1aday

Gee, Kylie, kind of mean!

I too was worried about Richard, I have a very active imagination (watch too many movies) and find it easy to think of all sorts of horrible situations Richard might have been in. We were all EXTREMELY relieved when he was reported OK.

It's only natural to wonder why he couldn't take 2 minutes to send a short note. This was the main complaint. Some word, even second hand through someone else, what was going on. We had no idea what was going on with Richard, no idea if the plants were being cared for, no idea if we were ever going to get the plants. We didn't want personal or excruciating detail, just a short note, like "sorry, will ship in 2 weeks", anything like that! Remember that not all of us have been on this list for a long time, not all of us "know" Richard. We VERY, VERY much appreciated him going to the effort of coordinating the group purchase. But, yes, for all we know he might have turned out to be another Bernie Madoff!

Think of it this way, if a vendor like Agristarts or Plant Delights or whoever promised you plants on 4/6 and you still didn't have anything on 4/22, wouldn't you get on their backs about it? I don't know if you ever read reviews on Dave's Garden Watchdog, but the majority of complaints about companies is not sending plants on time, and poor communication. All we wanted was a very short note from Richard.

While I appreciate Richard putting the plugs in peat and pots and labeling, that was Richard's choice to do so. He could have just wrapped the plugs and sent them on. Last year I participated in a similar co-op and the plugs were sent in netting bags (the type onions come in) and laid on their sides in the box. No pots, no soil. Out of 113 plants I received one that was injured- it looked like it had been stepped on prior to shipping. My first box from Richard, every plant was damaged. People just don't realize that plants will fall out of their pots in shipping. Another member and I suggested alternated shipping methods to Richard, which he appreciated, and which helped in this round of boxes. Things ended up much better, but I still ended up with a lot of plants that fell out of their pots and I thought I'd have to guess at what they were. Of my 5 Musa Thai Black, 4 have broken pseudostems. Several others were broken as well.

I'm not too upset, because I know Richard and his packer (I forget her name, but many thanks to her) did their best. There is a learning curve to shipping plants.
And while it doesn't matter if someone spent 5 dollars, or like me, over $200, the fact is that we bought plants with that money, not donated it to a worthy cause.

I suggest everyone go back and take a look at Patty's post of 4/22. I just re-read it and it is not as bad as you think or remember it to be.

Maybe we should ALL "cool our jets" here. We are united by our love of plants, let's not be torn apart by this incident. This is a very enjoyable forum, usually. Let's all relax a bit and enjoy our plants!

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Susan