a boy, a box, and nirvana ..... lotsa pix

16 years ago

its that time of year again .... for a mail order from stanley ... or any other mail order business ....

for around $155 .... including the shipping... i got 9 plants ... or around 17 bucks a plant ...

too often.. the ones i want most are not available ... in this group.. i have been looking for scooter [my daughters nickname] for 5 years ... and blue forest since i first read about it 7 years ago ...

you are required to fill a box with 10 one gals or 15 4 inch pots ... if you pick all 25$ top of the line.. you will spend more .... lol ... ken

here is the box... big anticipation ...

{{gwi:806409}}

a peek inside the box

{{gwi:806410}}

individual wrapping

{{gwi:806413}}

the individual plants.... if you have pix of older versions.. i would sure like to see what they will look like in a few years ....

Abies concolor 'Scooter'

{{gwi:806415}}

Pinus nigra 'Gaelle Bregeon' .. perfectly round ball of needles.. has the potential to be a favorite ....

{{gwi:806416}}

Pinus strobus 'National Life' .... on my list forever .... the burn doesnt bother me.. looks like a lot of them in my yard.. the buds look fine ....and i will plant it slightly on a lean to get it more upright.. and stake it further up ...

{{gwi:806417}}

Juniperus horizontalis 'Blue Forest' .. as noted.. on my list forever ....

{{gwi:806418}}

Larix kaempferi 'Blue Rabbit'

{{gwi:806419}}

Picea abies 'Acrocona'

{{gwi:806420}}

Pinus banksiana 'Schoodic'

{{gwi:806421}}

Pinus banksiana 'Wisconsin'

{{gwi:806422}}

Pseudotsuga menziesii 'Seattle Mountain'

{{gwi:806423}}

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Comments (31)

nuconiferlvr
16 years ago
Hey Ken.......Nice.....I know how you feel when a box of new plants arrive at your doorstep. I usually get mine in the spring so, now, will you plant them in the ground this fall or do you put them in larger pots for a season. Say, you received many unfamiliar cultivars, to me, except "Acrocona". I have one but very young like yours. You aren't worried about the browntip on the needles.....that's interesting. I would be. Anyway...So happy for you .....Enjoy. Ruth
greenlarry
16 years ago
Crikey ken thats a big box of goodies,wouldn't like to think what the postage rate (shipping) would be for that package! ;) I noticed that name Stanley again,I take its the premier place to buy conifers in the states.
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
Original Author
16 years ago
hey Ruth ....

browning .. .naw.. i don't care.. pots are wet ... it was real hot during shipping ... that part is a roll of the dice ... as i noted.. a lot of my young yellow or variegated plants look the same .... if you want a perfect plant .. you are going to have to spend 6 or 8 or 10 times the amount ....

most are going straight into the new bed i have been making.. since spring .... i do NOT fool with overwintering pots ... even with my experience .. its just to hard .... it might be one thing to fool around with perennials.. but not trees ...

perhaps some of the tiny ones.. will go into the nursery bed.. where i can better regulate water .. with the drip irrigation .... i will probably either up pot or not... depending on what roots are there when i go to sink them .... and sink pot and all into the ground.. with my fine sand.. its hard to make a ball for burlap ... so the pots help [but completely under the sand] ... they will be moved out next fall ... or the following year ... who really knows ... lol

ken
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
Original Author
16 years ago
shipping was about 40 bucks.. for 47 pounds ... water in pots is heavy .... $4 per plant.. isn't all that bad .... plus 5 bucks for the box .... the kids fit in them .. and have been dragging the older ones around the yard for two years .. lol ...

premier .. in volume of choice .. probably .... i haven't found any greater selection .... in one place ....

if you want to order ten plants.. from ten different places .... you can triple the shipping costs ...

oh.. and Ruth .. in my zone 5 .... i can plant/transplant in spring or fall ... so fall delivery is just peachy .... i was surprised that it is not the way it is done in other zones.. go figure ...

ken
conifers
16 years ago
Larry Stanley handles a Ton of Business! I spoke with him today and he has over 6,000 customers, ...he wasn't happy I called. This is for everyone:

Do not every under any circumstances ask for a change in an order. Once you place it, stick to it. You'll be out of luck if you bother these folks. "you'll get nothing and like it!"

Do not ever call them. Email is the preferred method.

Do not haggle over a dead plant. At the price, it is 100% silly to ask for a replacement.

