Anyone else discovered the seeds or plants they ordered are something else?

[Catriona_W]

This year has been a disappointing strawberry growing year for me.

What I wanted were Mara Des Bois, musk strawberries, Virginia strawberries, alpines, and green strawberries.

What I got were at least 2 varieties of strawberries which aren’t Mara Des Bois (one is large, day neutral, wedge-shaped and very bland, another is smaller and more conical, ever bearing and average tasting for a strawberry). Instead of musk strawberries I got alpines.

I’m hopeful that the Virginia and green strawberries will be genuine — they’re certainly putting out stolons like nobody’s business. I guess I’ll find out next year. The germination rate for the green strawberries was very poor although I didn’t stratify them on the advice of the person I bought them from.

I also planted some creeping thyme seeds which are looking suspiciously like normal thyme.

Anyone else struggle to find genuine plants? Recommendations for finding heirloom plants that are most likely to be what they say they are?

[nickdub]

I've received incorrect trees when buying apples or plums via the internet. I think sloppy labelling where the trees are grown, as opposed to an intention to defraud is the most likely explanation.

[Plot70]

I planted some marrow seeds with a picture on the packet that looked like regular supermarket ones.
I got five plants. Four produced very large three foot ribbed marrows without cream stripes.
The other produced short marrows just over a foot long and almost as fat.
I no longer have the packet as the slugs ate it.

[MelanieSW]

Not recently, but reminded me of my dad's various failed attempts to buy a sweet cherry for our garden. Let's just say we had rather a lot of plum trees in the end. He came closest with a little sour cherry.

[FB.]

I've received incorrect trees when buying apples or plums via the internet. I think sloppy labelling where the trees are grown, as opposed to an intention to defraud is the most likely explanation.

Many places seem to think it's OK to send out something they regard as similar or related if they don't have what was ordered. In the case of fruit trees that can also mean a slightly larger or smaller rootstock substitution.

[FB.]

.......Recommendations for finding heirloom plants that are most likely to be what they say they are?....

Heirlooms often accumulate viruses and/or become susceptible to many diseases over the decades since they were first grown, which makes it harder to keep them going.

[Babru]

I've had a fair few flower seeds not come up as promised on the packet - recently Indian Prince marigolds, which mostly were just orange bog standard marigolds, and ladybird poppies from Sarah Raven that were just orange, no black spots.

In fact, I've been looking out for F1 seeds more as they are more reliable (and expensive, but if they are what they say they are it's worth it to me).

[Catriona_W]

The struggle continues.

I've had the first fruits from the red gooseberry bushes I bought about a year and a half ago. I ordered a Hinnonmaki Red. When it arrived, it only had red gooseberry on the label. Tried to get in touch with the nursery at the time but got passed around and then ghosted.

that plant has grown into a flaccid monster. Puts out lots of growth with the biggest gooseberry leaves I've ever seen. But then it rains and the weight of the water makes all the branches collapse to the ground where they're starting to root. It put out only a handful of flowers. And the fruits are a deep purple but very bland in flavor with no complexity. Nothing about it is like what other people describe for Hinnonmaki Red.

the Whinhams Industry I bought at the same time is doing great though. Plenty of fruit already and a lovely rich, sweet-tart flavour. So really pleased with that one

I'm having another go at growing the musk strawberries. This time, the little plants are starting to produce stolons. So at least I know they're not alpines again. So I'm hopeful about them.

the musk strawberries that I tried growing last year that are alpines are delicious and very productive. So silver lining. And there's a little frog that lives in the strawberry patch and eats most of the slugs which means I get to enjoy the strawberries.

I ordered a couple of other gooseberry plants last year: a Langley Gage and White Lion. There's only 1 fruit in the Langley Gage, which I haven't eaten yet although it's started to get soft. The White Lion took a year to recover from the ordeal of being posted and is only putting on growth now. But I'm pretty nervous they'll both turn out to be Invicta or something other than. What they're meant to be.

I also took some cuttings from a glorious late yellow, very floral, hairy gooseberry growing in the hedge of a field near my parent's house. It's struggling in the middle of hawthorns. So at least I know that I'll enjoy those ones next year even though I've no idea what the variety is. It might actually be yellow champagne but who knows?

and I have some of the most delicious, shy wild strawberries that I grew from the seeds of fruit I picked in a ditch a couple of years ago. They're the tastiest strawberries I've ever had. But most of them didn't produce flowers. Just loads and loads of runners. But they make terrific ground cover. No weeds can poke through them.

[Sweet savory]

Just to add that your description and pic is nothing like the Hinnonmaki Red bush I purchased from lidl a few years ago. It produces prolific pinkish fruits that I cant eat raw but great to cook with. The yellow one bought at the same time also produces a good crop of greenish fruit, again too tart to eat raw. However the bushy spreading habit and tendency to tip root is familiar.
Good luck with the cuttings.

[ameno]

Just to add that your description and pic is nothing like the Hinnonmaki Red bush I purchased from lidl a few years ago. It produces prolific pinkish fruits that I cant eat raw but great to cook with.

Either that's not Hinnonmaki Red or else you are picking the fruit too early, before they are ripe.
I have several bushes of Hinnonmaki Red, and they should be dark red when ripe and sweet enough to eat raw.

[Plot70]

I have got melons that look like they are coming up as butternuts.
If they do I will just buy a melon and save the seeds. Butternuts grow all right from saved seed from store bought fruits.
My cape gooseberries are saved seed from store bought fruit and they have just started cropping.

[ameno]

I have got melons that look like they are coming up as butternuts.
If they do I will just buy a melon and save the seeds. Butternuts grow all right from saved seed from store bought fruits.

The seeds look quite different, so you ought to be able to tell the difference between them. Melon seeds look just like cucumber seeds, whereas butternut seeds are larger and a different shape, with rougher skin. And if it looks like a melon seed then it's impossible for it to be anything other than a melon or a cucumber.

As for saving seeds from store bought melons, I wouldn't advise it. They will indeed germinate and grow (I get loads germinating in my compost every year), but they are unlikely to produce much, if any fruit. It's not warm enough here for those varieties. You need a short-season, cool climate variety.

[Plot70]

I have been looking at the back of the female flowers and they look like the ones on butternuts from saved seed.
The supermarkets may well now start selling cool climate varieties to save money on heating.

[ameno]

I have been looking at the back of the female flowers and they look like the ones on butternuts from saved seed.
The supermarkets may well now start selling cool climate varieties to save money on heating.

Melons are grown in warm countries; they don't need heating.

As for your plants, how big are the plants and flowers? Butternut squashes are orders of magnitude bigger than melons. Melon plants will trail to a couple of metres, have leaves no more than 3-4 inches across, and have flowers up to about 1 inch across. Butternut squashes will trail to 5 metres or more, have leaves 8-12 inches across, and have huge flowers with petals some 3-4 inches long.
It should be immediately apparent which is which, most especially by the difference in flower size.

[Plot70]

So far there has only been male flowers and they have not been all that big.
I will just have to wait for some of the female flowers to set to get a better idea of the fruit shape.