TN Nursery vs Fast Growing Trees: 5 Differences

📑 Table of Contents

• What Tree Experts Say About Buying Online
• Why I've Ordered from Both Nurseries
• TN Nursery vs. Fast Growing Trees: The Quick Overview
• Side-by-Side Snapshot
• 5 Differences I'd Compare Before Buying
• My Real Experience Ordering from Both
• Where TN Nursery Wins
• Where Fast Growing Trees Wins
• Full Comparison Table
• Who Should Choose TN Nursery
• Who Should Choose Fast Growing Trees
• Final Verdict
• FAQ

🌳 What Tree Experts Say About Buying Trees Online

Why I've Ordered from Both Nurseries

I'll be honest — I found TN Nursery first. The prices were so low I couldn't resist, even though bare root trees seemed like a gamble. I ordered six trees, they all survived, and I became a repeat customer. That story is straightforward.

But then a friend showed me her new Japanese maple from Fast Growing Trees. It arrived in a gorgeous 3-gallon pot, already leafed out, looking like a miniature version of a tree you'd see in a botanical garden. She set it on her patio, took a photo, and posted it the same afternoon. It looked incredible immediately.

Meanwhile, my TN Nursery bare root trees were still leafless sticks in the ground. They'd outgrow her potted maple within two seasons — I was fairly confident about that — but in that moment, standing in her yard, I understood why Fast Growing Trees has 58,000+ Google reviews and a sleek website with professional photos.

These two nurseries represent fundamentally different approaches to selling trees online. I've ordered from both, planted trees from both, and watched them grow. Here are the five differences that actually matter when you're deciding where to spend your money.

TN Nursery vs. Fast Growing Trees: The Quick Overview

TN Nursery (Tennessee Wholesale Nursery LLC) is a 65-year-old, family-owned grower in Altamont, Tennessee. They operate on 170 acres, grow 100% of their inventory on-site, and sell direct to the public at wholesale prices. Most of their catalog ships as bare root stock during dormancy windows in spring and fall. Their specialty is native Eastern U.S. species — trees, ferns, wildflowers, shrubs, and ground covers that most online nurseries don't carry.

Fast Growing Trees is one of the largest online retail tree nurseries in the U.S. They're based in South Carolina and operate a polished e-commerce platform with professional product photography, detailed descriptions, and a shopping experience that rivals any major online retailer. They ship potted, container-grown trees year-round in multiple size options, with a focus on popular cultivars and branded tree varieties.

Both sell trees online. But the business model, the product format, the pricing, and the customer experience are almost completely different. Understanding those differences will save you from ordering the wrong thing from the wrong place.

Side-by-Side Snapshot

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5 Differences I'd Compare Before Buying

1. Who Actually Grew Your Tree

This is the difference most people don't think about, and it's probably the most important one.

TN Nursery is the grower. Every tree on their site was planted, tended, and dug from their 170-acre farm in Altamont, Tennessee. When you buy a red maple from TN Nursery, you're buying a tree that spent years growing in Cumberland Plateau soil, weathering Tennessee summers and winters, developing a root system adapted to real growing conditions. There's no supply chain between the field and your yard — just a box and a shipping label.

Fast Growing Trees operates more like an online retailer. They grow some of their stock, but they also source trees from wholesale growers across the country. That's not necessarily bad — it's how most retail nurseries work. But it means the tree you receive might have been grown in a completely different climate, potted up for sale, and shipped through a distribution chain before landing on your doorstep. You don't always know the tree's history.

For native species and long-term landscape plantings, knowing your tree was field-grown in the region where you're planting it is a meaningful advantage. For ornamental cultivars where provenance matters less, the sourcing model is less of a concern.

2. What Shows Up at Your Door (Bare Root vs. Potted)

This is the difference you'll notice immediately when the box arrives.

From TN Nursery: you open the box and find a dormant tree with exposed roots wrapped in moist packing material. No leaves. No soil. No container. It looks like a stick with roots. First-time bare root buyers universally have the same reaction: “Are you sure this thing is alive?”

From Fast Growing Trees: you open the box and find a tree in a nursery pot with soil, leaves (if it's growing season), and a plant tag with a photo of what the mature tree looks like. It looks like a tree. You could set it on the porch and it would look presentable immediately.

The visual difference is dramatic. But what Dr. Nina Bassuk's research at Cornell has demonstrated is that the root system inside that nursery pot is often the weaker of the two options. Container roots circle, girdle, and mat in ways that can compromise the tree years after planting. Bare root trees arrive with root systems that spread naturally because they developed in open ground — no container walls forcing them into circles.

