Hardy blue water lily?

jnrm24

I spotted someone on ebay selling "hardy" blue water lilies. 100% feedback but fairly new seller.
I checked on Google and can only find one hardy blue water lily that was propogated(?) a couple of years ago and I can't find anyone else selling them.
I questioned the seller who said they'd been crossed with hardy water lilies.
Didn't believe him so I reported him to ebay who don't seem to be doing anything about it.
All the people buying are going to have lovely plants this year but dead ones after winter - unless I'm wrong!!
Advice please on what I should do next - am I wrong, any way of complaining to ebay at a higher level?
If I'm right this is fraud and the police should be involved. I hate to see people being conned and don't want to just forget it.:(

Kay_Peel

For all you know the seller may have bred something astonishing. They could be an enthusiastic amateur who just happens to have struck lucky. They may even have tested the lillies for hardiness over a number of years and can be quite confident that the plant will prove hardy.

I would have to read their claims and see how much they were selling for before I would be able to comment on whether it was a deliberate fraud intended to make people part with cash.


For instance, if it was being sold for £40 per bulb and the seller claimed that it was a rare plant that had come directly from the breeders who had successfully propagated the first specimen - then I would have suspicions.

However, if it was being sold for less than a fiver, excluding p+p and it was advertised as blue, hardy and a lily from someone's pond - then that doesn't sound like someone setting out to dupe people.

I can assure you that the police would not be interested.

jnrm24

Thank you for your opinion.

He's selling them from £10 to £30. He's amazingly managed to produce 4 different varieties; all blue. He's made at least £350 in about a month just on blue water lilies.

I believe that when true hardy blue water lilies become available the big companies will be shouting it from the rooftops. I imagine they'll be expensive too.

Still open to advice on what I could do next - I hate to see people being conned.

Maybe Trading Standards are the right people?

ukjoel

Not sure what your worried about.

You say that a hardy blue one exists as you saw one sold on ebay a few years back.

So its not like he has created something impossible like a talking plant.
Feedback of 100% is always nice to see.

Its not him who sets the price on ebay but the bidders (unless fixed price auction)

My waterlillies need splitting all the time so maybe this guy has just cleared his pond and is moving some on.

Does he give a latin or scientific name or just hardy blue water lilly.

Let him sell them in peace.

jnrm24

I've not seen any sold before - I've read in an article on the internet about a man who has produced a blue water lily. This kind of thing can take years to get into commercial production and he is not selling them yet.

The names of the varieties that the ebayer is selling are not hardy.

I'm not the type of person to just stand by and watch people being conned out of their hard-earned money.

I'll just agree to disagree. All I want is advice on what steps I can take next - I suppose I'm on the wrong forum for that.

wallbash

No you are voicing your concerns . Thats very good of you.

If I was too be cheeky , I would ask you to take a chance, buy the Lily , and if it was a success , I have just the pond that deserves a 'bluey'

Davesnave

Caveat emptor.;)

There are lots of people out there making all sorts of claims for things which work badly, break etc. and eBay is just the place to find a high concentration of them. Same goes for plants. If I could have a fiver for every mis-described plant I've seen.....

OTOH, a blue lily that isn't hardy could still be a goer if one were to lift it in the autumn, put it in a container in a frost free place and overwinter it there. I did this with my lily when I moved, because there was no pond to put it in.