To finish my Bob Smoley tale of woe....
I placed the order April 10, and got an email confirmation that it was accepted a few days later.
May came and went. No word.
Mid-way into June I sent him an email and he said he'd try to get the order out the next week. Nothing. So I emailed him. No response. Called. No response. I was trying to be patient. Then after several other emails and phone calls, I finally found him home, and trying to be polite, gently asked where my hoyas were. His response: "I don't have them in stock."
Why did he accept my order in the first place? It's a mystery. He did refund my money last week...but still, here it is prime hoya-growing season and Julia without her plants. (Blowing nose)
So ends the Sorry Saga of Bob Smoley and His Land of Imaginary Plants. Let others take heed.
Julia
Bob Smoley - Never Again!
He's been handing me that BS story for almost 5 years now. You call to place an order for hoyas or whatever it might be that you want to order and that's always the repsone you will get "I don't have them in stock"
Well after 5 years of them not being in stock my question is why do you continue to list them in your catalog???? Call and ask him about H lambii one time and see what he says. It's listed in his 07" catalog but it isnt in stock and according to him it wasnt last year or the year before or the year before so why do you keep listing it??
It's not just like that with H lambii either thats the case with most of the hoyas he offers,they're either not in stock and if they happen to be they are most likely mislabled.
I bought my hoya bella on ebay and didnt know until after the auction ended who the seller was,turned out to be none other than Mr. Smoley. I had to email him for almost 2 weeks to get that plant but he finally sent it.
For anyone wanting to know his ebay user name is botanicwonders. Dont want to get screwed,dont buy from him simple as that!!!
dmichael
Thank you David and Julia. I appreciate this information. I am sorry to hear you both went through this experience.
Patti
This message was edited Jul 8, 2007 3:28 PM
Julia, sorry you had such a bad experience with him. I've ordered before and it has taken forever, but I did finally get (most of) the right plants. I don't think I'll be ordering from him again either, after your experience. Did you go on Garden Watchdog and post the appropriate negative response?
You have D-mail.
Poor Julia. Dry your tears, honey, summer's not even half over. Order from someone else, you still have some good rooting months ahead. I got some cuttings at the very end of the summer last year and they all rooted fine. Of course, it wasn't till this summer that I saw any actual growth on them, but sometimes delayed gratification is a good thing. After looking at them doing absolutely nothing for the past several months, it was kinda exciting to finally see some action!
Bummer Julia.......
At least he was honest enough to refund your money, even if he isn't upfront enough to let customers know that he either doesn't have the plants, or can't keep up with the orders he is getting. He sounds a bit overwhelmed, or just inconsiderate, if he won't return emails or phone calls.......Hmmmm.
David, your quest for lambii sounds familiar!! HA! I think I started trying to get lambii 3 or more years ago, and then after multiple requests, I got it from 3 sources almost all at once. Good thing too, because I had terrible luck rooting my DL lambii cuttings that came in the last fall order with Ms. Burton, and then ended up over watering, and rotting the darn things. I have 2 pieces now that I received in April already rooted, that are finally putting out new growth, and one tiny little piece from this last spring DL order that is finally rooted! UGH! I am a bit afraid to even breathe on the darn things.
I saw your awesome picture of lambii - nice job, but I do have to admit, I felt the urge to cuss you out a bit as yours is sooooooo much better than mine!!! HA! JUST KIDDING. Nice growing David!!
Cheers,
Sara
Sara this is the same plant. I took this pic just for you!!! My first attempt at lambii was with cuttings from Ted Green which died rather quickly.
This plant is from cuttings I got from David Liddle last year. They rooted very quickly. I really like the leaves on this one and cant wait for flowers.
dmichael
Thanks for the sympathy. Funny, I ordered from him once before and although the plants were late, they did arrive. And David you're right - why doesn't he just delete the plants from his catalogue? Why does he accept orders if he doesn't have the materials? Why did I have to bug him to where it was starting to put me in a bad mood to even think about hoyas before he replied? Argh!