The trade-off: bare root requires patience and planting during dormancy. Potted trees look good immediately and can be planted almost any time. Both are valid approaches — but they serve different kinds of buyers.

3. What You'll Actually Pay (and Why)

The price gap between these two nurseries is significant enough to change what you can afford to plant.

TN Nursery sells at wholesale, grower-direct pricing. A bare root Eastern redbud might cost a fraction of what the same species costs at Fast Growing Trees. A red maple, a dogwood, a tulip poplar — across the board, TN Nursery prices run roughly 40-60% below what you'd pay for comparable potted trees at Fast Growing Trees.

Fast Growing Trees charges retail prices that reflect their business model: container costs, potting soil, warehouse storage, professional photography, a polished website, and customer service infrastructure. You're paying for the tree plus the convenience ecosystem built around it. Their prices are competitive with local garden centers, but they're retail prices.

Where this matters most: multi-tree orders. If you're planting one specimen tree for a front yard, the price difference might be $30-$50 — noticeable but not life-changing. If you're planting ten trees to screen a property line or build a shade canopy, the cumulative savings from TN Nursery can be hundreds of dollars. At wholesale bare root prices, projects that seemed out of budget suddenly become affordable.

4. What's Available in the Catalog

TN Nursery and Fast Growing Trees serve different audiences, and their catalogs reflect it.

TN Nursery's catalog is deep on native Eastern U.S. species. Pawpaw trees, sourwood, native dogwood, American persimmon, tulip poplar, bald cypress, witch hazel — species that co-evolved with Eastern ecosystems and support hundreds of native insect and bird species. They're listed on Wildflower.org with 100% native inventory. If you're looking for hard-to-find native trees, TN Nursery often has them when nobody else does.

Fast Growing Trees' catalog is optimized for what mainstream homeowners search for online. Thuja Green Giant for privacy screens. Yoshino cherry for spring color. Japanese maples for specimen planting. Citrus trees for patio containers. They carry some native species, but the catalog skews toward popular cultivars and branded varieties — Autumn Blaze maple, Nellie Stevens holly, Leyland cypress — that appeal to the widest audience.

Neither catalog is objectively better. They're pointed in different directions. If you want the tree that every landscaper recommends and Chip Gaines would plant on camera, Fast Growing Trees has it in a pot ready to ship. If you want the tree that was here before your house was built and that local wildlife actually depends on, TN Nursery grows it in the ground and ships it bare root.

5. The Shopping Experience (Website, Support, and Everything Around the Tree)

This is where Fast Growing Trees wins convincingly, and where TN Nursery needs the most improvement.

Fast Growing Trees has built one of the best e-commerce experiences in the nursery industry. Professional product photos. Detailed growing guides for every species. Size comparison graphics. Customer reviews with photos. A responsive customer service team with phone, email, and live chat. The website is fast, well-organized, and designed to make you feel confident about what you're buying. For a first-time online tree buyer, it's reassuring.

TN Nursery's website is functional but dated. Product pages often lack detailed photos or growing instructions. Size and age information is minimal. Customer communication can be slow — email responses sometimes take several days. The ordering process works, but it doesn't inspire the same confidence. You're buying on trust in the nursery's 65-year history and the product's reputation, not on a polished digital experience.

If you're a confident gardener who knows what species you want and just needs a source for good plants at good prices, TN Nursery's website is fine. If you need guidance, visual reassurance, and responsive support as part of your buying experience, Fast Growing Trees delivers that significantly better.

My Real Experience Ordering from Both

TN Nursery — Six Bare Root Trees, Spring Delivery

I ordered two red maples, two Eastern redbuds, a tulip poplar, and a pawpaw. Total cost was dramatically lower than what a single specimen tree would have cost from a retail nursery. The box arrived mid-April, everything packed in moist material, no damage.

Planting was straightforward — soak roots, dig wide holes, spread roots, backfill with native soil. All six were in the ground in about three hours. The waiting period was the hard part: two to three weeks of staring at bare sticks in the ground before buds started swelling. By mid-May, five of six were fully leafed out. The pawpaw was slow but came through by early June.

End of first season: 100% survival, 18-24 inches of new growth on the maples, strong establishment across the board. By year two, these trees looked like they'd been there for five years.

