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Plants from Greenline - A review

Lisa_Perry75

Member
Joined
17 Oct 2007
Messages
777
Location
Southampton
So I had to make an order to greenline to make up for the iffy plants from Java, in an established tank they would do fine but I was concerned with a new setup they may leech ammonia etc. Website is a bit tricky to use and I used the search function alot. It did take me a few minutes just to find plants! Delivery charge was free, and was sent guaranteed next day delivery.

Order included:-
Marseila crenata - Got the right amount a few leaves browning
Bacopa monneri - Was okay at the top but bottom half of leaves mainly yellow
Bacopa caroliana - Pretty good quality
Cryptocroyne wenditii - Pretty good quality
Eleocharis parvula - Not looking amazing but mostly green
Hygrophila Rosanervis - Very disappointed with this as all stems were 3-4", over two days I lost another inch or so off them and many leaves were dropping off. Almost unuseable.

Overall review
Selection - 9/10
Quality of plants - 6/10
Value for Money - 8/10 plants are cheap but some still poor quality
Postage speed - 9/10 was sent guaranteed next day delivery.
Postage wrapping - 8/10 the plants arrived wet individually wrapped, with labels saying what and how much was enclosed.
All in all 8/10

If you want my advice Tropica plants are bigger, healthier and you can choose good specimens. Pets at home sell pots for £3.49 or 3 for £9. If you ask them nicely they may be able to order in specific requests. This may seem expensive. It's not! Considering the individual plants you get per pot and the health and vitality of the plants just go for it. The hassle you will have with sub-par plants and having to get florish excel to stave off algal blooms, you may as well go for it!

Hope this helps people with potential online orders 8)

Edit:- Added website and postage critique in first paragraph.
 
Unfortunately, I've yet to find a p@h that have decent tropica plants (although I've only been to two!).

Both Melksham and Chippenham p@h had display tanks full of rotting vegetation with a few empty pots and labels floating in the mush. How they expect to sell anything like that is beyond me and they must lose huge amounts of money in wastage. In contrast the non-tropica plants don't look too bad. It would seem that most people buy the non-tropica plants as they are cheaper and so the tropica ones get ignored and left to rot.

Apparently the p@h in Gloucester is an aquatic specialist, but I've yet to visit.
 
Cheers for the replies :)

Yes I've been into a P@H one week and they've had a fresh batch and they are pretty much all really good. Went in two weeks later and they were all covered in algae and shoddy.

Hence, ask them to order some in for you. Out of the two I went to I had one with a snotty sales assisstant, and one with a manager on the aquatic section who was awesome. The latter agreed to order in specific ones in, but I haven't had a need to yet. Plus the you'll get fresh specimens.

I also might add one of the hygro leaves had a collection of eggs on it (I think snail) and I have started to notice a few pouch snails around (obviously I couldn't say what company they came from). Doesn't bother me too much atm, as they are puffer or mudskipper food. I looked into dwarf chain loaches but they are £18 each from the local MA!!!
 
I heard ages ago that was a shortage of dwarf chain loaches (B. sidthimunki?), but I don't know whether this was due to a restriction on collecting them or another reason. I've certainly never seen them for sale where I've been. Buy a load and start breeding them - think of it as an investment!

I'll have to visit my local p@h during the week and broach the subject of ording fresh plants in. It would certainly be coonvenient as it's literally 5 minutes up the road! It's no use going at weekends because they just have saturday kids in who don't care.
 
My local P@H in Coventry (Canley store) used to do tropica plants but they have told me they're not getting them in anymore. They have a pretty standard water weird with crap light setup. If you timed it right though, and got there on the day of a delivery you could get some little gems. Apparently the other P@H in Coventry (Gallagher retail park) is better.

Anyhow, back to Greenline, I've used them 4 or 5 times before and had generally good deliveries. I had some blyxia japonica melt, but I ordered it standard delivery and they state on the website you need to order it special delivery. In my own defence I'd say the website needs to be a little more clear but I held my hands up on that one.

Anyhow, I've just put in a small order for £20 worth of plants (mostly crypts) so we'll see how it goes. I expect it will go fine :)
 
Lisa_Perry75 said:
Yeah as I say some was good some were iffy but compared to Tropica? No contest
I agree with Lisa, on the whole Greenline were good. On the plus side, plants were delivered on time and were well packaged and labelled, the quantities of each species ordered were correct and several had more than I'd ordered.On the negative side one group of plants was missing from the order ( but i figured the extras that I received made up for this omission),also a group of crypts had virtually melted in the packaging. To sum up, budgetwise Greenline are cheaper than Tropica , but for quality my vote goes to Tropica. My suggestion is get tha'self down to The Green Machine on the 5th. April and fill y'boots! The full range, a 'Tropica Wonderland'.
 
beeky said:
I heard ages ago that was a shortage of dwarf chain loaches (B. sidthimunki?), but I don't know whether this was due to a restriction on collecting them or another reason. I've certainly never seen them for sale where I've been. Buy a load and start breeding them - think of it as an investment!
I seem to recall they have only been induced to breed using hormone treatment - hence the price. I think they are endangered in the wild so hopefully the ones we see in the shops are the hormone treated ones... Even so, 18 quid does seem a bit much!
 
Just to let you guys know,
Its been a week now since I had the plants delivered and planted. I am really happy with the growth and health of the plants. most are sprouting runners or new stems which Im pruing and replanting.
I guess to answer the question whether Id reccomend Greenline....Definetly. Im aware that the plants would not be to standard of the Tropica plants but If your looking to get the tank planted fast with a variety of plants very cheap then ordering bulk online (in my opinion) is the best way to go. I you like then later you could get one or two Tropica plants to fill in certain spots where a focal point is required for example. Just my thoughts on that.

John
 
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