Hmm, would be useful... I find people tent to applaud vendors who do well quite openly, whereas the ones that are questionable, get no reviews, or few. problem with that way of "categorizing" is that the "mid-class" that may not give extra plants or the quickest service, gets the same treatment.

I haven't ordered online, but my two qualifiers, that i look out for in reviews, are no bugs, and healthy plants. proper labelling and good packaging would be great too.

this weekend at the show, there was this one woman selling plants, she had great variety, but wouldn't tell me how much it cost until i had selected a plant, and charging me for a bigger plant "because it should have been repotted" rubbed me the wrong way. also, she had a variegated plant, labelled "optimara little chickasaw" uh huh. so, next time, i will definitely shop everywhere else first....

Gardenweb has seemed to be more open than other venues. (Take a look.) I'm not suggesting that we would wish to bash vendors, but the "speak no evil" attitude found so many places isn't helpful. The thing with some problems is that it takes them awhile to show up though. Other times a vendor may just have a short-term issue that gets resolved (a sudden influx of orders for example).

That was one strange vendor! Maybe it's always been this way but I seem to be seeing a lot of people selling who don't quite know what they're doing/selling lately. Of course anyone can make a goof and that includes every vendor there is but they should be uncommon and Lyon's or Violet Barn wouldn't be routinely sending you something mismarked.

Last year I ordered from a lot of mainstream vendors and a few eBay ones as well. I've said there is no one whom I would recommend without some reservations. It doesn't mean they are bad; it just means no one's been perfect. I suppose my leaves from Selective Gardener were probably the closest (!) Of course the selection is limited and at those prices, I really think hard about what I order, but I was very pleased. Does that mean I will only order from Selective Gardener? LOL!

Diana

I am really tired of "I'm old and crabby and I sell stuff." You know why? I'm old and crabby and I buy stuff and I think that makes me come first :). Give me some people who are eager to please me for a change. (I've had two of these in the last month and now I'm going to have to pot up and wash pots because one has taken so long to ship.)

I'd have ordered pots from someone who shipped faster if I'd known.

Diana

Lol Diana, havent met the craky ones yet....

there's one person I can't buy from because she won't take my money - just keeps giving me plants. I've started finding varieties she doesn't have so I can at least give her a plant in return! Yes some of her plants have no label, and I think one's an impostor (ness crinkle blue lookalike), but she's honest about what she knows or doesn't.

As for pots, I can drive an hour and buy them in person for cheaper (including gas) than shipping would be on online orders... Plus I get to look at plants :-)

I'm not sure there's an actual Crinkle Blue look-alike. It's fairly distinctive although there are a lot of small blue ones. Well, that's refreshing. Of course, you can shop in person. Oh, it's just a hassle. The one was a phone call to try to arrange delivery, then a call back when he was at a show and busy when he said to email him. I emailed him and heard nothing, so another call...I hope this lasts the rest of my life because he's always been a joy :)

Ness' Crinkle Blue (8136) 01/19/1995 (D. Ness) Double dark blue star/variable thin white edge. Dark green, quilted, serrated/red back. Semiminiature

They recently changed it to "variable" in the white edge. It's quite double and the leaves are dark green and rather scalloped or serrated as they say - anyway, it's obvious. They are kind of like little round blossoms.

At this point, I have 3 long distance phone calls and 3 emails for two orders and none in my hand yet. I'm sifting perlite and washing pots.

Diana

Oh, it looks close, but almost appears to have girl leaves... I'll have to take it in to a club meeting to either confirm it is ncb or not.

I believe girl leaves have a white spot at the base. Not so with Crinkle Blue. Very dark little leaves. They are flat too, not cupped or anything.

http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/2008/08/07/av_ocd_girl/d5dbda.jpg

I hope that works. It's a nice one.

Diana

Doesn't look like what I see googling ness crinkle blue..

http://forum.african-violet.eu/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=167

Try these.

Thanks Diana. They look like all the pictures of crinkle blue I have seen, solidifying the case against my little impostor. I still like the blooms on mine but will order the "actual thing" at some point...

As I said, they have altered the description because "they" claim the edge is variable. My plants have the white edge. However it should look the same otherwise. I set 7 leaves last night and they all look like the ones on the links. The leaves seem quite consistent (?) in all the photos. Not sure if that is the word but they don't seem to vary anyway.

I did take a look through FC2 but didn't have much luck. The leaves kept tripping me up. Are the backs red? They do look like they may have gotten too much light or something. FC2 is kind of a pain because you search double and blue and get all kinds of things. Many of those showed white edges but perhaps they don't hold either.

Diana

thanks for trying. i just think my supplier got a wrong plant supplied herself. it is possible it sported whilst she had it (she used a lot of varying pesticides for a while there), however it is a stable plant from all i can tell. maybe a bit reluctant to propagate...

the petioles are red, and the backs of the leaves variably so...

it doesn't match mickey mouse or ness crinkle blue for leaf type. i can try it with less light though...

never thought i'd say this, but if i don't have much luck identifying it, it will end up as a gift for someone... funny how the more plants you get, the less attached you are to each one, except for special ones, like sports or some you grew from seed...

Some day maybe I'll look again. I just remembered that some years back there were three litle plants available from Canada at Lowe's. Someone said they were sold on eBay too. One was a white double, one a blue and white double and the other a dark blue double.

I liked the white and killed it a couple of years ago when I neglected things. I'm trying Bloomlover's Baby White but it hasn't bloomed yet so I'm not sure it's the same. Someone thought that might have been Anthoflores.

I still grow the blue and white one. I didn't keep the blue one too long but it seems like the leaves were darker; however, I don't know how far I'd trust my memory there. I've never been able to find any id on those.

I looked at Mickey Mouse too but it's hard to tell. It's also true that white edges tend to vanish at times.

Diana