Paramount Orchids order disappointment

Hi Danielle. I checked my CP, please try again.

Philip, they were both in moss, V. roeblingiana mounted and V. cristata in plastic pot and her moss had greyish mold. I took them out of moss even though paramount guy said it was wrong, because i have best results with vandas in vases.
I am worried about V.cristata roots, they don't get green when she is watered. maybe because they weren't exposed to light in moss and need some time to produce chlorophyll? What do you think?
Thank you.
On the happy note, I received another vanda shipment(not from paramount) with:
FS V. coerulea
SS V.coerulea var. pink
SS V. coerulescens
They all have nice roots.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Yup, once the roots are exposed to light, the chloroplasts will produce chlorophyll.

[RosieC]

Originally Posted by eggshells

Hi, Sorry I am not familiar with the rules in this forum and I got a warning posting something like that on another forum lol. So I am reluctant on posting it.

I am not really fond of reading manual, policies and rules. But give me a book about orchids and I will read it from cover to cover. I guess I should start reading them! Someday!

As one of this sites's moderators I can say we have absolutly no problem about you saying nice things about vendors. In fact we encorage it. If you've had a good experience tell everyone who it was. While we don't like spam and are very strict on that, positive orchid vendor feedback from someone who isn't obviously closely related to the vendor is not counted as spam and is perfectly welcome.

We generally try and keep rules as easy to follow as possible here (and as few rules as possible) so that everyone feels relaxed about posting

If you have negative feedback we have a rule that you should have 100 posts before you start a negative thread. To be honest I'm not sure if there is a rule about replying with a 'me to' type post if someone else started a negative one about a vendor. I should know as a moderator I guess but personally I think it's fine because you are just backing up what someone else has found.

The reason for the 100 posts rule is because bad feedback can be damaging to companies and we don't want someone with a personal reason to flame them to come and post unjustified negative feedback. 100 previous posts represents a user who is here to take part in our forum, not just here to flame a vendor.

It's a real shame about Paramount who previously had a good reputation

[Mikeg]

Originally Posted by orchideya

Thank you Philip.

Well, I got answers from Paramount Orchids.
One with regards to the size of v.cristata:
Actually you are totally wrong, this is a flowering size plant as the photo is of this particular group that we have flowered.
Sorry that you are so wrong and so disappointed.
All I can do is suggest that you do more research into what flowering size means.
We have no difficulty here at all bringing these into flower each season and would certainly not advertise something as being something it is not as we have an excellent reputation and wish to maintain it.
We regret your decision but stand by our claim.
Regards,
Bryon
Paramount Orchids

The other with regards to the plants conditions:
It would appear that the Vanda cristata has become overheated during shipping given the damage to the leaf that I can see and as long as there is no rot to the blackness of the stem I would not become overly concerned but would keep it in the moss as this is the best environment for it. Had you checked the dates of transplanting on either plant this might have indicated that the Vanda roeblingiana was only mounted on March 2011 and should have been left on the mount to form more roots. I would suggest some rooting hormone to lessen the plant shock such as K-L-N and keep them in good but subdued light
You have now set it back by taking it off. The single viable root is fine and the plant would have continued to progress had it been given appropriate care.
I am not sure of your plant experience or mail order experience but I hope that this will not further deter you as I think that you have been hasty in care and judgment.

Bryon
Paramount Orchids

So, they think, plants are OK and should survive. I will belive them but keep an eye on black area of cristata stem, because today both bottom leaves from that area dropped dead.

I have un-potted/un-mounted them from sphagnum moss because:
1. I wanted to check the roots under sphag
2. I kill everything in moss and have the best results growing vanda seedlings in glass vase. Someone might say that it is hasty care, but it worked for me so far.

I am also sorry about hasty judgment, I just expected something looking a bit healthier after seing someone elses pictures of phalaenopsis order from Paramount.
Thank you for reading.

You shouldn't be sorry for "Hasty judgement" all you were doing was doing what works for YOU, you spent the good money for them so you have a right to do want you need to make sure they look good, and you paid for good plants. For them to tell you this is atrocious. I have had the same experience like this, where the plants came in not so ideal conditions and was blamed on me because they were now in my care. Even though I called her right after I received the shipment. And she sent them in the middle of winter WITHOUT a heat pack! And she refused to send replacements. I am very sorry you had to go through this, especially with some pretty expensive plants. I wish you luck in your attempts at saving the one!

[S&K Maley]

We tried ordering from Paramount twice when they were still in Alberta but could not place the order due to the complete lack of professionalism on their part.If they cannot even communicate clearly and in a timely fashion we shutter to think what the quality of their plants would be.Did some research online after and found we were lucky we never did place an order as many people's experience with them was negative ie;very small plants, root rot etc. Seems that their trying to list a million different orchids is a warning sign to stay away from them.Cloud's Orchids and Orchids in Our Tropics are reputable professional operations we have no problem recommending to anyone.

[silken]

I've had good and bad experience with them. I am still waiting for 2 Rossioglossums to bloom. They were supposedly near blooming size when I bought them 3 years ago now. After seeing others at shows- I don't think so.... I e-mailed them with a question after they moved out west. They never replied. Guess they figured they didn't need to as I was unlikely to be a paying customer anymore with 1,000 miles between us. That was a bit disappointing since our society spent a lot of $$ with them for supplies and such while they were in Calgary.

[LovePhals]

Well I recently did a new thread asking about Paramount orchids, b/c they had some Miltoniopsis, which I have been looking for. After reading this I will not be ordering from them. I would rather not take my chances after paying $30 for a plant plus shipping, especially if they don't rectify bad plants sent. I'll look elsewhere!