Comments regarding Weird Dude's Plant Zoo

I'd like to give a positive for the selection of unusual, hard - to - find plants Wierd Dude's offers, but I have to give a neutral for the abominable condition in which they arrived. I ordered a selection of gingers. Every plant was haphazardly wrapped in dried out newspaper. I didn't think the panda ginger was still alive as all the leaves were dessicated and crispy. There were some blooms, but they too were dried out like cardboard. Every plant looked neglected, underwatered, and every leaf was brown and dry. Most of the soil from the plants was rolling around in the bottom of the box as no precautions were taken to keep it in the pots. There were insects of every conceivable variety including silverfish and a slug (though how he survived the dryness I'll never know) crawling around the plants and the box. I was scared to stick my hands in there for fear of what I might find. Everything needed to be trimmed back severely to remove dead growth and I was left with a very nice selection of sticks. A month later, after much TLC and trimming, they've all mostly managed to bounce back. Except for the zingiber "midnight", which barely seems to be hanging on in spite of my best efforts. So, if you like the unusual this is a great place to buy from. I see that they have a great rating, maybe I'm the one exception. I can't recommend ordering from them, and I won't again. I will say that they allowed me to substitute a plant after the initial order, so they were helpful in that regard. Their plants are expensive, and not worth the price. It took me a month to post my rating because I truly wanted to like this company, but after dealing with Ecolage I guess I'm spoiled. I don't think one should receive an expensive box that needs such drastic and desperate help just to keep the plants alive upon receipt. Sorry, I have to be honest here.

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We were very concerned that this customer never contacted us directly to express any dissatisfaction or to give us any chance to remedy what she saw as a problem. We had pleasant email correspondence before shipping her order, both with her and with her mother who said that she had placed the order for "Liila" as a gift, so this customer had to know that we were accessible and responsive. We read her comment here and emailed her on 5/19/05, telling her this and that we were disappointed that she gave us no opportunity to resolve her problem. It is now 6/6/05 and we still have never heard from her.

We personally select and pack every order which leaves this nursery. Her order was not the most lush we have ever shipped, because of the particular selection of plants which was ordered and because of the time of year (late March) in the non-Floridian climate of Virginia in an unusually cool and cloudy spring. However, all of the plants shipped were healthy and appropriately watered before we packed them. We did not see any insects on packing. If a garden slug slipped through, we certainly apologize, but as any nursery owner can attest, slugs sometimes get into the drain holes of pots and it would be cost prohibitive to de-pot and inspect every plant for the rare stray slug.

We want to address the statement that the plants were shipped packed in "dried out newspaper". We order from other nurseries as well, and have received plants packed in wet newspaper. We know from experience that plants in a dark box wrapped in moist or wet newspaper can easily develop fungal disease in transit. Newspaper is a good cushioning mechanism when dry but loses all of its shock-absorbent qualities when moist or wet, and as stated, can promote disease in transit if wet.

We do our very best to take care of our customers if we have been deficient in some way. We wish that this customer had given us an opportunity to resolve her problems.

Marty Harper & Debbie Gartzke
Co-Owners of Weird Dude's Plant Zoo, L.L.C.
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