Definately call them-- it is taught in corporate business classes that a satisfied customer will tell on average 2-3 people of their "good" experience-- a Dissatisfied customer will tell 8- 10 people of their "unhappy" experience. They would much rather you be "happy"and perhaps a repeat customer, than unhappy and dissuading "potential" customers. If it lives--you will have 2-- if not you will have none.
I am looking for a Cowardly Lion begonia.....
I emailed them and addressed it to Mr. Fred Pepper. That is I presume one of the owners and a name in the correspondance. We will see what happens.
I am sooo mad this Mr. Pepper emailed back and said his company doesn't send pieces of plants and accused me of trying to plant two leaves in a pot saying they didn't have roots on them! I told him tomorrow I would dig them out and take a picture of them ROOTS and all!! I am furious. I have gardened for over twenty years and my yard has been on several garden tours city and county wide and he thinks I was stupid enough to plant two leaves out of a box I got in the mail??!!!!! He also said they were too wet and in too big a pot. They may be in too big a pot, but I had just planted the plants and washed off the dirt from them making the soil around them wet. That will be the LAST time I order anything from Peppers nursery! I also sent him a picture of the Cowardly Lion I got from Taylors and told him THAT was what a plant should look like when you receive it in the mail from a nursery!
Jonetta, I cannot believe what he emailed back to you! I do hope you leave feedback on Watchdog so that others can see what happened to you. Its really simple to do, and after that kind of response to your email you sure should. Be sure to leave good feedback for Taylors too. Here is a pix of what is left of the Passing Storm begonia I got from them. I have almost tossed the remains several times, but there are 3 new leaves, so I will wait and see. This was the plant with the 4 centipedes and 1 snail in the soil! ChuLin
WOW!!! I will think twice about buying from them now. ChuLin-- passing storm is one that appreciates a more humid environment-- you might want to put it in a bowl--or on a humidity tray.
Here is the picture I took in the wee hours of the morning. I was so mad I went out and got the plant, dug up the two pitiful pieces and took the picture. DH downloaded them awhile ago before he left for work. What do you think? Do they look like leaves with no roots to you??
Here is another one.
ChuLin - I went in last night after receiving his last email and figured out how to leave feedback. I left it for Taylor's also.
Funny how you can figure out things when you are mad!
You know all he would have had to say was he was sorry and offer to send another plant and I would have told him to make a notation on their records and wait to see how this main plant with the black edges comes out of it. I have a yard and patio full of plants, I don't need two pots of Northern Lights! I guess I am maddest about him accusing me of planting leaves with no roots right out of the box and expecting them to grow! What an insult!!! Then to deny this nursery sending pieces. I thought they looked like small rooted pieces to me! I would say he sits back in his executive chair and obviously doesn't know what his nursery people send out.
Gran, I had just set it on the couch (haha) for its picture...it sits on a tray of pebbles and water...along with other humidity-loving plants on the same set-up. Jonetta, those are the most pathetic looking plantlets (?) I have ever seen! Even if he said now he'd send a replacement, would you really want another from him? At least now you have a gorgeous CL from Taylors. And that's where I'll do my next order from! ChuLin
ChuLin/Hillbilly_Gran - I have not heard anything more out of Mr. Pepper. I am presuming he did not like what I had to say. So at least I told them about the plant and left feedback on the Garden Watchdog. I will just see if the plant makes it or not. I put it back in a four inch pot with fresh dry soil. I don't know what else to do with it.
Here are pictures today of both begonias. Am I going to lose the Northern Lights? The stem looks good, but the leaves decline every day. From the first day I got it (the 5th) when I took the picture, then took both pics of them on the 6th when I received CL it is going downhill. Couldn't they look at the shipping date and figure by the time I got it on the 5th and now it is 3 days later, it would not look like this unless it was shipped as a poor quality plant to begin with?
another:
Cowardly Lion close-up from Taylor's Greenhouse:
Close up of Northern Lights from Peppers Greenhouse (Accents for Home and Garden):
Yikes, Jonetta, N Lights is a gonner....dump it before whatever its got gets passed on to your other plants. Wow and WOW, your patio looks like a Home and Garden mag layout. Just GORGEOUS! Beautiful plants, all of them. I sure am impressed. When I got up this morning the 4 remaining leaves on the P Storm (from Peppers) were all dead so I dumped the whole thing, and don't have that to worry about anymore! The pink peperomia from them IS gonna make it however...hooray...the experience was not a total loss. Check back on watchdog every so often; sometimes the company owners "answer" posts...he finally replied to mine, more or less. HA ChuLin
I wouldn't dump it yet-- It is a rhizomatous type and if the rhizome is good it may send out new leaves. The leaves look to me like they got too hot in transit. I have bought several plants from ebay vendors that dropped all their leaves but come back. It is hard to get plants in the summer without them sometimes getting overheated on the way.
I agree with Hillbilly_Gran - if the rhizome is healthy and (somewhat) plump, then it should be okay. Give it some water if it is dry and put it either outdoors in some shady nook or some kind of humid environment to encourage new growth. The leaves may even have enough energy to propagate from but they might be very iffy.
Thanks CuLin/ Hillbilly _Gran/hcmcdole for your response you have all been a great help with all of this. I will take and remove Northern Lights from close proximity to the CL(and anything else) in case it is some disease, hopefully it is what Hillbilly_Gran said about the heat. It is already outside in the shade and it has been humid here anyway (or do I need the plastic bag for more?) and I set it where it gets good air circulation. I will go out and check for water because when I put it back in the small pot I did not water it because Mr. Pepper said THAT was the problem. I thought I would give it a day of dry soil.
I do hate to pitch it yet as I have just over twelve bucks in it with shipping. Whatever, now it is a challenge to see if it makes it or not and maybe with all of you helping me with advice I can help it through. Other than the old CL I had for several years (which was huge and beautiful) I have not had any of the Rhiz. begonias. This year for whatever reason they have caught my eye in a big way. I think what did it was the looking and searching to find out the name of the one I lost and seeing all of the BEAUTIFUL begonias. That is why I ended up with Madame Queen.
hcmcdole - I sent Chulin and Hillbilly_Gran all the emails between Mr. Pepper and myself I will send them to you and see if you think I am just over reacting on this. Maybe I should just calm down.
ChuLin - Thanks for the compliment on the corner of the patio. I have not taken hardly any pictures this year of the yard or gardens. I guess I should do that. Everything is on the down hill side by now and not much is going on. If you like I will send some later on. I know we all like to share our flowers, garden and yards with each other. We all know that people on here really appreciate all of our hard work and efforts!
Chulin - Posts of Cowardly Lion - it seems to be pretty happy
Here is another:
and another:
Here is Madame Queen:
Oops on the last one! I will try this, it is not a close up but you can still see it:
Trying one more time for a good pic of Madame Queen- AHA! Got it!
Daylily, the CL looks REALLY good! So glad, after the NL disaster from Peppers. I think the Madame Queen is so different looking....reminds me a kale....haha! No offense intended. ChuLin
daylily_lady, your "good pic" of Madame Queen has reminded me how much I like this plant. I had it several years ago and somehow lost it. Now I must find a new one.
Tussee
tusseemussee - I really have enjoyed it this summer...I just hope I can winter it over. After being in on this begonia forum I have learned it is not the easiest begonia to raise. However, I was also told some people have better luck with some and not so good with others, so we will see. We put in new windows about 4 years back with uv glass and none of my plants have wintered over as well. So we will see how the Madame responds. I know there is always grow lights, but I have wayyy tooo many plants to do this....and which of my "children" do I choose???