Do you offer or accept 1-year warranties on trees? What does the warranty cover? Does it cover the establishment of the trees? Although it misleadingly suggests one year is enough, larger trees need a much longer time to get established. The current knowledge in landscaping and arboriculture is that newly planted trees take about 1 year per inch of caliper to establish. In colder climates, it is better to add a year! The picture was taken in Ashland VA in 2022. The trees were planted in 2016.

The main reason that it takes much longer than the commonly offered 1-year is that most of farm-grown trees lose 80+% of their root system during transplanting process. Container-grown trees may have 100% root system, but there are other issues associated with container-grown trees such as smaller root system to start with and common girdling roots. After removing all the girdling roots, the effective root system is no longer 100%. 

On top of that, the harsh urban/built environment (heat island, impervious surfaces, compacted soil, depleted soil microbiome, pollution,etc) put extra stress on these trees. That is why instant shade projects never worked. 1-year warranty for these larger-sized plants is not only insufficient, but also misleading because it make the customers to believe 1-year is enough.

If the 1-year warranty doesn’t cover the establishment of larger plants, then what does it cover? Should the customers be informed about this? 

It is unfair to ask a landscape contractor to cover the establishment when they are not paid to do the maintenance. It is unfair to the landowners when they are misled and think one year is enough. Growing these trees to maturity is what the landowners pay for. Replacing dead trees is NOT in the best interest of the landowners.

STOP the misleading 1-year warranty on newly planted trees!