Seattle Orchids Redemption

[JScott]

I know I've talked a lot of crap about Seattle Orchids, and I was mostly right to do so. Some of the plants I got from there were crap, and the customer service people just told no, the plants were fine and if I knew more about orchids I would be able to see that (I've been growing orchids for some 30 years).

I had decided that I would never order from them. Some of the plants I got from them were fine, but some of them were crap, and they had no interest in making things right if they sent you a half dead plant. I decided that I couldn't trust them to give me good value for my money when I buy plants from them that I cannot inspect first.

Well, my favorite teacher friend in Oklahoma got a Peristeria elata. Not a good choice for her first orchid, but she really fell in love with it and had to have it. She got hers from Hausermann, and it was quite big (definitely blooming size) and at a reasonable price.

She keeps asking me for help about things, and it's hard for me to be certain because I have never grown one, so I decided I needed to get one too, as that would help make it easier for me to guide her. They didn't have them at Hausermann anymore. The only place I could find was was at Seattle Orchid.

I went back and forth and back and forth about whether I was going to give them another chance. The plant was a little bit expensive for the size (40 dollars for a 2 inch pot) and I had hyped myself up to raise hell if that plant got here and it wasn't pristine, and I ordered it. The day after I ordered it, they went on sale, and Seattle Orchids actually came back and refunded 15 dollars (the difference between the regular price and the sale price) to my PayPal account.

The plant came today, and it is in very good shape. Plump pseudobulbs with a new growth with lots of roots just starting. It is a happy healthy plant.

That's the thing about Seattle Orchids. Sometimes you get a great plant from them, other times you get something that I would be embarrassed to sell to a customer, but this time I struck lucky and I got a good plant.

After all the negative things I've said about Seattle Orchids, i felt like I owed it to them to be sure and post about this positive experience I had with them. They're inconsistent, but they do have some good plants sometimes.