Well--I guess I'm one who has had a good and bad experience with ebay sellers, even one who
has a 100% positive feedback score of 1175, (last time I checked) despite knowingly passing on
hosta with nematodes! I won't 'out her' on a public forum but you can email me and I'll make sure
you avoid that person!

When I do receive a hosta, from an ebayer or any that are bare root, I immediately put them in a container of water
(individually) and make sure the roots are well covered with the water. I've left them there for several days
with no problem and then I either pot them up in ground up pine bark mulch or a combination of the fine pine mulch
and aged horse manure compost, until I find a spot in my garden for them.

I've wintered them over in the pots tipped over or on the north end of our house, under an overhang
where they can't get water and have had mostly good success in doing those things. BUT, last year I set
my pots in a garden bed, and buried them up to their rims in the extra horse manure compost I had and
parked our lawn tractor cart in front of them, tipped up to block the sun from them and I lost not a one
that way either and am thinking that is what I'll do in the future again, if I have any in pots come winter!

As I said in the other post about recommended online sellers, I've had very good success with Bentley's
and Hostabargains and even a couple others, hopefully, this year. I will wait on the couple I tried this summer
to make sure there are not problems like nematodes, for sure, and hopefully not HVX, although that can take
years to show on some hosta!!

Oh, and I am TRYING to restrain from planting hosta from ebay sources, I'm not sure of, till after August
which is when nematode symptoms generally present in my area!! I can better deal with HVX than the nems.!

Have you tried the auction's on the hosta Library, another good source.
http://www.hostalibrary.org/
http://www.hostalibrary.org/cgi-bin/auction.pl

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.hostalibrary.org/cgi-bin/auction.pl

Hi ptlida,
I did receive your e mail, and happy to see you post here,i was not sure if you were real, i wil answer you soon.

I have bought from e bay, some i will buy from again, others,NOT.

Please ask the seller if you are buying a mature plant, or a tissue culture,last year i got stung,paid big money for what i thought was going to be a nice size plant,when it came in the mail, it fit in a MEDICEN BOTTLE, I kid you not!
I do not mind buying tissue culture, but i want to know what i am paying for.

Anothe thing, i Never buy a hosta, not even from a nursery, that has has a few leaves removed,there is a reason they have removed them.I prefeer to buy a hosta,that has broken leaves,yellw leaves,from sun burn,rather than having it trimmed up, that way, i know what i am really getting.

I always rince all the soil off,soak it for as many as a few days,then plant.The reason i rince all the soil off is,i bought a huge hosta from a lady i know,when i got home, i decided to split it up, there were so many slugs,and slug eggs,i was just sick,so i cleaned off all that soil, soaked, and planted,and have done this ever since.It workes for me.

Good luck,and welcome to the forum.I will be getting back to you,now that i know you are real, ha ha
cAROL

if you want some super nice hosta, check me out on ebay, under hosta. look for tnifong1 plants,thanks tim

I have bought from Bentley on e-bay and Hostabargains and had good luck with both. The plants have been disease free, true to name, but of course they are small. For the price you get them on e-bay, it is not a surprise that they would be young. But I have found they grew well (all except Clifford's Comet and I don't think that was the seller's fault). I would buy from those two sources again.

Like Carol I soak them for a few days in purified water or rainwater then plant them in pots of bark and composts. I use pots so I can move them around to find the right amount of sunlight for them. Once they're in the right spot they grow there until it's time to either re-pot or plant in the soil.

Lainey

Where was that guy from a couple years back that cheated so many people? Remember he kept coming back on ebay under so many names? He was down south somewhere, wasn't he?
Pam

You mean 'Al Belk', Pam? Don't know where he wound up! Anyone ever do business with him under
one of his new names?

I can speak from experience that my purchase from the Hosta Library Auction was great. I purchased a Purple Haze last year, and I received a very nice sized plant, and it had continued grow into a beautiful plant.

The last three hosta I bought were from hostacollector on the Hosta Library auction. They were beautiful and healthy divisions and she doesn't charge an arm and a leg for them!

