I finally got an Elizabeth Anne 'buckleberry'
 

Elizabeth Anne 'buckleberry'

I told myself I would buy this and also finally get a good (big) medusea alba. (Though now, after seeing "spotty" I would consider that too). Well I have not yet found the big Medusea, but I now have the big buckleberry.

This is a big Elizabeth Anne 'buckleberry.' It's apparently a division of an even bigger one. And it even has some spikes!

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ps4jggssgz.jpg

There's the tape measure...

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...psxi747eot.jpg

Wow!

Wow!

Good choices. If it ever warms up in my area,I'll be hanging all the bulbos outside under a tree which always gives them a boost.

They're in my DYI shade house made out of a dog kennel. I'm putting in a misting set up too.

That post screams out for more photos.

I agree!


And that Bulbo is huge! Can't wait to see it bloom.

I will be doing work on the "shade house" soon. I am going to make a pitched roof of 1/2 inch pvc pipe,and various angle fittings. Actually I am going out to the DYI store to get some PVC pipe today. It is just a simple "dog kennel" about 6 feet by 10 feet. I got it when we had a large rescue dog and did not have a proper fence. The dog is long gone, we found her a home in Colorado, and a new fence is up. I use it as an orchid house with some shade cloth I got. I've seen these large dog kennels on craigs list for a few hundred dollars. I like this method because it is actually portable. you knock it down, and you can bring it with you when you move. This is a good solution for people who rent, or move a lot.

As for buckleberry, I got her from insituorchids on eBay. He (she?) sells a lot of bulbophyllums. There are still divisions of the same plant in 6" pots. This was in a 10" hanging basket. And yeah, I totally can't wait! This is one of my all time favorite orchids, and I was really pleased (awestruck) with the plant I was sent. It took 35 dollars to ship, it was that ginormous.

Nice plant, I too can't wait for it to bloom.

It has several nice spikes starting!

I got had. I started to repot it today with some new moss, and found that it was just bits and pieces, like scraps that were just mashed together and thrown into a pot. I do not trust the seller at all. Sadly, it is a seller with 100% good-- I may not know what good is. I bought a 50 dollar pile of sticks. I feel sick to my stomach.

I'm sorry optimist. If it had to happen, I wish hadn't been someone as nice as you.

Oh no! Earlier you said it was spiking. Are any of the pieces alive?

A lot of people here get plants from various sellers on eBay and Amazon, and are often happy. But I've never been unhappy with plants from some of the big growers like Carmela's, Carter & Holmes, H&R, Orchids by Hausermann and SVO. Yes, the plants are sometimes smaller, but they are healthy and grow quickly.

H&R now has seedling Bulbophyllum Wilbur Chang in 2" pots for six dollars. Yes, there will be a shipping charge. Here is a photo of mine, which arrived Thursday in our society group order. Notice the huge new growth.

I have bought many plants from this eBay vendor. I have always given him 5* because every plant met or exceeded my expectations. If I did not already own this plant, I would have bid for the plant you got.

That said, I’m sorry to read about your experience. The plant looked very good when it was up for sale. Some times vendors do put together smaller plants to create a larger, fuller, offering. Did some of the parts die unexpectedly? I’m not defending the vendor. Just asking....

The plant did not die. The leaves are still good. A few, like where there was a back bulb on a disarticulated runner did rot. Just about 2 old back-bulbs rotted. Some of the leaves are slightly wrinkled (they were that way when I got them, and I figure the older leaves are that way). It is just that it is 20 plants all crammed together.

It should have been a healthy larger plant, instead it was a bunch of scraps, some with dead roots, others with bulbs that had no leaves. When you look at the whole thing, you think that since it is so big, there will be vigor, but instead, it is a bunch of small weak plants, some with no roots, others with 2 leafless back-bulbs and one leaf (etc.).

I thought they were spikes, but they were new leaves. There are about 11 new leaves. Not all on the same plant, because it is 20 plants.

I did what I could do. I took 4 of the largest and made a basket of them, and put the smaller pieces in separate pots and maybe I will try to sell them later.

That does not diminish the fact that it was sold as one large 10" plant, and not a stack of bits and pieces.

Wow. I have bought plants on sale that turned out to be 2 healthy pieces in 1 pot, but nothing like what happened to you.

For the price you paid for that orchid and having it shipped to you, I understand your disappointment.

Carmela's does this sometimes, too, but they always include pieces that are blooming size and have a decent number of pseudobulbs. I just received a Cattleya with six pieces. The orchid was cheap so I was not expecting a specimen size. What I have are bonus orchids.

When you are expecting and paying for a specimen, you should be getting one.

I sent him an email last night, and got a reply this moring. He demolished me-- called me an amature because I wanted to re-pot. (I did so because I found some slugs in the moss). The "hey, wait a minute" moment is when you realize that a one or two inch runner with t bulbs on it are not going to have any flowers, and if the plant is 75% of these tiny fragments, you are going to have a big ball of leaves, and probably dying leaves because they are so small. I also am not a grower, and have no green house, so I am not pleased at all in having 25 tiny pots of plants that I have to start from scratch. I just do not have the room. I will end up giving them away for free.

One large plant would have been putting flowers out by now, but I have 25 "starter" plants. It's like buying a flask, but getting old leaves and shriveled bulbs instead of young healthy plants.

