lol jim, I hear ya. I purchased a "little pot of horrors" plant collection...
:sigh:
The plants were OK to be together. A S.rubra or something like that (still a little young to tell), a D.capillaris or spatulata, and a P. primuliflora. However, I still don't know if my Drosera is D.capillaris or spatulata... grr.
See, that is something that REALLY irritates me with regard to these large commercial plant vendors. I mean, come on, it isn't too hard to include a Genus/Species with your plant in fine print. Should they not KNOW what they are growing? Especially these Nepenthes hybrids that are going around. How can these nurseries simply sell these plants and have NO IDEA what the plants are? Have they no concept of the problem of confusing plant hybrid id'ing?!
I would think that accurate plant id'ing is a requirement... or something. If these places have the resources to TC massive crops of plants, I think they can spend five minutes on the internet and verify the identity of the plant in question BEFORE they screw over everyone who purchases the plant.
On a different note:
I think every CP I have ever purchased from a garden center has had sufficient care info (except for my most recent purchases). The care info on the pots of my first CP's stated the importance of key points like using pure water, humidity and not feeding the plants fatty food (hamburger) amongst other things. These plants were all purchased from large garden centers. I have never seen any Home Depots in my area selling CP's. There are no Lowes in Minnesota to my knowledge, and according to the Lowes website.
Actually, it is pretty funny that, to my experience, the only time to buy CP's in garden centers in Minnesota is in the middle of winter. Maybe it's because, in the absence of marigolds and other flowery thingies, people can't think of anything better to put on the shelves besides some mangy CP's.
The particular labels that I am thinking of showed a picture of some very red S.purpurea flanked by some hungry-looking VFT's. The picture said "Carnivorous plant" on the top and "Pitcher plant" on the bottom... I think. I save all of the labels on the plants that I buy, but I'm not at my house right now so I am unable to look. I remember that my first VFT's label was a "Terrarium of Terror" label. The care info was all written in a juvenille first-person from the VFT's perspective.
Recently I purchased a "little pot of horrors" collection. The care info on that was OK -enough to keep the plants alive for a while.
What I am saying is that it's not like to do not BELIVE you guys when you say that the care info on Lowes' CP's left a lot to be desired. However, there are a few companies who actually try.
