excuse my lack of capitalization i'm typing one handed here. i'm surprized no one has responded here as you have brought up a subject worth discussing. the way i see it this happens for 2 reasons either dishonesty or an honest mistake. you can't do alot about dishonesty however i think more can be done about honest mistakes.

i have received brug cuttings that were incorrectly labeled. it wasn't a major disappointment because a) it wasn't delibrate b)they were an extra in the trade c) she is a generous and honest trader. my trader passed on brug cuttings to me she received in trade and she did not keep any for herself. it did give me something to think about. i will not trade brugs i am unsure about as "named". on my trade page i have listed next to the variety where i purchased the plant.

i have also made an honest mistake and sent the wrong bulb. the bulbs looked indentical and so did the foliage except the foliage on one was barely noticable darker shade of green. you couldn't tell the difference unless they were side by side. fortunately i realized my mistake on my own later and corrected it. i would hope if i make a mistake or someone was disappointed with my end of a trade they would contact me and give me the chance to make it right.

i think that some people really don't know what plants they actually have. some plants can be correctly identified easily and some plants can't. for instance brugs are difficult to properly indentify and yet some people will attempt identify an unnamed brug. i think it's better to resist the urge to give your plant a name if it can't be properly indentified. i responded a post on the exchange and offered some large unnamed yellow plumeria cuttings for trade. she emailed me back and wanted to know if they aztec gold, sigh, i had already told her unnamed. truthfully they look like aztec gold but i wasn't going to name something just to make a trade.

I understand mistakes can happen. If someone is even kind of unsure of what they have, they should tell the other person. Like I said, I did many trades this past spring with many people. I would say at least 1/4 of the plants I have blooming right now are not the what they were supposed to be. That's a pretty high percentage of mistakes.

Another possibility is that people may have received their plants incorrectly labeled and never took the time to try to verify what they have. They are just passing on mistakes in labeling to others when they trade their excess.

Anyway, when I consider postage and time and effort in mailing, it probably would have been cheaper to just buy the varieties I was looking for.

I have decided that buying cannas is better when you are looking for specific varieties. Mistakes happen there too, but at least most companies will make it right if they send the wrong plant. It is just that it takes so long to find out. I haven't done much trading of cannas. But each time, I received such a small butchered up rootless piece, 2 died. Of course, I have no idea if I received the right plant or not. The 3rd almost died last year, & is just now getting big enough to bloom. I did one trade for Christ's light canna this spring. It was pretty small, but I knew that ahead of time. It hasn't bloomed, but is starting to grow pretty well now.
I do say I probably won't trade for cannas, but if I ever get the op to trade for Stuttgart or a couple of others, I probably will :)
Mistakes do happen, & I am probably guilty of assuming that when I receive something in trade, it is what it is supposed to be. Especially in things like brugs, if one is pink & I am told it is Frosty Pink, I assume it is Frosty Pink cause I can't really tell a lot from pictures, & there are several pink ones.

I feel your pain Kev. Irritating isn't it? Unless dealing with an intentional misrepresentation, I guess about the best guarantee is to ask the trader to provide a photo of the plant when it was flowering.

I too made a canna trade this winter for Canna Stuttgart. The rhyzomes I received were large and healthy but they had no growth because of the zone from which they came from. They started growing immediately for me here in Z-10 but they had all green foliage; no trace of white variegation. Obviously not Stuttgart. I e-mailed the trader who sent them to me and told her of the non-variegated foliage. I even cut her slack in my e-mail to her by noting that the rhyzomes were likely mixed up with others cannas since they had no foliage. The e-mail was not accussatory and was nicely written. She never responded. Oh well. She won't be getting a Christmas card from me this year ; >) At least I put the canna to good use in my compost pile..... -Mike

Well folks, keep me in mind. I do have Stuttgart and can even send a picture. The way it's growing this summer, I should have a few extra rhizomes come harvest time.

Kevin

I do not do much trading. I have noticed Stuttgart trys to revert. I had a bulb that I did not leave in the pot came back almost totally green. The new shoot it sent up next to it has a little varigation. The one I cut down and left in the pot came back extremly varigated.

I did not trade any cannas this year until they came up and had three leaves.