FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

specialkayme wrote:

thepitchergrower wrote: ↑Sun Feb 27, 2022 3:33 am I'm sure the thief could always keep them for a few years, then sell them.

I'm reminded of a number of years back when the founder of Red Leaf Exotics (before it existed) visited a nepenthes grower's greenhouse. A few days later the greenhouse was broken into and a number of specimens were missing. The grower was monitoring ebay and saw the founder of Red Leaf posting for sale what he believed were the plants that were stolen. The grower contacted the police, and they said there wasn't anything they could do, as the the grower couldn't prove the plants were his. If I remember correctly, the listing on ebay was removed, and no hard "conclusions" were ever reached (including proving who took the plants).

The grower, and a few others in the community, immediately stopped allowing visitations (understandably so). So other amazing specimens became unavailable for others to enjoy.

A sad shame for everyone involved.

thepitchergrower wrote: ↑Sun Feb 27, 2022 3:33 amFor all we know, the thief wanted them for his/her private collection.

Eddy is notorious for being a finicky nepenthes to grow. Typically classified as an ultra highlander (along with eddy x hamatta). It's interesting that it was growing in the same greenhouse as other notorious lowland loving nepenthes (veitchii, although there is considerable variation within the species). Point is, these two typically don't grow "side by side" in the same conditions. Either the greenhouse was special, the plants were special, or the grower was special. Only one of those is replicable to the thief, if they want to keep it for themselves (as a greenhouse of that caliber would cost more than the plants).

I fear a scenario where the thief wants to keep them for themselves, but is unable to keep them growing. The end result is dead plants chucked into a dumpster somewhere. An end result where no one wins.

But, given the price tag on them, most likely taken to be sold again.

Pretty jaw dropping that redleaf would be associated with such act…I had always thought the owner as a respectable plant enthusiast with good quality videos on rare neps and aroids…

Speaking of california thefts…had thieves break into our logistic warehouse for amazon in city of industry the other day, got away with boxes of loots and damaged pallets. Had security cameras footages and all that but guess what the police said? “Why don’t you get yourself a security guard?”. We ended up hiding behind pallets ourselves for a few nights and of course caught nothing. So judging by that experience its almost hopeless to get a stolen plant back even if you catch them on eBay…police don’t give a damn with anything lower than $20k…hell there was a whole 40 ft trailer of goods that got stolen from port few months ago and police still taking their time lol


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Sad. Reminds me of a older gent I know. In his case, it wasn't a Nep that got stolen but rather something I, personally, would classify as MUCH more valuable -- a Cypripedium hybrid he had made. Cyps are terrestrial, temperate ladyslippers. They are not easy to grow. He had succeeded in making a cross that no one else had been able to do. Only got a few seedlings and only one survived to maturity (a process that took 7yrs or more). He had it planted amidst an entire bed of different cyp species and hybrids. Not long after having had an open house, someone came and dug up that one plant -- the only one of its kind. Perp was never caught.

thepitchergrower wrote: Unsubscribing from that Red leaf exotic guy's youtube channel.

Nocturne wrote:Pretty jaw dropping that redleaf would be associated with such act…I had always thought the owner as a respectable plant enthusiast with good quality videos on rare neps and aroids…

To be clear, I'm not saying the owner of RedLeaf did anything wrong. I personally have no idea what happened. I think it's better to let everyone make their own conclusion:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SavageGarden/c ... as_caught/
https://www.reddit.com/r/SavageGarden/c ... otics_was/
https://www.reddit.com/r/SavageGarden/c ... m_gravine/

People enjoy watching others being dragged through the mud, and reddit isn't the definition of "truth, justice and full disclosure" so I take alot of this with a grain of salt. But personally, the fact that Dom doesn't take any ownership of what happened (good or bad) and appears to be dismissive of what happened as "youthful mistakes" followed by veiled insults seems suspicious. Dom's post, in the last reddit thread:

Domonick Gravine here at RedLeaf. Came across this unfortunate thread. So there seems to be a lot of great stuff going on in the Cp community, the baffling thing is that a bunch of people are sitting here stirring negative energy and most of you have no clue what you're talking about. I am connected with and have great relationships with some of the best growers in the world IE: Exotica Plants, Jeremiah harris and so on.. I really used to be horrible at ebay when i was in my EARLY TWENTIES..I've sent plants to the wrong people and packaging was horrible. Im not at all ashamed to admit that,lol. But if your going to hold me to my mistakes, thats like holding a grudge against your children for everything wrong they've ever done..and lets just say that would make you a pretty shitty person. well....im now 30 and All of my passed few years of ebay sales a very legit and my quality is perfection. You can see my track record for selling is flawless, i guess people don't read and they like to assume the worst..shame on you. .. "My obsession for the has overridden my senses" sorry im not out doing meth and killing people.. good one. its so sad you people decide to sit on these forums and spread such nonsense..and you call yourself plant growers?...you dont deserve to be around amazing energy with outlooks like this. Come on your all better than this. horrible for your vibration too. Hope you guys find something better to do in your spare time..for new comers in on this, I am a beautiful person and i love spreading love and my knowledge of plants. And on a final note...sit back and enjoy my photos of my beautiful lush plants and stay tuned, because wether you like me or not, im here to stay. Im already on my way to being one of the best nepenthes nurseries in the USA:) Dont worry when you order from me youll get extras and youll all be very happy with quality. PEACE LOVE NEPENTHES

For me, things didn't really add up with RedLeaf. I frequently saw "limited release" nepenthes for sale for several hundred (or even a thousand) dollars when Carnivero or Florae had it for $80 or so (for example, https://redleafexotics.com/collections/ ... ultra-rare Redleaf $900 vs https://www.carnivero.com/products/nepe ... 7141533739 Carnivero $249, or https://redleafexotics.com/collections/ ... truncata-2 Redleaf $1,000 vs https://www.carnivero.com/products/nepe ... 3199513643 Carnivero $175, of course no two plants are the same but 4 or 5 times the price seems a little odd). Didn't make sense to me. I also remember seeing some nepenthes for sale for $5-8k each, then being marked as "sold" quickly. Considering the world record for most expensive carnivorous plant is $4,500 (https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/wo ... at-auction) I'm left a little confused about what's going on. Other suppliers have always provided me quality product at great prices and quick turnaround, without any "questionable" history. FWIW.

There was no evidence but I remember looking through different threads about it a while ago and coming to same conclusion. IIRC, there was another thread in the past where his behavior was even more suspect. I've never done business with him and I don't really intend to. It's a shame that you have to be on guard like that but if you're selling expensive things that do not have a solid market value, you're rolling the dice letting people check them out. It's a shame because the community and the sharing aspect is one of the better aspects of the hobby. A lot of these guys are backyard growers and they don't have an established nursery with any real security (most nurseries don't even have that). But if your goal is to sell these things, it wouldn't hurt to invest in cameras. Especially if you intend to have people at your place of business.

I don’t have a super valuable collection, but you can rest assured I have no less than 3 security cameras on the plants at all times. It surprises me these greenhouses do not have such a system. I bet folks would have thought twice about stealing stuff when there are cameras all over the place.
In my case, the cameras are “battery” backed up by a several loaded Glocks, Mossbergs, and Colts