Warning to all ebay buyers!

This vendor sends great AV's and never had any trouble before, but I paid $9.99 each plus $16.12 S&H for these two unlabeled Chiritas. I ordered Piccolo and Rachel. As you can see almost ALL the leaves are broken due to the way the plant was packaged. The rootball was smaller than the pot and completely heavy and saturated with water. We all know Chiritas like it dry!!! I'm not putting the vendor's name here to discredit him/her, but you can go on eBay and see easily who it is because they are still selling these two plants.

This picture shows packaged with leaves facing up and constricted by the bag.

I feel obligated to give my first negative eBay feedback and warn my friends on Daves.

Here's unpackaged.

Thanks for sharing that info, Jamie. I never want to discredit a vendor but on issues like yours, I would want to let my DG family know about incidents like that too. By negative feedback, I am assuming he/she pretty much said you are on your own with this one...and DARN, that shipping is high!!!

Connie

Here's what I salvaged. Not a $9.99 plant, huh.

WOW!! I wouldn't think so LOL!!

Connie

Jamie,
That's awful! Did you contact the seller about replacement? If they refused,be sure to comment in the Garden Watchdog.

Lynn

I would by all means contact the seller and show these pictures as they say more than a thousand words. What a mess!
Heidi

Poor little chirita. I hope it makes it. I can't believe the shipping costs. Was it coming from outside US? I definitely would contact seller. They should replace it.

It came from Florida. I didn't contact the seller. I was so mad that I just posted negative comments and will chalk it up to experience. I thought they'd combined shipping chargers, but didn't even after I requested them to. I looked back on the listing and it didn't say they'd combine S&H, so my bad for not being careful! I did find a juicy earthworm in the other chirita's root ball. It scared me to death! and went right into the compost bucket. See, there's always a silver lining!

I have two words for you: RIP OFF!!!

First of all: 10 bucks for starts of a common variety is ridiculous - but 10 bucks for some shattered, drenching wet leaves is, well, outrageous!

When it comes to Chirita leaves, I can only recommend Cedar Creek Violets. They are reasonable ($2 per good size, healthy leaf) and they ship extremely fast. They have a website and they sell on ebay.

Not combining S&H is, unfortunately, getting rampant on ebay these days. That's why I hardly ever even go on ebay anymore.

Olaf

P.S.: I'm still in lurk mode because of being just stressed out busy for the past month and a half and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. So, for everyone who's still waiting for the Sinningia guttata seedlings: I apologize and will try to get the boxes into the mail on Tuesday... Sorry about that!

I also think their prices are quite high....too high for me!
Jamie,,their shipping page says they DO combine shipping.

Lynn

Oh, about shipping: That's the most crucial thing to check before ordering on ebay!

I wound up paying almost fifteen bucks in S&H for one mini Sinningia tuber... However, the tuber is huge and the plant is gorgeous. :)

OMG!!! I didn't find it listed, but they still didn't combine even when I sent a request for invoice with combined shipping!!! I'll share this too, then. A few days later I ordered a Ma's Corsage leaf from them and sent a request to see if they'd add it to the 2 chiritas. They told me that the Chiritas had already shipped. Wrong- I got Ma's Corsage within a week and the Chiritas a week after that.
However, I don't think a vendor would try to be that greedy. I'm inclined to think they are just probably overwhelmed and disorganized with someone not knowledgable handling the shipping. Live and Learn...

Olaf, You are doing good to even remember the sinningia seedlings. I'm not on your list for those, but the speciosa seeds you sent are growing like tiny weeds. How are your streps holding up in the Chicago heat? I've lost a few.

I've like Cedar Creek too and had forgotten that they have chiritas. Ebay bidding makes me stupid sometimes.
Travis has sent me some nice leaves lately. Unfortunately, he had to refund several Rob's variety leaves because the heat has really hurt him in Georgia this summer. I hope cool weather comes to us all very soon.

Hey Jamie!

Weren't those Sinningia eumorpha 'Saltao'-seeds? LOL Be that as it may. Yes, they are growing like tiny weeds! Good to hear that they're doing fine. :)

I haven't lost many plants this Summer, which is a BIG surprise. All but one of my Streps just kept right on blooming through this heatwave and suffered nothing but a little bit of leaf damage. Even the smaller one that was bearing the brunt of the heat. What I did was slightly overpot them and also keep them just a little bit more moist than one would usually do. I also mixed some SoilMoist crystals into the mix. They all seem to enjoy that.

My losses among the Gesneriads were minimal. I lost two species Pets (while the two hybrids that I grow are doing fine), an Alsobia (for no apparent reason...) and a few Strep and AV babies and other cuttings. Some of my Kohlerias had some minimal mildew. That pretty much was all the damage - at temperatures that went up into the triple digits during the day and didn't drop significantly below 90 during the night - and that for about 5 weeks straight...

My Begonias pulled right through without a hitch.

The biggest problem was to keep the plants hydrated. Particularly the Kohlerias had to be watered twice, sometimes three times a day...

Oh, Kohleria 'Dark Velvet' has been planted outdoors in May or June, has not gotten any water but the typical Chicago rain showers and I watered it maybe 3 or 4 times by hand. That's it. And it has buds. It didn't blast them. Not even when the plant was completely dry for a week...

Don't try this with a potted Kohleria - one missed watering and it's: bye bye buds! LOL

Olaf