Asiatica has always shown me excellent customer service, recently I had a problem with one of their plants and they immediately responded and said it would be replaced! There was no questions or making me jump through hoops to receive the replacement. In MY book you ROCK Asiatica.
Blessings,
Awanda
Kudos to Asiatica Nursery
I have never ordered from them, they do have a few that I would like, oops sorry need ... Is there shipping really that high? I do go over there and drool alot over the pretty pictures. How big of cuttings/plants do they send? Well it is good to know they really stand behind there product.
Tami, I have ordered from Asiatica and was pleased with the size and quality of the plants that I received, the shipping is a bit high though. It's hardly worth it to purchase a plant for $28 and then have to pay another $20 for postage. So if you order from them you may as well order big and get several plants at one time.
dmichael
They do have a good website and selection, and the plants I've recieved look very healthy. However, regarding the large orders to compensate for high shipping, I wouldn't advise it. For instance, if you ordered 10 plants and lived in California, as I do:
10 plants @ (average price) $25 $250.00
Base shipping $19.00
addntnl shipping @ $3.75 per
plant over 2 $24.00
------------------------------ -------------------------------
TOTAL $293.00
Which comes to almost $30 for each rooted cutting (and that's what they are) - more if you order something rare.
Tammy,
My experince with Asiatica is mixed. I wanted 4 plants at the tune of over $100 and they wanted $38 to ship them. These are 2" pots with plants not over 14", not huge baskets. THe actual shipping cost was less than $7 total. I'm not saying I won't order again because, well, I am a hoya hog and they have lots of cool plants, but this time I will be prepared to pay through the nose for the shipping and not just the plants. When I complained about one of the plants having yellow leaves with brown spots, I was told to send it back AT MY EXPENCE and they would replace it. After spending that much on shipping the first time I copped an attitude and just kept the yellow plant. Ok, I'll shut up now, rant over, soap box put away..........
Awanda, I am glad you have such good luck with them :~)
God bless, -joanne
This message was edited Nov 7, 2006 6:30 PM
I ordered from them, for the heck of it because Awanda raved so. I was underwhelmed!!!! The most expensive rooted cutting was the smallest...with a desperately bad cut at the top which may have totally killed the growth points. The next expensive cutting was a tiny and the "NEW Dischidia sp. from Thailand" turns out to be a common dischidia I have miles of, D. hirsuta...and it was a large plant.
They have a nitch: people with a desire to collect the unusual and don't care how much money it costs. The shipping was over 30.00$ Hello? I just shipped out 3 specimen plants weighing a total of 10 lbs. for a total of 20$. including the cost of the box (which I had to buy because USPS/FedEx does not give away boxes that big). Asiatica has good customer relations...bad company operations.
I hope I don't offend anyone. I set high standards for anyone selling plants and I admit I have high expectations. I think Asiatica doesn't know enough about hoyas/dischidias to charge that much...and they depend on their people in thailand to tell them, and grow them out. They are simply the middle men making the money.
My 10cents worth (shipping extra at $47.00).
Carol
What an interesting post! Everyone has had a different experience, some good and some not so good. But as I stated in my post I've had nothing but the best customer service and received excellent plants, and that's what I base my experience on. I always remember my Mom when she would ask me why I did something, and I would say because so and so did it, her response" if so and so jumped off of a bridge would you jump too?.
Blessings,
Awanda
I wonder and maybe you can answer this Awanda, since they cannot send into Arizona the potted plants do they reduce the shipping cost any? I didn't realize they charged $ 3.75 for every plant over 2, hmmm something to think about. Or hey, maybe we can find the guy in Thialand and have him ship directly to us !!!! They really do have some beautiful plants. Thanks everyone for your imput.
My experience with Asiatica has been positive. The shipping is high, but the plants are really excellent quality. I've only ordered once and thankfully there wasn't a problem with my order. I was well pleased with each of the two plants I ordered from them. I would order from them again.
You can also see their spin on the complaints about their high shipping prices. It was on their homepage several months ago, but not sure if it still is.
GH
I also ordered from them and was not real happy..............most of my orders have been with Carol so I was real shocked at the size of the plants for the cost...............The shipping was high for the time it took to get here. I have paid that high of price from the Island but my plants were at my door in 2 days and the box was always big...........Now this year Carols plants ran smaller then the last few years -but then again she had a really hard cold start this last Spring ...Maybe Asiatica had a problem that I never asked about and should have............Sandy
I wonder if they charge those high shipping charges on all of their plants or just the hoyas? I know this guy has his hoyas imported from Thailand and is trying to recover all of his expenses for doing so but hey,I didnt tell him to bring all of his stuff in from overseas.
I certainly dont mind paying for a plant if its something that I really want but I think in all honesty and fairness I, as well as any other paying customer should only have to pay the actual shipping cost. It just DOES NOT cost $37 to mail a box from PA. to SC. I can drive there and pick them up for that!!!
