Comments regarding Winn Soldani's Fancy Hibiscus

wow i wish i had googled this before ordering.
Ordered 2 plants in November due to where they were going he said he would mail in March. They arrived June 17th 2010. As the first order was "lost" ....hmmmm...also was told they would be good sized plants..11 inches tall! buyers beware i contacted him and this is his response...

but I am at a loss because "You are right and disappointed" --
no offer for anything else.....

CV= cultivar

I emailed Winn last summer asking if he has a rare hibiscus called amethyst heart. He said yes and shows me a picture. it was amethyst heart. I am hybridizer and I explain to him I really wanted this cv to use with cross breeding. I also asked him about another cv and he claims he had it but it did not bloom for him. The cv i asked about blooms well and is a good cv so this just let me know that he did not have it just trying to make a sale he offered me tylene in which I declined.

What I got in the mail was a shock ! he sent me a plant that looked nearly DEAD
here is a picture

//i85.photobucket.com/albums/k72/kalibobs/SNC10147.jpg

On top of that it had snow scale ! Winn blames me for the snow scale and tells me its because i did not put plant in direct sun light for 12 hrs or give it the crappy fertilizer he recommends to his customers.

I soon found out from the hibiscus community that Winn is notorious for sending out sick plants as well and mystery CV's/ the wrong cv's.

I brought the plant back to health and it bloomed and it looks nothing like amethyst heart. I showed Winn and he claims the color will change . Well this cv does not even have the same leaf shape as amethyst heart so therefore its not the cv I wanted. The color does not even compare to amethyst heart.

Beware don't buy from Winn at all you will be much happier buying from Charles @ Hidden valley hibiscus !

I actually went there last March and bought 12 hibiscus. They were my very first hibiscus. When I bought them, they looked bushy, beautiful and full of promise.

Unfortunately, out of the 12:
2 are healthy and beautiful.
4 are dead.
2 are struggling to grow. They are the same size they were 6 months ago.
The other 4 are the weakest, straggliest hibiscus you will ever see. After 6 months, they look....well, they don't look healthy, for sure. All are treated with the same fertilizer, watering conditions, plant food, etc as my other gazillion hibs, but I can't seem to give them "life"

My girlfriend bought 3 or 4, and all of hers died.

I will break it down for you.

I bought 2 nightfire. One is extremely healthy, the other has barely grown.

I bought 2 Louise Bennett. One is extremely healthy, the other is struggling to grow, and, to survive.

I bought 2 fifth dimension. The flowers on one are beautiful, but the plant is weak, leggy, very minimal leaves, no matter what I do. The other one died.

Wallflower is a beautiful flower, but again, I never show the plant, because it is weak, straggly, and has very little leaves.

I bought 2 Paths. One for my mom and one for me. They both died.

Etoufee died, but I will blame the floods on that (even though most of my other hibs struggled thru and gained their strength and beauty back)

Topaz Glory is extremely weak, straggly and barely has leaves.

Abundant Treasure is weak, straggly and just starting to regain leaves.

He is a great salesperson, but does not put loving care into his offspring. He grafts his own plants, and I have to think that whatever his grafting process, it does not show stability, but it does show a very strong case of inconsistency

The owner had such a bad attitude on the phone, that I decided not to place my order.

We ordered a couple of hibiscus from this company, requested shipment as soon as weather conditions permitted and waited and waited. Finally we e-mailed and were informed that we were to inform him of the appropriate shipping time. We responded 'asap'. After a second week delay, we finally got our two *small* hibiscus, considerably smaller than the size implied when we ordered. More disappointing was the fact that both plants were infested with spider mites & some sort of black spotting on the leaves. These maladies quickly spread to our own very healthy hibiscus which made us decide "that's it!" for fancyhibiscus!