| Neutral | gardenbrad
(6 reviews) | On Jun 8, 2007, gardenbrad Lafayette, IN wrote: I placed a large order with this company this year. I was disapointed in the size of the plants. They were very small and have been very slow to get established. Their selection is great and Tom Carlson seems to be a really nice guy to work with, but they should offer bigger plants.
On Jun 8, 2007, HostasDirect Inc. responded with: "
On Jul 6, 2007 2:46 PM, HostasDirect Inc. added:It is very important to note the following in response to a posting by gardenbrad:
1) This order was placed around April 15. Our tissue culture suppliers are located in the north. Some do not even start shipping certain plants that early. As with all plants coming out of the ground April and early Maym it is early in the season. We are careful with the amount of fertilizer we apply so our customers do not receive a stemmy or sick plant - just for the illusion of being big or mature.
2) Our web site has a 33 slide Power Point presentation on our home page that graphically and literally illustrates what we sell. Those maturities and sizes of hostas are:
Best Value TC - or tissue culture
3" pots
Divisions from mature hostas (that are not out of the ground in Minnesota in late April.
I wrote to gardenbrad via e mail many times to see if he had viewed our presentation and got no response.
3) Most perennials, such as hostas, take some time to get established. The rule of thumb is "the first year they sleep, the second year the creep, and the third year they leap." I feel his expectations are off base if he feels a hosta should get established and more in such a short time. In fact, I am not really sure what he means by "established." That means different things to different people.
4) A hosta's growth rate is only partly established by how fast it forms new leaves. The hosta registrar and hosta experts would rate growth rates on how many new shoots, eyes or divisions a hosta creates each year. Those are formed from "bud eyes" the previous year Some hostas may only create one shoot, no matter who grows it, others might create 10. It depends upon the genetics of the cultivar, and how the gardener has planted the hosta. I do not know where he planted these.
5) As far as offering bigger plants, we do offer bigger plants! And, we have made it very clear what maturities and sizes of hostas we offer on our web site. Many of the hosta varieties show tissue culture samples. Keep in mind plants are a moving target, they keep growing. We try to take representative pictures but ........... they look different in May then they do in August, etc.
I will say the positive of this posting is that we have added a check box at order check out making sure people view our presentation.
Tom Carlson is a nice guy and I have a life long reputation of integrity and fair dealings. At times we can make a mistake but we try to correct it immediately and make up for it. The hardest thing in business, in particular a plant business, is forecasting. It is hard to know what will sell, how much staff a company needs, etc. May and June nuts times for us.
Again, the time of year, where and how you plant your plants, care of your plants, the plant's growth rate in terms of shoots per year, and even where the hosta is in its individual growth cycle can all make a difference in plant size. I am not going to resort to what others might do - pour a bunch of extra fertilizer on to make a hosta stemmy. We try to provide detailed information so that prospects can learn about the cultivar before purchasing. I can't help it if people don't want to take time to read the detailed informatoin and photos we have painstakingly provided with hundreds of hours of labor.
If you have other questions, you can always e mail me or call me.
Sincerely,
Tom Carlson - President - Owner - HostasDirect"
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