My clicker finger has been busy again on the LA

Not winning anything yet and trying to track them first. I have such self control lol.

Hi, Becky. Yes, it is really wonderful living near Ocala. Near enough to do things like shop and the beach, yet Im far enough out that its quiet on Sundays, peaceful enough that the bald eagles feel comfortable enough to roost in nearby trees. And its 80 degrees in December. Whats not to like?

Oh, and to keep this on topic, Ive got a bit of an itchy finger over at the auction too!

Welcome Kathy, great to have you here.

We sell very few single fans on the auction any longer, but do not have a problem buying a single fan if it's a newer introduction and something I want to use. We stopped potting single fans(their are a few exceptions) two years ago because as a seller it's a lot easier on me and in the end the income is about the same because we normally get more from a double fan. We also advertise we do not send gift plants which also reduced my workload, but if a repeat buyer request they would like something of ours we will send it at no charge along with their order if we have enough. We also give reduced shipping, if you buy one plant or twenty plants the shipping is $15. The sellers in our area who send single fans send great blooming size plants and if you want to cut your cost on newer daylilies go to the auction and BID,BID,BID.

Spunky, thats interesting about gift plants, because Im a bit ambivalent on that. There is one hybridizer I buy from periodically, and he gives me a choice of what I want, which is nice. But for the most part, when I get gift plants, I may already have them, or dont particularly like them, I just flat out don't have the room for them. Some gift plants are such old ones that Im wondering if Im helping that seller clear out their garden!

What I do appreciate is extra fans of what Ive already bought. I so appreciate buying a double fan, and seeing a clump of 4 fans show up. Me likey that!!

I like gift plants, and I like reduced shipping too. and like Kathy I am out of room for the ones I buy let alone gift plants If I get a gift plant I don't want I just pot it up and donate it to the raffle at our region 3 fall meeting, Lilyhemmer. I've also given a few away to co-workers too. Gotta get more people addicted, I mean interested in daylilies dontcha know.

I have never received a gift plant that I thought the person sending it gave any thought to what I might actually use it for. I have ordered Tets before and received a Dip for a gift plant. Most will send what they have the most of because they have not been able to sell them. I like the way Karol Emmerich does it, she gives you a choice of a gift plant or extra fans, she will also tell you that her dormants may not grow in the south. I will tell you her sev and ev do very well here.

ocalagal said:Hi, Becky. Yes, it is really wonderful living near Ocala. Near enough to do things like shop and the beach, yet Im far enough out that its quiet on Sundays, peaceful enough that the bald eagles feel comfortable enough to roost in nearby trees. And its 80 degrees in December. Whats not to like?

Oh, and to keep this on topic, Ive got a bit of an itchy finger over at the auction too!

I already wore the skin off my finger!!!

I said before that I thought certain sellers were getting rid of their junk daylilies by throwing them in my box and calling them a bonus, then charge me shipping for this junk. I have noticed that some sellers actually sell their junk daylilies! $5.00 a clump or something, I love that!! Yes, sell them to people. I bought junk clumps when I started out and I was very excited about them. I was ecstatic!!

I had a very good experience recently with a seller on LA. Of course, I purchase seeds, so this is a little different.

I won one auction of this seller and then was in a bidding war with another buyer that extended almost 15 minutes for another seed auction of the same seller. I finally threw the towel in when I hit my maximum dollar amount for any seed purchase. (I keep my max low and stick to it.) Sorry to sound cheap, but my gardening budget is very tight and I can NOT go over it. I am already spending some of my 2014 budget for a few LA seed auctions I've won.

I paid right away for the one I did win and sent an email to let the seller know to go ahead and send the seeds as I did not win anything else of hers. I did mention that I almost won another of her seed auctions, but in the end was outbid. I never said anything else.

I immediately got a response from her. She said that she would be sending my seeds out the next day and she was including a bonus. Okay! Great! I usually get a bonus with most of the seed auctions I win. Usually 2-5 seeds of another daylily hybrid or extra seeds of the one I won.

When I got the bubble envie a few days later, she not only sent me 20 seeds of the one I won, but also 20 seeds each of two other crosses. One of the crosses had the pollen parent of the auction I lost, which will be a new intro of hers in 2014. I was after the pattern gene from that one! Well, she even went a step further for me and made sure that the two bonuses she sent me had Laughing Clown as the pod parent because it is an evergreen. If I had won the other auction, both parents were dormants. She thought that they might not thrive and survive as dormants in my zone. She made sure that both the bonuses had an evergreen pod parent! The auction I won also had one parent that is evergreen (which I knew when I bid on it)! Now this will really get you ... I paid less than $4 when I won the bid! I won a total of 60 seeds of several very, very nice spider crosses! I am lacking spider/UFO daylilies in my garden. I have a couple of plants, but I really want a few more. So I won a great auction that will provide me with PLENTY of spider daylilies.

Oh! And I am trying very hard to keep track of my seedlings. I needed info about her seedling parents (two of the crosses had a couple of her intros as pollen parents that haven't yet been named and registered), so she sent me all the info I needed about both of them. I can't imagine another seller topping that!

So I can highly recommend Daredevil (Linda Michaels) as a good seller ... for those that purchase seeds. (I might be the only one here that buys seeds instead of plants ... (sigh)).

One of my buyers allows one to nominate a choice for the bonus seedlings - but I have never got what I wanted. The latest two bonuses I received I would not have bought even under severe torture. But I will see how they go.

