Topic: The WRONG Daffs AGAIN!

[Palustris]

2 years ago we bought 26 kilos of supposedly Ice Follies daffodils. This is a white daff with a pale yellow centre. When they flowered they were yellow with an orange centre. Not a problem except that they clashed dreadfully with the Queen of the Night tulips around them (600 of those by the way). So we complained, the Garden Centre replaced the daffs with another lot of Ice Follies. Well they have just started opening and guess what? They are Yellow with an Orange centre. We are extremely annoyed. The question is whether the Garden Centre will believe us a second time. Even if they don't I am going to dig this lot up and dump them on their manager's desk!
Watch this space!

[Robert_Brenchley]

26 kilos of daffs? How many acres did you have to plant?

[Palustris]

They nicely filled an area of about 20 metres by 10

[Hex]

and i take it you got to dig up and replace them all?

name and shame, threaten them with small claims court unless they send someone to redo it for you!

[Tulipa]

Eric you must be very frustrated, I remember last time...  Do you need to take them a book on identifying daffodils...?

[dandelion]

Very annoying >:(! I once bought some 'Black Beauty' lilies from Parker Bulbs. I nurtured them only to find out they were ordinary orange flowered lilies.
Unfortunately I couldn't find the receipt.

I have a few ice follies in my garden. I'm always a bit disappointed about the way the trumpets quickly fade from pale yellow to white. I have a smaller one (I think it's Jack Snipe?) which has the same colour combination, but doesn't fade.

[MrsKP]

if these are they, i can let you have about 20.  i had no idea what they were until i googled ice follies.

they are coping well with the battering of the last two days.  just thought i'd share that with you.  :P

[Palustris]

Thank you MrsKP, but we will need a 25 kilo sack to go in the area.
Dandelion, it is the fact that they do fade to white so quickly that we wanted. Next time I think we will go looking for a pure white large flowered one altogether.
The nursery did replace them last time and we will take a photo tomorrow if they are all open and go and see what they have to say.  That makes a drive to deal with them  (four times) 60 miles there and back, it i a fair amount if petrol too. Would not mind but a got badly blisted hands digging them up and planting these too. AND since they did not want the last wrong ones back, we had to find planting places for 60 kilos of daff, cos they had trebled in quantity over the season (rich soik you know!)

[MrsKP]

would it be worthwhile ringing them first to try and sort it out over the phone before making journey especially as this isn't the first time they've messed up ?

you never know, they might even deliver (long shot).

i thank you for giving my "daffs" a name tho and good luck on your mission.

[Deeds]

Eric I can sympathise, but you know my opinion of garden centre bulbs, pay a bit more and buy from a grower who can reliably identify and supply what you order.


I would certainly complain and demand my money back, a few years ago when I was planting up my white garden I visited a nursery locally that has some fantastic unusual perennials, spent ££££s and the following year when the plants flowered at least 30% of them were not white.  They replaced them, but it's not the point, I'd lost two years worth of growth,  now I'm afraid I will only buy perennials in flower if I wanta specific colour or from one small nursery that I trust implicitly.

[ACE]

Go straight to the grower, I had a similar problem with supposedly white with pink trumpets,  I had to get them in a hurry so used a well known garden centre. All yellow and the trouble was it was a client.  Good job it was only a small area.

[Rosa_Mundi]

I do sympathize, Eric. Definitely a case for a grower, and if you want ideas for alternatives to Ice Follies (which I always find breaking in the wind), Walkers have a fantastic catalogue to browse
http://www.taylors-bulbs.com/walker.asp

[moonbells]

ouch!

Sounds like one hell of a job digging...  Perhaps it'd be easier changing the tulips...   ;)

I love the combination of either white or yellow with orange centres - but they would definitely clash something awful with Queen of the Night.  I hope you manage to convince the GC that you should have a refund so you can order from a reputable place (implying they aren't...)

moonbells

[Palustris]

UPDATE.
We went today with photographs of last year and this year and the receipts and the bags in which the bulbs were supplied and a close up picture of the wrong daff and an example. The manageress was very apologetic, usual blurb, but offerred replacements in Sept/Oct or money back. We took the money and asked about the bulbs. They did not want them returning.
Probably as much as they could reasonably be expected to do. And we have got 50 kilos of daffs for nothing (don't count the miles 'cos we go there often anyway just for an afternoon out).
Buy from the grower? We did one year, bought some lovely daffs, cannot remember which, but they were Rip Van Winkle which we loathe. Also last  Sept we bought some Papillon Blanc. Well what has grown is more like Merlin than anything else. So growers ain't perfect either.
If we could afford the prices charged by some small specialist sellers we might buy from them but at £20 a bulb for somethings is beyond my pocket.
As for changing the tulips, well there are far far more of them in the bed than there are daffs!.

[Obelixx]

I have Ice Follies in a sheltered bed here and they do very well and look wonderful with all my white and purply pink hyacinths, drumstick primulas and pulsatillas.   A friend of mine who always buys new bulbs every year for her spring bed and pots - new colour scheme every year - always orders hundreds from Bloms UK for shipment to Belgium and never has any trouble with her plants' quality or colours.

I once went to Keukenhof and ordered masses of daffs and tulips and spent hours planting about 1000 bulbs the following autumn.  The daffs were fine but the tulips all got eaten by rodents except that the Black Night ones I put in pots with creamy ones all came up pink!   Now I buy in smaller quantities from a specialist supplier at the autumn plant fair.

[Robert_Brenchley]

It does pay to go to a specialist if you want a particular variety; far too many places aren't particularly scrupulous as they know 99% of customers won't complain about the wrong variety. But I see the point; if you're in need of 26 kilos of bulbs and you're working to a budget, you probably won't want to go that route.

[valmarg]

Palustris, have you considered going to your local Trading Standards Office? What you received, and what you thought you were buying were two entirely different items.  I think they may be able to help.  If nothing else under the Trade Descriptions Act you have not received what you thought you were buying.

Two avenues  that may be worth pursuing?

Hope this helps,

valmarg

[Palustris]

As you can see from the updated message Valmarg, the G/C dealt absolutely correctly with the problem. They only wanted the evidence so they could complain to their suppliers. We would have gone to trading standards had there been any difficulty with the G/C, but they were in fact very helpful and we think fair. Thank-you all the same for your suggestion.

[Robert_Brenchley]

You don't actually know who's at fault here; someone's being a bit unscrupulous about what they supply, but it could be either the GC or the grower.