By the way, the shriveled bulbs make sense to me now. The "divisions" were not connected to a big plant. They were getting their fuel from the bulbs because the roots were dry as well. There were only "some" viable green roots, and those were the ones that were attached to only a handful of bulbs.

I would definitely separate all the pieces in their own pots and get them growing well, then sell them and recap your losses. Bulbophyllum grow quickly and almost constantly and this is one of them. A few of our members have brought this Bulbo for the show table and, not surprisingly, theirs started with a piece from another member.

The whole story
 

Please see all attached photos of the conversation Catherine and I have had so far and decide for yourself.

The second to last photo is of bare root divisions made yesterday that I offered to send Catherine for free to try and make this right in the best way I know how.

The last photo is of my mother plant before I made divisions of it of which I made more than a dozen and now that I see her plant here in her original post showing it in a 10” basket, I can see that what she purchased was a large chunk that I cut away from my mother plant which because of the rambling growth habit of this orchid, makes it impossible to get a large division that is one single piece. If OPTIMIST and others in this forum do not understand that, then I’m at a loss to explain. Since OPTIMIST would not work with me to try and make this right, I refunded the $55.00 she paid for the orchid. That’s the best I can do under the circumstances.

I sent back the 55$, by the way. Don't send it again.

Thank you for giving us your side. It is good to know that you are as nice as you sounded in this article: http://www.orchidsanfrancisco.org/wp...Newsletter.pdf . I am glad that there are people like you to introduce others to these amazing orchids. I apologize for anything that I have said that might offend you. It is difficult to know what is happening when only one side of the story is told. I hope you will continue to be a part of our community as we do have some Bulbophyllum fans here :)

I can understand why there might be a misunderstanding, however. My own Orchid Society actually discourages the growing of multiple divisions of an orchid on one mount or in one pot because, if that orchid is taken for judging and wins an award, then later is discovered not to be a single division, the award can be revoked. It is probably good to notify people that there are multiple divisions in a pot for this reason.

Thank you again for your feedback!

I agree, the original listing makes it look like one plant. Anybody growing, and discussing, orchids, for any length of time, would know many people advise repotting all new plants on arrival.

To the vendor: We're not concerned here with how good a grower you are. We're concerned with whether you misrepresented the plant in your listing. By virtue of being a fantastic grower, we all recognize you are a detail-oriented kind of person. A detail-oriented person should be able to give a careful and accurate description of a plant.

We also understand negative reviews affect your business. However, following an unhappy customer onto a discussion board makes me think you are a poor businessman. The tone in which you responded to Optimist, and the way you boasted about your growing abilities, don't make you look good.

Exactly. Having a large plant like that is useless if it is a pile of branches. The reason I have large plants is to get into the judging side. I might as well have spent $18.95 dollars on a small 3 lead plant for all the good this will do me.

Just as suspected!
 

So you’ve just proven to me by refunding the $55.00 PayPal refund I sent you last night as well as to anyone who reads this post that as I said in my last email to you, YOU ARE MORE INTERESTED IN BEING ANGRY THAN YOU ARE IN ACTUALLY TRYING TO FIND AN EQUITABLE RESOLUTION.

I’m done trying to reason with a crazy lady!

I think that he seems to have tried to fix the issue. I am sorry that you had to go through this disappointment and that you are upset. That is actually a pretty decent price for this Bulbophyllum. I usually see just a single division for $35-$45 and, if Edgar Stehli of Windswept in Time's orchids are any proof, you will soon have several nice, specimen-sized orchids. Good luck and do try to enjoy the orchid(s). I am sure that, soon, you will proudly have one to take to an orchid show. :)

I have never seen this one from an actual vendor for $18 but some of the people at our OS might sell divisions at our plant sale for this. I will need to take a look at our next one. I know some members have the orchid as I have seen them brought into shows! I have not gotten one as they are a little too large (I collect the miniature Bulbos). It is gorgeous, though.

Thanks for your take on this leafmite. I am not buying anything using ebay again. I did not give him a bad rating, and I gave him back his money.

I will probably donate the rest of the pieces to the orchid project in Utah.

I want him to take down any identifying information (name, phone number etc.) from those pictures he posted. I would like to have a moderator remove those pictures because they might have too much information on them.

If you belong to an OS or have one nearby, you could let them auction the extra pieces to help raise money for their society.

Now, just enjoy the orchid. It is a lovely one and it will bloom one of these days. :)

:mods:

A post in this thread was reported to the moderators, with good reason. Name calling and aggressive posts are not tolerated on Orchidboard. If there are issues between seller and vendor (and it does not matter who is right or wrong), please settle it in private, away from OB.

There was nothing wrong with this thread until the "he said she said" started. We are one of the few forums where we allow people to post feedback, including negative, about a vendor, providing it stays factual and polite.

To the vendor; I think the the fact that you joined OB specifically to be unpleasant affects the reputation of a business more so than any negative feedback- whether that feedback was accurate or not.

Optimist, I agree that the screenshots of ebay/email conversations contain way too much personal information, they should never have been posted here. I will remove them from the post.

If there is any more name calling, or feelings getting hurt, this thread will be locked.

SMH

Wow. I've been through the threads on this plant and am shocked. I don't know why someone would sell clippings as one plant, and I also don't know why someone would refuse a refund. However, a vendor who first yells at a customer (the all-caps) and then publicly calls a customer a "crazy lady", regardless of the circumstances, deserves some vitriol. How do you treat other customers - one of which I will never be?