Good Exotic Plant Nurseries and Vendors

[dvg]

Although there is a Good traders and Nurseries List in our Trading Post, that deals mostly with favorable trades made among the members here, along with the odd plug for a CP nursery interspersed throughout the posts in that thread, I thought it might be helpful to have a thread dedicated to nurseries and dealers selling exotic plants.

Some of our group here are interested in growing some diverse groups of plants, including orchids, cacti and succulents, bromeliads, tropical fruit trees and parasitic plants to name just a few.

If any of you want to share any good news regarding favorable dealing with nurseries/dealers/vendors selling good exotic plants and seeds, please feel free to post it here.

At the end of a review, it might be helpful to briefly rate your transaction, using the following template.

Name of Vendor:
Website:
Items Ordered:
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Prices: /5
Quality of Plants/Seeds: /5
Shipping: /5
Customer Service: /5
-------------------------------------
Would you order again? Y or N
Additional Comments:




dvg

[31drew31]

Ive always had good experiences with Hawaiian Botanicals in Richmond, BC. Always friendly, plants are healthy and they do their best to make sure shipping is inexpensive and plants are packed better than any other vendor I have purchased from.

[lloyd]

I've bought all sorts of weird seeds from all over. If anybody needs any seed places, let me know. Conversely anybody knows interesting seed places, post it for all of us.

[31drew31]

Lloyd if you have time I'm sure many people would be interested in a list of CP seed vendors you've had good experiences with, I know I would be.

[sokkos]

I agree, I would definitely be interested in a list of CP seed vendors that other members have had positive experiences with before. Besides Hawaiian Botanicals, is there another source of carnivorous plants in Canada that do mail order?

[H2O]

It might be nice to come up with a standard template that people can rate/fill in. Just basic stuff like, Name, vendor, email, website, purchase date, purchase amount, and then stuff that could be rated about of 5, like friendly, fast response, shipping, prices, quality of plants. Any one else think this could be useful?

[H2O]

I just made this really quick as a starting point. Any suggestions on what to add?

Name: Your Name
Vendor: The Company's name
Email: Their Email
Website: Their Website
What was ordered: List of stuff ordered, fairly detailed can be nice because the next person ordering will know what was good. Ex. try not to put seeds, say Drosera seed, Nepenthes seeds and Drosera Gemmae.
-------------------------------------------
Rating out of 5
Prices: How expensive are the plants
Quality of Plants/Seeds: How hardy are the plants? Fungal problems? Pest problems? Germination for seeds?
Size of Plants/Amount of seed: How big are the plants? How many seeds in each pack?
Availability: Did you order anything and it wasn't available?
Shipping: How fast was shipping? How expensive was shipping?
Customer Service: How fast did they reply? How friendly were they?
-------------------------------------------
Overall: 4/5
Would you order again: Yes/No
-------------------------------------------
Vendor Review: Just your general experience ordering from the vendor

[lloyd]

There are so many seed places! Some places are great for a lot of seeds but there are lots of seeds which are rare or hard to collect. These are often old and the viability can be questionable. Some seeds are just almost impossible to germinate. That being said here's a few comments.

Rare Exotic Seeds: Canadian and cheap, has GA3, reliable and quick. Reasonable.
Rachel's Silverhill in South Africa, reliable, good seeds, reasonable prices.
www.bidorbuy.co.za lots of places here, live plants too, all the sellers so far are very good. Mainly South African but lots of other seeds.
Chileflora-amazing range of Chilean seeds.
www.nindethana.net.au/ good for Australian seeds
www.wildflowersofaustralia.com.au/OurSeedsStore/tabid/56/CategoryID/2/List/0/Level/1/ProductID/38/Default.aspx?SortField=ProductName%2CProductName very reliable small selection of Australian seeds
Insectenfang viable Ceph seeds when available

Lots of other seed places I've tried for various parasitic/host/succulent/orchid/CP's. Bottom line, if you're looking for seeds and need a seller, post a question here. If you get some rare/viable seeds, let us know.

