Buying a tree online still feels slightly absurd the first time you do it. Simply Trees has built its whole business on that discomfort, delivering plants and trees straight to your door and betting that a well-labelled listing beats wandering a garden centre hoping someone knows what a hardiness zone is.
The stated aim is to simplify gardening so your dream space is a few clicks away. This review looks at what the catalogue actually holds, where an online tree nursery genuinely helps, where it asks more of you than a local nursery would, and who should think twice.
What Simply Trees actually sells
The range is wider than the name suggests. Trees are the headline, but the store covers indoor and outdoor plants, shrubs, perennials and vines, and the brand describes the selection as spanning stunning hydrangeas through to elegant shade trees.
In practice the catalogue breaks into five useful buckets. Flowering trees, led by an unusually deep redbud lineup. Flowering shrubs, mostly hydrangeas and natives. Citrus trees, which is where the store gets genuinely interesting. Perennials for pollinator planting. And a small number of vines.
What is notable is the sourcing. Several perennials are supplied by Monrovia, a name most gardeners will recognise, while the trees, shrubs and citrus are listed under the Simply Trees label itself. That mix means you are not buying anonymous stock, which is more reassurance than a lot of online plant sellers offer.
The flowering trees are the real strength
If there is one category that justifies the brand, it is redbuds. There are four distinct cultivars in the catalogue and they are genuinely different plants rather than colour variations on the same thing.
Lavender Twist is the classic weeping redbud, with cascading branches, lavender-pink spring blooms and golden fall colour, positioned for patios, front yards and landscape focal points. Vanilla Twist is the same weeping habit with creamy white spring blooms instead. Golden Falls combines the weeping form with rosy-pink blooms and brilliant golden heart-shaped foliage. Hearts of Gold takes that same golden heart-shaped foliage but grows as an upright specimen tree with rosy-pink spring blooms.
That is a properly considered lineup. Weeping or upright, pink or white bloom, green or gold foliage: four decisions covered by four trees. Most online nurseries stock one redbud and call it a range.
The other standout is the David Austin The Poet's Wife rose tree, a fragrant tree-form English rose with rich golden-yellow blooms, repeat flowering, and a strong fruity fragrance with lemon notes. Tree-form roses are fiddly to source and this one carries a name that means something. Browse the flowering trees at Simply Trees if that is the section you came for.
Citrus, and the zone question nobody warns you about
The citrus range is the part of the catalogue most likely to get you into trouble, and it is worth being blunt about why.
The trees themselves are excellent. The Shiranui Mandarin is the citrus variety behind Sumo Citrus, producing exceptionally sweet, seedless, easy-to-peel mandarins. The Cara Cara Navel Orange gives sweet, seedless oranges with vibrant pink flesh. The Bumper Satsuma is described as highly productive with sweet, easy-to-peel, seedless mandarins. The Kaffer Lime, also sold as the Kieffer Lime, is grown as much for its fragrant culinary leaves as its aromatic fruit.
The catch is the zone listings. Cara Cara and Kaffer Lime are tagged for Zones 9 to 11. Shiranui is tagged for Zones 9 and 10. Which means that across most of the country these are not landscape trees, they are container plants that come indoors for winter.
Two options soften that. The Bumper Satsuma is tagged cold hardy and extends down to Zone 8, and the Nagami Tart Kumquat is described as a cold-hardy citrus producing sweet-skinned, tart-fleshed fruit you eat whole, with the listing explicitly naming both home orchards and patio containers as suitable homes.
None of that is a mark against the store, which labels the zones clearly. It is a mark against buying citrus on impulse.
Shrubs and perennials: the sensible middle
This is where most people should probably start, because the risk is lower and the plants are more forgiving.
On the shrub side, Gatsby Gal Oakleaf Hydrangea is the pick for four-season interest, with large white blooms, brilliant burgundy fall foliage and exfoliating bark. Little Quick Fire Panicle Hydrangea is the compact one, carrying full-sized blooms that flower up to a month earlier than most panicle hydrangeas and mature from white to rosy pink. Fizzy Mizzy Sweetspire is a compact native with fragrant white flower spikes and brilliant red fall colour that performs in both sun and shade, which is a rare and useful trait.
The perennials lean heavily pollinator-friendly and mostly come from Monrovia. Three meadow sages cover the colour range: Salute White for Zones 4 to 9, Apex Blue in blue-violet for Zones 4 to 9 with reblooming through summer, and Noble Knight in purple-blue for Zones 3 to 9. Two catmints follow the same logic, with Serene Frost in white for Zones 4 to 9 and the cold-hardy Picture Purrfect in blue-purple for Zones 3 to 8. Scabiosa Butterfly Blue rounds it out with an extended bloom from late spring to early fall.
If indoor growing is more your speed, our indoor garden kit review covers a very different approach to the same instinct. Otherwise the shrub and perennial sections at Simply Trees are the least risky place to start an order.
Who Simply Trees is right for
Buy if you know your zone, you want a specific cultivar your local nursery does not stock, and you are planting with a plan rather than an impulse. The redbud range alone is worth the visit if you are hunting a focal point tree, and the zone tagging across the catalogue is detailed enough to shop confidently.
Think twice if you want to see the plant before you buy, or you are in a cold zone and have fallen for the citrus. A Zone 9 to 11 orange tree in a Zone 5 garden is a houseplant with extra steps, and it is better to know that before checkout than after.
Trees also make an awkward surprise gift for the same reason, which is why our new homeowner gift roundup leans toward things that do not need a planting hole. If you are shopping for yourself, though, start with the shrubs and perennials at Simply Trees and work up to a specimen tree once you know what thrives in your yard.
Common questions
Does Simply Trees ship nationwide?
The store describes itself as delivering plants and trees straight to your door, and individual listings such as Picture Purrfect Catmint state delivery nationwide. Zone suitability, not shipping, is the limiting factor for most buyers.
Can I grow the citrus trees in a container?
Several listings say so directly. The Nagami Tart Kumquat and the Cara Cara Navel Orange are both described as suitable for patios and home orchards, and container growing is how most gardeners outside Zones 9 to 11 keep citrus alive.
Which plants are best for pollinators?
The meadow sages and catmints are tagged pollinator friendly, and Scabiosa Butterfly Blue is described as a magnet for butterflies and bees that supports local pollinator populations. Fizzy Mizzy Sweetspire carries the same tag on the shrub side.