Moon Valley Nurseries

Very interesting to read the reviews. I guess everyone has to filter their experience through their expectations. I have nothing but great things to say about Moon Valley Nursery. I called looking for a particular Palm in certain size. Toni was great. She gave me her cell number and asked me to send pics of the area we wanted to plant the tree. We had a texting discussion for several days and when we went up to look she drove us around to look at several choices. She knows her trees! Very impressed. Bought a beauty! The. We move on to the delivery and planting. Ryan showed up exactly when he said he would with his crew: Henry, Felix and Miguel. They were so professional and did an amazing job. Everyone we dealt with met or exceeded our expectations. Do t be put off by some of the reviews. These guys are great!

Great team of planters… horrible follow through by the nursery and many plants struggling almost a year later!
In August we bought over 10k in trees and plants. Joel Navarro and his team were fantastic planting and took back the plants that were sent by mistake (wrong color of bougevvilla, staked plants that weren’t ordered). Although some of the other plants weren’t exactly what we had ordered and the substitution had not been cleared before hand, it wasn’t worth haggling over.
Flash forward to 3 months later and our 2 Raywood Ash trees are struggling. We scheduled an appointment for someone to come out. I called and confirmed the appointment the day before and no one showed. Called and left messages, spoke to people at the nursery who said some would call me back to reschedule… no one ever called back or rescheduled. We worked diligently with amendments and tinkering with watering and our trees began to recover.
Now almost 1 year later (as the warranty is approaching expiration), neither tree have put on many leaves and one of our trees is turning browning and losing leaves. I have emailed and called several times with no response. Needless to say, I would not recommend this nursery to anyone. They may have good deals initially, but in the end, they are moe expensive than some of the other nurseries.

there aren’t too many times you get such great service, prices, and selection rolled into one.
my husband and I had never been to Moon Valley Nurseries and John Allen, Design Specialist made it a memorable first time experience. John was so helpful and a great friendly personality.
we bought a palm tree for a house warming gift that will not only be delivered but planted as well by Moon Valley Nurseries. Will we be back? you bet. even though we drive all the way
from Point Loma. thanks John.

I’m glad to say that my situation was escalated to the right person at Moon Valley. Toni the manger there took over our order and made sure we got and plants and even followed up with us after the installation. She really turned things around and provided great service. She even sent the best crew, Brett and team, to do the delivery.

One could not have a more professional, courteous, efficient and clean working crew than Brett Parker and his guys installing all the plant material for a completely re landscaped yard. Toni at Moon Valley Nursery in Escondido deserves huge props for her fast responses to any issue that arose. When Brett and his crew came back out to do some touch up work the care they showed seemed like they were working in their own yards. You might be able to beat their price (maybe) but you will never beat their service!

Rudy and his team delivered and planted everything. They were so professional and polite. They worked fast and did a great job. Thank you all!
Justin was such a great help. After realizing how complicated my situation was he got in his car and came out to my house to help me plan my front and back yard. It was a big job and I couldn’t have done it without him.
Thank you Justin!!!

Ryan O’Hara and his crew did a great job installing our trees! They were all polite and careful and cleaned up afterwards. Our trees are thriving and we couldn’t be happier! :-) –El Cajon

Zak gave us some good suggestions for what to replace my red apple with. Brett Parker and his crew cheerfully planted over 70 plants! Five plants were back ordered and Brett & crew returned today and planted those. Also two plants didn’t make it from the first delivery and Kim at Moon Valley gladly replaced those and sent them out with Brett. I think what I most appreciated about Brett was his eagerness to place the plants for the best effect, as well as mulching around each plant, and making sure I had enough «Moon Juice» to help with root shock. Thank you!

I ordered a bunch of Potocarpus and they arrived today. Brett and his crew really did a nice job of delivering and planting my new plants. They took their time and did a great job. Thanks guys!

These guys are the best. Not only were the trees and plants high quality, but Brett Parker and crew did an amazing job planting everything. I can’t believe how great my backyard looks like now!

