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Retiring from collecting dionaea


Guest GazCez

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Guest GazCez

Hi everyone out there who knows myself and my other half for growing dionaea and other carnivorous plants.

 

This post makes me really sad, but I have decided that now is the time for me to retire from the open arena of collecting dionaea and other forms of carnivorous plants. The enjoyment has been stripped away over the last couple of years through various reasons and my ill health last year.

 

Today has been the final trigger for my retirement and not wanting to become too specific I have been pushed into making this post by unpleasantness within these Forum walls.

 

I hope that those of you who over many years have bought my plants time and time again and will spare a thought for their origins via myself occasionally. I hope you continue to enjoy them. Your return business has meant a lot to myself. Those of you who know us well may well have realised that the thrill of gathering our collection far outweighed the selling aspects.

 

I have tried my best to provide healthy and rare plants to those who wanted them at reasonable prices and always welcomed anyone to visit. We have loved every minute of being with those of you who came to see our plants and I will miss that the most. I will also miss the excitement of open day's, buying new plants and meeting new (and old) faces.

 

I do all of this with a heavy heart and many tears in my eyes, but it is for the best. I am sorry if I am letting anyone down with this post or will let anyone down by vanishing off the radar. Quite frankly the hobby is no longer providing the pleasure it did.

 

The joy of selling plants has become bogged down with the hassle of obsessive collectors all too willing to make my life a misery and all too willing to point the finger of blame without conscience. 99% of you have made it a joy to propagate and sell and I've loved your emails and personal messages.

 

I want to sit back, look at my plants, enjoy them without the hassle of sellers who throw their weight about like lords of the manor.

 

For those of you out there thinking 'uh oh it's a Jerry Maguire situation' where she's telling us the way collectors and compassion don't always meet and she's just fed up with someone. Ok so some of it is ha, ha but mostly it isn't. Overall this post has been a long time coming.

 

On a final note (and a sentiment I refer to every day while thinking about collecting carnivorous plants) - in the words of the The Eagles Hotel California " you can check out any time you like but you can never leave".

 

I'll wait a few hours before terminating my Forum membership to give anyone a chance to say goodbye or just 'vent' out as is the way online. Sigh.

 

Bye for now.

 

Ceri .

 

P.s I m not parting with any surplus plants you opportunist vultures!

 

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Guest GazCez

It's been a real wrench as I loved it and I am really upset. I just can't put up with the s**t any more. Come visit any time.

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GazCez, sorry to hear of your disappointing experiences. I have a friend that ever since he was a small child he wanted to operate a tropical fish store.

He eventually rented a space in town and opened his store. He was really happy, but after a year he sold his store and quit.

He said the reason he no longer enjoyed his store was that although the vast majority of his customers were great, at least once a week someone was so critical and complained that it completely ruined his joy.

Dealing with the public is a challenge.

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Guest GazCez

Ahhh misread through all the tears. Nope not just the Forum - everything! I am going to compost every plant I have. I am sooo very, very angry. :laugh2:

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Guest GazCez

Hi BobZ.

 

I agree wholeheartedly! Dealing with customers is an art form by itself. I'm great at customer care and really go above and beyond. I can sympathise with your friend as that's exactly how I feel.

 

My recent illnesses have weakened my resolve and I just can't be bothered any more.  And the threat about composting the plants is a real one. I'd rather throw the lot away than sell one more plant.

 

I

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GazCez, sorry to hear of your disappointing experiences. I have a friend that ever since he was a small child he wanted to operate a tropical fish store.

He eventually rented a space in town and opened his store. He was really happy, but after a year he sold his store and quit.

He said the reason he no longer enjoyed his store was that although the vast majority of his customers were great, at least once a week someone was so critical and complained that it completely ruined his joy.

Dealing with the public is a challenge.

I can totally empathize with your friend BobZ, and with you GazCez.  Being in the service industry is extremely challenging at times.  There are people who can really ruin the entire experience with their unnecessarily mean words and cruel actions.  Thankfully there are also those who express extreme gratitude for the work we do, which balances out those negative experiences somewhat.  But if you truly care about the customers and your business, it's virtually impossible to simply forget and move on from those negative experiences.

 

Sorry to hear about your health problems GazCez.  I hope you feel better and I hope that you can return to the hobby as a hobbyist and find the joy of growing again.

 

Matt

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Guest GazCez

Thanks Matt.

 

You carry on your fantastic work creating new clones and making a whole heap of collectors happy!

 

Ceri.

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Hi Ceri and Gaz, sorry to hear about your bad times.

SOD EM ALL! ignore the moaning Bas****s and block them,don't sell them anymore.

Think back to when you started with that totally mad dog and smile,enjoy the allotment and the plants but just dont log on for a while.

Take a break from all the forums but still keep your plants,you know i only rarely sell plants,i found money spoils it,you don't need it for what you make from it.

think about it!

ada

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Guest GazCez

Thanks Adrian.

 

I'll try to take in your advice. I'm a bit raw at the moment and very angry. I had decided this year only to sell to those who contacted me. But even that bit me in the ass! Composting the many millstones around my neck seems a viable option.

 

Thanks Ceri.

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An undeserved finale to your years of dedication.

Obviously a collection like yours will soon outgrow itself though.

I have been pretty surprised about how popular these plants are at boot fairs.

I've done 3 now and always sold out of my divisions, mostly sold to carnivorous plant virgins but also get a few collectors that just happen to pass.

On one occasion a guy offered me a deal on my whole table of plants, I'd only been there an hour.....