Okay. Deep breath. I feel better now. You guys are the only group of people in the world that understands my anguish, LOL. What a clique to belong to.
Glad it exists!
Julia
Oh my goodness David what are you feeding it? I have a Lambii that is so slooooooow growing, it's sad. What is your care routine for yours, watering, feeding, light, everything:-)
Blessings,
Awanda
LOL David, that pic is just for me huh........Do you own cats? I have 5 (I know kinda gross huh?!), and I think that they have a bit of a mean streak - mine will bite me while they are purring.
Seriously though, like Awanda asked, what are you doing for your lambii? It is absolutely stunning. I would love to have mine looking like that. I ordered a cutting of each lambii last spring, one regular, one larger leaf from David, and I do think that they rooted, but aren't actively growing yet.
Cheers,
Sara
This message was edited Jul 9, 2007 6:24 AM
David - this inquiring mind wants to know also!! I, too, order one each of Lambii from David Liddle. One didn't root, the other did, and is just sitting there, looking at me.....please let us know what you do!!
Karen
Sorry this is fuzzy,it was raining and hazy here this mornig and my camera fogged up.
This is the gh I grow all of my hoyas in. As you can see the top is covered with shade cloth (dont know the %) and I have bamboo sheets over top of that as the shade cloth allowed more sunlight in than I wanted.I bought this gh used and the original owner couldnt tell me what % the cloth was.
You can see in the pic that there are some breaks in between the bamboo sheets and this allows for plenty of light to come in.
I grow all of my hoyas under the same conditions. The palnts requiring high - moderate light are growing on the side that you are looking at in the pic. The low light - deep shade hoyas are all on the opposite side and through the middle.
I mist lightly every other day for 3 minutes during the summer months as it gets quite hot (90+ daily)and humid (75-90% daily) here. I water only when dry with the exception of a few that need to stay moist and I fertilize with MSU for well water. I DO NOT water anything with city water. I dont drink it so why should I allow my plants to drink it??
I also mix my own soil. I begin with 40qrts of a very good quality soiless mix from a local nursery(their own brand) to this I add 16 qrts perlite,16 qrts orchid bark and about 2lbs of milorganite.
I dont baby any of my hoyas. They all get the same treatment if they grow they grow if they dont they dont. So far I havent had any problems growing them like this.
Awanda and ladies,I grow lambii in high but indirect light,water when dry and fertlize with MSU for well water. I fertilize every 3 waterings and the fourth watering is just water no fert. This cutting rooted quickly when I received it but it was slow to get going but once it did you can see what happened. It seems to be a rather fast grower for me.
dmichael
Sara, I do own cats. I have 2,one domestic shorthair (Gizmo) orange tabby and a tortoise shell (Sara) long hair
Awww, I am a sucker for cats. Mine are indoors only, and pretty low maintenance, but I ended up with 5 because I just can't turn a stray away.......Every time one would turn up, I would post the ads, check the pound, but just couldn't leave them behind when they were not claimed.
They can be hoya pests though, and I have found hot pepper flakes on double sided tape works extremely well as a deterrent - no more chewed leaves, broken stems, climbed trellises. Just one or two big nose fulls, and they figure things out FAST. Of course my veterinarian approved it before I did it. I do have a 10 year old son who is not as quick as the cats, and insisted on proving that HOT peppers really aren't "that hot". He was wrong. HA! I am all about natural consequences. Truly the best lessons.......
Cheers,
Sara
Julia, I'm sorry for your B.S. woes! Ouch!!! I'd always heard that he had nice plants, but that he was extremely slow on shipping and bad with communication. Sooooooooo, I never ordered from him.