I very recently had a experience with Moon Valley that went less than stellar. I am thankful it was only the planning stages and I never ended up buy from them the initial process was enough to not want to recommend them.
The whole experience left a very poor impression as I felt by the end I was dealing with the typical «used car» sales experience. There were unnecessary time frames put upon me, very inaccurate information and pricing as well as incomplete pricing. My $ 200 spent for a in home consultation was a waste of funds as all I got was a walk around my yard, sales suggestions. If there was to be a written plan or drawing, it never seemed to be part of the program.
Had an appointment at my home. The person was very pleasant and appeared very helpful At the end of the meeting he quoted a price and I stated I wanted to further discuss it with my wife and asked for a written recap of the costs. Was told they don’t do that but he would would send me a screen shot of his proposal very soon. It showed up on my phone w/​in 30 minutes, but the price was now almost 20% higher. When I called to question, there was no immediate answer to the discrepancy. Soon I received a text with the explanation that he had forgot to add in three items, two of which my wife had said he would «just supply».
We than discussed some size/​price options. The new price I was given did not seem accurate, because when I deleted two items and added replacements, that had been suggested, versus my new adjusted price, based on his figures, it did not match. Later I was called back giving me a new and complete price. This price now included an item never before mentioned, delivery. So we now have even a new cost.
Then came the used car closer part. I had about an hour to decide because some of the «special» pricing was going to expire. I told him I could not give him an answer tha fast as I was out of town and had to call my wife. Suddenly the deadline was extended an hour.
By this point I had had enough and brought the process to a halt. It might have cost $ 200, but I think it was a small price to pay considering what was at stake.

What a wonderful experience from beginning to end! When we walked in we were a little overwhelmed, and «accidentally» ran into Kim down in her office. How lucky we did! She took the time to drive us around and go over different options for the trees we were looking for. She was very knowledgable and we had such a fun time!
Planting day came and we couldn’t be more happy with Brett and his crew! They were very professional and went above and beyond to make sure everything was perfect. We couldn’t be happier with the overall experience and will absolutely be back for our future purchases!

Everyone was most helpful, starting with Kraig whom help us select the type of trees for our project… he even came out to our home… quoted us a reasonable price and the planting and follow up by Ryan’s team was great. They were punctual, respectful did an outstanding job, and cleaned up afterwards!
We are very pleased with dealing with them, to such an extent we asking them to quote on more trees!

Had overall great experience. Purchased several palm trees and tropicals. They expertly hoisted my tall palms carefully over a wall and planted them beautifully. Some trees experienced predictable shock despite a healthy complimentary dose of their «Moon Juice» soil fertilizer, but all survived and are lovely. Can work with them to reduce posted prices.
Only pet peeve was they switched my job foreman at the last minute from an excellent one already on our site, to one who was marginal. Make sure this issue is pinned down before they get to your house.
I would highly recommend this lovely nursery with friendly staff and knowlgeable staff that will patiently drive you around in a golf cart to choose your plants, and use excellent hard-​working and experienced people to plant your lovely additions.

Bottom line: their customer service is terrible! Unprofessional, unhelpful. IF you come here, which I wouldn’t recommend and would only do if you can’t find the plants you need anywhere else, ask for help from Colleen or Toni. They are the only worthwhile people I came in contact with.
Here’s more in depth information about my experience:
I’ve been in touch with and in to several nurseries in the past few months as we are completing a renovation of our entire front and backyard. And I can honestly say that my experience with Moon Valley was the worst of all the nurseries I visited.
I called a couple weeks ago with a list of about 20 plants that I was needing for my yard. Yes I was shopping around. Getting ready to spend hundreds of dollars on plants, of course I’m gonna do my research. I was told to email my list in and they’d get back to me. Standard and I was of course okay with this.
I received a call back with prices on a couple of the plants, but was told that I really should come in, to see what they have to offer, rather than just being focused on my list. Fine if you don’t know what you want, but I did. I wanted the list of plants I provided. And so now I didn’t have a great reference for their prices (news flash: they’re hella high!).
The day I decided to come in, I had already purchased most of my plants from other local nurseries and was just needing a couple more that they were «pretty sure they had» based on my previous phone call. I mean, it’s 2016. Don’t you keep a detailed invetory of your plants? I called ahead and asked for 4 different plants, was told that they were super busy, they’d get back to me in 45 minutes. I was only about 20 minutes away so I said I’d just come in and get help in person. «Yeah just come down and walk around and see if we have it and if we don’t, I’m sure we will have something else.» Ugh! If I wanted to browse, I’d just come in. I’m calling because I have specific requests!
I got to the nursery, which is large and appeared to have a good selection of plants. I went straight to the cashier area to ask for help. Told the guy I was looking for a couple plants and he said, «you called about xyz, right? Yeah we have em all. 1 gallons over there (pointing) and 5 gallons that way (pointing). Everything is marked, easy to find.» So I headed off, walking through all the aisles of plants but finding nothing, and really just wanting some help.
Back to the cashier, where there were a couple employees standing around, no one interested in asking me if I had a question or needed help. I finally talked to a guy, told him I was looking for 4 specific plants, had been getting the runaround and was quite frustrated, and just wanted to know FOR SURE if they had them and EXACTLY where they were. He looked at the list (while stuffing his face with a burrito!!! What!!!) and said, «yeah nope. None of it.» I. Was. Flabbergasted. I said, «Are you sure because I was told you had at least 2 of them…» So then Toni jumped in and took over, I’m sure she could tell I was beyond upset, and along with Colleen, was able to get me 2 of the plants I was looking for, neither of which were tagged OR in the place the earlier dude pointed me to.
The whole experience was insanely frustrating and I am shocked that they are able to get away with such lack luster (and that’s being generous) customer service.