Fast Growing Trees — Two Potted Trees, Summer Delivery

I ordered a 3-4 foot Autumn Blaze maple and a 3-4 foot Thuja Green Giant. The unboxing experience was noticeably better — both arrived in clean nursery pots, leafed out, looking healthy and photogenic. My wife's reaction: “Now THESE look like real trees” (a dig at my bare root sticks from the previous spring).

Planting was standard container planting: dig hole twice as wide as the root ball, loosen the outer roots, backfill, stake, water. The Thuja established without any drama — evergreens are resilient. The Autumn Blaze maple showed some transplant stress for about six weeks (wilting leaves during hot afternoons) before settling in.

End of first season: both survived, both grew, but neither showed the aggressive first-season growth I'd seen from the TN Nursery bare root trees. The container roots needed time to grow out of their potted root pattern and into the native soil. By year two, both were performing well — but they were just catching up to where the bare root trees had been at the end of their first year.

The Verdict After Two Growing Seasons

By the end of year two, the TN Nursery bare root trees were noticeably larger and more vigorous than the Fast Growing Trees potted trees — despite having arrived as bare sticks that looked half-dead. The bare root trees spent no time transitioning out of potting mix. Their roots spread into native soil from day one. That head start compounded over two seasons.

But I'd be dishonest if I didn't acknowledge the Fast Growing Trees experience was more pleasant as a consumer. The website made me feel informed. The trees looked beautiful on arrival. The customer support was responsive when I had a question about staking. For someone less patient than I am, that experience might matter more than long-term root performance.

Where TN Nursery Wins

Where Fast Growing Trees Wins

Full Comparison Table

Who Should Choose TN Nursery

Budget-conscious buyers planting multiple trees — If you're ordering more than two or three trees, the cumulative savings from wholesale pricing are substantial. Privacy screen of ten trees? Shade canopy of five maples? This is where TN Nursery makes the most financial sense.

Native plant enthusiasts and eco-conscious gardeners — If your goal is to support local wildlife, build pollinator habitat, or plant species that belong in your ecoregion, TN Nursery's 100% native catalog is the right starting point. Fast Growing Trees' cultivar-heavy catalog won't serve these goals as well.

Experienced gardeners who prioritize root quality — If you understand that root system architecture matters more than canopy size at the time of purchase, bare root stock from a 65-year grower is the superior product. You'll wait for the visual payoff, but the establishment performance speaks for itself.

Long-term landscape planners — If you're thinking in five-year increments rather than five-day increments, TN Nursery's field-grown bare root trees will reward your patience with stronger, more vigorous growth at a fraction of retail cost.

Who Should Choose Fast Growing Trees

First-time online tree buyers who want a guided experience. If this is your first time ordering a tree online and you want professional photos, size options, growing guides, and responsive customer support, Fast Growing Trees provides a shopping experience that builds confidence. TN Nursery assumes you already know what you want.

Anyone who needs a tree right now, regardless of season. Summer impulse project? Holiday gift? Fall patio planting? Fast Growing Trees ships potted trees year-round. TN Nursery's dormancy-only shipping won't work for urgent timelines.

People who want a specific tree size. If you need a 4-5 foot tree — not a 2-foot sapling, not a 6-foot whip — Fast Growing Trees lets you choose. TN Nursery ships what the field produced.

Gift buyers and front-yard statement planters. A potted Japanese maple arriving in full leaf makes a better gift and a better front-yard first impression than a dormant bare root stick. Visual impact on arrival matters for some purchases, and Fast Growing Trees delivers it.

🌳 Final Verdict — Which Online Nursery Should You Choose?

Choose TN Nursery if: you want the best value, prioritize root quality and native species, are planting multiple trees, and have the patience to wait for bare root stock to establish. You'll pay less, get healthier root systems, access species that Fast Growing Trees doesn't carry, and watch your trees outperform potted stock within a couple of seasons.

Choose Fast Growing Trees if: you want a polished shopping experience, need trees year-round, prefer potted plants that look established on arrival, and value responsive customer service as part of the purchase.

For my own garden, TN Nursery wins. The wholesale pricing lets me plant generously, the bare root trees establish faster, and the native species catalog builds a garden that supports local ecology — not just local aesthetics. I'll tolerate the dated website and slower customer service for a product that performs this well in the ground.

My rating: 4.2/5 for this comparison — reflecting TN Nursery's clear advantages on product quality and pricing, balanced against Fast Growing Trees' undeniable edge on convenience and customer experience. Both are legitimate nurseries. They just serve different priorities.

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Frequently Asked Questions