You Decide

OK, so today my much anticipated orders from Lyndon Lyon and Brennan's BOTH arrived!
I was SO excited!

Ordered from Brennans:- Total w/Shipping 30.10

Streptocarpus Space Dust
Streptocarpus Bristol's Party Boy

Ordered from Lydon Lyons - Total w/Shipping $31.75:

Streptocarpus Coral Kisses
X Codonatanthus Vista
Nematanthus crassifolius

I called BOTH nurseries to verify that they had everything I ordered and was told they did.

I opened the box from Lydon Lyon first. The first plant said "small plant, open gently". Opened it up and the soil had totally come out of the pot. Then noticed that there were NO ROOTS on the "X Codonatanthus Vista". Thought the foliage looked awful familiar and held it up to my Nematanthus Magnot. EXACT SAME THING! Opened the rest of the order and although I was feeling like they were small for what I paid at least I could tell they had roots. In fact they were potbound in their little pots and I didn't care much for the soil they were growing in so they were all repotted. Called Lydon Lyon right away and told them about the X Codonatanthus Vista situation. I also told her that the Nematanthus Magnot they sent had NO ROOTS and that I was pretty new to gessies and not real good with rooting things and was under the impression I had purchased plants and not cuttings. She said to give it 2 weeks and they would send the REAL X Codonatanthus Vista I ordered. They must be going to root me one so in 2 weeks I'm not sure how much roots it will have on it but hopefully it will be the right plant.

Then I opened the box from Brennan's and was shocked! Not only did Brennan's send me an e-mail that my plants had been shipped and thanking me for supporting their family run business, there was even a hand written Happy Birthday and Thank You on my invoice in the box. These little things won me over........but it's the plant size that REALLY got me.

First, A picture of the plants from both nurseries side by side.

Plants from Lydon Lyon's

Plants from Brennan's

Leaf on Bristol's Party Boy

Closeup of Bristol's Party Boy (the flowers were in rough shape and after taking this picture I removed all the floppy flowers so that the new ones which are getting ready to open would have room). These are the first flowers I get to see in real life and they took my breath away!

Closeup of Space Dust

I re-potted all of the plants and keep checking on the 2 streps from Brenann's and they haven't skipped a beat. I have a very bad habit of having to re-pot everything that comes through the door the minute it gets here. Sometimes it works out OK and other times I kick myself in the butt.

I have to say, I thought maybe I would get a bonus plant but I'm sure most people don't only place an order for $30 which includes shipping *lol*

To be honest, my absolute FAVORITE BOX today was from a very dear member here at Dave's. I think trading is the BEST way to go and I know I won't be able to order from a nursery for a LOOOONNNNNGGGG time again as that is just waaay too much money for us. I can send alot of trade boxes out for $60 so I sure hope you all want to trade me some of these babies next spring *lol*

Kim

OMG Kim..looks like Brennans is the place to buy nice streps! Its amazing the size differences and packing/shipping difference between their plants and LL's and sounds like Brennans customer service is excellent too... Oh I Love Space Dust..I am waiting patiently for my next round of blooms on that myself..Now Bristols Party Boy I don't have..but I am loving the Bloom on that too. Looks like by the size of those leaves you will have a zillion babies in no time once you get started!! LOL

I am a big fan of Brennan's!! I discovered them on eBay last winter, and you do get the free gift if you win an ebay auction Kim!! LOL I have since ordered from them several times for anniversary gifts or get well gifts whatever and every time the plants are so big and nice!!

Well since winter is fast approaching here I decided to order from them for myself one more time and my order arrived today too! I am amazed at the size of one plants!! But all three of them are great. I decided to try their Shenandoah series that they hybridize themselves and ordered two that have variegated foliage and then one regular.

Here are all three plants, the blooms are smashed and I'll have to trim them even though it hurts to do so :0) but check these out!!

~Brenda

This message was edited Oct 18, 2007 8:59 PM

This HUGE one is Shenandoah Sweet Talk

This beauty with variegated foliage is Shenandoah Shooting Star

Oh, Kim, You got em. They're beautiful. Ihope your strep cuttings are still happy. Mine were re done today. 1/2 of them rotted already (3 days), is that a record? Not to steal this thread. I repotted mine in straight perlite & took the dome off (they're in a mini greenhouse anyway), and turned off the heating pad. They still have the hot lights on them. Hoping the last two leaves make it.

So glad they came for you, here's to hoping we have something to trade in the Spring.
Cindy

This was the smallest and came with no blooms but it is still bigger than any strep I have ever ordered elsewhere! This is Shenadoah Star Light and it too has variegated leaves. This leaf looks a bit nibbled on, hope that doesn't mean anything??

So all in all once again Brennan's Orchids rocks!!!

~Brenda

Brenda, you got some real beauties too :) SO pretty.
Needless to say, that huge leaf on Party Boy got stuck last night *lol*
I have to say, I was disappointed with the order from Lydon Lyon all an all. Most of all I was disappointed that they sent the cuttings of the wrong plant to me. Now, what if I didn't already have Nematanthus Magnot and could ID it myself? I would have grown a plant to adulthood only to find out it wasn't the plant I had ordered. That's just not right in my book.
I was SO hoping my plants would be big enough to at least take cuttings of and not one of them from Lydon Lyon is big enough :( My picture actually makes the plants look bigger than they actually are. They were in tiny, tiny nursery pots. The Nematanthus was actually in a pot SMALLER than the Rob's Violet pots (which are VERY tiny in my opinion) so you can imagine how small these were.
I am not trying to bad mouth either nursery here, please don't get me wrong as that is not my intention but I do think pictures speak louder than words sometimes. And having received both the same day I thought you would all find it quite interesting.
Cindy, all of the leaves that I have stuck so far are looking great but not one of them has roots yet :( I originally put them all in perlite/vermiculite as that is how Gail instructed me to do the :) Haven't lost one yet but I WANT ROOTS so bad *lol* They are all still on the heat and still very green. It's so much fun. I have leaves, little tiny baby ones, the tiny one (which is a little bigger than ny tiny baby ones) and then some full grown ones so it's like I have every stage other than seeds *lol* I am SO loving all my babies so much. I feel like I'm running a day care. I can't wait to trade this spring and have high hopes that I can get everything to grow the way it is growing in my head *lol*

Hugs to all,
Kim

I have done the strep leaves several different ways but I have never used heat under them. I'm not saying not to do it that way as I have no experience and maybe you'll get babies faster but just make sure your not cooking them? LOL I have a heat mat under some hoya cuttings and I keep unplugging it part of the time as it just seems too hot to me??

I received some strep leaves in trade and stuck them all and put them in their dome and then put it in one of those little indoor greenhouses under a light thinking to give them an extra boost. The next day I stuck several of my own strep leaves and I put them in their dome and just put them under a light. All of this was just a couple of days ago and this morning I noticed that the ones in the greenhouse didn't look near as perky as the ones that are just under a light. So I took them out of there and will now put them just under a light.

It's all still so much trail and error for me trying to find what works just right. So please continue to share what's working and what's not working, we'll learn together!

~Brenda