Last year (2015) I bought a clump of crocata from RFI. it arrived looking like a dead black spider. I should have complained. Everything else was okay though. I wound up getting crocata from another seller. Note that it is a temperamental plant.

I ordered again from RFI this year, twice I think (early Spring, then late Summer). While the plants in the later shipment were okay and, I assume, the right ones, when I ordered more than one of the same kind of plant, they would only name tag one (they used to use great-looking tags, but these were white with name written in Sharpie rather than a tag with a picture of the plant; maybe they ran out of those).

Also, it looked like they got my order, chose a box, lined it with newspaper, dropped plants in (some tagged, some not), then dumped in enough small bits of paper (not even strips) to fill the box. Seal, label, send. No packing slip (I had saved the email order confirmation though and used that to check the contents were right). The little bits of paper also worked their way into the leaves of some of the plants. Note that this method of packing was even more careless than the previous time.

Other sellers will wrap plans (or groups of the same plant, like ionantha) in tissue paper (Plant Oddities), or (CTS) even put them in brown paper bags with, for example, "5 ionantha Guatemala" on the outside of the bag. I can take pics of each plant sitting on the bag to help in future ID.

Again, it seemed that the plants RFI sent were mostly okay (then again, I didn't order anything super rare or expensive), but their shipping process is failing fast. I did complain about that in the Spring, to no avail.

Coastal Tillandsia Supply (CTS, in California) has a good selection (but poor descriptions), and shipping is fast. I had some trouble with CTS a few years ago (they forgot to send something; I had to email to remind them; they sent it). But this year my orders were filled fast and were exciting to open. As you know, Plant Oddities (in Kentucky) is fast, too, and their selection is vast and fun, but they run out quickly. I prefer to shop at places on line that have a lot of variety, though I suspect some of the smaller sellers (Air Plant Supply, Air Plant City, etc., often in Florida) try harder and also send emails with sales event info. They also answer emails.

On the bright side, Rainforest Flora and Barry Landau make good YouTube videos.

Oh, edited to add: be careful buying from eBay unless an actual air plant vendor (with a real storefront) is selling. I bought a box "full", sight unseen, from a person who was retiring his/her greenhouse and that was a waste of money.

Poor crocatas, I will send a prayer for ye. They seem a bit too prone to "misfortune," don't you think? Mine's came with illegal immigrants, and not the good kind (good immigrants => seedlings, bad immigrants => scale insects >_<. Da hell?!) My crocata has recovered and blooming right now. Might post a pic later if it manages to sprout more blooms in tandem instead of one by one as it seems will be the case here (sigh.)

White plastic tag written over with sharpie? Ah, the memories...Yeah, that's how my second, "Blushing Giant" came in. I swear, if they send me one of those @#$%ing things one more time...

But I digress for the sake of my blood pressure. Thanks for the advice, Debby. I'll give Coastal a spin sometime.

P.S. Descriptions? What descriptions? :)

One of the crocatas I bought with success bloomed shortly after I received it, a pretty yellow flower with a nice scent, but it may have been among those which eventually headed for the compost pile. :( I did buy another 1 or 2 and a clump of a similar plant (maybe copper penny?) this late summer (August?), but I failed to tag them (I just checked), but I have pictures of them lying on their bags from CTS; those pics are on my other computer). Anyhow, the crocata of that batch has bloomed once, before I got it.

I set them on a piece of drift wood (from our local forest around the Rio Grande) and put that in a plastic bowl, and they and a lot of other plants are under growlights at the moment. Everyone seems happy so far... They like dry, apparently, so I only spritz them when I think about it.

I, too, have some scale on a few plants. I suspect it came along when they were hanging outside on my porch last year. I've hit the bugs with rubbing alcohol and often a toothbrush, which I'm sure makes a difference, but I have quarantined those plants just in case. I think the plants don't notice the insects and the insects probably wonder why they aren't getting much nourishment from the strange plants.

As for descriptions, there is one online seller, whose name I cannot recall (DuckDuckGo is your friend!), that has a lot of info for each plant, including the amount of light and water they like and temperature ranges. I appreciate sites that have a lot of pictures of each plant they want to sell. I also started collecting info and pictures and have made a Word document scrap book for myself, which needs updating. Also potentially helpful is I've downloaded a lot of YouTube videos for future reference. Just think, we've only had so much information at our fingertips for the last ten years or so! This forum is also of tremendous help :)