Today I called because my shipment which arrived about the second week of this month (which was excellent) had one Pinus strobus where the understock had been snipped off just before shipment (Sap was bleeding, profusely and their was a small root-system supporting the now to be on its' own, scion). Now the plant is wilting. Well, that's 1/2 the story...

.... So I asked Larry after he said to me, 'You're bickering with me over (1) plant?' In other words he said, take the hit man I have 6,000 customers!! Even though I was very kind in tone from the very beginning and I told him of all my donations to the ACS and that I knew a lot of his friends (just for conversation and I guess to help myself from getting the third degree) My tone got even kinder + apologetic several times more and I said, "Larry, I really don't care about this one plant but I really like the cultivar... and since I have another order to be shipped on the first of October, could you change that order so I get three of the one that died/will die soon." (That's the truth, I really wanted/needed (3) of these because there's a powerful yellow-glowing light up on a telephone pole adjacent to my new home that is so annoyingly bright that I need something fast to screen it... I've actually been thinking about it all day today). Things actually got worse after I tried my best to regain my trust.

So this is a warning to everyone. I know when I first joined GW that it was almost 'Taboo' to 'share' where our plant sources came from for exactly this fear of being told 'none of us' could no-longer order from this company. You guy's don't know how many times I apolgized to him. And quite honestly, I hope he allows me to continue being a customer. I screwed up big-time. And I'm a kind gentleman willing to listen, and not speak during circumstances such as this...

There's more to it than only this, but I won't go any further as it has nothing to do with today's mistake.

I hope I nor anyone ever screws this up. For The ACS people and the collectors, there isn't as Ken says, a place with more of a selection and a price any cheaper.

Be nice to these people and they'll be good to you and that's the moral of this story.

Take care,

Dax
greenlarry
16 years ago
Dax,that sounds a rough company to deal with! Hmmm I wonder where us Brits get our conifers from?
tcharles26
16 years ago
Ahh, yes........Great feeling to open up a new box of plants.

I also do not sweat the small stuff, if you want excellent customer service and attention to detail you should use a retailer. Can't have it both ways.

Plus stuff like that used to annoy me. I had a client call and complain about a $90 bill (which was a generous favor on my part actually - he wasted much more of my time than that). The whole time I was thinking. "I should send this guy another bill for wasting more of my time. I'd rather you just stiff me than whine"
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
Original Author
16 years ago
dont bother replying to this post. ... i am not reposting the pix ...

and i really dont want the mail in my inbox ...

ken
bluespruce53
16 years ago
Larry, look at the British Conifer Society web -site and you will find out where to buy conifers, better still join! it's only twenty quid.
greenlarry
16 years ago
Aye thats 20 quid i don't have! Will have a look anyway,was just curious.
tcharles26
16 years ago
What's a quid in real money?...:) Americans are not familiar with your archaic monetary system......

for the record, I'm kidding - I know a quid is a pound - but wasn't the UK the advocate for the euro?...
conifers
16 years ago
Tell it like it is Todd. My mother always told me though that peoples feelings are more important than anything of monetary value. And she is correct.

The other half of the story since I feel compelled to tell it is that all the things I 'try' to do to correct current nomenclature problems, such as working with all my friends to get answers so problems don't exist anymore, backfired on me today.

Larry listed a Pinus ponderosa 'Morris WB' which is not correct because Jerry's records and Rich Eyre's records had this cultivar always listed as 'Long Needle' and Larry also had listed a Pinus nigra 'Morris WB' which also from what I'll call all the broom records was actually called Pinus ponderosa 'Morris Broom' and Larry said to me in so many words, 'don't ever send me an email again.'

Man was I confused when a plant man said that to me especially after I explained to him authoritatively that I had donated my time to expand the ACS Photo Dababase to increase 'awareness' of these wonderful plants that 'everybody' sells, wow... felt like chump change.

So Todd, our debate is over.

Take care,

Dax
Luv My Conifers
16 years ago
Darn... drooling on my keyboard!!! LOL

They look great! But what is the burn on the Pinus Strobus though? I was wondering because I have a Pinus Strobus that has the same thing right now, and I am debating whether to replace it (with the 'Hoopsii' of course!) ;)

I will have to check out that place where you ordered from... now what were they called again? I'll have to go back and re-read...
greenlarry
16 years ago
Tcharles,i don't know why we didn't get the Euro,I don't do politics and am not bothered if we get it or not-I know Ireland have it tho.
karinl
16 years ago
Hey, I just picked up a Larix Blue Rabbit too. Too bad I can't see your photo. I'm not sure how big to expect it to get - any idea?

