Terms of sale

1. Who you are dealing with

Blue Whale Trees, a nursery in the United States, reachable at captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

2. Orders and payment

Prices are in US dollars and shown on each product page. Adding an item to the cart does not reserve it; stock is reserved when you start checkout and released if payment is not completed. Payment is taken by card through Stripe at checkout. An order is accepted when we email a confirmation. If we cannot fill an order, because a plant did not make it through the winter or a seed crop failed, we will tell you and refund the affected items in full.

Sales tax: calculated at checkout where we are required to collect it.

Waitlist offer: wherever on the site you sign up to be told when a plant is priced, the email we send carries a code for 10% off the plants in one order. Enter it on the payment page; it does not apply to shipping or tax, and it works until the offer ends.

3. Availability and seasons

We grow from seed, so quantities are small and vary year to year. Live plants ship only when dormant, in February, March, April, May, October, November. An order placed outside those months is held and shipped in the next window; you can cancel a held order for a full refund any time before it ships. Acorns, nuts and seed ship year-round. Plants without a price are not for sale online; ask and we will tell you what is ready.

4. Shipping, pickup and risk

Shipping is charged per package at the rates on the shipping page and shown before you pay. Local pickup is free where offered. Risk of loss passes to you when the carrier delivers the package or when you collect it. Please give an address where the box will be found the day it arrives; a box left in the sun for days is not a shipping problem we can fix.

5. Live plants

Plants are living, variable and sold as described on the product page, with heights and zones given as typical ranges, not promises. We inspect every plant before it leaves. Two promises cover a live plant.

On arrival. If a plant arrives dead, badly damaged or not as described, email a photo within 48 hours of arrival and we will fully replace it, credit it or refund it, at our choice depending on what is available.

To leaf-out. Live plants ship dormant, so a plant that will not grow often shows nothing until spring. If a plant you set out within a week of arrival, as the shipping page says, has not leafed out by the end of the first June after it arrives, email a photo of the whole plant by the end of July. For an evergreen, new growth counts as leaf-out. We will then fully replace it, credit it or refund it, at our choice depending on what is available. The promise covers the plant, not a planting left dry: each plant's page and the watering calculator say what the first season needs.

A replacement ships at our cost in the next window for that plant. A credit or refund covers the plant's full price, and the shipping too when every plant in the box arrived dead, badly damaged or not as described.

Seed and acorns are perishable and sold with no guarantee of germination once they leave us, because storage and sowing conditions decide the result. We ship them fresh and tell you how to store them.

6. Your responsibilities

• Check that a species is suited to your zone and site before ordering; the product page, the tree finder and our email are there to help.
• Comply with any plant-import rules of your state. Some states restrict certain species or require inspection certificates. The state plant rules table lists the ones we know of.
• Unpack, water and plant promptly, and water through the first season.
• Give us accurate contact and address details and keep your account email current.

7. Cancellations and returns

Cancel any order for a full refund before it ships by emailing us. Because plants and seed are perishable, we do not accept returns of shipped items; problems on arrival are handled under section 5. Refunds go back to the card used and usually appear within a few business days.

8. Accounts

Accounts use one-time sign-in links sent to your email address, so keep that inbox secure. You are responsible for orders placed through your account. We may close accounts used for fraud or abuse.

9. Content and tools

Articles, photographs, descriptions and the calculators on this site are for general information. The tools give estimates from stated rules of thumb and are not advice about any particular tree; decisions about hazardous trees should involve a qualified arborist. The tree identification tool is for photographs of trees, shrubs and vines. Each is checked and then read by AI models, and this site keeps none of it. The privacy page says what Anthropic keeps, and for how long. Limits per address and per day stand against misuse. What you upload to it is yours and your responsibility alone. By sending a photo or words you confirm that you have the right to send them, and that they show a plant and nothing unlawful, private or hateful. We bear no responsibility whatsoever for what you upload, and we may refuse, stop or limit any request. Site content is ours or used under the licenses noted on the credits page; you may quote it with attribution.

10. Limits on liability

To the extent the law allows, our liability for any order is limited to the amount you paid for it. We are not liable for indirect losses, such as a planting scheme that has to be redone, or for plants that fail because of weather, pests, site conditions or care after delivery. Nothing here limits rights that consumer law gives you and that cannot be waived.

11. Disputes and governing law

Talk to us first; nearly everything can be fixed by email. These terms are governed by the laws of the state in which the nursery is organized, and any dispute that cannot be resolved informally will be heard by the courts of that state.

12. Changes

We may update these terms; the version in force when you place an order is the one that applies to it. The date at the top shows when they last changed.