In article , hoppity hoppity
rabbit wrote:

Wondering if there is a trend to Monrovia plants being mislabled or if
I just have had some bad luck recently. I have bought a few different
azaleas that turned out to be something other than what they were
labeled, all in Monrovia pots with Monrovia tags. Most recently I
bought some witch hazels, Hamamelis × intermedia 'Diane' and 'Jelena'
the latter of which has not bloomed, so who knows what it will be, but
the 'Diane' has had a couple of random blooms already and they were
bright yellow. Disappointing when I planned around where I was
planting them and was really looking forward to the red blooms of the
'Diane' where I had placed it.

Monrovia is one of the most disappointment-oriented companies what is. See
this article:
http://www.paghat.com/buyerbeware.html

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com

Keep in mind that it might be the retail nursery's fault. Monrovia has become
more and more unreliable these days however. The problem is that these huge
nurseries are buying up smaller ones and unloading that product on thier
customers, and you may not actually be getting something that was grown by
monrovia. The plants that they actually grew, they stuffed into a smaller
container than what the plant needed and they became rootbound. Then they put
these plants on a 24 hour a day drip schedule, which basically supplies them
with liquid fertilizer all day and night. Then they take the plants off this
system and ship them. After a few weeks, the plants start to decline because
they are so rootbound, and because they arent getting thier constant water and
fertilizer. I sort of agree with paghats website, but of course it is majorly
biased because of her specific experiences.

toad

"Marley1372" wrote in message
...
Keep in mind that it might be the retail nursery's fault. Monrovia has
become
more and more unreliable these days however. The problem is that these
huge
nurseries are buying up smaller ones and unloading that product on thier
customers, and you may not actually be getting something that was grown by
monrovia. The plants that they actually grew, they stuffed into a smaller
container than what the plant needed and they became rootbound. Then they
put
these plants on a 24 hour a day drip schedule, which basically supplies
them
with liquid fertilizer all day and night. Then they take the plants off
this
system and ship them. After a few weeks, the plants start to decline
because
they are so rootbound, and because they arent getting thier constant water
and
fertilizer. I sort of agree with paghats website, but of course it is
majorly
biased because of her specific experiences.

toad

Even so, there aren't many excuses for bad service, especially when you can
find companies which make GOOD service seem effortless. For instance, if
you're buying computer memory in the future, try Kingston. I bought from
them a month ago and had a problem. The new module wasn't compatible with
the existing one in my computer. They've been jumping through hoops since
then, trying to find a compatible one so I don't have to buy two matching
ones. They've paid for all the returns. They've called two days after each
shipment to see if the solutions worked. So far, we've been unsuccessful. I
emailed the tech support guy this past Friday and said "Oh well - maybe I
should just start from scratch and buy two matching modules". He called back
yesterday to say they had the same idea, with one difference: They were
sending me a matching pair, but charging only for the original $59.00 item.

This is amazing, especially since I'm an individual user, not a corporate
buyer who stands to send them a ton of business in the future.

I think the Monrovia mislabeling is fairly common. I bought a rose of sharon
in the spring labeled Helene and had it bloom as a small double pink instead
of the big single white with red center I was expecting. However, the
nursery honored a return and supplied me with a Helene in bloom. (As a
matter of fact, the employee was going to give me a much bigger pot size,
but the owner caught him and made him hunt around until he found the one
remaining smaller sized one.) Of course, the new one is not as well
established as the one I babied since May, so I worry about it making it
through its first winter.