Comments regarding Petflytrap.com

I have been a customer of Petflytrap since July 2018, when I first discovered Carnivorous plants.
I have both visited the Nursery in person and ordered mail delivery of plants online. Both experiences have always been stellar. I can’t say enough wonderful things about the owners, Mike and Stephanie Howlett.

I’ve ordered Sarracenia, Nepenthes, Dionaea, Cephalotus, Pinguicula, Drosera, and Heliamphora. I own approximately 50 unique plants from Petflytrap, purchased over a 2 year period. All of them have settled in and grown exceptionally well for me. I haven’t lost a single plant I’ve purchased from Petflytrap. Each plant has been shipped potted and meticulously packaged, as to minimize shipping disturbances. Plants always arrive fresh and in fantastic condition! They ship on Mondays and Wednesdays typically, and my plants get to me within 1-3 days of shipping. They also send a purchase confirmation when the order is placed, and a shipping confirmation with tracking, when plants ship.

They have been very accommodating to special requests, and when I message or email them, I always get a response within a few hours. They are very willing to help out their customers with most reasonable requests, and are highly responsive with information and plant help/guidance once they are in my care. Additionally, their website is chock full of growing guides and information on Carnivorous plants, and Mike and Stephanie are both fountains of knowledge! Just call or email!

I currently have about 100 Carnivorous plants in my collection. I’ve purchased about 60% of those plants, the other 40% were trades or freebies. While I have terrific plants from other nurseries and sellers, Petflytrap is my go-to nursery, as they tick all the boxes! Healthy plants, friendly people, excellent customer relations, helpful and informative, quick responses, well priced, and always creating a great customer experience.

But don’t just take my word for it. See for yourself! Most of my Petflytrap plants are featured on my Insta!
Instagram.com/theoriginalmarquesa

"On Jul 6, 2020 11:27 AM, Petflytrap.com responded with:

Thank you VERY much for your wonderful review! We are pleased that you are happy with your PetFlyTrap babies. Please let us know if we can help you further...we pride ourselves on being an educational resource for all levels of carnivorous plant enthusiasts!"

I ordered a flytrap and a butterwort they both arrived in perfect shape. I had an incident when I put the flytrap in its new container I ripped pretty much all the roots off I sent them an email and they responded right away with instructions to follow. My plant is now alive and well and growing new traps. I could not be happier with there prompt and caring service. Thanks.
Jesse Siebe

Posted on February 18, 2012, updated February 21, 2012
Well, so far I ordered ONE plant from this company and it took EIGHT days to ship out. I contacted the company via email 2 days in a row and by phone I left 3 messages 3 days in a row. I had to contact the BBB to even get them to ship out what I had paid for! the BBB had to contact them to light a fire under their a**! I would be perfectly okay with it taking 8 days, but don't advertised several times on your website that it ONLY takes 2-3 days to ship out. I have a 4 year old that I told it would be here in a week. In my opinion, it is not very professional for a company to advertise one thing, and do another. I STILL have yet to receive my item and have a feeling that if i am already having problems, the plant most likely won't be up to par either. Ill keep everyone posted on the status of the plant. I have to say if it is in good condition and everything else is good, then I will be more than happy to say so. Putting this out there so other families don't get screwed also! I honestly don't think I would have ever gotten my item had i not contacted the BBB. I happen to think it is NOT a coincidence that they not return my calls or emails (which i might say were very very kind, i was not angry until day 7) and then less than 24 hours after i contact them, and i receive a response from the BBB that they have sent the company petflytrap.com 2 responses that they just so happen to suddenly mail out my product today.

I have to say - I've placed multiple orders with these guys and have had a fantastic experience every time. Incredibly consistent. Having ordered carnivorous plants from a number of online retailers, including supposedly more reputable organizations, I can confidently say that this place has won my continued business with their extensive selection and great customer service.

On one particular order, this vendor was awaiting on arrival of a shipment of plants from an international distributor, and my order was delayed past its lead time because of issues with said distributor. Mike responded to my status inquiries promptly and with great attention to detail. Communication about the status of the shipment was excellent. This company also makes good use of Facebook to push updates out to their customers. If you haven't already, you should check out their fan page.

I don't mean to disparage the other reviews on this site, but Petflytrap.com's actions documented on this review page seem entirely reasonable... the wilted fly trap is simply a low-growing cultivar (many dozens of VFT cultivars grow in this manner), and offering to accept a return of the plant for a full refund seems like a very generous offer, considering the risks involved with repackaging and shipping the plant. Another plant that died two weeks after receipt likely expired under the recipient's care. Offering a discount on a future order seems like a bargain to me.

Now, the quality of the plants. The Nepenthes I've bought from these guys are bigger and have more live pitchers than similarly priced specimens from other websites I've done business with. The rosetted sundews I've purchased here come with more plants per pot than other websites. The packaging and time-to-shipment are also top-notch.

