'Tis the season for rip-offs

14 years ago

I don't know why this bugs me so much, but it does. Every year around this time I receive a catalog from a very well known gardening place. I won't mention their name, but they have a reputation for offering the best of the best in both garden plants and indoor stuff. In their holiday catalog along with all the over priced amaryllis and boxes of fresh cut holiday greens ($99 for a box of evergreen branches), they offer a few orchids too. Here's their current listing:

Purple Dendrobium - $69

Pink or white Moth Orchid - $69

Wildcat Orchid - $89

Burgundy Lady's Slipper - $89

Shipping not included and all come in some decorative pot (most ceramic). I'm assuming this is to assure a quick death so you will be ready to plunk out more cash for another plant next year.

I wonder who buys these and how many end up in the trash within a month or so? Again, not sure why this place bugs the heck out of me, but it does.

Kevin

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Comments (8)

ces797
14 years ago
Agreed!
I'm surprised ANYONE buys at these prices anymore.
Especially $69 bucks for a Phal?
Every grocery store I have been to carries these anywhere from $6.99-$14.99 not to mention all the big box stores.
I have two great local nurseries by me that are great for plants but for some reason they have the overpriced orchid bug as well. Every orchid they sell is $29.99..doesn't matter if it's a phal in a 6 inch pot or a Paph in a 2 inch pot. Never really made any sense to me. And all of their stock is potted in either 100% moss or sadly enough, regular potting soil. I know they get them from Hawaii but come on.
jane__ny
14 years ago
It's got to be Whiteflower. Their prices are always 'off the wall.'

Jane
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I just got my Johnny's catalog a week or so ago, along with a couple of other small seed companies. It seems like there should be more by now. My ritual is to spend the weekend after Christmas pulling out my seeds and going through the catalogs, even though I wind up ordering 90% from Johnny's and Nichols. I have four day weekend coming up and it's on the agenda. I save a lot of my seed, though with some things hybrids do better. I'm trying to get it down to what will do well, but still need to try a few new things every year. Latest must-haves that I order are an heirloom beet mix from Nichols, Red Giant mustard (the bugs don't bother it!) and a storage carrot called Bolero from Johnny's. Darlene, we grow tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers and eggplant in high tunnels and they always make it through the first frost. Not this year. Everything set fruit late, so we were just starting to harvest...sighhhh. Party Music, we're technically in Z5, but really it's Z4...our own little microclimate. I've had good luck with Yankee Bell peppers, Gypsy (small, thin-walled hybrid yellow bell) and Jimmy Nardello Sweet Italian Frying Peppers. They are under cover, though. Sleevendog, I am with garlic like you are with tomatoes, though I only made it to 39 varieties...am now down to 14. For tomatoes I have room for 50 and half the space goes to my reliables - Legend, Black Krim, Stupice and a few Early Girls. Half goes to experiments. I will have to try the Matt's cherry, Boo. I grew currant tomatoes a few times and they were...eh. I grow one Sweet 100 and one Sun Sugar or Sungold because they taste good and always do well. I try a couple of new heirloom or OP cherries every year. Last year I started a Seed Library at my library, so I have a place to share (get rid of) my failed experiments.
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sambac
14 years ago
I think it is the same thing with other gift services, 2 pounds for pear cost around 50 bucks with additional shipping charges. 2 bottles of mid price wine around 100 bucks..... So may be it is ok to pay $60 for a white phal or a purple dend!!!
aachenelf z5 Mpls
Original Author
14 years ago
And Jane wins the prize! Simply forward a check or money order in the amount of $35 (a small processing fee) and a gorgeous, unbelievably fragrant, bouquet of GENUINE ITALIAN parsley will be delivered to your home. You will be the envy of all your neighbors.

Seriously, I would have thought this place would be out of business already with the economy and everything. Obviously someone still has the $$ to toss around.

K
jane__ny
14 years ago
They have pretty pictures...they need to pay for them. They've been around forever. I have no idea how they have stayed in business.

Jane
akebono
14 years ago
The catalogue is high-end porn, and I admit to using it as such, but yes they are bat-**** crazy in their pricing. Like the late Smith & Hawken, their customer base seems to be people with lots of money, no garden sense whatsoever, but an intense need to impress (never mind that the impression is one of ostentatious ignorance). One of my favorites this year is a holiday cacti for something like $35 (+shipping). As if!
aachenelf z5 Mpls
Original Author
14 years ago
akebono - You're right. It is high end porn and like so many others, I once succumbed to the drop-dead-gorgeous photos. You must admit, they do have one of the most beautiful catalogs around. For many, many year I couldn't wait for both their spring and winter catalogs and spent tons of $ each season. Somewhere along the line, I came to my senses.

Kevin
akebono
14 years ago
Aachenelf, I try to buy just enough to keep the free porn coming (one purchase keeps one on the mailing list for 2 years, I think). The lurid copy usually turns me off--"We were spellbound last August by a drift of these coleus [$25 for 3] in concert with a rondo of this fern [$75 for 1] and we thought you'd be, too." I read ad copy for a living, and have little patience for the cloying prose found in their pages. It was either WFF or the late S & H that wrote of a stone orb garden googaw they were selling that it "seems to attract moss". WTF? Seems? As the catalogue season arrives, your post is a timely reminder that some catalogues are good sources for plants and some are just very good sources for armchair amusement.

'Tis the season for rip-offs

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'Tis the season for rip-offs

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