Hi Mike,

I've never heard of them but I'm glad you posted about them. They seem to have a nice selection, so I'll be watching for responses.

Denise in Omaha

Denise when I saw the spotted Hoya grifithii I decided that I needed to do a little research. I am just fascinated with the unidentified species that are currently being collected and being able to add a few of those to my collection would be just fantastic. Did you see the new green flowered species on their home page, the little Acanthostemma section sp? Now that is my kind of Hoya.

Mike

I've been dealing with Epiphytica on a regular basis now for a little over 2 years and to this point have been completely satisfied with everything that i've gotten from them. Cuttings have come in varies sizes,not sure what they base size o n but i've not gotten anything less than 3 nodes.

A word of caution though,if you plan on ordering from them,have your import permit ready and get a phyto. I placed an order with them last year without this info and it got destroyed by customs. I then received a statement from U.S. customs letting me know that my hoyas arrived safely in the states,were perfectly healthy but due to no documentation they destroyed them.

david

Thanks David that was just the info I was looking for. I am not sure if I will order yet or not but it is good to know that your experiences were positive.

Mike

Hi everyone,

Is it difficult to deal with epiphytica?

I sent some emails and Jack always answered all my questions but when I placed my order I'd had any answer back. It happended 3 times!

He always agreed to ship as requested but never had return when order was placed.

Mitzi

Hi everyone,

I'm very sad. I lost all the plants I ordered from Epiphytica.

Unfortunatelly, for some reason, they didn't followed the shipment instructions, and everything were confiscated.

It came as birthday gift, in this situation the customs always open the box, and afer opening it was confiscated, they know that it wasn't a gift.

I'm really sad, because this time I had some hoyas from friends, and I will have to reimburse them, too bad, first of all for the hoyas, and then for my friends that are really upset with me.

Hi Mitzi...I'm SO sorry to hear that happened...I hope your friends realize that it wasn't your fault and can understand that there are risks involved when ordering from overseas...hopefully they won't blame you, they really shoudn't. Good luck!

It is true, it wasn't your fault. I'm so sorry you had to go through such a disaster. :( This is very upsetting indeed.

Unfortunately my friends think that I gave wrong instructions,two words cannot appear on packages, plants and gift, customs always opens gifts packages because people bring electronics from overseas and declare as gift to avoid taxes, and it is fatal, gifts are always opened. Plants goes straight to Agricultural Dept. and takes so long there that dies. Bad, bad luck.

Epiphytica has so many beautiful hoyas, and Jack was so gentle, but now he doesn't even reply my emails.

David says that Jack is sometimes out of the office for days, so take hope. I'm sure he does not intend to be rude and will not leave you unanswered.

I'm sure it is very frustrating to wait with your friends blaming you, though. All you can tell them is that you have done and are doing your best. They are lucky to have someone show them the ropes, when you have had to figure these things out alone. You have endured a lot of losses and understand that things don't always work out when importing plants, but your friends have not accepted this yet.

GG,

Thank you for your kindly words.

But this is the first time I lost plants for customs. It is very expensive for me to import plants, but never mind, I'll reimburse them to avoid any stress, I will support the injury by myself, because Jack told me he would send the cuts again, but now he wants some government license that does not exist in Brazil! Each country has its rules, in Brazil is not like US, Canada, England, here is different, import permit is only for big dealers, I'm only a hobbyist.

Well, hopefully he will agree to ship them without a license, (without "GIFT" or "PLANTS" on the form) if you accept the risk of the package being intercepted again. I know these are terms you are used to.

I understand how you feel about reimbursing your friends to avoid stress/drama. :(

Good luck!!!!

GG,

Thanks!

Hi GG,

Jack sent an email, we probably misanderstand, English is not my mother language, neither his.

I'm sure he is a great person, he refund the money, but I'm worried because he lost money in this operation, and I didn't want this to happen to him. I think he won't ship anything to me anymore, he tried to do his best and he did, isn't really sad? I'm trying to figure out how to compensate him, but I have no idea.

Mitzi

Mitzi,Did jack refund the shipping also?If he did I think if you gave that portion back that would be fair??
I really do think jack is a very kind person and this just goes to show it.

Cindy

Mitzi,

i'm very sorry to read that this has happened. I lost a very expensive shipment of hoyas to customs a few years ago simply because the shipment was not accompanied by a phyto certificate. U.S. customs sent me an empty box along with a document stating that my healthy,disease and insect free plants had been destroyed due to lack of a single piece of paper.It can be a REAL headache when it comes to dealing with customs.

As I and a few others have stated here,Jack is a very nice person and many times goes out of his way to make things right when something like this happens. Try not to worry about it too much.

Michael,

I'm worried about his financial lost, I was going to order again, he is for sure an excellent person. We had communication problems, but I just check at Customs and they are returning the plants for him!

This is a nice news, because he won't think that I was lying to him.

Cindy, he is a very nice person for sure!
Mitzi

Hi Mitzi,

I'm glad that things seem to be turning in the right direction. I only know Jack via online communication but my experience with him is that the is a great person and will do everything in his power to make things right. Being a nurseryman i'm sure he knows that there are many risks involved with shipping plants to other countries.

A couple of years ago he invited me to come to Thailand and look for new hoyas in the jungle with him,something i'd very much love to do but it'll probably never happen. Anytime I have placed an order with Epiphytica and something was out of stock or he didn't have it he'd go out of his way to look for it. In fact he's looking for several things that I asked him about.

I hope everything works out in the end and that you'll get these plants because he has some really neat hoyas!!!

David

David,

I feel better now, because he will have his plants back.
I was worried because he lost money, sending me and refunding. I didn't want this I want to order again and pay again, at least the freight, but all the situation was very complicated.

I'm sure he is a very nice person, and he did everything to help me and to make easier, unfortunately it ended this way but for sure the results are ok, I'm very glad that the plants is returning to him, but I really think he won't sell me anymore!

Whenever we state gift at the boxes they are opened by customs, they think it is drugs or smuggling!!!!

Mitzi