Friday, May 11, 2007

You get what you pay for, part 2...from the looks of these abysmal, damaged grow cells, you'd think I happened upon a nursery truck overturned on the highway. But no, this was the condition of my order from Michigan Bulb , and these plants are 'Golden Marguerite' daisy, buy 3 get 3 free for $9.99...good deal? Ha! Read on... ...here's 'Wizard's Cap' clover (where?!) I mean, WTF? These are micro-mini, 1" pre-nursery cells! Heck, I don't think most nurseries would bother growing anything in something this small! These were hiding within grow cells like the daisies, like "Yea, we're the appropriate size...just don't look too hard". Sheesh! These were 3/$4.99...that rose in the previous post is looking huge right about now!

And here's carex 'Bowles Golden'...yea, the golden color here is because it's dead...dried up...lifeless! And it's a bargain at only $7.99!!
The plants that were alive had spent way too much time in their pots! Needless to say, I had to cut this poor thing from it's plastic prison!
So I set my plan in motion: repot these pathetic botanical misfits and wait until they grow into these 4" pots and become something worth planting out in the yard! I mean, if they can't survive coddled in pots, then they surely won't make it in the garden with plant competition and animals to contend with. Now before anybody sez' "I told you so" with regard to Michigan Bulb-I have dealt with these folks before, and it's a large credit ($179.00) from past failures that brought me back. I got some bareroot stuff too, which was much larger and more worthwhile. But the flashy photos in the catalog made me forget that when they describe the plant as "potted" but don't specify size...well this is what you get! "You get what you pay for"...not so much!

4 comments:

David (Snappy) said...

Oh my god I would be mortified if i ordered something and it came like that.You must have the soul of a saint not to give them an ear bashing down the phone.I can only hope you can resurect the sickly looking specimins and nurse them back into health.I cannot see them doing much trade if thats what they ship out.No wander the credits!
You get what you pay for is true for reputable companys.I have never seen plants that small sent out.I bet the pictures didnt look like that in the brochure.

Nickie said...

Springhill has the same kind of crap. NEVER order from them. When I asked for replacements (I had ordered 75 plants and only about 15% were even still slightly alive) they sent dead replacements as well!

lisa said...

Snappy-right? The pictures absolutely looked WAY better! My goal is to have final sucess with their plants, so I can end my association with them for good, but if it dies and I know it's guaranteed, well I MUST get my replacement! We'll see...

Nickie-thanks for stopping by! Amazingly enough, I used up a credit from Spring Hill this year too, and their stuff looked much better than this. But in the past, my experience with them was more similar to MI Bulb.

Ki said...

I think there's one nursery in the Midwest that puts out all those cheap catalogs under different names. You know the ones, ... plant the amazing tree tomato...buy the world's fastest growing tree, etc. We get dozens in the mail. Funny how the pictures in the different catalogs all look the same including the same illustrations. I think Michigan bulb is just another iteration of this company.

Unfortunately I got suckered into buying some coral bells-only one lived, and some strange looking cone shaped flower uhh, can't even remember the name of the plant but they came all dessicated and half out of the cheap pots they were started in. I don't even see the flower for sale anymore. they must have had so much hate mail on that one that even they had to stop offering it.