I very much dislike trying to figure out gift plants for everyone just for the fact that you can not please everyone. The first year I sold I tried to send something similar to what they bought such as if they bought eyed plants I sent eyed or if they bought only patterns I tried to send another pattern of some sort. It got very time consuming trying to do that for everyone. I also do not have a lot of extra stock to have a list to choose from like a couple of sellers do, I just send what I have extra of. I have kept back a few plants that I have not listed to use as gift plants and I have also been given plants to send as gifts (James Hall has given me his intros to send to some- it gets them out into gardens that they normally wouldn't get to). Sometimes if I have extra I will include something I knew the buyer was looking for but didn't buy.

But again, you really have no way of pleasing everyone when it comes to gift plants. Some want them since they are new to daylilies and want all they can get because they don't have that many and others have no room for them so they don't want them; I have been asked by a few buyers to NOT send gift plants. Some people get very irate if they don't get gift plants and will never buy from that seller again and will voice it to anyone who will listen (I'm not referring to anyone here ) I have seen negative feedback left for sellers because the buyer didn't like the gift plant; nothing else was wrong with their purchase just the gift plant. I have been asked for a discount on an order if I don't send a gift plant and I explained that the gift plant is just that, a gift, and I could not discount the order because I was not sending a "free" plant (I had given them a deal on the plants already).

I do send extra fans when I can and I always send any increase the plant may have. I have even listed some plants as having less fans than they actually do so when the buyer gets it they will have extra fans such as I have listed some things as DF when they are actually TF or listed a TF when it is actually 4 fans. I can't do all of the plants this way but it happens more so when I list things in the late spring or summer after I have shipped most things out and do an inventory on what's left.

There are sellers who will not send gift plants anymore because of the way people are about it. I, for one, would rather have extra fans usually because I do not have room for extras I did not order. I do like getting a gift when I order new intros since there are usually more of them I want but limit myself to only a few from some hybridizers, however, I would be just as happy getting extra fans.

When I do get gift plants I do not want I usually just plant them in a big pot and grow them to give to our club for sales or door prizes. If I know they will not do well here I just toss them in the compost pile.

I usually don't send bonus plants any more. I much prefer to send extra fans. It saves time and saves all the wear and tear on my back with all the extra digging I would be doing if I sent a bonus.

I don't know who started the bonus thing, but God Bless Them, it gave us something to talk about in the winter.

@tink3472
If you have anymore of those new intro's I would like one. I will see that the pictures get posted in the right places. Don't let it worry you about these people who complain no matter what you do. I know you work hard and bend over backwards to make your customers happy. There is a lot of people out there wanting something for nothing that's all.

I love a seller with a mix of junk and buy-it-now prices along with the auctions. After we win a few auctions we can buy a couple of things on the way out to make the postage work. I still buy junk, but I like to pick out my own junk. Nothing wrong with junk. LOL.

A bonus is a bonus, I never look a gift horse in the mouth. (that is an old saying right there) If you do not like the daylily you can always throw it away or give it away or pot it up for a trade. Several of my bonus daylilies (which I had labeled junk) were not in the database, so I just grew them anyway. After I get pictures I can toss it or trade it. Always a good idea to check the database.

I think a few sellers have taken advantage of the 'bonus' word. They want a reputation like 'Maryott's' has as being 'generous with the bonuses'. It is not considered generous when you throw-in 12 triple fans of something that is not selling! Then what? I have to pay an extra 20 dollars shipping for plants I cannot use, do not have room for, do not have the energy to plant an extra 12 triple fans because I just bought 20 good daylilies that I need to focus on.....LOL.

Gleni said:The latest two bonuses I received I would not have bought even under severe torture. But I will see how they go.

spunky1 said:I don't know who started the bonus thing, but God Bless Them, it gave us something to talk about in the winter.

I noticed that this thread was renamed, 'Chat thread' that could be why.

Sometimes you can be surprised when watching a non desired bonus plant bloom. I have had a few keepers and the others I just regift.

bluegrassmom said:Sometimes you can be surprised when watching a non desired bonus plant bloom. I have had a few keepers and the others I just regift.

You are so right. I would not have bought Inherited Wealth, but wow I just love it.

Some of our favorites daylilies have been gift plants. Though we prefer extra fans, we are thankful for any gift plants. If we already have the gift plant, we can either plant it with ours for more blooms or give it to one of our daylily clubs as a bargain table plant or a door prize or sell at a plant sale. I can do the same with any that we receive that we do not want. I repeat, we are thankful for any gift plants that we get. Gift plants are just that---gifts and not required. It is our choice to keep or re-gift any that we receive.

Doris

tink3472 said:

But again, you really have no way of pleasing everyone when it comes to gift plants. Some want them since they are new to daylilies and want all they can get because they don't have that many and others have no room for them so they don't want them; I have been asked by a few buyers to NOT send gift plants. Some people get very irate if they don't get gift plants and will never buy from that seller again and will voice it to anyone who will listen (I'm not referring to anyone here ) I have seen negative feedback left for sellers because the buyer didn't like the gift plant; nothing else was wrong with their purchase just the gift plant.

Oh this just grates on me! I have seen/heard it before. I don't understand the 'logic' behind that.

Personally, I am ambivalent about gift plants. I don't buy from a ton of people and those who ship things seem to have a decent idea of what I like based on my orders. If they send me a gift plant I like, great! If not, there are plenty of ways to donate it. I've given things to friends and family (my mother loves when I get gift plants ) and donated some to city programs for urban gardening. I have a few plants that I love that I received as gift plants - occasionally I will keep things to see them bloom and decide from there.