Opinion

[Luke_e]

http/www.aquaticplants.eu.com/acatalog/S...ollections.html
Was wondering if anyone had ordered the 24" set from above..It says

VOTED BEST VALUE & QUALITY 3 TIMES NOW IN THE PRACTICAL FISHKEEPING MAGIZINE.
These collections are all hand picked to give you the largest possible variety, combined with quality and superb value for money. Practical Fish Keeping Magazine voted our 24"/60cm collection the best quality, value for money and well packed collection of plants received in an anonymous survey carried out in May 1998, out of all the plant companies advertised in their magazine . The collections will typically contain a mixture of foreground, mid. & background plants with a good texture and colour diversity. They will normally contain Cryptocorynes, Bulb, Hygro's, Swords, Egeria, Cobombas, Villisneria, Ludwigia, Oxygenators, Bacopa, between 25 and 50 varieties typically, dpending on the size of the collection ordered.
All Collections in this section come with 10 free lead weights & colour planting guide.

Does this sound like a good deal for £8.95. I'm hoping this will give me a good area to start in terms of planting as i dont really know what id need if i bought plants individually so i was hoping this would give me an overall good selection of plants to plant with.
Opinions please?

 

[Themuleous]

Hi Luke

It really depends what you're after, 9quid for 60 plants is very, very cheap and you'll probably find you get lots of cuttings and even just the odd leaf and many probably wont have roots so you may find that many die. However, 60 plants for 9quid is very, very cheap and it doesn't really matter if half die! I have always thought of these bundles as a cheap way of finding out what plants you can and can not grow in a tank. If you're strapped for cash then get some and see what happens, if all else fails you've only lost 9quid (plus P+P of course).

The only other thing I would add is that, given the less than ideal condition they are arrive in (im not saying they would be sub-standard, just that they'll need to divert their energy to growing roots, rather than more leaves giving them less chance of survival) you'll probably also find that you end up with lots of fast growing stem plants as these will be able to cope and start growing, which means dont expect any diffucult plants to grow out of the selection.

Bottom line -> for 9quid you cant expect the earth, but if you want to find out what'll grow and need some cheap plants go for it

HTH

Sam

EDIT - oh one other thing, none of the plants will be labelled so you wont know what you've got unless you can ID them yourself (or post pics on here! please not all 60 thou!). Just so you know

 

[steve711]

I've never bought a 'plant collection' from Greenline but I used to order all my plants from Greenline and I couldn't fault the plants, packaging, value for money and the overall service.

As I said I never ordered a complete collection, I always made up a list of what I was after and phoned it through.

Due to circumstances I haven't had a tank for about 2 years but only ever really used Greenline for my plants unless I saw something special at my local fish shop (rarely).

I wouldn't hesitate in recommending Greenline, he is a very helpful guy.

I'll be setting up a 60"x18"x24" fully planted tank in a couple of months (there will be a step by step journal on here) and again all my plants will be ordered from Greenline

 

[Themuleous]

I should have probably added someting similar myself as I have used them before and have found the plants and service to be top-notch.

I would have no problems recommending them, Im just not sure about these 'collection' they offer (never order one of them either)

 

[Luke_e]

Thanks for the comments guys..
I've ordered one of the pot luck packages before which cost £5.00 and i only ended up using a small selection of them because either i didnt like the look of them or i had too many of one. I ended up just using a few (what i believe to be) crypts. My other orders have been fine when i've ordered a specific plant. I'm not saying that the pot luck was rubbish as it was something like 5p per plant so i cant expect too much.
I'm still debating if its worth while, or if i should just spend more and know what i'm getting. I think i'll probably do that, or i might just order both. The collection and selected plants i want. I'll decide on friday when i get paid .

 

[Themuleous]

Lets us know what the selection one is like if you get one, I would be interested to find out

 

[alanchown]

http/www.aquaticplants.eu.com/acatalog/S...ollections.html
Was wondering if anyone had ordered the 24" set from above..It says

VOTED BEST VALUE & QUALITY 3 TIMES NOW IN THE PRACTICAL FISHKEEPING MAGIZINE.
These collections are all hand picked to give you the largest possible variety, combined with quality and superb value for money. Practical Fish Keeping Magazine voted our 24"/60cm collection the best quality, value for money and well packed collection of plants received in an anonymous survey carried out in May 1998, out of all the plant companies advertised in their magazine . The collections will typically contain a mixture of foreground, mid. & background plants with a good texture and colour diversity. They will normally contain Cryptocorynes, Bulb, Hygro's, Swords, Egeria, Cobombas, Villisneria, Ludwigia, Oxygenators, Bacopa, between 25 and 50 varieties typically, dpending on the size of the collection ordered.
All Collections in this section come with 10 free lead weights & colour planting guide.

Does this sound like a good deal for £8.95. I'm hoping this will give me a good area to start in terms of planting as i dont really know what id need if i bought plants individually so i was hoping this would give me an overall good selection of plants to plant with.
Opinions please?

I ordered one of their 36inch collections and I must say it was excellant value. For that price you just get a bundle of plants. But they arrived in good condition. Seemed to have more than enough for a 36 inch tank. Seems to be a good way to get started, I had a jungle pretty quick and have been chucking the ones that i didn't like. Given the prices from the LFS, it's a real bargain.
If you know what plants you want it may makew sense just to buy those instead.

Alan

 

[Luke_e]

If you know what plants you want it may makew sense just to buy those instead.

Good point. And from reading your reply on liking the 36" collection, i'm going to buy the 24" for my tank.
Much appreciated Alan.

EDIT: Bought it .

 

[Bloo]

I think I once bought one such mish mash collection. They were full plants and there were LOTS of them - many more than I thought I'd get. Way too much in fact and I threw probably half of it away. It did take ages though to sort through it all and disentangle them that was the worst bit. But the plants and quality was fab

 

[Luke_e]

I sont mind sorting through them but your comment has reasured me hehe.
Thanks Bloo.

 

[sub.42]

Hiya,

I've never had a problem with Greenline. Always a sensible and healthy selection of plants. If you get any problems, he is always quick to respond, and he knows his stuff too! As Bloo says, lots of plants! Make sure you have the time to sort them all out however, as there will be loads. Incidentally, Greenline always send out too many plants, because he knows that some may not travel well, and there will be some losses due to water parameters not being quite spot on and so on. Greenline gets a big

sub.

 

[Luke_e]

Yea, i cant praise them enough. He actually phoned me up when i had a problem with not recieving plants (which incidently arived today, blasted Royal Mail) and he sent me out the same number of plants via special delivery for no extra charge. So he is a great guy..
I'll update my tank journel when i get the plants.