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Mislabelling (Is it becoming common practice?)

Cottage CompostCottage Compost Posts: 496
in Plants
Are companies mislabelling plants far more often than we realise? Deliberately so too!

A variety of something's not selling well any more, or a new variety has been created and selling like hot cakes, so let's relabel the 1000's of plants we can't shift and double the price to get them out!?

Bought two trees a year apart (same variety!), one (the first) from a local nursery and the second online as i decided i wanted two.  The two trees are very different and yet labelled the same.

A friend bought a cersis "Forest Pansy" a couple of years ago, i can't find a "Forest Pansy" that looks anything like my friend's shrub.

Some online retailers are listing plants for sale and the wordage and description don't always match the photos. Photos are sometimes of two or more different varieties, too.

Bought a packet of Anemone blanda's (Blue) from Morgan & Thompson a few weeks ago.  When they arrived, i got a delivery note saying they were mixed.  I phoned to question my purchase as i'd ordered specifically blue to be told that one of the three photos on their website showed a flower that was white half hidden behind the blue!!!!!!!  I did get my money back in the end.

Are companies, nurseries sometimes knowingly mislabelling with the belief that the end purchaser won't know and or question what they have bought later?
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Posts

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    I think the answer is that big commercial companies do, some are well known for it. Proper nurseries, it's unlikely, they will be selling to people who know more about what they're buying and they have a reputation to maintain


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    @Cottage Compost I think their are mistakes made by nurseries but I am not aware that it is deliberate. Garden Centres use large staples to fix the labels to pots. I would think any on line company with a true passion for plants would hate to be caught out for sending the wrong plants. They have a reputation and rely on repeat business.
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I've had a few mislabelled things in the past - mostly bulbs or tubers. I've never really thought of it being deliberate - more carelessness or ignorance on the part of the packers but maybe I've been naive😒
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • PlantmindedPlantminded Posts: 3,580
    Cottage Compost said:

    Are companies, nurseries sometimes knowingly mislabelling with the belief that the end purchaser won't know and or question what they have bought later?
    That would be illegal, like purchasing any other service or goods. Mislabelled bulbs and tubers are understandable due to genuine human error along the growing, lifting, storing and packaging process.  Reputable suppliers will normally refund or replace.  (Cheap items are often sold with poor quality labels where colour matches are not true due to the lower cost of producing such labels.)
    Wirral. Sandy, free draining soil.


  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    I bought lots of hardy geraniums from an online nursery and over 50% were mislabelled. Like B3 I assumed carelessness and/or ignorance. I actually got three double flowered varieties that were more expensive than the ones I ordered. The test is how they respond to your complaint and photographic evidence - there is no way a double pink could be the single blue ordered - deafening silence to my initial polite and then increasingly stroppy emails. Needless to say I won’t be ordering from them again.

    Shortly after covid lockdowns ended it was chaos with another nursery - short orders, wrong plants - but they did refund me so I have ordered from them again.
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    I've seen plenty of examples of them stopping just short of deliberately mis-labelling.  Hebe for example where the photo shows a colour, that colour doesn't match the flower, but it is just labelled 'Hebe' with nothing more specific than that.  Is that mislabelling or is it just a generic photo of a Hebe?
  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,698
    Many of the bulbs I bought from Suttons last year were nothing like the varieties I had ordered. Sadly this didn't become apparent until they had flowered the following spring. I got a refund but needless to say, I won't be ordering from them again.
  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    We had various fruit trees given names that when they did fruit weren't what was on the label. Didn't mind as we felt it wasn't deliberate but maybe just an oversight.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Bulbs, you can shrug your shoulders, I suppose but fruit trees are a different matter. A lot more time and effort in the cultivation before you discover the 'error'
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • coccinellacoccinella Posts: 1,428
    @KT53. I get really annoyed by labels stating "thym" or "climbing rose". They often do that here in more commercial places, so annoying and if you ask they look at you as some kind of idiot. 

    Luxembourg
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