Buyer Beware -Part 2

James Waddick jwaddick@kc.rr.com
Wed, 10 Sep 2003 07:45:51 PDT
Dear All;
	I just moved soap boxes from ranting about Standard Bulb 
Treatments not suitable for all bulbs. But I have already stepped to 
another soap box for a new tale of "bulb danger".

	Again I won't berate the large Dutch growers or an individual 
seller, but instead relate my own personal experience and let you 
draw conclusions.

	Yesterday's mail brought the catalog for Peter DeJager Bulb 
Co. The catalog is two parts; the first a slick color brochure of 16 
pages illustrating about 560 postage-stamp-size bulb flowers; the 
second part is a pretty home made  price list that's a bit hard to 
follow. No further comment on part 2.

	Part one-the color brochure is pretty neat to see all those 
color pictures across the pages. Being a it of a Lycoris nut (I said 
'a bit!!") I went to those pictures to see if they were actually 
selling L. chinensis or L. aurea as these are often confused names. 
There are pictures labelled as L. radiata, L. squamiera and L. aurea 
at the top of the page. Looking closely I wasn't certain of the ID of 
L. aurea, looking more closely the color of L. squamigera seemed far 
too pink. Then it Struck me - GASP!!!

	The three different species were actually THE SAME PHOTO- two 
mirror images and 'Photoshop'-colored to fit the name: Red L. 
radiata, Bright pink , reversed L. squamigera and Yellow L. aurea 
reversed back!! Absolutely identical pictures, totally computer 
manipulated. Then I wasn't sure that any were actually the species 
they named.

	This sure got me thinking. If the company would be so 
outrageous to foist doctored pictures in the catalog, what would they 
send? This is a very misleading and disturbing practice. I got to 
looking at more pictures and although none jumped out as similarly 
doctored, I then thought hard if I even wanted to place an order.

	I hear rumors about practices of wanton substitution and use 
of incorrect names since American bulb buyers are not as 
discriminating or complain less than others.  Well I plan on 
complaining and will not order. I can't relate any info on the 
quality or identity of bulbs they actually sell, but I sure do not 
like this practice one bit. Enough to tell others Buyer Beware!

	Still fuming		Jim W.
-- 
Dr. James W. Waddick
8871 NW Brostrom Rd.
Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711
USA
Ph.    816-746-1949
E-fax  419-781-8594

Zone 5 Record low -23F
	Summer 100F +


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