Sotropicalfoxtails.com

[pfancy]

I went to ben for some larger specimen plants for buddies yard since he was willing to pay more for for larger stuff-royals and foxtails. theses were nice plants and showed up in good condition although not as acclimated as he claimed-the foxtails. i also spotted some 5gal Coccothrinax "miraguama" advertised on his website. He did the classic up-sell "we dont have those but, we have these larger ones" my buddy said ok because i told him that was till a good deal. The plants were delivered and i showed up a week later to help out. The CoccoT's were not miraguama but, in fact barbadensis-the most common and cheapest of the genus. I called him on it and he told me "either way the price was the same since it hard to find CoccoT's in socal". A stand up way to do business.

[QUINNPALMS]

I'm pretty sure sotropicalfoxtails is just a broker , I live nearby, and have called them wanting to check out what they got, and I was told its delivery only.... Why buy anything sight unseen, especially when I live right near...

[Vari805]

I have had Ben deliver stuff to me in Santa Barbara. Yes he is a broker, but has some stock on hand at his place. He will send you pictures of the items requested if you ask. I have always been pleased with Ben's professionalism, and the average home owner doesn't know where all the good nurseries are in Orange Co, and N. San Diego County. I myself love to cruz the nurseries, but living 3 hrs away its difficult. So I give Ben a call when I need something and don't have the time to drive to SD. Ben is a very honest guy, and I have never had any issues.

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

I had a negative experience with Ben. He sold me a 7 gallon palm that when i went to plant it a week later, it was obvious it had been shifted from a smaller pot literally to sell the plant. The roots were in a perfect rootball shape for the smaller pot and the soil just fell away, not even the slightest trace of growth into the larger pot.

My advice to anyone considering to buy from Ben: buyer beware. He's a broker, he buys stuff from elsewhere and then re-sells it at 3 x the price. Now that would probably be ok if the plants didn't get shifted up just prior to selling. Shifting a plant up and not saying anything is not ok.

I have only myself to blame for paying too much for the size palm I bought, I knew it, but wanted the thing he had. But then to turn around and have it been mis-represented size wise is not ok.

[aztropic]

I had a negative experience with Ben. He sold me a 7 gallon palm that when i went to plant it a week later, it was obvious it had been shifted from a smaller pot literally to sell the plant. The roots were in a perfect rootball shape for the smaller pot and the soil just fell away, not even the slightest trace of growth into the larger pot.

My advice to anyone considering to buy from Ben: buyer beware. He's a broker, he buys stuff from elsewhere and then re-sells it at 3 x the price. Now that would probably be ok if the plants didn't get shifted up just prior to selling. Shifting a plant up and not saying anything is not ok.

I have only myself to blame for paying too much for the size palm I bought, I knew it, but wanted the thing he had. But then to turn around and have it been mis-represented size wise is not ok.

Hate to say it but I've had the exact same experience from this seller.Perfect 1 gallon rootballs not the slightest bit rooted into 2 or 3 gallon pots,sold at the higher price.Didn't bring it up at the time but looks like that deceiving practice is still going on.

aztropic

Mesa,Arizona

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Update: Spoke to Ben, he acknowledged the mistake and issued me a partial refund, he was just reselling what someone else gave him. I think that's really great that he did that. Integrity goes a long way, and Ben seems to stand by what he sells. As such, I would have to rate him as trustworthy.

[KennyRE317]

A quick note .... I don't usually like to leave negative comments about a seller without giving them time to respond or a chance to fix any issues in a transaction, if everything is resolved I will usually consider it a positive transaction.

I knew Ben was a broker who possibly grow some of his own plants and I was perfectly content with the prices he quoted me since they would be delivered without an extra charge since he was going to be in the general vicinity. I had a very similar experience like Axel and Scott (aztropic). I purchased 4 plants, 2 of them being Dypsis leptocheilos and his exact words were, "I have two 5 gallon sizes that were just potted up from 3's ...." when the plants got to me they weren't the largest but I figured if it was from a 3gal they should still have some good roots and plant out immediately since I've been in a planting mood and have been planting small. I was told that I should probably wait until after winter when the weather's a bit warmer but knowing that we don't often get temps under 40°F I decided to plant out the larger one.

I took the larger plant out of its 5gal bucket and there was no real rootball, there was one good size roote and a bunch of smalls. If I saw this plant barerooted I would have guessed it to be a 6" liner plant and then potted straight into the 5gal. I decided to take the smaller D.leptocheilos out and it didn't even have a large main root, just a bunch of small ones and again all the roots were straight down holding no soil whatsoever. I ended up repotting them in a 1gal bucket where I was able to put 2 inches of soil at the bottom before putting the plant in.

I was probably most disappointed at the fact that I was looking forward to planting them out immediately and now the best I can do is wait until the middle or end of the 2014 growing season when these 2 finally root into their 1gal pots. Now i'll have to find 2 other D. leptocheilos where I can plant out immediately