I'm heartbroken! Poor little Safeway Phal

[fox]

honestly, i feel that perfectly illustrates the idiocy that runs wild in our society... inability to think outside of rules/policies. infuriating!

at least it wasn't a puppy.

[camille1585]

It really is infuriating. I worked 3 months in a garden center last year to finance my studies. You should have seen the unbelievable amount of plants we would toss everyweek, sometimes for no reason! If a new shipment of a plant was arriving but there was still some left out on the tables, the old ones were tossed, just because they had a few dead leaves or a few wilted blooms. The worst was, it was against the policy for employees to dumpster dive and take some plants home. (and at the same time the manager was offering 400€ olive trees or BBQs, or 200L aquariums to his friends, straight from the store's stock)
At least for the orchids they (sort of) had a recycling policy. They would keep some of the out of bloom ones to either rebloom them or sell them to hobby growers for cheap. Many still ended up in the dumpster, which broke my heart especially when I was the one to do the deed. (Putting plants whole in the dumpster is not allowed -for policy-, they need to be mangled first ) I did manage to pick up a few 'at deaths door' orchids when the manager had a day off.

[ardera]

When I was at the store, the manager wasn't there, which was why I left a msg with my phone # regarding the plant. I hadn't heard from them the next day, which is why I called again, to find out that the manager had left for the day, and the plant was thrown out.

[Swamper]

Would you go in a dumpster if it was a _____ orchid? I mean is there no orchid you would jump in a dumpster for? This should probably be in a new thread, but I couldn't resist after the mention of saving my dignity.

[kavanaru]

Originally Posted by Swamper

Would you go in a dumpster if it was a _____ orchid? I mean is there no orchid you would jump in a dumpster for? This should probably be in a new thread, but I couldn't resist after the mention of saving my dignity.

I have done that already It was a very large Catasetum in Venezuela... It did not come from a shop, but from some work the electric company was performing near a park, and they had to cut many branches of a tree... However, I think it was in trash for about one week already, and that was quite stinky...

[Swamper]

How did you know it was in there Ramon?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by Swamper

Would you go in a dumpster if it was a _____ orchid? I mean is there no orchid you would jump in a dumpster for? This should probably be in a new thread, but I couldn't resist after the mention of saving my dignity.

Saving my dignity by not dumpster diving ONLY applies to those mass produced Phal hybrids that get cloned like no tomorrow.

For some really rare Disa species, Pleurothallis species, Masdevallia species, all other Pleurothallid species, Catasetum species, Vanda species, Phal species, all other rare Vandaceous species, Paph species that belong to the sections Brachypetalum and Parvisepalum, certain terrestrial species like Cynorkis, and the rare Dendrobium species...FORGET ABOUT DIGNITY!!!!!!!!!! I'M A DUMPSTER DIVIN'!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Swamper]

King, LOL. I would be in there to for some vandas and I'm sure there are others as well.

[ardera]

Depends. I have this really weird thing about not doing things that are not (or I think may not) be legal. I know, what a bore huh... Anyway, even if I decided to "get crazy" and do some dumpster diving, there is no way I would do it in a grocery store's dumpster. Can't image what else they may be throwing away. For example, what do they do with their expired meat? (other than mix it with good meat and call him ground beef. LOL!) I might consider it, if it were like a flower shop, although again, I would be afraid of someone seeing me....

[kavanaru]

Originally Posted by Swamper

How did you know it was in there Ramon?

there are things you just don't ask!!!