I hear ya. You can even get dead or near dead plants ordering from neighboring states. The best plants I've ever gotton were from other hobbiests. Having some rare plants doesn't mean you'll have a show winner either. And if you really pay attention, some of these contest winners with all the rare plants, are from Taiwan, Japan, and Singapore. (maybe they just walked outside and picked their plants from a local river?)

All I can say is work with what you have. I've seen some really nice tanks using very common plants. Wisteria and Crypts look nice together. The colors and leaf shapes really compliment each other. Healthy common plants will always look better than sick rare plants! (like my sickly C. Moehlmannii)

I took a 10"x12" picture of my 75g to a LFS and they hung it on the wall. All common plants and it really gets comments! You should do the same. Show the guys at the welding shop the same pic. Walk in and say "here's what I've been doing with your C02". You'll floor 'em! I sure did!

 

Salt
I was even worse off for most of my life. I continued with aquarium hobby although I lived in places where there was neither electricity or running water. If you love something you love it and make do with all the troubles. So square your shoulders, give out a hard long shout to remove your frustations, and go ahead and meet your problems headon.

 

Salt,

Which order number are you referring to? You have been a loyal customer and have enjoyed a good experience with us in the past. I apologize if we overlooked the refund. We have been swamped with Christmas orders lately.

We have not heard of the CBP needing us to apply for a permit with the Plant Inspection Center. Are you able to verify this? Our plants are shipping well in recent months and we have stepped up with the opening of more wholesale accounts with dealers in USA.

I apologize if we may have missed your email after you received the plants in poor condition in any way. But if you could provide the information we need, I could help.


Regards,
Ben

 

“One should never impose one's views on a problem; one should rather study it, and in time a solution will reveal itself.” -Albert Einstein

Salt, I like your signature and I think we can approach the situation with it in mind.

I too have had problems with ordering plants online. To be honest, I've never been 100% happy with anything from an online plant retailer. I've dealt with their customer services, and most of them are great people and were easy to work with (but I didn't want to pursue refunds). I think of it more from the point of view that I'm thankful for having the opportunity to order the plants in the first place. Will I order from them again? Most likely not.

Where in the U.S. do you live? You mention that you don't live anywhere near other hobbyists, but I'm willing to bet that someone on this forum has what you're looking for and is willing to ship it - priority mail - for a few bucks or a trade. I would say anything rare and worth having is worth asking and waiting for. Heck, I'm sure someone from my local club would ship them off to you with no qualms. Hit me up in a few months and I'll have some nice uncommon crypts (they are growing painfully slowly).

Thinking about your signature again, however, I think it is inevitable that I've applied my views on this problem....

 

The healthiest and rarest plants that I have owned were from hobbiests. Both components are mutually exclusive.

How about you post what you were trying to get, what on that list is your "must have" and lets go from there

 

You can order plants from Lowcoaster at Aquabid. If there is a plant you want it is likely that Charlie can get for you. He has a sterling reputation.

 

I'll second the lowcoaster recomendation---I've never had such speedy service, and he's very responsive to complaints and concerns. I'd order from him again. Plus he is located in the US, so no worries about customs.

 

As already mentioned Salt this site is a GREAT resource for those hard to find plants.... Shipped priority mail they fair very well and you are almost certin to get the plant as healthy as it was when it was pulled from the tank.

I have used the for sale/trade forum many times with a "WTB" heading of plants I was looking for and always got a response from someone here who was growing it and had extra....

For get ordering from over sea's.... I ordered from aquatic magic a few times and have the exact same expierence.... though they are VERY good with customer service and promptly refunded my money. However I know your frustrations when your sitting for a week... and then two.... and then three only to never get the package... or get it and have everything dead!

 

Ordering from the For Sale or Trade forum here is an adventure! The problem isn't the quality of the plants or the shipping costs or shipping time, it is that a good plant gets grabbed by someone within an hour or two of being posted. So, when you are looking for plants here there are two good techniques: One is the obvious one - check that forum a few times every day and immediately send a PM if you see what you want. Another is to search that forum for previous sales of what you want and PM the seller to see if he/she has any more to sell soon. Both techniques have worked for me. And, this is equally true for the swap n shop forum on TPT. The reward for this effort is great plants, good prices, cheap and quick shipping. And, there are some relatively rare plants offered pretty often too.

 

AquaBotanic.com is a reliable source (Oregon). Regular store is filled with common sp. but get on his e-mail list for occasional special purchases of rare plants.

 

Some people get a little mad when I seem to but into conversations like these, but for the record, buying plants from outside this country is very very very risky. I do it on a much larger scale, and it is always very frustrating.

There are at least three dozen American businesses that are well established, (not including ebay and Aquabid sellers) that are selling aquarium and pond plants via the internet. Ten years ago there was less than a half a dozen. What has changed the equation as of late is all these Singapore plants that are so heavily talked about in this forum and others, that are generally not available in this country.

To get these plants your alternatives are to buy from companies overseas who go thru customs legally and take your chances, buy from sellers overseas who export illegally and take your chances, encourage American dealers and retailers to import these plants, take your chances on auction sites, or wait for the generosity of fellow hobbyists or wait and wait for a hobbyist online to sell you these plants.