Now, I happened to vacation in Orlando last summer. I drove up to Bob's place and was impressed with his selection of Sansevierias/and other succulents. He was about to leave for a plant show, so most of his Hoyas were packed up on a U-Haul. He did have some left in the GH, so I bought several. The ones I bought were very nice and well grown. Unfortunately, due to falling in love last winter(:), I neglected quite a few of my plants. As a result, I lost the Hoyas that I bought from him. He was very nice and hospitable. His family and workers were nice also. The dogs were friendly, too. LOL Maybe he's going through a bad spell right now, don't know. BUT, I do know that whatever is going on, this should not have happened to you. You're a customer and should not have been treated in this manner. Totally unacceptable.
GH
I have a plant hating cat, for once, she doesn't bother any of my plants. She also never jumps up on the counters, not even when I am not home. Strange.
David, that tabby is the cactus eating cat, right? Pretty tough. The Clint Eastwood of the cat world. I like the other one too, I had a Blue Cream tort. shell (gray and beige) cat named Daphne, she died of cancer of few years ago...
GH, fell in love and neglected your plants? I am glad I never put everything else in my life on a back shelf because of some guy....(ha ha - actually, I've done it about 10 times - but no more!!)
Brenda, girlfriend, NEVER again!!!! I lost Hoyas and Sansevierias. Now what does that tell you, being that these are two types that don't need a lot of water generally, and especially not during the winter? LOL LOL Plants? What plants? OHHHHHHH, you mean the couple hundred scattered about the house? Those ones? LOL LOL
GH
Well, I have neglected things alot more serious, thats for sure, and when I look back now, it wasn't worth it....we live and we learn, right?
Bhav, I no longer ggrow any plants inside my house. The 2 cats that i had prior to getting the 2 you see in the picture never bothered my plants. I grew them indoors then but that was before I got a gh.
Sara doesnt bother anything. Gizmo on the other hand is into and does bother everything!! He is the one who likes plants. I only bring them inside when something of interest is in bloom and I want to bring it to work to show off to co-workers. I have to keep the plant in the spare bathroom with the door closed or he is all over it. Be it a cactus,hoya or whatever he just doesnt care!
I have a columnar type cactus in the gh which is about 9ft in height. One day I took Gizmo outside and let him walk around the gh while I was in there. Before I knew it he had got a running start from the front and ran to the back and went right up that cactus.
It didnt take him but a hot second to let it go and luckily for him he didnt get any thorns!
David, You have me rolling!!!! That is such a funny mental image I can hardly stand it!
Now, I know in an earlier post you said you recently turned 40, but you must have at least heard of the movie "Gremlins" - wasn't Gizmo the evil gremlin, or was Gizmo the good one? All I can think of when I hear that name is that scary whirling dervish gremlin that was wreaking havoc on the whole town.
S
Gizmo was the good gremlin. The eveil was named stripe! Gimo's a good cat he just likes to get his share of attention and that is usually when i'm tryign to do something. If I dont stop and pay him attention then he starts purposely looking for something to get into or knock something off of a table of counter simply because he can do it.
A lot of times he'll just sneak up on me while i'm on the computer and he'll howl really load and will get even loader if I dont stop and look at him or follow to see what he wants. A lot of the time he leads me to his blanket that he nurses and just wants me to lay beside him and pet him. After a few mintues of petting and talking to him he's fine and goes on about his business.
Aw, now in that picture he just looks like another little sleeping angel. So cute. Yeah, cats are just cats. I don't understand people who say they don't make good pets, that they don't care about you or listen to you or come when they are called etc....I have found cats to be very personable, affectionate, and loving. Mine follows me everywhere - not obviously, she is very coy about it - but no matter what room I am in, soon enough she is in there too. They love you, they just don't feel they have to smother you with it...cats have a certain dignity...So what if they have a "kiss my butt" attitude sometimes, you gotta love 'em for it.
Gizmo is a big time kisser!! He has been doing it since he was a kitten and I didnt teach him to do it. Any time I say gimme a smooch I get one. Sometimes t'll be on the lips sometimes it's just a nudge on the nose but he'll do t eveytime you ask.