They were probably looking for people like me to be at the sale, I buy on looks and worry about the name later. If I do not have the plant and it does not have a name I buy it and ask questions later, I cannot tell you how many times I have brought a plant that said succulent.

Everybody here is so good they can usually give me a name.

Penny,

We can so give it a name, and usually it's right, sometimes.

If I was finishing off a collection of Sansevieria, and the only one I lacked was S. fischerii, and I didn't know what it looked like, and there were no tags on a hundred different plants...you see where I'm going.

And you can always get a name, but not always get a plant.

Someone told me a long time ago - names are just names, and sometimes plants at nurseries don't have them - deal with it. Now it is a little alarming that the nursery personnel too don't know them, but we all started somewhere once, and now you have an angle for IDing their plants for them in exchange for a discount on future purchases.

When a beautiful plant is found without a name, one might consider it an opportunity to give it a new name!

I'm with Penny on this one. How can a place that specializes in those types of plants (C&S) not know what they're selling? I know it happens ALL THE TIME, and there's not a whole lot that can be done about it, but still! I akin it to going to Napa or PepBoys looking for auto parts and there not being any labels on some of the parts, and the staff doesn't know what the unlabeled parts are. Or going to a supplement store for vitamins and seeing bottles of unlabled tablets and caplets, and the staff can't tell me what they are. Maybe I'm off on my analogies, but that's what it seems like to me.

I do like Jeff's suggestion for IDing for discounts. :) When I go to my favorite nurseries, I'm usually the one IDing the C&S for the staff. I might have to try Jeff's idea...


*CG*

Also irritating on this side of the ocean - especially when the label on a faucaria reads "cactus plant" - huh!? So it is a general scenario for the nurseries and here the watering techniques are "OK guys - they are all ferns from a rainforest, keep them wet with a STRONG flowing hose"!! By the way we also have Walmart now in SA! Anyway - best is to have friend on forums like these to help out where needed! It also gives the hobby a little flavour, don't you think!
Rian

Penny, I do understand your frustration. I wish we had any/some kind of retailer/wholesaler in this area that had a selection of plants. Sadly, C&S is not a big item here in Michigan, so I have to use online sources and my list is rather short for those! There are only a handful, I think, of people even active in the local society. Wish is was different!

It is irritating when finding plants with no labels, incorrectly named labels or the generic "succulent" or worse, "cactus" (when it isn't) label. But like many, I'm happy to FIND the plants...and will figure out their names later (half the fun...sometimes)! I have to say, I'm finding more plants labeled correctly these days than not (before, maybe 10% were correct-IF labeled).

Case in point...my cart-jumpers from Home Depot yesterday...they did have labels (some correct!), but the hybrid Echeveria that looks most like 'Barbillion' (to me, anyway) was labeled 'Crimson Tide', which is a large, frilly red one.

Click for larger pix:

{{gwi:496717}} {{gwi:496718}} {{gwi:496720}}

Now, I know if these did not become cart-jumpers yesterday, they would most certainly have been gone if I left without them & later decided to go back to buy. :P besides, I'm honing my shopping skills for next Saturdays SDCSS's show/sale!! :D

I lost my Kalanchoe marmorata long ago & hadn't seen it for sale since! This one has super large leaves & faint markings compared to the plant I owned. So cart-jumper it became! And these Aeonium 'Kiwi' look more like the ones I bought long ago, so we're giving them a whirl as well.

Penny, I would've come home with a carload & worried about the names later!!

Penny, I am sorry if I left the impression you should not have expected the plants to be named. I just was stressing as others it seems a lot of times the plant industry does not care.

I have been watching the people at C&S so long I know how good they are at I.D.s I do not let the no name stop me from buying a plant especially if I like the way it looks. A ugly plant to me with a name will not get my money. I only buy plants I like with or without a name.

LOL! Yea, I got some cart jumpers. Amazing how high and how far those plants can jump. My husband even caught a few mid-air to save them from landing on the ground.

I have limited space, so knowing the future size, water needs, sun, etc. is important to me. Last spring with my first succulent purchases. I was clueless, and that got me in real trouble. With help from everyone here...thank you all...I've learned a lot. No one is totally dead yet, but a couple are in the ICU.

So, when it warms up outside later today and before the game, I'll take photos and we can have fun deciding who is who!

I echo what Marquest has said...I buy 'em if I like 'em.

Yay for you, Penny! Your husband sounds like a keeper/catcher!

I'll be watching for the pix, as I have no interest in the Super Bowl game. I've killed plenty in my day & many of mine (at the moment) need to go into triage for fixing! :D

Penny you always have room for more plants.

Let me tell you how to make room.... Get some of that pesky furniture out of the way. You only need a bed a chair and a table..table for you is optional if the plants need a place to sit. You can use your lap to eat off. LOL

Cannot wait to see your new purchases.

The standard label at a local garden center is "Succulent assorted". So the joke around here is that there is a plant in the genus "Succulent", species "assorted" that is highly, highly variable in appearance.

Rosemarie,
Your plants are something I would never see in my town.i think all the good plants make it to the west coast.lol....

Sharon

at Marquest & Hoovb!!!

Even many "nurseries" today, don't actually raise their own plants. They simply put an order in to their supplier saying send me "X" flats of mixed cacti/succulents. The suppliers have no wish to expend resources to make sure everything they send out is named and named correctly -- that cuts down on their profit or correspondingly raises the prices they sell the plants for. Result is legions of Noids.

I second what Marquest said. :) Who needs furniture? Or food, for that matter? ;)


*CG*

Sharon, you're right in that we have a great climate for these plants. We are lucky we can grow them so easily. If it makes you feel any better, I have trouble growing bulbs that need the chill that you folks toward the other coast, have locked up!

chaparralgirl, you have gone to far now. We need food for strength to bring in a income so we can care for the plants and buy more plants. lol

Penny where are you??? You better hurry back with those pics before we put you on the front lawn. Your furniture is gone and chaparralgirl is taking away your food.

Paul, you hit the nail on the head, I think. It does come down to money for those in the business. I guess it is up to hobbyist and serious collectors to keep track and catalog these plants to help preserve them.

I noticed that even in some of my books some of the photographs will be labeled something like "a pot full of echerverias" when there are four or six different ones in there. Perhaps listing them all by name wasn't practical or convenient for the author, but it is annoying for the reader.

In the meantime, I guess we'll all have to chug along and have fun tracking down names!
Penny

It can be a bit annoying but there is a great nursery in Malibu that is open to the public but has tons of huge succulents at wholesale prices. I didn't complain that most of the stock had no names.

If you really love a plant and can afford to do so just buy it and figure it out later. Or not. You don't HAVE to know the exact name to enjoy a plant.

Hoov: I have that plant! S. assorted is probably my most plentiful specimen! :) The variegations are truly wild, aren't they? Many of them you'd think weren't even related!

;)


*CG*