I do not think any of the alternatives are perfect. If you read some of the other rather heated conversations on this subject, you will find people relating horror stories about buying plants from outside this country, and you will read people saying the experience was the best thing since sliced bread. You can read about people who have bought plants online from American vendors over and over for years without incident, and people who have never bought a plant in years and never will and consider anyone in it for the money to be the coming of Satan. The plants always originate from some business though. I sold a good size portion of Petite nana to Bert five years ago, and he has since sold or traded off countless harvests of those original plants to you folks and continues to this day.

The kind of plants you are looking for Salt are hard to get, that is why they are called "rare"

 

Anyone should be quite aware by now that most of the aquatic plants you are enjoying in your aquariums comes from Asia. Even all the nurseries in Florida put together won't be able to supply you with the varieties you can get in any store from Asia.

Licensed businesses in USA like Aquabotanic imports the varieties of plants from businesses like us in Asia as well as the common species from nearer nurseries like in Florida, then resell them to the smaller shops in USA. Thay have to go through the same processes that we go through when dealing with USDA and CBP.
So what makes these American vendors different from us? I can't agree with the statement about buying plants from American vendors without incident being true.

We are already trying to change the scene in US by employing shippers there to hasten the shipping process for us. I would say that we can get the plants to you just as fast as any US vendor can (from the date of shipment). Shipping is the easier part. The tougher part is dealing with the folks at USDA and CBP and their processes, which I'm sure many US vendors will agree with me.


Ben

 

Salt,

The best I can tell you is this: Trade, trade, trade. Be generous with others and they will return the favor. You will make new friends in the process. I've been doing that for years so I can tell you from experience.

The sale and trade forum here is a good place to look as well. I think the rules we have in place provide a safe buying environment. You do have to be quick many times, but as someone else has mentioned, you can frequently get the plants from that person later on.

Finally, I don't know where you are, but some of the nicest plants can be had from a pond or ditch near you. It's not the season for that now of course, but if you look in the right places, it can really pay off. Our Aquapalooza has a bunch of links to sites that will help with IDs.

 

Hey Salt,

I can totally understand the feelings about wanting to order from the big distributers. I have certainly received much help from fellow hobbiests (and recently had a very good experience buying from Wolfenxx), but especially when setting up a tank, getting plants from hobbiests just doesn't cut it.

At a time like setting up a tank, I need a ALL the plants for the lay out AT ONCE and this is somthing that is only really possible by ordering from stores like Aquaspot or Aquabotanic (or if you're lucky enough to have a large LARGE local club). I know it's rough, but whether they're distributors in Asia or here in the US, none of them are crooks imo and will work hard to help you. I can only hope that you'll have better luck in the future dude.

This hobby should be fun (algae frustrations aside ) and I hope that your experience gets back on track soon.

BTW-- Rare does not equal useful for aquascaping. If you look through the 2005 (and 2006 I believe) ADA contest book, you'll notice that there will be almost no tanks ranked above 75 that include toninas or eriocaulons, and by the 50's they'll have disappeared altogether while Rotala rotundifolia keeps on showing up well in to the 20's and higher. heh heh

 

I just bought some bolbitus from lowcaster off aquabid, It was in perfect shape and shipped 2 days early!

 

Other hobbyists are the way to go both for price and quality. You can get nearly anything you want if you have the patience. Some hobbyists, such as myself, will even search the forums looking for people to load their plants onto. Keep at it and you will find what you want.

Also for the record, I live in Florida which happens to be where ~ 98% of the US plant farms are, and the selection in stores around here is abyssmal. I haven't bought plants from a LFS in years. A few times from online vendors but I get plants from other members nowadays.

 

Everyone is talking in generalities... The plants Salt is looking for are certainly not found in local ditches, and they are not plants that Charley/lowcoaster sells, and they are sporaticaly available in the trade forums.

Aquaspot and others like them provide these plants that are more commonly available in Singapore but not availble here; the eriocaulons, the toninas, L. cuba and pantanal, and HC and so forth, but there are more than 100 species of plants that are easily available in this country, and Asian plant farms have no advantage with these plants. Anubias, Swords, Crinums and lots and lots of stem plants sell for a fraction of the cost of buying them outside this country. There is really only a dozen or so plants that companies like Aquaspot sell that you can not get here. With all do respect to Aquaspot who I do admire for going thru all the hoops to export into this country legally. Aquaspot has hung in there. I know they have taken losses and much heat while trying to work out all the kinks to ship plants into this country. It is far from easy.

Salt, you feel any better now, or worse? :-({|=

 

How do you know what he's looking for? You can get nearly anything through trade if you play your cards right. You just grow it out from there.

 

Aquaspot and others like them provide these plants that are more commonly available in Singapore but not availble here; the eriocaulons, the toninas, L. cuba and pantanal, and HC and so forth,

I think you are a bit behind on the spread of plants of this nature. There are a LOT of people here growing these mentioned sp. and you can easily get a hold of them in our FS/FT forum on a regular basis or through private trade by contacting some members you know are growing them.

Also I just recently went to a LFS and bought a few bunches of Tonina sp. "Belem"... this fish store does not order from over sea's... so just goes to show you that some retailers here in the US are starting to carry these more "rare" plants... but those mentioned really arn't all to rare anymore.....

And your right carley can't get all of those hard to find plants.... however he does get Tonina's and eriocaulons on a regular basis