john_ny

For what it's worth; In the 70's I had a business importing aquarium fish, and selling them to pet shops. In 1977 we moved into this house. I liked it, because the property was large (as per New York City standards) and I could keep my fish stocks right here. When we moved here, there were some Azalea bushes here. I took cuttings and rooted them. However, I didn't know the names of the varieties. Then I saw, in American Nurseryman magazine an ad from someone in North Carolina, offering rooted cuttings of named varieties of Azaleas. I figured it was just as easy to grow named varietis, as unnamed, so I bought some. Rooted cuttings was all they did, but then I got a letter saying they had planted any unsold cuttings in 3 gal. pots, to use as stock plants, but were overstocked, so they were selling the stock plants really cheap. I bought a trailerload. In the meantime, I was a Navy Reserve transport pilot, and anytime we went someplace warm, I'd bring my fish traps, and catch some of my own. One day, while sitting on a stream bank, in Panama, waiting for something to get in my trap, I noticed many palm seedlings growing. (This was the time, when there was a house-plant craze), and many stores (short lived) opened selling just these. I decided I could sell some of the palms, so brought them back. These things got me started in the plant business.
Then, approx. thirty some years ago, my wife's boss invited us to spend a couple of weeks at their vacation house, in St. Lucia. While there, we met many people, as they knew everyone. (Wife's boss and his wife were both MDs). Met some of the locals, and asked about the bananas. Was told they were Gros Michel, and got to bring a couple of corms back with me. Had to give them up, when they started to push the tiles out of the suspended ceiling, in our playroom.

However, at that time, I saw an ad from TY-TY, offering several different Azaleas, that I did't have, for a very good price. I ordered the Azaleas, and added a couple of things else, like a filbert & some others.
I got the order, and there was no Azaleas (they said they were sold out) and the filbert certainly did not produce nuts like they said it would. It looked like some little wild thing that they had dug out of the woods.
So, needless to say, nothing ordered from them again.

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John