Missidentifications from sellers, what can we do?

[jcz]

Hi!

I am trying to broaden my Utricularia collection and I have found that missidentifications are not that unusual, so I wanted to ask, in general, what do you think that can be done when a seller is offering a plant which is missidentified.

I am talking mainly about professional sellers and "normal" orders (something offered with a price and you order it), not amateurs or exchanges. I guess that, if a professional is selling a product, they should have some responsibility about its identity, don't you think so?

The problem is that, in some cases, to properly identify a plant it is sometimes necessary to grow it during a quite long period until it is adult or until it flowers, so it may be weird to ask for any responsibility after several months or even years.

On the other hand, according to your experience, are normally sellers wanting to correct misslabeled products? I have only informed sellers a couple of times about missidentifications, and they only said something like: "this is what I want under that name", showing no or little interest about it.

Thank you very much in advance for sharing your experience on this topic!

[ada]

i don't grow utrics, but i have had this experience with  temperate pinguicula.   THAT is being sold something as one species and it turns out to be another when you get it to maturity and it flowers.    It is very annoying!    All i can say is do your homework on any seller,ask for pictures of plant and flowers,how long they have been growing the plant,who or where did they get it from.      One of the growers who mis-sold me a plant didn't give a stuff about selling the wrong plant but i have a long memory!  if he tries to sell again i will be watching and remind others of his ways.There is also one seller who consistantly cheats people by selling wrongly named plants,he is being watched too

ada

[Nigel H-C]

As one of the professional growers, I only sell Utrics I’ve flowered so the id is correct.  Indeed, those on my website are mostly pictured with shots I’ve taken myself. I can’t and won’t speak for other professional growers, and wonder if there is confusion between us and the many who sell a few surplus plants.

Nigel HC

[ada]

Nigel,     there is probably confusion,professional nurseries like yourself provide a great service,

I myself have  always had great service from you and can't fault you,  but some small growers that only sell a few spare plants see an opertunity to make a fast buck at someones expense.

ada

[jcz]

Thank you very much for your answers, ada! Yes, it is very frustrating sometimes.

Nigel, your webpage looks particularly nice and by no means I was referring to you with my message (I have not ordered yet plants from you, so obviously I cannot provide any opinion). But there was no confusion, I was talking about professional sellers, not just people who had a few extra plants and sell them from time to time. I may order something next season if I can get some more space, hehe, for instance to broaden my Sarracenia purpurea collection. By the way, the S. purpurea subsp. venosa you offer in the webpage, is it S. purpurea var. venosa, S. purpurea var. montana or S. purpurea var. burkii (= S. rosea)? Thanks!