It has happened to me a couple of times, with daylilies and roses. I don't trade anymore. It just isn't worth the hassle.
Denise

I traded once with 3 really nice ladies... one ended up being Margo Reed... when I was a newbie, and it was great. I think they got the short end of the stick, but not on purpose, but because I was new. Margo even had to coach me over the phone on how to clean and prepare them for shipping.

Then I did some more the next year. One man mailed plants to my garden name, my town, my state. They sat at the post office for nearly 2 months with them not knowing who or where to deliver. DUH! Send the plants to the complete address you are given!!

Then, I traded with a very religious person. Figured I could trust them. Boy did I get burned. I sent about $150 in plants, some were seedlings he could not get anywhere else ------ and now, 8 years later, I am still waiting for him to respond at all. Never responded to emails, phone calls or letters, although spies that lived nearby did visit his garden and report that yes, the plants I sent were living there, and yes, so were the ones he promised to send.

Now, I only trade with my "bestest" daylily pals.... the kind where you don't even keep track of money value.... if I have an extra and they want it, I dig it and they do the same. BUT - this is only 3 people.

I'll give plants to folks but not trade with them.

Well, yes, I too was burned twice last year, my first year of trading. One was with the Cyber-Robin that was conducted on the GW. That person flat out never sent my plants. Told someone else on this forum that she sent them three times but they were always returned by the post office and she wasn't sending them again. Now the other 10+ people I traded with had the same address and all their boxes made it to my door. In fact at my little post office all you have to do is put my name and the name of the town on the box and they'll put it on my porch. They're really good folks at my post office so I figure if the person mailed it to KY at all it should have gotten to me.

The other person I traded with we agreed to trade blooming size fans. That's what I sent her. When I opened her box my kids were looking at my face and they wanted to know what was wrong. Undoubtedly those plants were the smallest plants I've ever received. In fact they didn't bloom that year and four of the five didn't bloom this year. I still have no idea if I got what I traded for or not. In addition to that she didn't send one of the plants in that shipment and I had to e-mail her for well over a month before she sent the last one. Said she didn't send it in the original shipment because it was too small. Since it was tiny when I got it I can only imagine how small it was to begin with.

I now pretty much limit my trading with a few select folks that I've traded with in the past. That and the Trademart on the AHS Robin. Now there's a class act. I've traded on there both this past spring and this fall and have been treated as good as you can get. Folks there are extremely generous and you in turn want to be as generous with them. Just a real fine group of traders.

Janet

Twilight,
As a new trader it really bothers me to see good traders leave as due to one bad apple. I am so sorry for your experience. This was my first year trading and only did a few bit, and I had a blast! Got a few bad ones, but mostly found some really good ones, people I hope to trade with again. More than made up for the bad!
Cindy

just a thought.:) whenever your trading your daylilies or any other plant....until you meet up with some really great traders that you know are going to fulfill their end of the trade to your expectations, only trade plants that you have a surplus of...and never short yourself unless you are getting something that you really want...then you won't be so disappointed in the end.

I have been stiffed on a few trades this year...had I paid attention to the signs....I could have avoided it BUT the important thing is that I have had so many trades that far exceeded my expectations that have more than made up for it.
There are lots of awesome traders out there but you may have to take a chance...in order to find them. :) Sherri

Onesherri: You wrote:
"I have been stiffed on a few trades this year...had I paid attention to the signs....I could have avoided it"
What would those 'signs' have been?
I have started my own list of good, bad and mediocre traders AND responders, thinking that I could ask for references. Am not sure if this is acceptable on GW. If I asked you (for example) if so and so was a reliable trader
would you be willing to give me that information? I've even included those on my list who responded to my posting even if we could not do the trade. My thinking is that if they don't bother to acknowledge my e-mail (s) they might not bother with the trades.

Twilight email me please about a PM at another site. Can't get in right now to open it. Thanks,
Auby