As a collector of unusual tropical fruit trees, I decided to go on a hunt for some rather unique species that are hard to come by.
This search led me to the company Fast Growing Trees, a large online plant store that had, well, seemingly everything available for purchase.
After placing two orders, with five unique trees and/or cacti, I have to say that I have been quite pleased with the company all around!
Fast Growing Trees Exceeded Expectations
Admittedly, before I received my order from Fast Growing Trees, I have to say I was rather suspect. A company with a generic name and an inventory of seemingly every plant I could ever want? This felt like a too-good-to-be-true situation, and I placed an order with a bit of hesitation over what I'd receive.
As it turns out, all of the concerns I had were purely in my head- I had two perfect experiences with Fast Growing Trees.
My first order with the company was for a Mauritius lychee tree, a Nagami kumquat tree, and a potted American Beauty dragonfruit cactus, and my second order included a pink guava tree and an Alphonso mango tree, which were shipped the following spring due to being placed out of season (read: too cold to ship). All trees were shipped from within the USA and were delivered in just about 48-72 hours after I received my shipping notification- all packed with great care and arrived without significant damage (only a couple of leaves fell off in the box before arrival).
It is worth noting here that Fast Growing Trees often packages multiple trees together in the same box end-over-end style- think a long horizontal box with one pot at either end and the trunks lying next to each other (see the above photo for reference). The box is supposed to remain flat during shipping to keep the plants horizontal, but in both deliveries, we saw the box held practically vertically by our driver (such that one tree was effectively upside down). Thankfully, the packaging has always been robust here, with the pots sealed in a plastic bag, wrapped in paper, and, in the case of our second shipment, also zip-tied to the box itself. Despite the handling, the dirt in the pots looked like they were hardly disturbed at all.
For all the products ordered, including the dragonfruit cactus, Fast Growing Trees had several size options available at the time of order. The trees typically included height options of 2-3 feet, 3-4 feet, and sometimes even 4-5 feet, and the dragon fruit included some based on height and some on pot size. I admit that I found the latter a bit confusing because I had no gauge on what pot size translated to in size- I went on faith that the more expensive price tag would translate into a bigger cactus (it ended up being about 24″ tall with several healthy branches, as opposed to the alternative option of a 6″ cactus!).
The variety in size is quite nice to see, and in some cases, a tree was only $10-$20 more expensive to buy one ~1-2 feet taller. While I happily paid the upsell, it is also worth noting that sometimes the value proposition was not there- a few trees jumped by $50 to $100 for the same extra ~1-2 feet. Suffice it to say that the variability in pricing does not seem to be standardized (likely due to the speed at which some of the trees grow, availability, etc). Still, if you are lucky and find a tree with a nice price progression, paying a bit more could be a good idea to cut off some growing time on your side.
As a bonus, when my trees arrived, I'd argue that they were all either near the taller end of the height range I bought or, in a few cases, significantly larger. The pink guava is a great example here, as I ordered a 4-5 foot tall tree that arrived 6 1/2 feet tall from the bottom of the pot! The Nagami kumquat even had 20 fruits, but we later removed those to help encourage more growth. You'll hear no complaints from me on these!
The only downside to Fast Growing Trees that I noticed is that while they have a huge selection on the website, the availability of the products can be incredibly variable. Trees come seemingly randomly, height options appear and disappear completely, and so on. It is not the biggest of issues, but it is a bit confusing when you look on the website and see a tree with options 2-3 foot tall, 3-4 foot tall, and 4-5 foot tall, only to later return a few weeks later and see only 2-3 tall with the other options removed completely from the page. Are they out of stock and coming back soon, or out of stock and never coming back? It is hard to say.
Still, a minor concern in the grand scheme of things!
Are the Trees Fast Growing?
Now, you may be wondering, is there anything special to the name Fast Growing Trees? Do they grow faster than others? Well, no- my trees grew just like any other in my collection independent of where they were bought.
The name Fast Growing Trees is more a catchy brand name over an implication of what their products do. They're quality trees, yes, and should theoretically grow as fast as any tree of that type, but I wouldn't bank on anything special in this regard. As bloggers, we recognize that the name was likely a strategic choice for marketing and capturing a very lucrative keyword in the online space, and we are quite okay with it!
That said, although no one should think that trees from this company will grow faster than trees from any other (again, it is just a brand name), we do have to go back to the height commentary from above one more time because this could be an important distinction from one angle of thinking.
Ultimately, for those who like to buy fruit trees at least, we all know that they can take years before they can fruit. By buying a larger tree, you are, by extension, typically buying one that is older and more established. The bigger and older the tree, the faster it could theoretically grow compared to a younger/smaller tree and the closer it will be to fruiting. In this regard, we would argue that the trees are “fast-growing,” but only because you bought an older tree at the start.
Do other companies sell trees of similar size? It is possible. Would those trees grow at the same rate if everything else was the same? Of course. Still, there is something to be said about buying a larger tree and (hopefully) yielding fruit much sooner, and we are here for the options when available!
Overall, Fast Growing Trees really impressed me with the quality of their products, quick and safe delivery, and the fact that some of my trees already came with fruit on them. Compared to buying a smaller tree elsewhere, this puts me well on my way to a bountiful harvest all the sooner!
Have you ordered from Fast Growing Trees before? What did you order and what did you think of the product? Comment below to share!
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Wonder if this article was a paid endorser. Ours arrived late
Ordered 10 boxwoods, 8 arrived 1 day later than listed delivery date, others were inexplicably put on a different Shipper and are a week past original delivery date. Of the 8 we received half were in bags of loose dirt and no pots, 3 were in bags of shattered pots, and one was in a bag with neither pot nor soil and had been packaged that way with the package tight around a drying, exposed root base. Not reliable nor shipped with any serious concern on survivability. First order and very likely my last. Feels like a bait and switch ripoff.
The only money that changed hands in the production of this article was me giving Fast Growing Trees something on the order of about $500 when I purchased trees as an anonymous customer. All my trees were packaged and delivered as shown in the article (over multiple shipments), and I have no complaints about how they were packaged.
That said, all of mine were fruit trees/cactuses/berry bushes and not boxwoods. I’m not sure if they use different suppliers or nurseries, but that wouldn’t surprise me if boxwoods were not grown in the same facilities as my tropical trees. Still, that shipment, if true, is unacceptable. You would be better served contacting Fast Growing Trees to fix your order over leaving disparaging comments on a blog.