[31drew31]

Thanks for the list Lloyd, I will have to check these out sometime and see what I can find

Justin, I think your idea for formatting reviews is a good idea, but for me it's a little too detailed. I can't see myself taking the time to fill out that many sections, but agree some sort of template would be nice. I guess people could pick and choose which sections they want to comment on but this kind of defeats the purpose of a template. I do like the idea of rating the vendor out of 5 based on various categories.

I took your idea and condensed it a little bit for simplicity. This way, all people will have to do is copy/paste the template into their post and fill it out quickly. If they choose they can expand on their experience in the "Additional Comments" section. If other's agree maybe dvg could incorporate the agreed upon template into the first post for future reference as not everyone will read every post.


Name of Vendor:
Website:
Items Ordered:
-------------------------------------
Prices: /5
Quality of Plants/Seeds: /5
Shipping: /5
Customer Service: /5
-------------------------------------
Would you order again? Y or N
Additional Comments:

[dvg]

Though i agree that a standardized format can be helpful, for some it might seem a little restrictive and not everyone will want to reveal how much they may have spent on a particular plant, especially if it was rare.

A "template" could be included in the my first post, to help guide a reviewer through some of the important factors in rating their exotic plants/seeds transaction.

Other potential growers will be interested to know such parameters as pricing, shipping cost and packaging, permit costs if applicable, communication/customer service and of course the health of the plants.

And though more detail can yield a clearer picture, it will be up to each reviewer to decide, just exactly how much info they feel comfortable divulging online, or how much effort they want to provide in their review.




dvg

[dvg]

I have done a couple of orders with The Miniatree Garden, this year.

The first order that I placed with Miniatree was for Boswellia sacra seeds and the Cultivation of Boswellia book.

That order was my very first eBay order. This company has a very good eBay standing, so that helped influence me to make the first order.

Patte Lanus, a partner in the business, took care of my order and initiated contact to me via email, once I had placed my eBay order.

Patte is friendly and helpful, and shipped the seeds and book out to me without a hitch.

Once I had received the book and seeds safely, I contacted Patte via email and inquired about a few plants I was interested in purchasing.

The plants I inquired about were not listed on their eBay store at the time, but Patte was able to send me out 3 pictures each for the plants I was interested in.

I received photos of plants, that differed in size as well as price - generally speaking, the larger the plant, and the rarer the plant is, higher the price to purchase it.

One thing I like about The Miniatree Garden, is that they provide a phone number so that a customer can contact them and talk to a staff member there.

I phoned Patte and talked to her about my pending plant order, and because it was late March, she agreed to hold the plants for me until it was safe to ship in late May.

We would touch base on the order once every 2 or 3 weeks, and I even would add a plant or two to my order, while I waited for the weather to warm.

Patte was very helpful in arranging for a phyto inspection, getting the paperwork ready and seeing that the plants were well packed and sent out via EMS.

The plants arrived one week to the day they were sent out, and are very healthy.

I am very happy with the seeds, the book and the plants that I received from The Miniatree Garden and plant to order again from them,


Name of Vendor: The Miniatree Garden
Website: www.miniatree.com/
Items Ordered: Seeds, a book and three plants
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Prices: 5 /5
Quality of Plants/Seeds:5 /5
Shipping: 5/5
Customer Service: 5/5
-------------------------------------
Would you order again? Yes definitely
Additional Comments: A niche type nursery that specializes in the Burseraceae family.




dvg

[paulkoop]

of coarse for orchids
Name of Vendor: cloudsorchids
Website: cloudsorchids.com
Items Ordered: lots of plants over the years...
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Prices: 5 /5
Quality of Plants/Seeds:5 /5
Shipping: 5/5
Customer Service: 5/5
-------------------------------------
Would you order again? yes
Additional Comments: orchid nursery from Toronto? if I remember right ..

[paulkoop]

iv bought 30 orchids from them ... iv had a total of 3 die on the first shipment I got because I was a noob and didn't repot right away. u get amazing looking plants just repot them right away there usually potted in tight packed old spag which is okay in a greenhouse when it dries out faster then in the house... can get a plant for 10 bucks that will flower for u before they say it will I bought a nb sized dendrobium from them and 3 months later it was pushing its first bloom. I don't think iv ever seen a bad review for clouds orchids. they pack there plants soooo nicely and u get such big plants for what u pay for.