I've only ordered fromt hem once. As I said I was pleased with the size & quality of the plants upon arrival but shipping was outrageous. I purchased the following 5 plants: the prices you see are this years prices. Last years were a few $$$ more.
H. caudata (died quickly)
H. chunii (died )
H.flavida (growing nicely)
H. kanyakumariana ( growing nicely and rather fast as i've heard it is a slow grower)
H. megalster ( the one I wanted most,died within the first 2 weeks)
So you can see even though I was initially pleased with my order how it turned out in the end. I chose not to contact them and complain or demand replacement for the lost plants. I probably shold have said something to them and maybe i would have gotten replacement plants for those which died but that's all water under the bridge now as it's been over a year since I ordered from them.
dmichael
dmichael, You should have contacted them, I feel as tho if I sell a plant and it dies quickly as your meglaster did it is worth a replacement..How can they continue to sell when people who order gets burnt,Soon they will lose business.. I had a bad experience with them and now I laugh because he claimed his car didn't go to post office to send my package for free!!! LOL
So nice to hear Awanda is having so much luck with them, maybe we didn't buy enough with them!
On a lighter note I killed Caudata like crazy,knocking on wood,I have three that are growing really fast for me and I am shocked!! But the are under my bella's and get hardly no sun at all..
Dianne
Dianne, I killed at least 2 other caudata plants so maybe it's just the variety on that one. I've heard it is a bit of a challenge to grow. I'm supposed to be getting another one so we'll see how that goes!!
I didnt complain the first time because I know once the plant leaves the nursery,i'm responsable for it and assume all risks of it living or not. NO guarantee after it is in my hands that it will live and grow so I just didnt say anything. That's just how I am. If I go in a restaurant and get bad food or service, I dont complain but I dont have to go back either.
I'll most likely order from them again. That is if between now and the time I decide to do so, I havent already received all the things i'm currently looking for. I've got a few trades lined up for early spring and some of the hoyas that i originally planned on buying form Asiatica are involved in those trades. So I need to see what happens come spring before jumping onto the Asiatica train again.
dmichael
I have not ordered anything from them, but may in the future if I can't find something I am looking for elsewhere. With Awanda ordering a bunch from them, soon we can just order them from her. :-)
On the caudata...I used to kill them too until I realized they like to stay fairly dry. I usually skip watering them until every other time, and keep them in a fairly smallish pot. They do seem rather delicate, but once you find a spot they like (mine is in shade outside in summer, and in an East window with just a bit of morning sun in the wnter). and let them go almost dry between watering...they seem to take off & grow well.
I try to give a plant at least 3 trys if I like it's looks. I just keep trying different conditions, and eventually I usually find out what it was that I was doing wrong. If I loose them all after a few trys...I just figure it is not my type of plant and let it be.
Marcy
Marcy, I meant to post that in my post above. I'll give it 3 strikes before I give up on it. When I get my next caudata that'll be the third one. If it bites the dust then i'm finished with any attempts at growing that one!!
dmichael
dm...caudata needs aircurrent like it needs water....moisture....lots of aircurrent.
I've never ordered from Asiatica, either, but have heard good things about them from collectors of plants 'other than' hoyas.
It's kind of like the ebay auctions that go so high.....if you can stand to wait until the plant is more common....then do, as you'll definitely get a better price.
The big thing is...they're online and readily accessible, and they *do* have many new, rare and unusual plants that most sellers simply don't have, so if you've just *gotta have it now*, be prepared to pay for it.
The shipping cost is the biggest reason I've never purchased from them, despite what they may state as their reasons.
Definitely good to hear of your pleasant experience, Awanda!
Nan for the longest time I had a problem with Asiatica's shipping cost which is why I would not order. I realized that they would not lower the shipping cost just because I had a problem with it:-). They had hoyas I wanted and I could not find anyplace else and in order to get them, I had to play by their rules, which I CHOOSE to do. What something is worth and what they are willing to pay for it is an individual decision. As Charley Barkley said 'gambling isn't a problem as long as I can afford to do it", the same way I feel about the hoyas I choose to purchase. I must say it's a lot cheaper than flying to Thailand and trying to buy or trade hoyas. Just my humble opinion and 2 cents worth:-)
Blessings,
Awanda
Umm...Awanda...that's kind of the 'gist' of what I posted....I thought.....? (Ü)
I'm confused...but what's new? As I stated, it was/is my humble opinion and my 2 cents worth:-)
Blessings,
Awanda
Marcy I meant to add that is an "excellent" suggestion you made about where to buy the hoyas:-)
This message was edited Nov 8, 2006 11:23 AM
One of the big problems buying a 'pig in a poke' is that unless you are sure of what you are buying...it often isn't even a pig! That is why I did order from them...I knew I was getting another variegate of one I already had...safe!!! Buying a hoya just because it has a name I haven't ever seen just seems like throwing away a lot of money!!! But then...different things turn different people on!! LOL
Rotflmbo!!!!!!!
Blessings,
Awanda