Al wrote:

every collector to learn how to read and write those darn tags. At a show
once I found a Phal species with a tag that read: Phal. cornu-cervi
'RedWing'. There was a whole group of them all labeled the same and so I
asked the vendor if the plant was a stem prop or a mericlone and she looked
at the tag and responded: "They are all seed grown and every one will be
different." You would have to understand what the tag told me about the
group of plants to know why the vendor's response was a complete
contradiction: either she didn't know what she was talking about or the tag
was wrong. So I asked, "So these are not all the clone 'RedWing' but
seedlings?" and her answer was "Oh no, they're all 'RedWing'" and that was
about all I could take. Of course, I bought the plant anyway.


Al, the space aliens are offering to give your brain back if you
don't ever do that again. Stupid and/or uneducated vendors should be
culled in the way nature intended. I'd personally prefer hungry wolves,
but market forces are good too. At some point the professor in me takes
over and I give them a (not infrequently polite) lecture on the errors
of their ways. I'm sure that makes me a (use whatever rude expletive
you choose), but I'm just a wolf in Hawaiian's clothing (Aloha shirt) at
most orchid shows, helping the market forces.

There are always other places to buy things, and in my opinion, we
should try to support the good vendors who know what they are talking
about. It drives me nuts that some otherwise knowledgable growers do
stupid things, like call a single species a 'specie' (I can't express
how much I hate that! - Ok, it is Dana at Hausermanns, give him hell for
me). People who have been growing for decades are allowed a few quirks,
what bothers me is people who decide that they will become vendors after
growing a couple orchids for a year, knowing nothing about orchids and
perhaps a few things about capitalism. Come back in a few years when
you know what you are talking about, and I'll be happy to do business
with you.

Anyway, that is how I screen my vendors... They have to know their
stock, and have at least a rudimentary understanding of how plants are
named. I prefer evidence that they actually grow the plants themselves
for a period of time, rather than just wholesaling budded stock. The
good ones know the breeding behind their plants, even if they didn't
actually make the cross. The best ones know the breeding behind plants
that their competitors are offering... You can learn alot about vendors
you haven't even met (like on the internet) just by applying the rules
of plant naming to their website. I can't trust somebody who can't get
genus and species correct and properly formatted (genus capitalized,
species not, etc.). Now if I've met them in person I may let such
little things slide, but the internet is chock full o' idiots (myself
included, I suspect).

Rob (not a vendor... or a shark, for that matter.)

--
Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a. See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to purchase
more orchids, obtain more credit