She also posts pictures of the exact plant you are bidding on. I like that!

I've been checking out Hosta Library auctions. Seems a bit less scary than ebay. I think I'm going to give it a try! Thanks everyone, for your feedback.

I've only had bad luck with 1 seller on ebay--this year. She was inexperienced, had few feedbacks, & less than 100%, though she replaced the hostas. But the 2nd time was almost as bad as the first: few/no roots--just cut off, inadequate moisture, too little packing, crushed box. I have her plants in ICU--have never had to do that before.
This is the 3rd year I've bought hostas on ebay & Tim Nifong (tnigong1) is tops! Beautiful divisions, great name tags, professional packing!
Now that I've gotten the more easily found hostas, I've bought the Hostapedia & Hosta Finder & will use those resources to seek the HTF ones!
If any of you can visit Tony Avent's Plant Delights nursery/gardens in Raleigh, NC, it is amazing to see & worth the trip! There's an extensive catalogue, too. The next open house is in Sept.
Also Pine Forest Gardens, a bit south of Atlanta, is nice!

Naylors sometimes sells on ebay in the summer.
Bentley Gardens too and, of course, HostaBargains.
There are a lot of cool things for sale at the hostalibrary
auction.
I've never heard of tnigong1.
Pam

I try to not order on ebay but I must admit sometimes I just can't help it. LOL. I can only speak for me.... but... I've purchased 6 plants from tnifong1 on ebay this year. Very nice size plants, great roots, great tags. I also second Janice's recommendation of Bentley's and Hostabargain.

I also purchased five plants this spring from the Hosta Library Auction. One of them was Remember Me. I won't name who it was from, but it was so small it made some of my TC purchases this year look huge. I must admit I didn't ask what size it was, so that's my fault. I just assumed (OK, don't go there. lol) it would be bigger than it was for the price. It did not make it. Should have listened to everyone on this forum who said it was a tough one.

Alexis

Sorry, I probably should have mentioned that the Library auction where I got Remember Me was from a nursery that had never had plants on the auction before.

The other hosta, Dawes (TC), Cuyahoga(TC), Liberty and one other I can't remember right now are all doing beautifully.

Alexis

Does anyone know about Hostatr from Hosta Library Auctions?

I can give praise to seller ludochek who has Little Flora Collectors Choice Hostas---Hosta Trader. I got two from them today & they are big & beautiful. All positives for them. On the other hand--I just got two today from Natural Mountain Nursery(all one word for EBAY ID). one for $2 and the other for $1.34. When I asked for combined shipping--the person didn't answer. i paid $4.25 each and they were sent in one box. VERY SMALL PLANTS in pots. Also all positives. I have also purchased from Bently's and hostabargains. conel946 AKA Connie

On eBay, John "diggindutchman" has always done right by me.

I will not buy from Tony Avent (mentioned above) but I don't think he's on eBay anyway - which was your original question.

On Ebay I have purchased from Bentley, hostabargains, and Naylors and have always been happy with my purchases.

I also will not buy from Tony Avent. Catalogs are hilarious but I need quality.
Jen

Ever had any of John's cookie's, Lisa? He makes some mean chocolate chips - lol

I know that I'm new to all this but almost all my Hostas have come from eBay and I have to say the best ones I got were from oakcreekgrower, store name Casita Azul. The plants were shipped in pots and were huge and they look great! The shipping takes a little long but I am pretty isolated here in Maine and most every thing west of the Mississippi always takes a long long time!(heck even my horse that came from Wisconsin took 2 weeks! long story LOL)

Over my many years of buying hosta, I have bought more hostas on ebay than any other source.
Oh, I have bought from nurseries, the best for me had been Duck & Gretas.

Another name besides Bentleys & Hostabargains is drschmidt101.
Those have been the best of the best for me.

But alas, this year not a hosta have I bought.

Now I am digging many plants out of the ground to be stored at my daughters for maybe a future of gardening again someday. Who knows, maybe some will pop up on my favorite bidding place.
As we have decided to go RVing fulltime and have the house up for sale.

chevy57red, I'd be happy to "store" your hostas for you!

