"Bug Biting Plants" Review

[nepenthes77]

Hello,

I am about to order some neps from "Bug Biting Plants"

Is this store any good?

[coldcoffee]

I have not ordered from them via the internet- occasionally you see their plants in garden centers and such. I have a nepenthes ventricosa from them and it has done well. Not sure about anything else.

Would I personally order from them in the future (IE online)? I do not have any reason to say that I would not. Some of their products I have seen in stores- such as the "dormant venus flytrap and pitcher plant bulbs complete with terrarium kit" I thought were a bit weird but not reason for me to not do business with them. For a company that sells in garden centers, I do think their products are much much better than say Gubblers- I have noticed less humidity shock and more vigorous growth from plants marketed by BBP.
The N. ventricosa I got has been a very vigorous grower (as is the sarracenia). It was fairly small and lacked color when I got it but it has been one of my more successful growers. (Then again it is an N. ventricosa)
Personally, I would say they are worth a shot if you see a good deal, all things considered unless they were offering something really nice or at a very low price I would tend to prefer California Carnivores or CPjungle someone like that. With dedicated CP vendors like them you really tend to get a lot more for your money IMO and IME. I could recommend either of those two businesses wholeheartedly based on price, quality and selection (and no, I am not getting compensated for saying that- don't mean to sound like an advertiser, its just there are few good businesses out there with good plants and good service, and a ton missing one or both of these- Peter and Michael are not the later).

I will try to remember to post pictures tonight of the Sarracenia and N. ventricosa from BBP when I get home tonight so you can see what they look like today and judge for yourself.

I hope this helps, sorry I cannot give you more information about their internet business practices. You might check a site like "Davesgarden.com" or "gardenweb.com (I think its called, might have an s after garden)" for reviews and see if they have anything to say.

Let us know how it goes.

Oh, a last thought. Jeremiah Harris (Colorado Carnivorous Plant Society: google it) had a list on his site which reviewed all of the major CP vendors based on metrics like health of plant, speed of delivery, price and a bunch of other stuff(not sure how up to date it is). I think he had an entry for them as well last time I was perusing his site (which is worth doing for the pictures alone). Try checking that out too.

[ICPS-bob]

Barry Rice also has a list of CP vendors that he says:
www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq6280.html

The web sites listed below are for carnivorous plant nurseries. I am a stickler for making sure that nurseries I deal with are not involved in field collection. So in order for any online nursery to be listed on this FAQ, they must agree with the following disclaimer:
"The material I sell is propagated by me or suppliers who develop stock by tissue culture. Any field collection I do is legal, and is to develop breeding or propagation stock only. I do not sell plants or seeds that have been collected by me or my contacts to fill plant orders."

Bug Biting Plants is included in his list -- although Barry's list may be a bit out of date because he says Bug Biting Plants is "wholesale only". Their website suggests otherwise.

[abbie]

I am not sure if the original post was for the same seller (www.bugbitingplants.com) link
If it was, hope my review would help anyone who is considering buying carnivorous plants from them.

Here goes...

I have BAD BAD BAD experience with the seller.

Packaging:
I ordered a few plants most of them arrived in poor packaging via USPS, the box was already damaged (large dents like someone punched in the box) - no bubble wrap. It was just stuffed with  newspaper shoved at the top and bottom of the box.
I could tell that obviously those plants were placed -sideways- and of course they were being shipped in such condition during the whole shipment!

In addition to the poor outer packaging, the dirt in the plant pots (which is just a plastic cup) was loosely packed, and shifted to one side of the pot, the roots of those all of the plants are half exposing to the air due to the condition.

Products (plants):
Very questionable....for such high prices- most of them looked very small, weak or damaged (browning of the leaves).
The worst was a butterwort plant, obviously half dead (most of the leaves were brown on the edges, some clusters of young leaves were completely broken , detached from the soil. To me, the plant was falsely advertised as "large" = the actual one arrived was about less than a inch in diameter.

Customer Service:
Excuse my negative comment but this is the worst among all the categories...
I wrote to the customer service about the condition of the butterworts, was expecting to receive sincere apologizing reply for any type of compensation such as offering either replacement or refund.

I told him that I was not asking for refund, but simple replacement with a decent size and healthier plant.
Well, the seller obviously did not to trust my words and asked me to provide him proof :"at least" 2-3 clear, large size photos, which I thought was reasonable enough. So, I sent them a few photos right way, along with some questions asking how to take care of all the plants I bought from him.

Here's the summary of the customer service experience I had with the seller.

First of all, the seller answered NONE of my questions on caring instruction in general (like how to water them, recommended soil condition and etc....)

Second of all, he disagreed with me on the condition of the plant as "damaged" -he used the word "stressed" which to me means the same.

Third of all, he replied in prompt manner. However, he kept claiming that the size is consider as "large" for the plant as butterworts are usually "VERY SMALL" plant.

He wrote: he is not seeing-any problem- with the size or the plant condition though he used the word "stressed" (=not good condition).

Last of all, he was not rude but did not show any sincere gestures. He never any compensation such as offering a replacement (not even a discount for future purchase or give me extra advice on caring instruction of those plants").

As I wrote above, I asked him questions regarding how to take care of those plants. I even wrote I was interested in buying more different kinds of plants. I asked if he had any recommendation what types of carnivorous plants are good to grow in my apartment. The customer service man (sounded like he was the owner?) ignored all of my genuine questions, but only gave me the answer that nothing wrong with the plant. 

Conclusion:
I "personally" had such a bad experience with the seller and would not recommend to anyone.
However, I am not saying people should never buy from this website www.BugBitingPlants.com.
I just wanted to share my experience with people on here.