Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Holiday Cacti general Discussionpart #4. , 1 by Gitagal

Gitagal wrote:
JB---

I REALLY, REALLY do not want to have to do all the careful packaging to mail any live plants......because I do it RIGHT!
It is very time-consuming--(I am sure you know about all that!) and hard to estimate the postage until I mail it.

On the other hand--everything I have ever mailed, anywhere, --seeds....cuttings....rooted plants----all I have ever asked for
is to be reimbursed for postage. I am not running a plant mailing business...just sharing what i have
and happy to get the postage reimbursed. No one, in all these years, has ever stiffed me by not sending back the postage....

I suppose I am an exception--as I do not need to make money off of my cuttings, seeds or plants....
Sometimes I check out the "Marketplace" and am appalled what people ask for just seeds!!!!

I have, at this point, about 55 different seeds in my "Haves" list. I COULD charge for them!!!
A small Bubble envelope, under 13oz., mails for $1.71
I could ask--like--$3 for the mailing. However--this just this does not "sit right" with me.
Many times people DO send me more than the actual postage--and I appreciate that.
I always D-mail them and thank them for their generosity--or to just let them know I got the postage.

My generosity has been compromised on a couple of occasions.....
There is a Chinese man in Canada, (who I thought was a woman for years--b/c of the name) who asked me for
1000 seeds of my Wintersweet Shrub. He wanted to spread all these seeds around his whole Chinese community.
Seemed he was running some kind of a benevolent, obsessive need to populate the WS Shrub.
If you are not aware of this--the WS is a very special plant to the Chinese....with all kinds of uses and properties.

SO! I packaged 100 small zip-baggies with 10 seeds in each--with directions included on how to germinate them.
Mailed it off--and he repaid me the postage......

THEN--he wanted 1000 more seeds--and I said "NO!". That is when I realized that he was obsessive/compulsive with
spreading this plant all over his area by running some kind of a "business" of being able to get these seeds (from me)
and to distribute them too all his community. Last I heard--he is still getting requests and has filled them by finding another
source for the seeds.
NOW! I could have sent him another 1000 seeds--as this shrub produces an insane # of seeds every year--
but I realized that I should NOT fall for his scheme....

We still keep in touch--and there are no hard feelings. He has found another source to fill the demand for more WS seeds.
I even wrote him, when he asked for more, that NO ONE needed 10 seeds of this plant--and that he could, easily, split up
the baggies in half and keep providing seeds to all these people requesting them--but just 5 seeds each.

In the long run---I live to share what I have and not expect any payment fot sharing.
Seems to personify Dave's garden to me....

Perhaps--I am a "diamond in the rough".......as I often think of myself. ASK! and you shall receive!!!!

This is from 2008. I gathered more than this on 2011. YES! I have enough seeds----I just do not like greed!