I will not buy from Tony Advent any more either,when i did buy from him(one time only),and called to say what what i had bought died, my answer was,you did not read the policy,no refunds.
Never Again for me.
cAROL

Hostatr is Tony Wong out of Nebraska. He has some good stuff

Ed

Haven't posted in a long while, but also wanted to share that I've had great success with Little Flora as well. Just received mine yesterday. All hostas from L F in the past are doing great.

MURIAL!!! You're back? LONG time--so glad to see you are still around--hope to see you 'back in the game'
on this forum!!!

Good thread and good info being shared here. Like I told someone, 'if' we're happy with a source
we like to share that info and 'if' we're NOT, happy, we'll definitely want to share that info,
as well!

We look out for one another, cause this is SERIOUS business when you're talking
hosta sources!! :o)

I didn't understand the whole cookie statement until now! really good cookies awesome Hosta!

I agree-no more Tony Avent. My order this year was so-so, but the three supposedly dormant trilliums never showed. I had kept them in the pots carefully, but nothing! So disappointing.

Yep! I've had the cookies!

(For those not in on the joke, John (diggindutchman at eBay) encloses choc chip cookies in with the hostas as a way for you to tell if the package was exposed to a lot of heat during shipping, such as a hot postal truck or sitting in the sun.)

Last time I got a shipment from John the first thing I did was eat the cookie, before unwrapping my goodies (sheepish grin ;-).

He even, ocassionally, sells just the cookies on ebay. YUM

Alexis

Thanks for explaining the whole cookie thing. I was confused, but didn't want to look like the stupid one by asking! lol

Good idea though! So, the idea is that if it's suffered high heats on the trip, you're gonna have problems with crown rot & stuff?

Man, I'm learning so much! I actually went to the nursery that I discovered down the street a couple of miles (in the country, your neighbors are within 10-20 miles), and the person at the desk started asking me about hostas, so I started telling her all I know (which is much less than a lot of you on here), and she was SO impressed! I almost felt smart for a minute or two! :)

I can vouch for Hostatr also, he has great hostas, some of them extremely rare. I've had the good fortune to go to his house and see them and he must have a gazillion.

I just got 21 mini-medium sized hostas from quest4plants. Didn't hear anything on here, but the rating was 100%, and there were a lot of nice plants in the collections. She packaged very well, and communicated well also. I also got a bonus Wolverine, which was on my list of plants to get.

They did show some slug damage on about a third of the plants, but other than that, and the fact that they are small TC plants, looked good. I did the initial 10-minute soak in bleach mixture, and currently have them soaking in pure water. The root systems were actually quite good, and she marked them very well. I will let you know if they end up showing any signs of any cooties.

At this point, I would give her a good review.

quest4plants- I just got three plants from her too. While I am 100% satisfied BE CAREFUL when I got mt plants I noticed that my Alex Summers and my Montana A. tags had been switched! I'm just glad I could tell them apart it's kind of funny to me!lol

Has anyone here gotten plants from vermiculite1 on eBay?

Karen

I bought quite a few plants from Vermiculite 1 on ebay last year - her plants are wonderful but her shipping can be slow - but worth waiting for.

Hostabargains, bentley gardens and oakcreekgrowers/Casita Azul are very good too. Hostabargains mainly sells small, but very healthy plants, Casita Azul's are larger. Bentley sells divisions, full plants and tc's. (Both Bentley Gardens and Casita Azul [ilovehostas.net] have websites. I have been very happy with my purchases from all three.

Clayton3887 on ebay has sent me some very good plants. He makes sure you know the size of the plants from him.

Unfortunately, I think I have found HVX in a small number of my other ebay purchases from last year, so I have mainly limited my ebay buys this year to those mentioned above. I hasten to add that there are many good sellers on ebay whose plants don't have HVX. You just have to be careful! Also when you buy from ebay, the size of the plants, or divisions you receive vary wildly. And watch out for the cost of postage and handling - it can add up very quickly. I use my copy of Steve Greene's Hosta Finder to see if any mail order nurseries have the same plant and compare cost/size etc.

