Bought a clematis online and three years later it is the wrong one

[Andtheworldwentwhite]

Three years ago. I bought a clematis. It is the ville de Lyon. I bought it because of its growth size and the bright colour.

First year it grew a bit then all the leaves went brown. So I cut it back.

The next year the same thing but this time it did grow a bit further. So I basically just gave up and cut it back. Was stunned this year when I realised it was growing back again.

so I thought I would leave it again and see what happened. It grew. And started to produce buds.

But the buds are a pale white and lilac and it has stopped growing at like a metre high.

So after spending more money on a plant then I normally would ( about £20 ) and three years later I don’t have the plant I wanted or paid for. And left with an admitted healthy clematis but the wrong one.

Cannot even remember where I bought it from , it was online and the label when I got it said it was that one. Lesson learnt I guess.

Ive had this many times, search your emails with the name and see if you still have the order confirmation. I've got my money back or a replacement several times doing this.

I was ripped off years ago when I went to Amsterdam.
People asked me if I would bring some black tulips back. They were called "Queen of the Night".
So I bought a load of them from a street stall. They looked black on the picture above the box.
I gave them out as presents and saved some for myself and planted them.
When they flowered they were a sort of deep purple colour.
It was a long way to go back and complain !

I have had the same thing happen to me. Wanted Jinglebells (a winter flowering clematis), got what I think is Iceblue (not a winter flowering clematis so it's not doing the job I want). I'm going to move it later this year to a different spot and try and buy a winter flowering clematis again.

This kind of thing happens really often, particularly with bulbs. Everything looks so similar while dormant / not in flower.
I've not once ever been refused a refund or exchange from any supplier when the order turns out to be incorrect.

could also be that your original plant was grafted and due to the issue you described reverted to the rootstock form of the plant.

Queen of the night are dark purple, but colloquially called black as the colour is so dark.

Whoops !
I thought they were actually black.
Duh
😳

I have twice bought what were labelled Bramley apple trees and which turned out to be eaters. Very frustrating because years of growth have been wasted. I did once complain about receiving the wrong variety of a some plants, the supplier was very apologetic and replaced them free of charge. The replacements are now flowering and they are also wrong. Maybe people who love propagating aren’t that good at organising their greenhouses!

just let the poor thing grow 🤷🏽‍♀️ you can always plant the desired one alongside

This happens quite a lot and I always think of it as a sort of gardening serendipity.

Well. Glad it isn’t just me then 🤣

Certainly not! I once got a tulip tree instead of a magnolia. It was tiny and leafless so I realised that next year. Now I bought double petal bellflowers, purple and white. Well, none are white, or double, and one is a creeping variety, not upright. Also a salmon hollyhock was sent labelled as pink. I got refunded and bought a new one that also arrived labelled as pink. I planted it and I’ll see if it flowers as labelled ot as something completely else. The shop I buy from always refunds for errors though.

I'm not much of a gardener but I think Queen of the night Tulips are a very deep purple and not really black.

yes.

It’s bizarre to me that the pp would jump straight to ‘I was ripped off!’ without even pausing to consider that ‘black’ might possibly not mean literally jet black in the context of a flower.

I bought a white lacecap hydrangea last autumn on eBay, so not in flower. It's pink and mophead. Seller doesn't respond. That's the first time I've had an issue.

Sometimes it works out, last autumn I bought a Forsythia from the sad plant corner. I thought the stems didn’t look right, but hey ho it was very cheap.
This spring it’s been a rather lovely weigelia.

The white climbing rose I bought on my first trip out during Covid has at least started flowering, but it’s bright red. Hope you can make it work.

This explains why the beautiful deep pink clematis I bought 2 years ago is white. It is doing very well. Next to the white winter flowering Jasmine that was already there. I put a climbing rose in last year which is actually deep pink, so all is not lost...

I put some lavender in the border at the front of the house and somebody stole it. So that is arguably worse.

Weigelia is arguably better than forsythia because it's pollinator friendly (I do love a forsythia though).

Yes I’m happy it’s Weigelia, especially as it was £2

It's 'Queen of Night'. No such thing as a true black tulip. Queen of Night is, in fact a very deep purple.

Same thing happened to me. I would never buy apple trees from a supermarket again. Even though they are cheap. They don't care what they sell.