So let me get this straight: Stanley is a wholesaler and so is impatient with retail customers and doesn't want to be questioned on his naming? Weird. But OK. Since I'm Canadian and do limited ordering from the US this case doesn't bother me much, but while I'm scrupulous about paying people for their time (doesn't bother me to pay an arborist for getting an estimate), I have to say plant sellers like this bug me. Even if they're wholesalers and I'm a retail customer, or they're horti-gods and writers of tomes while I'm a mere plebian layperson, I'm the person at the end of the pipe pulling the plants through the supply chain, and when they play king or queen with me I get awfully tempted to indulge some other hobbies for a while. To heck with conifers for a season or two and look closer at rhodos. Or wallpaper or something.

KarinL
bluespruce53
16 years ago
Karin, Blue Rabbit (Weeping) gets very big.
wadet
16 years ago
You mean Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana?

lol, sorry i couldn't resist! ;-p
futureconiferqueen
16 years ago
Pics are gone! :((
pineresin
16 years ago
They never were there! Little red Xs right from the start!
nuconiferlvr
16 years ago
I still have the pictures on this thread!!!!
ladylotus
16 years ago
Can any of us order from Stanley's? I assumed since they were wholesale I could not purchase from them. I would love to order some plants from them.
karinl
16 years ago
Thanks Bluespruce, I was afraid of that. I figured the name had something to do like being quick like a bunny! But, there is a place for things that grow quickly among slower growers... for a while...

KarinL
greenlarry
16 years ago
The pics were there but now are gone. Sadly the Nirvana pic is still there....
wadet
16 years ago
""The pics were there but now are gone. Sadly the Nirvana pic is still there....""

Greatest band since the Beatles my friend. And the red X's of death are someone elses problem.:)
conifers
16 years ago
I still see the photos.

Pretty incredible huh Karin? Almost as disgusting as an unruly parent screaming at little children when their curiousity is only peaking them to explore. Sure I understand discipline (don't bring a child into a pottery store and let them run loose, but who doesn't already know this??)

My little kid happy place was kicked to the curb. Raw treatment!

I think I can still see the pics because I haven't closed all my browers. That's why. And Ken, why remove the pics? Oh well, you must have your reason. My reason for writing above was to make sure that others don't do what I did and coincidentally, that email Larry got also had Bill Barger, Chub Harper, and a few others attached to it as well. And... I met Larry once but that was (at his nursery) in 2001 and neither here nor there truthfully. So....... man! That's all I can say. Bill Barger created the ACS website by the way, which could be the greatest resource for conifers since the 'invention' of the internet. It's a masterpiece because a click of a keystroke continues it's success.

ladylotus, go to their website and check out how they sell quantity-wise and to order, you'll have to fill in a request to be a customer. I know being a conifer society member helps, but not in my case! You guys don't realize that after I got off the phone, my mind was mush for at least 2 minutes. I just stared at my moniter. I'm laughing now, but then I didn't have any emotion.

Take care, cool Todd... Sorry if I came off a bit harsh but I've been mad at you for (unknown reasons) but I think we got that cleared up via email.

Thanks everyone for listening,

Dax
greenlarry
16 years ago
Oh come on,to compare that bunch of noisy pillocks to the Beatles is utter sacriledge. Now Depeche Mode are much better...;)
Luv My Conifers
16 years ago
I can't see the pics anymore either... they are gone. Whoever can still see them must have their browser settings to cache/save files (or not clearing out their temporary internet file folder)... Once you clear out your browser's temp files, the pics on your screen will be gone also.

Tsk, tsk. :(
bluespruce53
16 years ago
Pics were never on my computer either.
Nirvana! only did one decent song, Teen something or other.
Dax - Bill Barger also did our BCS website as you probably know.
adriantwpmi
16 years ago
Where are the pics?
coniferophytus
16 years ago
Ken - Could you re-post the pictures? I would like to see the Pseudotsuga menziesii 'Seattle Mountain'. Thanks.
conifers
16 years ago
I closed all my browers and still see the pics. So this cache thing must be it. I don't know enough to understand any of this.

Dax

a boy, a box, and nirvana ..... lotsa pix

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