Re: CAT - Free plants

From: <HIPSource@aol.com>

Vicky Craig said:

<<  We tell our customers that if they do not want any extras they can  deduct
25% off their order.  We understand what it is like to receive  unordered
'extras'. .. When we first began ordering iris from commercial gardens we
welcomed  all the extras we received.  But sometimes, especially after growing
a  multitude of iris for many years, we tend to get 'picky' about what we
want or just don't have space enough for unordered plants. >>

I appreciate having this option when I order for myself. I have a small space
and I do generally prefer to be the one who picks what is going into my
garden. This business of having to find homes for a lot of stuff I did not
order gets tedious after a while. Everyone else is in the same boat or will be
in a few years. The observation that one's ideas about extras may change over
time is true, I think.

Which is not to say that I do not also appreciate an extra when it arrives, or
that I don't recognize a sincere gesture of appreciation from the nurseries.
I, too, have had some excellent things come to me as extras. Early on someone
sent me a stronger growing plant in the same color pattern as one I had
ordered. And someone insisted I have a few little medians, which was fun. One
can often tell that some thought has gone into the selection of the extras. 

I'm always flattered and delighted to receive someone's very own babies to
grow on for them and look at. They are proud of them and want people to know
them, and they want to know how they are performing here and there, and how
else will they find out?   

As one who places small precise orders I run into the situation of wanting
cultivars A,B, and C and having to not order C while specifying it as an
preferred extra to avoid having other extras I cannot use. Sometimes I get C,
sometimes I don't. This is a bother. 

I do not like the business of using copious extras to "balance" problems with
the order I wrote the check for. Any plant I bought should come to me as a
first quality plant or a first quality plant of a substitution I specified.
These plants are not fungible and loading me up with unasked for stuff does
not make up for not delivering what I paid for. I am pleased to say that I
have only had this happen once some years ago.

For every person who is buying for a society sale and needs mainstream
cultivars in bulk, or every customer who has endless space and broad tastes,
or every customer who is new and just developing their preferences-- all of
whom, along with many others,  will probably welcome copious extras--- there
is an old crank like myself with a scrap of dirt  who has to pick carefully
and is overcrowd already. Customers vary and their needs vary and ordering
options are indeed appreciated.

Anner Whitehead
HIPSource@aol.com

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