I've been trolling the Arboreum website for months waiting impatiently for them to put their fall offerings online. They announced last week that today would be the day and it was.
I was Johnny-On-The-Spot, too, watching in real time as additions and deletions were being made. I really only wanted two trees, Sato Nishiki cherry and Late Muscatelle plum, and I had these in my cart within a minute of each showing up. I must have lingered thirty seconds too long before clicking the checkout button because, when I did, both cherry and plum evaporated out of my cart before my eyes, the software informing me that they were no longer available and my cart had been adjusted accordingly.
I'm more miffed than disappointed because it smells an awful lot like a scalper has made off with the full inventory. Indeed, the experience was a lot like trying to score tickets for a rock concert.
Arboreum does have a few offerings still available but the really rare stuff was gone in mere minutes of showing up on the website. Tip - as I write this Cristobalina is still listed but I have no doubt it will be gone soon.
Has anyone else had this experience with Arboreum?
Zone 6a in the moraines of eastern Connecticut.
Crankyankee,
I'd never heard of Arboreum before, but I guess that you mean The Arboreum Company? I went to the site, but didn't get much info. I'm guessing that your disappointment rightly comes down to the fact that you are an individual and that, with or without "first come first served", you're pretty much screwed because some business interest got its toes in the door before, or even after, someone else wanted the plant(s). ...It kinda sucks to not have big wads of cash to wave around, doesn't it?
I'm a bit idealistic. [Just a tad. 
] If a company screws me, I will thenceforth refuse to do any business with them. Heck: when I was a starving college student and I filled out an application for a credit card from a well-known issuer, they declined me. They're the ones who sent me the application. I swore that I'd never do any business with them in the future. Some 1/4 century later my wife and I have A1 credit and those bastards regularly send mail with this or that incentive and wanting my business, and I continually thumb my nose at them (along with a traditional rude gesture and some appropriately chosen profanities).
When you're looking for a particularly rare or obscure plant or fruit tree variety, it never hurts to "click on" some of the smaller -- sometimes "mom and pop" -- businesses that might have your precious rarity. I've found that very often those folks truly care about doing right by their customers. For them, repeat customers who were satisfied the first time are profoundly appreciated. In this day and age, one-on-one contact with a real live human is not to be denigrated. I'd like to think that most individuals are still relatively nice people at the core-- assuming that you can actually interact with a named individual. ...Not to bring politics into it, but you may recall when Mitt Romney, while running for the presidency, told someone: "Corporations are people, my friend". Someone's comment about that statement was: "I'll believe that corporations are people when the state of Texas fries one in the electric chair!"
Anyway, see if you can find a source for your most wanted plants from someone or some business that will actually, honestly, treat you as the respectable potential customer that you are. I still want to believe that most humans are essentially good!
Reinettes.
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