Mail Order Plants - Wrong variety supplied
Greetings Everyone. I am a professional gardener and have been trying to obtain Eryngium Alpinum plants for myself and customers. I ordered 3 roots from Van Meuwen. Once they had started to grow it was obvious they were E. Planum (which I have loads of as it self-seeds in my garden), I complained and replacements were sent, these also turned out to be E. Planum, the third lot arrived and were clearly exactly the same. I got my money back. I then tried Thompson and Morgan, (who are part of the same group apparently) and they too supplied E. Planum, I sent them a photo of the plant in flower and they agreed it was the wrong plant and sent me another couple of roots - guess what? Yes, Eryngium Planum again. Nearly five years has gone by and I still don't have my plants in the garden. How do they get away with it? Either their buyer doesn't recognise one plant from another, or they are being conned by the supplier. Mail Order companies are covered by legislation, and always replace or refund - but what if they advertise a plant that they can't supply in the first place?
Any ideas as to what my next port of call is. I have tried them from seeds about ten times, and although they germinate, they always seem to rot off. E Planum self-seeds into my gravel driveway!
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The fact that you are a professional gardener and cannot grow them or obtain them from a wholesale outlet tells its own story. Have you tried the RHS .
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/rhsplantfinder/plantfinder2.asp?crit=Eryngium+and+Alpinum&Genus=Eryngium
Might help -with a few phone calls
Looks like they are on the Unwins website at £5.49 per plant
Fryers sent me the wrong roses a few years ago. I didn't notice until they started flowering in the wrong colour. They sent me replacements free of charge so I ended up with six for the price of three.
T & M replied but won't refund the full amount I paid. I used to buy hundreds of pounds worth of plants from them. Never again. T & M claim that GW Mag voted them top mail order supplier last year - unbelieveable!
The RHS does list several mail order nurseries, but no nurseries near me has any in stock. T & M has stopped supplying plants now anyway, which says something I suppose. I will try Unwins though, plus seeds again - perhaps my 50/50 grit mix needs more grit and less soil considering planum and Miss Willmott's ghost will self seed in my gravel drive quite happily. Eryngiums are stunning plants - I also grow bourgatii, despite my awful clay soil.
Incidentally, I bought Auratum lilies (fragrant pink types) from T & M at the same time and they sent the Asiatic ones (yellows/whites/reds) instead which were full of lily rust. Just goes to show their buyers don't have any idea what their buying. Horse burger anyone?
Aldi have this one in stock now, 3 roots 99p.