Really enjoyed passing on what I've learnt to anyone that'd listen!, seriously though, you should consider it. All the joys of educating excited kids and adults alike, shift your divisions, make a few quid and most importantly, NO NEGATIVE FEEDBACK......

ALL THIS FOR A 7 quid pitch and a pasting table ha ha !

Be lucky !

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I don't believe I've had any dealings with you in the past, but I'm certainly sad you've been pushed to this point.

All the best for the future, and try not to let all the crap get to you. And if you do compost them all, make sure you put it to good use on some veggies. Would be a shame to completely waste them.

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Guest GazCez

Blocky I love the car boot idea and educating kids! We will give it a go for sure.

 

Occasionally the local kids ad their parents up the allotment take a sneaky look in the polytunnel while we aren't there. They return and we swap for fruit or veg  or as is usual they get a free flytrap.

 

Even the guy who skimmed our walls took some free plants for his kids. Actually the electric meter reader guy took some home too. But that's another story he, he, he. Don't tell the other half though....... 

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Guest GazCez

Daniel I will try not to let the b*****d's grind me down and amazingly I have already tried composting sarracenia once before.

 

We'd donated to several universities and reached bursting point for space so I thought 'if there's no label compost it'. So we did. Fantastic results. Lovely crumbly compost.

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As much as I love to have decent compost I can't quite bring myself to start sacrificing my plants for it! Maybe in a decade or so, when the "problem" of too many plants hits me

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Do it mate, passing on your tips and knowledge has got to be a bonus, there's something special about kids and carnivorous plants. I think it's the fact that on a table full of hybrid vft devisions they'll nearly always pick out a " typical" to take home!.

I still remember picking out my very first vft out of a shelf full at a garden centre when I was about 10.

I drove my mum mad as it took me so long to decide on the best plant....

I see history repeating itself now and I like the fact that the good ol typical can still hold its own on a table of clones all priced up at pretty much the same .

Cheers Blocky

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Guest GazCez

I quite agree there are some total prats out there who just have to wreck what was a totally enjoyable hobby. I am going to find new ways along the line of Blocky71's suggestion about the car boots and educating carnivorous plant virgins. We already have a paste table waiting.

 

On a final note - just in case you might be wondering - the person who triggered all of this must know by now that I will never, ever supply them any plants in this life or the next. I hope that other sellers/collectors will not succumb to them and suffer a similar fate.

 

If you insist on cramming a small greenhouse end to end with plants and don't water them don't go crying to someone who tells you it is a specific disease without seeing pictures and then blame someone without consulting them first to see if they have noticed any plant problems in their collection.

 

I haven't as I have lots and lots of air flow and the plants are not crammed in.

 

There is a thing called 'sold in good faith' and as such you will be buying plants from collectors in the future. You will definitely encounter problems which no doubt you can blame on them as well.

 

Having said all of this I wish you 'good luck' in your future collecting. See there we go  - good faith!

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Hmm service industries... In a few weeks i have to go and sit in front of 40 odd clients who have recently spent a couple of million dollars based on a recomendation I gave them a few years back. Every little (and large) problem they have had since will be laid at my feet regardless of the origin of the problem...

Thats just people, i'm surpised most of them can remember to breath every few minutes and don't fall flat on their face every time they try to walk. I've allways thought it helps to think of clients as monkeys that accidentally fell out of a tree naked, and then you can never be surprised by the antics they get up to...

Works for me anyway :). Dont let the b****s grind you down.

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I know Ceri and Gary well,i was one of the first people they bought cp's from many years ago.I have visited them and they know their plants.They would never sell any plant that wasn't 100%.

I don't think the buyer would have bought any plants if they showed any signs of pests or disease either so he must have been happy to pick them and take them as they were,i.e potted.

Compared to Ceri and Gary,the buyer is relatively new to cp's and having 500 plants in one greenhouse and forgetting to water them at a critical growth period is a silly mistake to say the least.

This mistake has stressed the plants if it is the fungus and allowed it to affect the plants or they have just wilted due to no water and lack of pictures.

Either way,Ceri and Gary's plants are still healthy! so the blame must lie with the buyer,it was him that didn't water.

Would any of you forget to water your plants this week?

ada

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Hi Ceri

 

As someone who has benefited from your experience, knowledge and generosity over the last few years it saddens me that you are being driven to making this decision. I know from talking to you in the past that you have been driven to distraction by the attitude of some buyers of your plants.

 

Almost half of my VFT collection has come from yourself and the first plants I got from you in 2010 are still going strong, so what does that say about the plants you supply ?

 

I for one will miss my visits to you and Gary and the opportunity to see your fabulous collection.

 

Hoping that you will sit back and reconsider.

 

Dave

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I do wish people would stop mentioning "the fungus". I am aware that there are laboratory test results confirming Pythium affecting Darlingtonia and Sarracenia. A whole two of them to my knowledge and they are 5000 miles away ( including the Atlantic Ocean). 

The Darlingtonia pathogen has been mentioned for years by Jeff Dallas and myself but mainly ignored as irrelevant until recently. 

The Sarracenia infection appears to be a secondary one on a Sarracenia purpurea due to the plant being weakened by the actions of Sciarid Fly larvae, which can also carry the pathogen. This was in a large University collection so the larval attack symptoms could have been missed and the infestation untreated for some considerable time.

Do we even have a single confirmed case of Pythium affecting carnivorous plants in this country?

I think we should remember the sage advice of Lance-Corporal Jones.

 

DON'T PANIC!

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Guest GazCez

Good point Fred about pythium in this country. Let something good come from all this negativity and we discuss any other experiences and learn.

 

After all isn't that what we are all here on this Forum for?

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