Crystal Star Orchids?

[Brenda Aarts]

Crystal Star Orchids is Ellen and Eric Lee and I have had the opportunity to purchase from them at shows over the past few years and had nothing but good experience/results. I have never done a large pre order from out of country through them however. It does surprise me though in knowing them that things were not worked out to the satisfaction your group.

[silken]

I know they mean well, and the idea is good. But maybe they don't get enough orders to do their out of country orders as often as we would like. I am on the executive of our society so I heard about the frustration getting our order to our members. I forgot to add earlier, we ordered last spring and the order was shipped this Oct. right before a long weekend (Thanksgiving) and that also caused the plants to sit in transit for several days longer). That is not a smart move! I really think mid Oct. here is usually too late to be shipping plants as well.
I got 3 plants in that order (2 catts from SVO and 1 Phal from Ching Hua). They were OK. I was a bit worried about one of the catts as it had black on some of the PB's and lower parts of the leaves. I figured it had been chilled and then got a fungal infection. I swabbed the black areas daily for a week or more with hydrogen peroxide and it survived and they are both growing some roots now. I think if you can just go to a show and pick up some plants from their table, it would be good tho.

[Brenda Aarts]

[QUOTE=silken;459555 The price lists on their site are pretty much the wholesale prices from the vendor (usually Ching Hua) and that is why it is double when it gets here.[/QUOTE]

Hey Silken, just wanted to clarify quickly on pricing.... as to say that the prices are doubled is not accurate. Eric was to our society about 6 months ago and advised of his new program whereby he would assist local growers/hobbists in obtaining plants from foreign sources which likely would be hard to impossible for them to purchase on their own in some cases. He indicated that he adds 50% of the price to the price of the plant in order to cover things such as phyto/paperwork, HST, packaging, shipping etc...etc.. So a 10$ plant would cost you $15.00 total. I pay more for shipping on plants that I've ordered from within Canada (never mind Taiwan, or California), so in my opinion his pricing is very fair and it is questionable as to whether or not his costs are covered on this side of his business.

It is unfortunate that your group had some difficulties with this order, but I would hope that it was an isolated incident and would suggest that Crystal star did what was within their power to make things right with your club.

[silken]

When I said double, I was including postage, which for some reason seemed to be somewhat higher than a comparable order shipped from Cloud's. If you read their instructions, shipping from them to you is not included in the 50% mark-up. Shipping is part of the cost of purchasing an orchid if it isn't bought locally. I never said the orchids were expensive as they aren't. Just not to look at the price list from Ching Hua and think that's what you are paying. This is also our second order from them that didn't work out 100%. The first one also took quite long and then only Paphs came. I never got any of the 3 or 4 I ordered as I ordered cattleyas that time.

I just put in my comments so that people know what to expect. That was 2 out of 2 orders that didn't go as well as hoped for for our society. Not to say that I wouldn't add a few to an order if a bunch of people want to try a bulk order, but I won't get my heart really set on receiving them either.

[Brenda Aarts]

Hope that you do try another group order and it works out to your satisfaction. I'm somewhat spoiled here having crystal star and many other reputable vendors within a two hour drive....scary in fact!

[silken]

Yes, you are lucky to have vendors within a reasonable distance! We rely on society group orders for a lot of our plants.

I did manage to get the Phal I really wanted from Crystal Star. I tried once on my own ordering from them but they couldn't get it. Then I got it with this last society order. It is Dtps. Taiwan Red Cat 'Red Cat'. Some day it might look like the one on this link :
Dtps. Taiwan Red Cat 'Red Cat' | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[FairyInTheFlowers]

Hey silken, is there any group orders coming up?

[silken]

Originally Posted by TheBlazingAugust

Hey silken, is there any group orders coming up?

We will be doing several pre-orders from vendors that will be at the Edmonton show in Feb. It's really the only way we can order until spring. Last I heard, we were waiting to hear which vendors were going to be at the show. If the poster isn't out yet, it will be soon. Then we will select several to order from and it will be announced in the next newsletter I think.

[Brenda Aarts]

Wow silken, that red cat will be a beauty....worth the wait and growing time! Hopefully you get a good number of vendors for your show to choose from.