Mystery Garden Store on Etsy

[MateoinLosAngeles]

If you're anything like me, you think of Etsy as the last resort to get your plants.

I always order from nurseries and stores that have been in business for a long time, especially after having pretty disappointing results from small/hobby sellers, maybe I'll write those reviews some day.

When looking for a vendor that carried polychilos phalaenopsis, someone on Facebook messaged me to recommend "Mystery Garden Store" an Etsy-exclusive store. They have reasonable prices and rotate their stock frequently, but most importantly... were the plants good?

Well, they were, I have made 3 purchases over the course of a year, on different seasons. Shipping is fast, via USPS, the plants arrived perfectly, clear recent imports potted in sphagnum. The cool thing is they sell mostly mature plants out of bloom, so all of my purchases from them are currently in spike. Every vendor is different on this regard, a seedling from Hausermann is definitely years behind a seedling from SVO. In this case, they were sold as "Near Blooming Size" which for some vendors can be 1-2 years, so it was nice to get these plants and not have to wait half a decade for a spike!

I have a pretty good handle of polychilos Phals by now, so under my culture I can say that all of them have grown glossy leaves and are spiking, there haven't been any laggards that could be chalked up to receiving a sick or poorly grown plant. They actually all arrived with decent root systems, and even one that seemed a slow seller (a expensive-ish gigantea hybrid) and arrived with a less than stellar root system due to what seemed like old, waterlogged sphagnum, still adapted well to a repot and has been pushing through since I received it. It is also in spike.

Better and worse purchases happen with any vendor, I can say that the only vendor that has never sold me a plant that was "less than stellar" is Fred Clarke. Every other vendor has always, one way or another, sold me something that maybe they shouldn't have. But I think one of the perks of this Etsy store is that they're basically a pass-through, they get plants, they sell plants, so they might not be under their care for long enough to get screwed. To me, that is a perk.

I can't speak to their customer service quality, as I've never contacted them, and I also don't know how the quality of their other plants is, as I've only ordered Phals from them. However, I hope this review opens up the world of Etsy to other growers who might be on the fence about purchasing from an obscure seller.

[alecStewart1]

Andrew is pretty response whenever I've contacted him, but that's like a total of 2 or 3 times.

Also

Mystery Garden Store

Though I don't really know how often the website gets updated. You could always message Andrew and ask, as I'm sure he might get more money from purchases through the website as Etsy likely takes a percentage of what you pay before passing the rest off to the seller.

For a lot of hobbyist growers who like to sell their excess or unwanted stock, Ebay and Etsy tend to get traffic better than setting up a website. That could be for several reasons but the main thing is the ever prevalent Search Engine Optimization.

Though SEO could be better understood as

"You're at the will of whatever Google feels like doing that year and whoever has the money to pay Google to be at the top of searches. Good luck."

[MateoinLosAngeles]

I'm glad to know that there's a responsive team behind this store, and thank you for sharing the website! I've checked it every time that I ordered through Etsy and I thought the website was abandoned. Even checking now I see they have 5 Phalaenopsis available on the website, vs. 18 available on Etsy and some of the prices on Etsy are actually cheaper. So I didn't find the website a viable option, but I think it's worth perusing it before ordering.

It costs a seller about 10% of their sales to be listed on Etsy. That's including payment processing fees, which Etsy handles. I think the amount of volume Etsy attracts, with algorithms that bring leads to your store, plus the technical support and backend taken care of, makes the Etsy option compelling and viable for most sellers. Once a seller becomes established, it makes sense for them to push their website more, but that also requires making new investments in marketing, including SEO as you mentioned. So I think that's why they have neglected their website.

This might change in the future, so time traveler reader... make sure you check their website!

[Leafmite]

I have ordered from the Mystery Garden Store on Etsy and was very happy with the orchids I received. I would recommend them, too!