A Late Delivery of Nonconforming Nursery Stock

Reject the nonconforming stock; the specification is the contract.

• Caliper below 2.0 inches fails the stated minimum on most of the lot. That is not a judgment call.
• Root flare 3–5 inches deep on 62 trees means the flare is buried; planting them as delivered buries the trunk and invites girdling roots, decay, and long-term failure. Reject those 62.
• Circling roots on 40 trees is a defect that persists for the life of the tree. Reject them.
• Delivery window and source distance were both violated. Provenance matters for hardiness adaptation, and the contract required it.

Overlap between categories may mean most of the lot fails. Inspect a representative sample, tag and photograph every rejected tree, count them, and put the rejection in writing the same day, citing spec clauses. Pay only for accepted trees at the unit price, less any retainage, and do not pay for rejected stock. Do not allow the invoice to be processed on the assumption of delivery. Give the vendor written notice and a cure period to replace within the contract window or a revised window you approve; if it cannot cure, document the failure and pursue termination for cause and the difference in cost from the next source.

Do not let a scheduled event drive you into planting substandard trees - that trades a one-day problem for a twenty-year one.

• Reschedule or resize the event. Use whatever is accepted, or shift the volunteers to a maintenance day (mulching, watering, bed preparation). Give them a real task rather than a cancellation.
• If any planting proceeds, train volunteers on flare exposure, hole depth and width, and mulch placement, and have staff spot-check every tenth tree.
• Late November planting can be acceptable if stock is dormant and soil is not frozen, but it shifts establishment risk to the city. That risk should be reflected in the warranty, not absorbed silently.
• Warranty mechanics: confirm the vendor's two-year 80% warranty is in the executed contract, and record delivery dates, source, and planting dates for any claim. If the city holds the warranty, replacement obligations need a bond or retainage behind them. If the vendor is 400 miles away and nonresponsive, a warranty without security is paper.

Document everything for the procurement file: the nonconformance, the schedule impact, and the cost of the fallback source.

Rewrite the specification so it is measurable and enforceable, and change how the award is made.

Specification:

• Caliper stated as a hard minimum with an acceptable range, measured at the standard height above grade.
• Root flare visible at the soil surface; root ball diameter and depth minimums by caliper.
• No girdling or circling roots; state the inspection method and rejection criteria.
• Source distance with documentation (state nursery certification), and a delivery window with a stated consequence for late delivery.
• Right of pre-delivery inspection at the nursery and rejection on arrival.

Procurement:

• Pay on acceptance, not delivery, and hold retainage through the warranty.
• Require a bid sample or a nursery site visit for large orders.
• Consider best-value award rather than automatic low bid, or a prequalified nursery list.
• Hold a pre-bid meeting and answer specification questions in writing.
• Consider making the contractor responsible for planting and first-year establishment, so the entity that supplies the stock owns the survival risk.

Keep a short written post-project review; the same failure recurs when the lesson stays in someone's memory instead of in the document.