I am completely disappointed with Moon Valley nursery. A year ago I bought four expensive trees under the impression that they were guaranteed to grow. Turns out the guarantee is only good for 90 days. I also paid them to do a plan to redo my front yard. What I received was a rough penciled sketch and a tour of the nursery grounds. Caveat Emptor.

If I had read S F’s Unilocal review prior to going I might not have been so appalled at the sales tactics. As soon as we stepped out of the car we were approached by a gentleman who offered to help. It felt a little «funny», but got really weird when one of the 1^st questions out of his mouth was «what is your budget?» I think the correct question would have been, «where is the tree getting planted… what type of soil… how big do you want it to be… are their issues with why the tree died in the 1^st place???/!!!»
I had done research prior to arriving and knew that a tree had died due to clay soil, poor drainage and possible salt toxicity. But when I relayed this to the guy he promptly said that they guarantee their trees and amend soil, etc. Well, the tree that I am replacing has been there for 7 years but dying a slow tragic death. I doubt moon would replace a tree if that was occurring. Anyway, the budget question threw me off. When I go to a nursery I want to talk to someone who has extensive knowledge of plants and I didn’t feel I was getting that.
Can’t speak to the price we were quoted as I need to comparison shop. I hope I find it cheaper somewhere else because I wasn’t impressed with this place.

I don’t write reviews often. But if I do, it’s ether to praise a good business, or to help people obtain a broader perspective on a business. Here’s my opinion, if you have money to burn, this is a great place. The people are knowledgable and some are very courteous if you look and act the part of someone with money. If you don’t look like you have money, you will likely will be ignored especially if there are other people walking around who look like 1% percenters. It is an awesome nursery in terms of quality and choice. The poor experience boils down to this, we all understand businesses have to make money, this place is good at establishing high margins for themselves because they know there are people out there with disposable income who are willing to pay. I can respect that, everyone is entitled to do business as long as it is done honorably and honestly. But the problem here is not everyone who comes to this place is in the 1% tile income bracket. There are those in the 2%-5% who have the means to pay, but there are sales people here who are trained to try and squeeze every dime from you. While I don’t have a problem with that, it’s that it’s not done in a respectable manner. There were some sales people there who were transparent with certain information, but upon several experiences, I’ve encountered a good number of their staff will not tell you the entire truth like a politician, or they will blatantly just give very information that can easily be perceived as deceptive. After several attempts to buy something from there, I got the impression that the training there in sales can be very similar to a New Jersey used car sales run by the mafia. For a place with such expensive products, they don’t seem to understand that sometimes very educated people who visit them are treated as if they were morons. You are going to run into shady sales practices everywhere, and it’s likely you may be suckered into buying something you didn’t really want or didn’t need because you got bad advice. My advice to you is that if you do consider this place, do your research and survey quotes from other places. This is not the only business that sells plants and trees. If you do that, you’ll see how much it actually costs and get the facts yourself. It’s the age of the internet and if they are giving you BS, the internet will tell you the truth. But if you want to throw money at the problem and don’t really care because you have disposable income, this place can be perfect for you. Otherwise, there’s really no other good reason to buy from this place unless there is a specific product you can’t buy anywhere else. Good luck.
*Update — On my 3^rd visit I inquired about an olive tree. First off the facts they gave me were inaccurate. As for the price… They wanted $ 3000 for a fruitless wilsonii tree in a 36″ box (which they advertised as 50% off). I shopped around and what I discovered was that you could not only but it for much less, you could actually buy 2 olive trees at sizes 60″ and 36″ from evergreen nursery, delivered, craned in, and planted by your landscaper for less. When moon valley tries to sell you on a tree because of their «warranty» — let’s just say my neighbor along with all the people here have a different opinion about what a warranty is. Buyer beware. Used car sales tactics rampant here…

Brett and his crew just planted my king palm and it looks great!!! These guys are pros. The tree looks of really good quality. One day it will give us a lot of shade in this hot Corona sun. Also thanks to Tony. She was extremely nice and helpful.

We saw an ad and drove out to the Escondido nursery. We were truly treated like guests and helped to pick out the right type of tree for our needs, a hedge type along our fence.
The crew arrived on time, were extremely professional (and also really friendly!)
Their work was impeccable. Fast, clean, left everything perfect and the trees are just right.
Ryan, the supervisor did a great job of communicating and we ordered more trees right on the spot. Go there! It’s worth the drive!