Kulak Nursery & Landscaping

The selection is decent as is the quality. Many of the employees are very knowledgeable and helpful. I’ve bought hardscape materials, Christmas trees and the odd shrub or tree over the years. This season I found myself in a brand new home with no landscaping and, with Kulak’s being the closest nursery, gave them a tremendous amount of business throughout the spring and summer. Their flat $ 30 delivery fee is a bargain compared to Hewitts ($ 100) or Troy’s ($ 60). Having had several interactions with the owners, John and Karen, I can confidently say they are both exceedingly knowledgeable about their products and landscaping in general. I ordered and planted an enormous variety and quantity of shrubs, trees and sod. All but one of the plants fared admirably. However, let me be extremely clear, I WILL NOT DO ANY BUSINESS WITH THEM AGAIN IN THE FUTURE. I had my THIRD and FINAL adversarial/​antagonistic interaction with Karen Durbak Kulak over a single shrub that needed to be replaced. Having spent thousands upon thousands of dollars with them this year, I was appalled at the condescending and unpleasant treatment I received — yet again. Karen’s haughty and diffident manner wouldn’t have been appropriate if I had been going there for only the first time to spend $ 3 on a discounted plant. She is angry, unpleasant, rude, 100% non-​customer focused and seemingly of the belief that customers are all trying to pull a fast one. This year was exceptional. I needed the savings on bulk deliveries. They were the nearest for me to continually check for new inventory. I will never ever ever shop there again. Do yourself a favor — -go straight to Troy’s!!! The quality and selection are phenomenal. Now that I’m not ordering tons of stuff I can take more time and bring things home piecemeal. They are soooooo helpful. And nice. Genuinely nice. Karen Kulak is an awful human being who makes you dread possibly having to interact with her. Trust me on this one…

Kulak’s during the summer is a middle of the road nursery/​landscaping supply joint, with a decent but not particularly spectacular selection of plants and trees and a good selection of stones and landscaping architectural embellishments. The inside of the store has a more cloying selection of gifty items, so this places Kulak’s about halfway between Feltinghousen’s in Niskayuna and Fadeggons in Colonie in terms of comprehensiveness and approach and balance between floral and gardening.
In winter, however, they’re loaded for bear for the Christmas season. The inside is like a Christmas Tree Shoppe (well, what they used to be like, sort of) with tschotsckes galore and all sorts of holiday bling, pointsettas and mistletoe galore, and a very excellent selection of Christmas trees (although limited to three species of fir, to be sure — Douglas and Balsam, mostly.) The staff were unusually chipper compared to most folk I’ve run across over the years on Christmas tree lots. So I’ll give ‘em a seasonal bump up to four stars, in the holiday spirit.