen cox and nada.
Called this morning. Left a message.
Do not, do not buy from this company
They need closed down. My tree was a gift and i didn't give it because of the state of it.
I"m so angry! A bunch of chancers
DO NOT BUY!!!

Poor communication, no updates, missed promises on despatch and worst of all very rude customer services someone called Mabel needs to learn how to talk to people.

Expected better, I understand some delays in orders however that is no excuse for being passive aggressive towards customers who request order updates.

What they fail to understand is despatch notices/ confirmations are important as it means I can arrange for someone to be at home to receive the delivery. I was told that providing despatch confirmation does not benefit anybody,

Hilarious.

If you are ever unfortunate enough that you need to speak to customer services just pray that you don’t get Mabel.

Ordered a plum tree from them which took 23 days to arrive. on the website said it would be dispatched in 2-3 days. When I contacted them after the second time I got curt email in reply. "It will be dispatched and arrive tomorrow which is well within the 28 days we are allowed"
What I got was a stick with a few roots on it, so as you can imagine I was a bit skeptical but figured ok lets give it a chance.
I did everything I should soaked the roots in water for 2 days, made a good size hole and put in plenty of mulch, planted my stick and watered well. Every day it didn't rain went out and gave it some water.
3 months later I still have a well tended stick planted in my garden which shows absolutely no sign of life not even a small bud. at £32 its the most expensive stick I have ever bought.
No response on contacting. Wish I had read the reviews on here before buying.
*** UPDATE ***
Following this review I have updated the 1 star to 3 stars as I have now received a new tree which arrived safely and was what I expected the first time round...It is a nice healthy tree and has been planted now for 2 weeks and is showing signs of new growth.
Very happy with the replacement tree.

I ordered 60 strawberry plants on the 1st July 26, I later emailed to check which courier they use for delivery & was given a brief email response stating APC like customer service does not matter.
Then this morning I received copy of my order email to say my order had been cancelled, with no follow up email from the company stating why its cancelled,
I have checked the items I ordered since & they are listed in stock.
But I have received a refund back to PayPal .
I advise all not to bother with this company!