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On Jul 11, 2007, pontuslilium Mies Switzerland wrote:
I have ordered twice from Chen Yi since 2004, and the plants have always been of very good quality, and most of them have grown well.
What you should bear in mind when you order plants is that if you order for example a rare and tricky arisema sp or paris sp, reputed hard to grow, no matter if you order it from Chen Yi or from somewhere else, you will have the same difficulties in growing it and getting it to flower.
Indeed she is known for sometimes supplying bulbs which are wrongly identified, However I would say that over 90% of all the bulbs I ordered (around 30 in total) which have flowered so far have all been the species I ordered.
With me she always replies fairly qickly to e mails, (although she does not always reply to all of my questions). The plants arrive quickly.
I am a member of the RHS lily group, and there has been alot of discussion within the group concerning Chen Yi taking plants from the wild...etc. There are mixed opinions here. Some say that given the fast air travel services of recent years, plants suffer little damage, and can be succesfully cultivated and propagated when recieved in good condition from China, compared to 100 years ago, where many bulbs dried out when transported by mule and ship. Noone really knows how many plants she picks of each species, and if this can be detrimental to the wild populations or not. Some are aghainst ordering from her, while others are for.
On Jun 20, 2007, Azurronero Aalten Netherlands wrote:
My last order was last fall 2006. The order arrived in January 2007. The plants are now in full bloom and exactly the species I have ordered. Chen Yi is notorious for sending wrongly labelled plants, but I got lucky. On the other hand. Regard her shipment as a box of chocolates. You'll never know what you're gonna get, but it will be nice.
On Feb 23, 2005, daylily970 Coshocton, OH (Zone 6a) wrote:
i ordered from them in jan 2005. received 8 arisaema bulbs and they were huge. i have them potted and 2 of the bulbs are coming up. i plan on ordering from them next year.
On Feb 16, 2005, fangNJ New Providence, NJ (Zone 6a) wrote:
I ordered from them in January, 2005. The roots came 4 days later. I planted them and put them in my basement. In less than one month, they started to grow in the fluorescent light. And they are so healthy look. Now, I have chinese Mayapple, arisaema, epimedium, paris growing. And I will definitely order it again. Actually, I plan to order from them every year.
I´ve been buying plants from Mrs Chen Yi for several years.
The plants are always very well packed. In the last 5 years I only got 1 bulb that was dead on arrival. Shipping from China to Belgium takes usually 3 days. Many of the plant species we have bought from Mrs Chen Yi later were sold by specialised nurserys, who seam to buy them cheaply from Mrs Chen Yi and sell them for big money.
We have the best results with planting them right after arrival, even when ther is snow or frost. This worked very well with arisaema, pinellia, polygonatum, nomocharis, lilium, dysosman asarum, helleborus and stellera (which is a very beautifull en heavy scented daphne-like species).
First of all I should tell you that I am the webmaster of this nursery; but that is all.
Chen Yi Nursery has been supplying plants and bulbs from China for many years. She offers plants barely known to cultivation at a very low price. She also supplies bulbs to many large, well-known nurseries in Europe and the US; like rareplants.co.uk and europa-nursery.co.uk .
The bulbs and plants are usually pretty large, they are washed free from soil and wrapped in wet sphagnum moss to protect them during air mail shipping. My plants used 10 days to travel from China to my doorstep (Norway), but they arrived at the N customs three days earlier. I must warn you that some plants might look a bit "shabby" when they arrive; but only two of about 100 plants where dead. I got a refund for them without any problems. The trickiest part for me was her shipping period (November-February); the snow came very early this year so I had to pot them and keep them in a less-than-ideal dark, cold basement. This treatment caused another 4 plants to die; but that is still not much concidering my order size.
Plants are shipped with a Phytosanitary Certificate, but you may have to apply for an import license. This is usually free of charge; and can in some countries be done online. Contact your local Agriculture Department to check which permits are necessary.
You pay for the plants when they arrive; but this might change if people abuse her trust. Shipment is not included in the price, please ask her for the current prices.