I'm usually not one to write reviews of a business unless they've really screwed me. But I felt like I needed to jump in on this discussion considering the great experience I've had with petflytrap.com and the extent to which I disagree with other reviews posted here.

Posted on December 09, 2009, updated December 09, 2009
Just got my order in today from this website. I placed the order on November 27th (Black Friday), and the package was shipped on December 7th. Package arrived 2 days later (December 9th). I am sure the reason it took so long was because they were bogged down with so many orders over the holiday weekend.

Temps were in the mid 20's during shipping so I was a little afraid that some of the plants might of gotten damaged. A few of the leaves did get a little burned, and will probably die, but I am happy with the condition they arrived in over-all. Packaging was good and all plants had a plastic cup (or two) over them. All Nepenthes were grown in pure LFS. The Sarracenia had a mix of peat and something else that didn't look like bark, vermiculite, or perlite. There was also small 10-hour heat pack in the box that probably helped prevent some cold weather damage.

I ordered the following:

Nepenthes Truncata

Arrive in great condition. At first I thought it was a flytrap as the leaves were very strange to me. It didn't look like a Nepenthes at all when compared to all of the other Nepenthes I have. The leaves are very short and wide almost like a flytrap. They are also noticeably thicker. One leaf had some red colorization on it that was similar to all the leaves on my Nepenthes Rafflesiana. The plant had 8 stout leaves and no pitchers. One leaf was half-dead from the cold. Leaf span is about 4 inches and the plant is 4 inches tall as well.

Nepenthes Veitchii 'pink' - Medium

This thing is huge with a leaf span of 14 inches. The stock was about 4 inches tall not including a newly devolving 5-inch tall leaf that was sticking straight up and had not dropped horizontal yet. When I first looked at it, it appeared to be covered in mealy bugs. Upon further inspection, they were just very tiny fuzzy bits of shredded paper that was used in the packaging. The leaves were dark green and had excellent healthy coloring which meant it was receiving plenty of sunlight. It had 3 full-sized 2-3 inch pitchers, two of which half dead on top from getting too cold during shipping. I clipped them off as they would of both died anyways within a week. There was also a small newly developing pitcher on the leaf that was sticking straight up. Since the plant was so large, and grown in pure LFS, it was awful loose in the medium so I propped it up by setting the bottom of one of it's leaves against another pot. There were 9 total leaves, 2 of which were cut off 2 inches from the plant. No leaves were damaged from the cold.

Nepenthes Bicalcarata

Leaf span is 3 inches on it's longer leaves. Arrived with 2 developed pitchers and one developing pitcher. 3 of 6 of the leaves were damaged from the cold, including the two leaves that had developed pitchers, which half the leaf was grayish black. Another smaller leaf had two grayish black spots. I assume these leaves will eventually die. All that matters to me is that it lives, which it will most likely do.

Sarracenia 'Tarnok' - Medium

Plant arrived at an impressive 14 inches (tallest pitcher). There are 5 tall pitchers, one of which was still in excellent condition and was just starting to go dormant. I had expected to only receive the rhizome, but was quite shocked to see that none of the pitchers had been clipped back. I thought that since it was already December, the plant would of been completely dormant. This is the first Sarracenia I have ever had, so hopefully I can get it to grow outside well. I have it standing in 3 inches of distilled water and out in the full sun. Hope to see some really nice pitchers in the spring/summer.

Conclusion-

It's good to see yet another CP vendor that knows how to properly ship Nepenthes. Beware of another certain one that doesn't use protective plastic cups over the plant to protect the pitchers/leaves/roots from getting severed (see my other reviews). The cold weather damage on the leaves, while unfortunate, wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Lowland Nepenthes certainly do not enjoy temps in the mid-20's.

If I am ever in need of more CP's in the future, petflytrap.com will definitely be on my list when I am searching for particular species, among two other vendors.

Nice quality plants and I received mine in record time. In addition to their CPs, they also offer other merchandise and I have been picking up SuperThrive from them as well as their all natural coir blocks sold as GrowCoir. If you have an issue or concern, call them on the phone and you'll find they are well staffed with people who actually grow CPs and are able to answer any questions you may have regarding the plants they sell as well as plants they don't sell. Great customer support available here.

I have ordered from Exotic Gardens several times. Each time I have ordered several species of Sarracenia, Nepenthes, and various forms of Dionaea muscipula. The quality of the plants is very high. The packaging is one of the best I have seen for shipment of plants. The plants come potted to reduce shipping stress.

Exotic Gardens plant quality is one of the best in the industry if not the best.

The company also has a wonderful user forum that allows users to exchange information about plants and to receive help when needed.

3-1/2 acres in the city of Richmond, CA provides the largest urban nursery in Alameda Cty (No. Cal). They have regular classes and a professional landscaping service. Excellent selection of plants for dry, sunny Mediterranean-style gardens.