Tony Avent at PlantDelights has a brilliant catalogue, but his plants are, in my opinion, very over-priced and I have found them to be very unreliable. I spent a lot of money on unusual hostas and about 80% died. This was before I knew about the other wonderful mail order hosta growers, whose names feature regularly on this forum. I thought it could have been the great difference between N. Carolina and Connecticut growing conditions but may be not.

I have had very bad luck, in the last 3 or so, with White Flower Farm mail order hostas and, believe it or not, columbines. If they didn't die the first year, they faded away to nothing by second or third year. They, like Plant Delights, are relatively expensive. A big disappointment so I steer clear of them.

Those are my experiences. All our gardens are different and what doesn't work in my garden may thrive in yours, and vice versa.

Jakki

Update on my quest4plants order. I just found 2 of them that show indication of Foliar Nems. I've contacted the buyer & am currently calm about the situation.

None of the other 200 or so hostas in my yard show indication of Nems, and these are planted separate from those, so I'm hoping for the best...

Alyciaadamo, how do yours look?

I have ordered twice this summer from BirdSongGarden.WI and all the hostas are in great shape and growing well. The prices are VG too.

christine

I got what looks like nemes from two different sellers this summer. But overall not too bad and by far the least of my worries this year!

I want to just restate from my last post it was not quest4plants that sent me plants with switched tags it was another seller. But I did get plants from her and she was very very helpful. I really couldn't be happier with all the plants I recieved from ebay this year. I was a bit nervous and I think I overreacted a bit sometimes but I am very happy with all my plants

Well, Linda (quest4plants) did check her other plants & found that she does have Nems. She was very nice and understanding and stated that she would take immediate action. She did not, however, offer any sort of refund.

Please understand that I make no attempt to "slam" anyone here, just simply to inform others of my experiences, as I have asked for your experiences.

On the other hand, I also placed ebay orders with ShadesOfHosta, vermiculite1 and HostaBargains this year.

Shadesofhosta sent very healthy-looking single eyes, well packed, and crisp when they arrived. My only complaint is that IMMEDIATELY after receiving the plants (within an hour or two), I got my first of 3 emails asking for feedback. After the third email, I explained that I thought the pushiness was rude and irritating, and that, as with any plants ordered on ebay, I will wait about a month to judge the health of the plants before giving feedback.

HostaBargains was great, and the cookies were amazing! I did share. My only issue is that the photos are not actual photos of the plants (same with lots of sellers), and the Emerald Ruff Cut was a TINY, tc specimen. But it's 2 eyes, and looks quite healthy, so I don't worry.

My order from vermiculite1 was purchased on 8/10/09, and still not received and no indication of when it will be sent. I am emailing to find out if I can get an idea so I can be ready for it. A single plant that was more of an impulse buy. I might regret it, but eh.. whatever... you only live once.

Hope this helps others making purchases.

I just got an email from vermiculite1 yesterday, saying she shipped the plants out that morning because she was going on vacation next week and wanted to get the plants shipped out before she left. Well, that's all hunky dory, but shipping them on a Friday? I didn't like that at all, don't like my plants sitting in a hot box all weekend long. I'll save judgment for when they arrive, and have had a chance to soak for a few days. We'll see.

But, my purchases from hostabargains have been great, and like your ERC, mine too was very small, healthy looking little one, but definitely smaller than some of the others I've gotten from John. I'm sure it'll be fine. Then, my order from ludochek was very nice as well. Dixie Chickadee had about a dozen eyes, and most of the other plants had multiple eyes as well. They look like they'll do great too, so long as I can keep the slugs off of them. The plants I received two days ago from tnifong1 were huge, and gorgeous, packed very well and he sends a very nice plant marker for each plant you buy from him. Overall, I've been happy with my purchases, I just hope my purchase from vermiculite1 will be as nice as the others.

Karen

I have made some good purchases from Hostatr too - clean stock!